Most disturbing book

[maninahat]

Animal Farm freaked me out, what with the animals becoming indistinguishable from humans, like a nightmarish version of Wind in the Willows. Actually, any story in which farm animals "get their own back" on humans tends to bother me, including several Roald Dahl children stories.

Most of the books that deliberately try to be unsettling (such as American Psycho or The Wasp Factory) do not bother me. In fact, I tend to laugh inappropriately at the graphic violence, which tends to be so audacious, I can't help but find it silly.

 

[Godavari]

Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn.
I will never let that friend dare me again....

American Gods by Neil Gaiman.

Second chapter or so, a guy has sex with what he thinks to be a simple hooker, but it turns out she's an incarnation of the Queen of Sheba, who then proceeds to swallow his entire body with her genitalia.

My Debate teacher is reading this.
I will never look at him the same, now.

 

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[Shadowfaze]

Franz Kafka's "Metamorphosis" - it was fine when I read it; but then it got to me.

I was going for that one, actually. Its rather unforgettable, once you think about what you just read...

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Name a book that warped your fragile little mind, and tell us why.

I think you'll like this web page. It has the '10 Most Disturbing Books Of All Time'.

Here is the link: http://www.popcrunch.com/the-10-most-disturbing-books-of-all-time/

Let me know if this did you any good.

My virus protector slapped it virtual condom on for that site.

Told me it was a high risk page trying to make dangerous changes to my computer.

I'm sure that's not what you intended to happen but I'm still not gonna risk it.

I was able to get onto that site, no problem. Though, I have to say, after reading only the summary for the number 1 book on that list (The Girl Next Door), I'm feeling very sick, and a bit violent. Part of me wants to throw up, part of me wants to go on a bloody rampage, and part of me wants to read actually read it. I suppose the rationale behind that last part of me is that if I read it, I'll get over my fear of it.

Young women and children being tortured or raped is a theme I don't think I'll ever be able to get over.

Yeah. I can watch gory zombie movies and laugh my ass off but torture makes me feel ill.

 

[martin's a madman]

Mine is also my favourite, Iain Banks, The Wasp Factory.

Just a chilling look into a diseased mind.

And Nick Caves new book is strange too.

I just wiki'd the Book, I think I may buy that tomorrow.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Search bar approved

The title says it all.

Name a book that warped your fragile little mind, and tell us why.

I shall start us off:

American Psycho - Brett Easton Ellis

The only book I've ever had to stop reading because it was just too much.

I honestly almost threw up during one sequence involving necrophilia. Even gory movies like Braindead have never caused this reaction for me.

It wasn't the violence but the way it was described... the callous and almost surgical descriptions of what is being done to people...

It felt real, it was unapologetic in its depravity.


And The Ass Saw the Angel - Nick Cave

An amazing story of an ostracised loner and his revenge on the world.

The scenes with the dying animals and the self made Kingdom of Doghead were hard to take.

Share your repressed memories!

I finally got round to reading American psycho last easter and i know what you mean with regards to the complete lack of campassion from Bateman as he inflicts such cruelty on his victims.
You have now made me want to read 'And the Ass Saw the Angel' however.

Do, it's a really good read. At least I thought so anyway.

Cave can get a little silly sometimes in that he seems to want to use long, obscure words just for the sake of it, but once you get past that the book is a joy to read.

As for Bateman... the chapter on Bethany was probably the worst thing I've ever read.

 

[GreyFox389]

I've never been disturbed by a book.

American Psycho was hilarious.

 

[duckfi8]

The King in Yellow

 

[AdeptGamer]

Toni Morrison's "Beloved"

Spoiler

When Sethe slit her babies throat for its own good I knew something was wrong.

The bestiality didn't help either...

 

[Niko Stepz]

I found The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea by Yukio Mishima I found disturbing.

Especially one part in which the protagonist and his friends kill and dissect a kitten.

 

[skywalkerlion]

Mine is also my favourite, Iain Banks, The Wasp Factory.

Just a chilling look into a diseased mind.

And Nick Caves new book is strange too.

Wasp Factory, 'Kin Ninja'd

When I read the bit.. Come on, you know THE BIT. I went straight to bed because I was so freaked out... Then had to get up because a fly was buzzing round my room and it was messing with my head.

Can you PM me with 'the bit'? I read the wikipedia summary but it hardly made any sense..

 

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[MiracleOfSound]

Spoiler

Name a book that warped your fragile little mind, and tell us why.

I think you'll like this web page. It has the '10 Most Disturbing Books Of All Time'.

Here is the link: http://www.popcrunch.com/the-10-most-disturbing-books-of-all-time/

Let me know if this did you any good.

My virus protector slapped it virtual condom on for that site.

Told me it was a high risk page trying to make dangerous changes to my computer.

I'm sure that's not what you intended to happen but I'm still not gonna risk it.

I was able to get onto that site, no problem. Though, I have to say, after reading only the summary for the number 1 book on that list (The Girl Next Door), I'm feeling very sick, and a bit violent. Part of me wants to throw up, part of me wants to go on a bloody rampage, and part of me wants to read actually read it. I suppose the rationale behind that last part of me is that if I read it, I'll get over my fear of it.

Young women and children being tortured or raped is a theme I don't think I'll ever be able to get over.

Yeah. I can watch gory zombie movies and laugh my ass off but torture makes me feel ill.

The more I read about this, the more angry and depressed I become. After comparing The Girl Next Door to the actual events surrounding the girl, the actual events are much much worse. Not because real life is more distrubing than literature (and a lot of the time, it is) but because

Spoiler

the ***** actually fucking gets away with it (In the novel, the woman who allows the torture gets killed by the boy who had "feelings" for the tortured girl). IRL the *****, pleading insanity, is sentenced to prison for life, her daughter is sentenced for life, and her kids who "helped her out" are sentenced for two to twenty years. In the end, the boys are released after two fucking years, and the woman and her daughter (originally with life terms) are allowed a second trial; the girl gets released after 7 fucking years in prison, and the motherfucking woman gets released after 18 MOTHERFUCKING YEARS IN PRISON. These are the same people who seared her skin with hot needles (burning into her skin "I'm a prostitute and I'm proud of it!") and raped her in the vagina with a motherfucking Coke bottle. Just how fucked up is the Indianapolis court system?! How little of a soul do you have to have to act as an attorney for these cunts?!?!

How I wish I hadn't clicked that spoiler box...

That is some sick shit. It makes me very sad that we could treat eachother like this.

 

[deleted_scifidownbeat]

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[Ambi]

The Holy Bible.

This.

It is disturbing in some parts.

Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk is probably the most typically disturbing book I have read. I read some people fainted during a reading of one of the stories in it, entitled "Guts".

 

[skywalkerlion]

Franz Kafka's "Metamorphosis" - it was fine when I read it; but then it got to me.

I was going for that one, actually. Its rather unforgettable, once you think about what you just read...

Actually, after reading the wiki summary for that one, I wasn't all too 'disturbed'. It's kinda..creepy..and at the same time incredibly juvenile..and creepy...Oh God.

EDIT: But seriously though, it wasn't all too bad even thinking about it after I read it. Am I missing something?

 

[UAProxy]

Eoin Colfer's The Supernaturalist, partly because of the setting and partly because of its mindfuck plot twist.

Louis Lowry's The Giver, one of my favorites and a classic but still a disturbing take on dystopias. I will never hear the word release the same way again.

There are also some interesting Lovecraftian horrors, and plenty of psychologically-shredding books, but my first place awards go to Watership Down and Warriors: The Darkest Hour. At face value, reading the little blurb on the cover, one would assume both of these stories to be innocent kid's books with talking animals and cute adventures.

This could not be any more wrong.

The entire Warriors series is surprisingly mature for its target audience, and the sheer amount of blood imagery throughout the series could really get to the squeamish. The sixth book takes the cake, though. Allow me a bit of backstory and then the example.

Spoiler

To begin with, let me explain that the book does center around talking, quadrupedal cats. These cats were split into four clans, and the leader of each has nine lives as per general cat mythos. In the final book the leader of the "Evil" clan (who consequently is a renegade from the "Good" clan) has brought in a fifth band of cats with a tendency towards being psychotic deathmachines. During one particular scene, the psycho leader (a little black kitten whose claws are reinforced with hollowed dog teeth) gets tired of the Evil leader trying to order him about, and slashes his throat. Normally the big bad would just lose a life and pop back up a few seconds later, no problem. But this kitten practically ripped his throat out. And so the big bad bleeds to death from a slashed throat nine times in a row, all while the psycho leader watches with the interest one would reserve for the evening commercials. I sat the book down and just stared at it for a few minutes after reading this passage.

Watership Down... No. An explanation won't do it justice. Google it, read it, bask in its head-trip as you consider that a lot of nine-year olds would likely pick this up thinking it's a little kid's book.