Hi all! What books have you read that were so disturbing, yet sooo good, that you had to put down for a minute before continuing?
Hi all! What books have you read that were so disturbing, yet sooo good, that you had to put down for a minute before continuing?
Helter Skelter
Night Film
The Glass Castle – so many times I wanted to smack the parents
Best Served Cold – it’s the only Joe Abercrombie book I’ve read, and I seriously doubt I’ll ever read another. One of the best written books I’ve ever read, but holy moly was it seriously graphically violent!
1984 – don’t think this needs explanation
@Niffer I am glad I read 1984 years ago when I was a teenager, I don’t think I could read it now.
Re-read 1984 this summer – talk about prophetic!
@Niffer I struggled through it.
The Troop by Nick Cutter did that for me. I put it down and realize that I had a stomach ache, just so weird and disturbing. I loved it (not the stomach ache part, just the weird book part).
314 by A R Wise. Got 36 pages in before I had to stop.
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
@Maria loooooved that book!
Following! ?
lots of good leads.
Chelsea Cain’s series that starts with the book HeartSick.
NOS4A2
@Ethan what book is this?
Yes!! That’s what I was going to put down as well!!
@Ethan omg it’s so gooood
@Dana it’s a book on horror fantasy Christmas world stuff it’s great.
@Ethan I know I’ve read it. I love all of Joe Hill’s stuff.
@Dana i couldn’t get into the fireman
Not a lot of people could ? my favorite of his is heart shaped box or Horns
Probably Horns over Heart Shaped Bix
Loved heart shaped box didn’t read horns watched the movie.
Tipping the Velvet, just too depressing
@Janette I actually loved it.
Inclined to Escape by Yuri Vetokhin
*
American Psycho.
Anyone reads this: Classroom of the Elite?
I watched the anime
oh… but if you read the novel, it’s way more intense– no more mysterious.
??
A child called it.. shook me to the core that one.
Agree. I read it before I had children. I dont think I could read it now.
@Kaycee I agree
Behind Closed Doors ?
@Kirstyn , any B A Paris book but yes behind closed doors was especially graphic
House of Leaves. Horns. I’m Thinking of Ending Things.
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream.
Sharp Objects
Let Me In, by John Ajvide Lindqvist
The Fifth Child, by Doris Lessing
We need to talk about Kevin
Saving Noah
.
All the ugly and wonderful things. My co worker says my absolute darling.
I loved All the Ugly and Wonderful Things. And hated that i loved it. That one messes with your head.
@Holly ditto!
@Holly same! Like I liked it but the content was rough!
This book was extremely disturbing
“All the Ugly…” was believable to me, but “My Absolute Darling” was absolutely unreadable to me, I can only read so many “abused” women books. “Helter Skelter” back in the day is enough for me.
Sweet Justice by Christy Reece. It’s actually in the romantic suspense genre but I didn’t realize my triggers until I read that book. I pushed through and it was great but I will never read it again. Lol
We Need to Talk About Kevin
Really like that one! Seemed realistic to me.
Gone Girl
All of B.A Paris’s books.
The Penal Colony by Kafka. It’s the only book I’ve read that made me physically sick.
The Ritual by Adam Nevill
The Shadow of the Wind.
American psycho!!! ?
All the Ugly and Wonderful Things by Bryn Greenwood
Girls Burn Brighter by Shobha Rao.
Naked Lunch
Room
@Julia saw the movie which was enough.
Read the book, won’t watch the movie. Anything dodgy with kids just bothers me too much!
Some scenes in the game of thrones books (those multiple death styles)
A little life
@Catherine I loved A Little Life, but it was a big pull emotionally, and I had an epic Book Hangover afterwards, couldn’t read any fiction for a while after that book!
@Joanne YES
@Joanne took me weeks to find a book that seemed worth reading after finishing ALL.
I found The Room by Emma Donaghue quite disturbing to think that young people and children are actually kidnapped and held captive by sick individuals for years.
The tattooist of Auschwitz
I tried listening to this on audio. Nuh uh. I’d arrive to work from my drive in a different state and tears down my face. I’m trying the print version now.
It’s very moving, but such an important story.
A little Life
Educated.
Angela’s Ashes
The Kite Runner
One of my all time favorites! Movie was pretty good too!
Marilyn Manson’s Long Hard Road out of Hell…
Bastard Out of Carolina. That was so disturbing
Every book in the Twilight series… although that might be because I find angst a bit difficult to stomach. But I powered through, because my wife loves the books, and I love her.
That is so sweet ?
.
Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter
Yes me too. Pretty Girls
I heard this was tough to read. I have it but haven’t read it yet.
@Jamie it’s a bit gruesome at times. Definitely heavy.
@Judith Sometimes I love this type of book. Other times I just can’t stomach them. I think it depends on what’s going on in real life.
@Jamie gotcha!
Endings and beginnings by nora roberts
I’ve read a few, but I seem to speed through books like that.
Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty
The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
The Sleeping beauty series by Anne Rice.
.
Funnily enough, the one I’m reading now, The Wytch Elm, I was knocked out and paralyzed for a few days in a rugby incident at 17, this book brought all the emotions back, really floored me, was all shaky and unnerved had to put the book down, for a fortnight.
Only non fiction works have hit me that hard. God’s Brothel by Moore-Emmett was tough.
The girl with the dragon tattoo had me in a constant state of “wait… what the hell?!”
We need to talk about Kevin. Still troubles me…
@Charissa ooh yes- definitely. I still think about it now and then!
ok..fifth time I read the title here now… now I have to check it out…
A child called it. Dave Pelzer. Quite old now.
@Hazel that one disturbed me so much, especially when my children were young. Tears falling, as reading it at times. ?
Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood
Any book by Jack Kilborn.?
Fifty shades of grey
If you have the kindle app. The Scarlett Falls series from Melinda Leigh. I’m also a chicken so it’s probably not that bad for people used to it ?
s,j, Bolton’s books have you on the edge of your seat and Sophie Hannah’s too
I absolutely love Bolton. She’s so underrated in my opinion
I just read Now You See Me yesterday and I couldn’t put it down! Had to sit by my husband and read because I was a little creeped out ?
Following!!
A million little pieces….James Frey. Read it new 15 years ago…. Could NOT put it down.
`The Tin Drum,’ `The Universal Baseball Association, J. Henry Waugh, Prop.,’ `A Fan’s Notes,’ `In Cold Blood,’ `Mein Kampf,’ `Animal Liberation.’
Helter Skelter. Any book by Ann Rule as well
Baby Teeth
Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
World War Z. Read it during a road trip and had to stop when the sun went down cause zombies in the back seat.
The Deep by Nick Cutter
House of leaves.
Handmaid’s Tale
The Hate U Give
Dear Martin
House of Sand and Fog
Sick fux by Tillie Cole
A little life
@Elizabeth it hurt my heart so much
The Bad Place by Dean Koontz. I’m not sure I liked it, but I read it. Back then lol I always finished what I started. This book had so much morally wrong with it that it gave me the heebie jeebies. I was happy to be finished with it…haven’t touched anything by Dean Koontz before or since then.
I don’t scare too easily, but for some reason a few parts of A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay really got to me. I also found The Island of Doctor Moreau by HG Wells strangely unsettling.
I had to put A Little Life down for two weeks before reading the last part of the book.
A little life is my all time favorite book, but I have never finished it. I have read the first 700 pages at least 5 times but once I hit that point I can’t read through my tears
I have read it all and it is one of my two favorite books of all time…I’m 72 yo. The other is The Prince of Tides.
Yeah there was a couple of parts where I just had to stop with this one.
The Handmaids Tale
1984
Night
Beloved
1984 gave me nightmares.
@Kelly disturbing and creepy.
The Exorcist
The girl with the dragon tattoo (well the entire series but…)
We Need to Talk About Kevin
Following
Dust. I can’t remember the author right now but it was written by a scientist and was about what would happen when a single species was eradicated and how it would throw off our ecology. It was fiction but too close to home and disturbing af. Great story though.
@Jen ok I need to find that one.
@Linda it was driving me crazy so I had to find my copy. It is Dust by Charles Pellegrino. I read it in the ’90’s.
@Jen thanks! I will check my library.
Let the Right One In
1984
Kind worth killing
Montreal Noir
The pretty girls
Gerald’s Game by Stephen King. Scared the ever loving crap out of me. Don’t watch the movie, it’s crap.
Baby Teeth
@Kim I just started to read this! Did you like it?
I couldn’t stop reading it – very disturbing, but intriguing. Not what I expected at all.
I think I did like it because I can’t stop thinking about it
One second after.
The Butterfly Garden
The Power. Loving it, but have to take a short break between chapters to digest them.
Ruby by Cynthia Bond (can’t say I loved it but it was well written)
The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon
The Exorcist by W.P. Blatty
Confessions by a Japanese Author
The Ruins by Scott Smith
Sharp Objects
Sharp objects
Pacific Viking by Barnaby Allen
Toxin by Robin Cook
The Birthing House by Christopher Ransom ?
The Fall of the Ottomans. What ANZAC, British, and Turkish soldiers went through was ridiculous. I literally put the book down and said a prayer of thanksgiving I wasn’t born an ANZAC soldier. And then Britain went over to Mesopotamia and put those soldiers through more hell. Throughout the whole book, the question I had that went unanswered was: WHY were they there? It was as if the author just assumed you knew. I had no idea.
@Karen I notice past tense: I had no idea.” I take it that you found out.
@Nancy Tell me your version, if you like.
In the one sentence version, the European empires were drifting toward war and Russia esp had ambitions in the Mideast, and the allies pulled one another in.
(This assumes that you know that UK plus empire, France plus empire, and Russia were allies — and that the Ottomans ended up on the other side.)
@Nancy I view it as all for territory and treasure (in other words, if I was a British or ANZAC mom, not my business and not worth my son dying).
Karen Van Drie That’s generally what wars are fought over. For citizens, sovereigns, or governments of the combatants, attitudes might be otherwise. Details are needed to distinguish one war from another, if they are distinguishable.
A Little Life
The nightingale. ??
Woman in the Windows
My Absolute Darling.
@Amy Great book but so disturbing
American Psycho. One of the scenes made me lose my appetite and stop eating ?
Yes.
“American Blood” by John Nichols
The last thing that turned my stomach over was the pig scene in Carrie by Stephen King. I felt sick, it was so disturbing. Had to try and forget it before I continued reading the story. Amazing book though.
I’m reading Tell No One by Harlan Coben at the moment and there is a description of a body in it that is very unpleasant to read about. Good book so far.
Apricots and Wolfsbane about an assassin in Tudor England.
Dark debts by Karen Hall……..so well written. Could not put it down
The Stand
Rust and Stardust by T. Greenwood is my Buzziest read of 2018, Heartbreaking. But oh so beautiful!!
The Possible World by Liese Schwarz another of my buzziest
Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult There are parts that will make your stomach hurt.
Mischling by Affinity Konar described as “brutally beautiful”
Mehgele’s experiments in WWII
@Pip if you need another buzzy book home visit @Cozy ????
Shadowman by Cody McFayden
The Caller by Chris Carter.
Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate