Most disturbing book you’ve ever read? One that was good, yet stayed with you for days…..(no YA)
Most disturbing book you’ve ever read? One that was good, yet stayed with you for days…..(no YA)
171 Answers
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Loading Please wait
@David ?
@Jaimie I HAVE TO AGREE IT WAS DISTURBING.
Behind closed doors ?
1984
Death of Ivan Ilych
A thousand splendid suns
Lullaby ?
@Zainab is this Palahniuk?
No Leïla Slimani
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38330854-the-perfect-nanny
It also goes under the perfect nanny
Misery by Stephen King
Les Liaisons Dangereuses. The evil it portrayed has stayed with me for years.
Ashes by H.R. Howland
Matterhon by Karl Marlantes, about the horrors of the Vietnam War
The girl next door – Jack Ketchum
Two books.
House of Secrets by Lowell Cauffiel and Defiance by Nechama Tec. Both contained unspeakable acts of violence towards infants.
A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay.
Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby Jr.
Phamtoms by Dean Koontz. One of the creepiest books i have ever read.
A strange way of dying. It’s a collection of short stories, most of which are based on Mexico and some of its legends/ folklore. Super messed up. I’ve reread it many times to try to understand some of them. Still can’t.
Baby Teeth
@Kelly i need this i guess!
Its at the Library
This book, tears me up every time i read it however i always pick it back up. It’s been years snice I’ve read it last but it still sticks with me.
Crime and punishment Dostoyevsky… It’s stayed with me (andillions of others) for decades. If This Is A Man , Primo Levi, and Heart Of Darkneds, Conrad. All have stayed imprinted unassailably.
The Glass Castle
The girl next door. Jack Ketchum
Agree. Very disturbing
The Road
Consequences by Aleatha Romig
Running With Scissors
Not my typical genre, so I would have to say Verity and The Road.
Angelology. (DNF for that very reason)
@Shannon loves this book
The Witching Hour by Anne Rice
@Amy I actually thought this was an excellent read. I admit the most interesting parts were the history of the Mayfair family, but the book as a whole is great!
Ryan oh it was an excellent book but one part I slammed the book shut and didn’t pick it up again for several days. ?
By Reason of Insanity. Shane Stevens. Still have a copy and re-read it once year. Brilliant book. Brilliant story. Excellent twist. You don’t see it coming.
We Need to Talk About Kevin
@Kelly Did you see the movie? That was nuts!
Yes!
That was mine! Yes, movie and book are really disturbing.
The Room
The Road by Cormack Mccarthy wasn’t the most disturbing, per se, but it stayed with me for days. Affected everything including plummeting my mood into that dry, desolate world. Not fun.
Elf stones of Shannara….had nightmares about it
A Boy Called It.
READ 3 OF THE SERIES – ALL SO SO SAD. AND YES DISTURBING MADE ME CRY.
The Troop by Nick Cutter
@Kimberly reading this now- down the the last bit!
Back Roads, Brother, Roanoke Girls, All The Ugly And Wonderful Things…
@Andrea Loved All the Ugly and Wonderful Things but was so torn.
@Kimberly me too. It was a great book with disturbing content and I always feel torn after reading books like that.
Who is Backroads by?
Sarah’s key
Rosemary’s Baby
Afraid by Jack Kilborn
@Chris my choice too. Very disturbing.
Palahniuk.
@Chris pry the most disturbing book ever ?
Loved this one.
Rust and Stardust
@Sunny this book was great.
House of Leaves is another one that is disturbing.
The Exorcist
@Ashley Oh yes. That one sure did. My sister was about 15 and was told not to read it. You can guess how that turned out!
The Association
Blood Games
The Ruins
Lord of the Rings
A Thousand Splendid Suns. It had me sobbing and the stoning stayed with me for days after I finished it.
Swimsuit by james patterson. Couldn’t even finish it. Made me sick to my stomach
Verity by colleen Hoover
A Little Life
Vox and the Handmaids Tale
The Nightingale
A boy called It. A very eye opening story to the depravity of humanity
@Mari I think the author’s case was the start of stricter child abuse laws. I hope you read all of his books. His story ends well.
A Child Called It or Silence of the Lambs
A Clockwork Orange
@Jeanie I can’t imagine the book, the movie was disturbing enough
@Jeanie I tried reading it, but there was way too much slang throughout the whole book. I know that was part of the point, but it just made it much more annoying to read.
VOX by Christine Dalcher.
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas The Stand (this one is still with me 40 years later)
I bawled watching the movie
@Sue Same here. I want to watch it again but I’ll cry. I’m a cry baby anyway and get a bit tired of it! LOL If anyone is reading this and haven’t see/read it, you’ll be gobsmacked.
A Child Called It and Metamorphasis.
Helter Skelter
Good Me Bad Me
The End of Mr. Y by Scarlett Thomas
Night by Elie Weisel. And My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent. Both were incredible books, but oh so disturbing.
@Holly my daughter’s freshman English class just read Night and wrote a report on it. She said it was sad but a very good book
@Jennifer I agree.
@Holly Night was definitely disturbing, though should be required reading in all high schools, and especially in all universities. I have a signed trade paperback copy of The Night Trilogy, from a Jewish Humanitarian Fundraiser that Mr. Wiesel was at. I got it from a third-party seller on Amazon.
@Ryan that is such a treasure. I do agree, required reading for sure!
The troop by Nick cutter
We Need to Talk About Kevin
Baby Teeth
The Girl Next Door – Jack Ketchum
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry-has stayed with me for Years!
@Anita that was a really good book.
House of Leaves.
Helter Skelter (true crime)
Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King. Couldn’t even finish it ?
1984
Clockwork vampires by Andy Remic
Lolita
The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison or Badenheim 1939
Anything from Bryan Smith
coma. took 11 days to read
Mo Hayder’s BIRDMAN.
I know I will probably get booed, but I don’t like horror and the few King books I’ve read have been really creepy.
I am not a horror person myself but books like a Fine Balance or Never Let Me Go or House of Leaves are disturbing without being gratuitously or pornographically violent.
I remember you by Yrsa Sigurdardottir
Doll House but I forget the author
Blindness by Jose Saramago
Nineteen Minutes – Started it around the time of the Parkland shooting and just couldn’t read it. Made my heart hurt.
Following
https://www.amazon.com/We-Need-Talk-About-Kevin/dp/1582432678/ref=asc_df_1582432678/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=266136481158&hvpos=1o3&hvnetw=g&hvrand=17378577696959134058&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9026949&hvtargid=aud-643574997066%3Apla-539730631900&psc=1
Also Little Bee and The Zookeeper’s Wife.
Never Let Me Go. I have to stop thinking of disturbing books now!
@Gayle
yes! I couldn’t say I “liked” that book when I finished it, yet I’ll never forget it! Parts of it find their way back into my mind all the time!
Most things by Stephen King
Any Stephen King book ?
Helter Skelter
Night/ A Tree Grows In Brooklyn
Anything by Phil Rickman!!
We need to talk about Kevin – I read this book almost 10 years ago but I still think about it sometimes.
The Stand
really? long and boring
The Stand and The Talisman
I agree with The Stand and The Talisman but I want to add The Long Walk to that one :O
Salem’s Lot!
I made the mistake of reading “Coma” before having surgery, had horrible nightmares, and when I woke up in the recovery room I ask the nurse if I was dead.
The Exorcist
Whip Hand. Dick Francis’ hero who had been one of my favorites as well as in the book there is a terrible part that sticks in my mind. I won’t tell what it is in case you want to read it. But I think of it often and the fear it gave the hero and me…..so far, for life.
The Stand and Pet Sementary
Then she was gone by Lisa Jewell. I couldn’t shake this book for days.
As fiction goes, The Shining by Stephen King. It’s one of my favorite novels! I’ve read it 6 times since 2001, and it never gets old.
The Life of Pi
Justine by the Marquis de Sade
@Greg
Good to know I am not the only one who read this.
@Annette likewise!
Columbine. I still think about that book!!
various positions by Martha Schabas
Bury my heart at wounded knee
Yes.
The Stand, IT, The Cycle of the Werewolf (I read this one every year around Halloween), and The Shining. All by Stephen King.
The Stand; Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad), Dante’s Inferno
Everything by Gillian Flynn.
This one haunted me for days and I had to stop reading it in bed
Also Pet Semetary by Stephen King. That one creeped me out.
Four seasons by Stephen King. I think under the Bachman name. Not sure. short stories. Very disturbing.
The Lovely Bones
I could hardly finish it. Very disturbing
I was a new mother when I read it. It gave me nightmares
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy.
Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby Jr.
Beautifully written.
Snuff…had nightmares for weeks.
By Chuck Palahniuk?
@Greg
I will have to read that one tho by chuck
@Annette sounds like we have similar taste in literature. Let’s be friends
@Greg
Awsome let’s
SAVAGE NIGHT by Jim Thompson
American Psycho. Wasn’t prepared for the graphic details.
Umm.. Marilyn Mansons.. Long hard road out of hell.
It was just weird! Like he found some crazy sick perverted shit in his grandfather’s basement.
Death Instinct, by Bentley @Little
My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent