Most disturbing books...

http://flavorwire.com/180094/10-disturbing-novels-for-the-coldest-of-hearts

The only one I've read is The Handmaid's Tale

I'd argue that Wicked and Son of a Witch belong on a "most disturbing" list. Especially since that crazy-popular, "fun for the whole family" musical came out. I wouldn't give either book to my preteen. Actually, I'll be staying away from Maguire's books, period.

Game of Thrones has been on my to-read list for ages. I picked it up when I was 15, started reading it, put it down, picked something else up (several of the Pern novels, The Dark Elf Trilogy, Daughter of the Forest, and so forth) and never got around to it. After hearing reviews of it, I'm not sure I'm going to get around to reading it any time soon. I don't care to read stuff that puts me in a perpetual cringe.

I've only read Game of Thrones and a few pages from 120 Days of Sodom. Judging from that, and from what I know about some of the other books on that list, I'm a bit perplexed why Game of Thrones appears there.

Yes, there is violence, sex and a several scenes that are definitely disturbing, but nothing that comes close to de Sade et al.. Of course the book is very popular at the moment because of the TV series and whoever picked the books for that list maybe felt that they should include a fantasy novel, but Game of Thrones still seems out of place to me.

I found Joe Abercrombie's First Law series and R. Bakker's Prince of Nothing trilogy far more disturbing, some of Neil Gaiman's work probably would also qualify.

Nothing, nada, zip. I'm O.K. with keeping it that way, too.

#2 - I kinda felt the same way about Wicked. Never read any others.

I've read Game of Thrones and The Handmaids Tale, and I've read some of 120 Days of Sodom.

Game of Thrones wasn't particularly disturbing to me at all. Maybe I'm difficult to gross out.

The Handmaid's Tale was disturbing as an examination of what people will put up with and what people will do if they're told that it's alright to do so.

I've read some much more disturbing books. Sinner and the rest of the Wayfarer trilogy by Sara Douglass was disturbing, just because of the gross descriptions of a world torn apart by demons.

The most disturbing books I've ever read were by Octavia Butler. It was like a talent of hers. Kindred, Parable of the Talents, Parable of the Sower, the Xenogenesis trilogy, ... they all have a really disturbing situation at the core that makes you examine whether humans actually deserve to live or not. They're very challenging and definitely worth reading, but in reading each of those books, I had to put them down and wait for a while to calm myself down before I continued.

I read Wicked and I'm a bit confused on what could be considered disturbing. I mean in relation to any other fiction book. I don't remember anything that shocking more than say any other "literary" novel. I'm not asking in a confrontational way - I just tend to be oblivious to what might seem obvious to others.

When I was fourteen we studied Z for Zachariah which I enjoyed at the time but looking back I always think it's a bit of an odd choice.

I read both Blindness and The Handmaid's Tale and yeah, both are pretty out there, but nothing compared to The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum. I normally have a teflon-coated sensibility for violence etc, but this I couldn't finish.

#6 - It's been a long while since I've read it, so it's more of the impression it left me with. It sort of soiled the whole "Wizard of Oz" world for me. Not the idea that the witch wasn't as wicked as she was made up to be, that was kind of fun. It was other elements that disturbed me. The weird and out-of-the-blue sex scene. Why? It made no sense to me other than that the author was trying to ruin the tale. Especially since it was marketed to a pretty young audience. I may have been more sensitive to it because I decided to read it when I saw it at a school literary function designed for children ages 10 - 17. Lots of very young folks were buying it and when I read the scene which was violent, angry and disturbing to me, I was saddened to think of the kids enjoying it. I know other folks have different ideas about such stuff, it just disturbed me.

I found Dante's Inferno disturbing, until it got boring.

I remember reading the story "The Misfit" by Flannery O'Connor. That's a jolt to the nervous system, and the worst parts happen off stage and your imagination fills in the blanks.

When I was 14, I read a book of stories by Stephen King. In one of them, one of King's typical boy-freaks stabs a dog with two forks in each side of his head. The dog's reaction is described in horrific detail. I swore then that I would never read another word by Stephen King, and I haven't. His is a deranged mind.

Around that same time, my teacher suggested I read The Black Cat by Poe, which I also found disturbing. Ax in the head I think it was.

(What kind of teacher did I have?)

I've read three on that list; A Handmaid's Tale, A Game of Thrones and Blood Meridian. That last one is darker than the first two combined and multiplied by 10.

Old Cormack McCarthy certainly gets my vote for most disturbing. All my hackles did the creepy dance when I read Blood Meridian. *shuddering with heebies and jeebies*

#12 - Ditto that!

I didn't warm up to A Game of Thrones, but The Handmaid's Tale and Blood Meridian were two of my favorite reads of recent years, disturbing-ness and all.

For me, A Fine Balance was the most disturbing one I can think of.

I've read The Handmaid's Tale and Blindness; I'm currently reading A Game of Thrones.

#8 - I agree. The Girl Next Door was the most distrubing book I have ever read.

This list makes me wonder why each book is on it, so I'll probably be reading some of them just to see.

you made it through, GD? thou art braver than I.

Bookmarque - It was one that I kept putting down, but I did skim through it. I kept thinking, "The entire book can't be this bad." It was.

Yeah, I kinda thought so. I've read other Ketchums, but couldn't get through that one.

I do like books that are disturbing, in the sense that they keep me awake and haunt my brain for some time after I read them but I need them to be reasonably subtle too. I realised my appetite for gore and nastiness had died when I tried to read (and had to abandon) Let's Go Play at the Adams'. Nowadays I need some pretty fine writing to get me through them. I have a list of about 80 that I've tagged 'disturbing' in my library and I'm surprised to discover how many of them are excellent books (eg. The Collector, Shipwrecks, The Other Hand, Loving Frank, Love Remains, Monster Love, Mister Pip etc, etc.

I have to say The Handmaid's Tale left me pretty cold, as did Disgrace, American Psycho was just pure nasty but Invisible Man invaded my dreams for quite a while. A Good Man is Hard to Find and Wicked are both on Mount TBR and I'm looking forward to them more than ever now.

I don't seem to be easily disturbed, I guess. I am into book 3 of George R.R. Martin's Ice and Fire series (The Game of Thrones, book 1). I don't find it disturbing, just a description of what the world must have been like in medieval times, plus some good magic and fantasy elements. On the other hand, I did find Stephen King's writing to be pretty scary and after having read a number of his books, I also found them to be kind of repetitive, and I think his writing deteriorated. I've stopped reading his work. I read The Handmaid's Tale and do not remember it much so can't judge if I was disturbed. I am not much inclined towards Cormack McCarthy's work. I remember reading one of his books and did not like the violence but I just don't call it "disturbing". I was not disturbed, just didn't like it. Is that a fair distinction? I don't know.

I have also stopped read True Crime books for pretty much the same reason.

>20 maggie1944:
Agree with you entirely Maggie......didn't find the George R. R. Martin series disturbing at all. Nor The Handmaid's Tale, although the premise was a bit creepy.

American Psycho was just plain gross.

Guess when I am reading a Sci-Fi or fantasy novel.....it is hard to really be disturbed about things that are a bit unreal.

Scariest book was Salem's Lot by Stephen King
Cormack McCarthy's books are dark and disturbing but again.... he takes it to the point of exaggeration.

The most disturbing book I have ever read was Sophie's Choiceby, William Styron The most unsettling thing about that story was that the premise for the story probably could and did happen. The book has never left my mind...nor my heart for that matter.

#21 Ditto re Sophie's Choice.

I never read Sophie's Choice but I sure saw the movie and you are right. That story is disturbing and has never left my memory either.

Steven Erikson's Malazan books have a number of disturbing parts (like the Children of the Dead Seed in Memories of Ice or the "hobbling" in Dust of Dreams) but overall the books are fairly uplifting, mired though they are in the grim misery of war.

Dan Simmons can write some disturbing stuff; I haven't actually read any of his actual horror novels, but there were a couple sections in The Hollow Man that creeped me the heck out.

What about Jude the Obscure? Children committing murder and suicide? I needed a few days to recover.

Hmmm... I can't think of a book that disturbed me, and that's a pity because we all need a little disturbing now and then, no? A lot of people say what I write is very dark, and I find that ... disturbing :)

I have opened up this thread, again and again, to think on the topic but never really able to put my foot down in a proper manner. I have read my share of books that were disturbing - not to mention Gorkji in this context is impossible, for example - but really looking at it most of the books that comes to my mind are provoking rather than disturbing. There's also a matter of cultural context and social background. Just to illustrate - I read an loved The Left Hand of Darkness. In the early 90's I had a colleague who wanted to venture into SF so when he asked for advice I lent him LHoD. To me there was nothing disturbing or provoking about the book. He gave it back to me a couple of days later, both disturbed and disgusted...

Busifer - I don't find The Let Hand of Darkness disturbing at all. I thought about it for quite a while after reading it, and it certainly made me think. I, too, have recommended it to others.

I have never read or seen Sophie's Choice, and I have no intention of doing so. Distrubing is different from incredible sadness and loss of hope.

#28 - LHoD; I know, that's why having someone thinking it was disturbing AND disgusting came as such a surprise! He told me it was the thought of flexible genders that was so repulsive to him. I think that 20 years ago, when this happened, his reaction was pretty standard among, you know - middle suburban/small town white males, and only now changing.

It was pretty small-minded of me not to see this, to think everyone was just like me, but I wasn't very old either, back then ;-)

>28 GeorgiaDawn:
I find it rather disturbing to be incredibily sad and hopeless ;>)

Would guess that "disturbing" means something different to everyone. I don't LIKE gross stories...so I guess that they disturb me but that would be for an entirely different reason than the reason Sophie's Choice disturbed me.

As readers we all read for different reasons.......it has been my experience that I tend to learn more from that which disturbs me.....it forces me to think differently about things.....which is sometimes scary.

Sad and hopeless is a lot more disturbing for me than gross is. It hangs with me a lot longer. Probably because I'd like to fix it and can't.

>32 jnwelch:
Perhaps it is all relative to where we are in our lives. Certainly if we see a boat load of sad and hopeless everyday....not going to want to curl up with it to entertain ourselves.

Literature is so varied, one can find the perfect book for almost any specific feeling they want to achive at the time. It is one of the reasons books are so wonderful !

love Styron, Atwood or Oates.....they are disturbing and they make me think.
love Evonovich cause she makes me laugh....fluff and fun.

Stay away from gross....gross doesn't make me think much.....except maybe .....WHY ?

>33 faceinbook:
I agree with "where we are in our lives". I found it a lot easier to read "disturbing" books as a teen because I was still cushioned, emotionally and physically...as an adult, they're a lot scarier. I might have been able to read Sophie's Choice then, but just couldn't now as a mother.

I was disturbed by, but was so glad I read Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

The last chapter of Neal Shusterman's Unwind is one of the most disturbing things I have ever read, YA or adult. Creepy and tragic.

Ahhh, Sophie's Choice. Yes, disturbing, but not the same way a Stephen King book disturbs. Not sure I'm awake enough to go into that distinction right now.

For me, I seem to be willing to admire William Styron's craft in Sophie's Choice while I just became tired of Stephen King's style, and subject matters. Styron's novel is not fantastical, it is believable and horrible and oh, so, human. Must be a more difficult writing task.

Agreed, and I think that is why Misery bothered me more than any other King book. I haven't read much of him the last 15 years either, though I adored his book On Writing.

I think I have On Writing somewhere in the library, I should go take a look at it.

How is "Reply" different from Add a message?

I don't think it is, yet. Eventually you might be able to see which message you were replying to with a click.

oh, that will avoid some confusions. Good. I think.

#42 - Yes, if it works the way it's meant to!

Just experimenting by replying to clamairy (#41) - let's see where it appears . . .

ETA Oh right - here.

Hee hee.
I'm going to try tagging you, like a book, @Booksloth.

(Edited to add you put an @ in front of the user name, not brackets like a touchstone.)

OOOH! That works!

That's fun. Like a quick and easy way of dropping round for coffee, @Clamairy. Milk and sugar?

Sophie's Choice doesn't sound like it would be disturbing. What is it about? I couldn't find any real info about it.

It's about WWII, tabitha, and telling you any more than that would give too much away but believe me, it is possibly the most disturbing book ever written in revealing just how inhumane human beings can be (made that much more effective by actually being well written too). Leave it well alone if you have a sensitive side - and especially if you are a parent.

ETA You are, I just checked. If you try to imagine the worst thing anyone could possibly do to you you just may get close.

I agree that readers who are sensitive and could be made to feel depression after reading a really sad book might want to skip reading Sophie's Choice although I do recommend it, for its good writing and for its exploration of what extremes humans can create, to all who do not avoid harsh subjects.

Maggie,
Have you read any of Styron's other novels ? I've read Lie Down In Darkness (which won some kind of award) and The Confessions of Nat Turner
Both are "dark" novels but his writing style is wonderful.
Styron has a lot of nonfiction writings as well.....not read them. It appears that he suffered from depression, which would make sense. It seems he was a bit disturbed.

Tried to "Edit" post...not working.....meant to add Booksloth in the above question.....

I did see the little blurb on top of my home page yesterday about adding options.....said to "expect weirdness"

Another topic for another thread "Weirdest books you've ever read"

reply to #51, no, I've not read other of Styron's books although I think I've had Lie Down In Darkness in my shelves for quite some time. Perhaps I'll go find it.

#51 I tried The Long March but abandoned it part way through, unimpressed. I still have Set This House on Fire on Mount TBR but haven't had the urge to read it yet.

Thanks Booksloth, I guess I will have to give this book some thought before attempting to read. I enjoy this type of material but haven't read much of the close to home stuff. I'm not to sensitive but I may be if it concerns children. Thanks for the insight.

@mamzel

Totally agree! That still sticks with me.

bizarrely I read today that someone had put my book down because it made them 'go funny in the tummy' ... I find non-fiction much more disturbing - it's easy to freak yourself out if you read what's really going on in the world rather than what someone else has imagined going on in another world in order to entertain people.

I agree Mark. So much non-fiction (and watching the news) makes me feel hopeless and depressed which is what is most "disturbing" to me. @Marissa_Doyle, All the way down to your post, I was thinking of Never Let Me Go also. Disturbing in that I think of it often and am horrified by to what could be considered as "normal", and I thought it was a stunning book. It was one of my top reads of 2010.

#58 Just love the implied distinction between non-fiction and news! You're right, most of the "news" we see is closer to fiction than non!

If one is to believe the story....and how would we really know what to believe....the Botox child was a manufactured story. People are actually being paid to "make up" stuff for the news. Guess the Balloon Boy's
Parents started a trend.

Depending on memory, "Shadows Move Among Them" by Edgar Mittelholzer. (Now I will reread to be sure.)

A book that is quite disturbing, at least as far as shock value goes, is Iain Banks's The Wasp Factory. I won't give away what happens in the book - let's just say that some children shouldn't be left unsupervised...

Hey dmsteyn, I am going to check this one out.

It's an interesting book that caused quite a bit of controversy when it came out in 1984. It also has some literary value, I guess; it's not only shocking.

It's also flippin' hilarious.

Yah, it is funny... especially if you're a bit of a sadist. Well, I guess everyone is a bit of a sadist. Maybe I mean if you're a lot of a sadist.

Well, the sadistic bits weren't funny. But some of the other bits were.

"Just keep going. Like a ship"
"Like a ship?"

#62 I agree about The Wasp Factory. It's actually one of my favourite disturbing books. Mind you it took me a few tries to really get into it, but once I did I was so glad because it was very enjoyable. Disturbing yes, but also darkly hilarious.

I have The Wasp Factory on my TBR list.

How are the rest of Iain (M) Banks's novels? I've never read anything but The Wasp Factory. And how are is his SF novels? A friend gave me Transition to read, but it's still on my TBR heap.

#70 I thought The Wasp Factory was amazing (and decidedly disturbing) but I've never been able to get beyond the first few pages of any of his other books.

The endless optimist in me keeps reading them and being endlessly disappointed, probably more so with each book. I gave up on the Sci-Fi ones completely after Feersum Enjinn (although i did like the birds). Use of Weapons is my favourite after The Wasp Factory.

Iain Banks, with or without an M, is a writer of disturbing books. Or severely skewed ones, at least. Or so it seems - I have only ever read his SF ones, and they certainly fit the description of The wasp factory.

I do, however, like them. Consider Phlebas is disturbing in so many ways, Use of Weapons in those same ways, only some other ways of disturbing are added... In that perspective Look to windward is readable by anyone, because it's almost "normal", and Surface detail is even funny. If you're me. But only funny if you've read others from the Culture universe, I imagine.

Because of language issues I'm probably not going to read Feersum Enjinn, though.

Transition is sitting on my shelf waiting to be read.

Has anyone read While the Savage Sleeps by Andrew Kaufman? He is a new author and the book is outstanding. It isn't available in the library but you can go to amazon an get it for 2 or 3 dollars. It is worth every penny!

When I was in high school we read Nineteen Eighty Four... in 1984. That made it especially troubling. After 1984, we read Brave New World... which seemed utopian in comparison.

I haven't read a single one of the books in that list. I want to read Blindness and A Handmaid's Tale, but can't find copies where I live. *pout*

You guys have helped erase my doubts about picking up Sophie's Choice, though. Thanks. I think it might be easy to find a copy of that one.

Same with Never Let Me Go. It's been in my Wishlist for a while, but now I'll make more of an effort to find it.

#32: My sentiments exactly, @jnwelch.

#35: Agree with you about Unwind, @mamzel. That's one of the reasons why I love that book. =)

I'm surprised by the glaring absence of Lord of the Flies. Or maybe I'm mistaking disturbing books for plain hate-able ones?

>76 girlfromshangrila:
No, you are correct, Lord of The Flies is a disturbing book.

One of the reasons I did not think of it was because I read it so long ago....what disturbed me in high school changed as I grew older. Sophie's Choice disturbed on a more personal level when I became a parent.

Which is an interesting topic in and of itself. Guess what disturbs us is very relevent to our personal experiences....why a book will become MORE disturbing than another.....

I find human nature revealed often disturbs. We really don't like to look too closely.

>78 Bookmarque:
Nope we do not ! However, if we do not look at such things there is little incentive to change. Literature often forces us to look at things we would rather avoid....we don't soon forget these lessons learned.

>79 faceinbook: Agreed. It discourages people from going with the flow. Forces us to ask ask "why?" more times than we'd like. I've come to like the "why?" game, myself. Especially when people do something without incentive that we're just "supposed" to do. Keep asking "why?" when you come across this. If your answer is, "Just because," then you've either hit a brick wall or refuse to go further. I know several people who are annoyed with me for doing this because they want to coast.

And to clarify, I don't just ask "why?" during these discussions. My words imply a "why?" question. Though I do think children have it right in constantly asking "why?" We miss out on so much when we just take things for granted. Honestly, even if you don't want to talk to anyone about it, QUESTION EVERYTHING for your own benefit. It's there for your observation and scrutiny. If you need an example, start with commercials and advertisements, and don't stop asking "why?"

Samuel Delany's Dhalgren Made me feel like I was following the character down the path of less sanity.