The Most Disturbing Book You've ever Read
 

The Most Disturbing Movie You've Ever Seen thread prompted me to start this thread.

So what was the most disturbing book you've ever read?

The most disturbing for me was The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath.

I don't know if any of you have ever read it, but it's semi-autobiographical of Sylvia Plath. A basic synopsis of the book is: It's about the life of Esther Greenwood and her struggles through life and her several suicide attempts and her ultimate institutionalization (is that a word?).

I read it for my OAC ISP about Women and Depression and it took me the longest time to finish reading it because it was so sad and depressing. I won't read it again.

It's a tie between The Sub: A Study in Witchcraft, and Nothing Natural.

Oh, and Stephen King's "The Stand" - the only book that made me afraid of humanity and the society we live in. *shudder*

The Jungle

She's Come Undone. I don't remember the author but it was on the Oprah bookclub list a long time ago. I read it for a class in high school, otherwise trust me I would not have gotten past the first few chapters. Yuck, my copy is definetly in the recycling (sp?) bin!

Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski. The type of life he lead is unimaginable to me.

Junky by William S. Burroughs was pretty "enlightening," too.

I read that book too. It's by Wally Lamb. Yes, it is very disturbing. I initially bought that for my English ISP, but chose not read it. Then later read for pleasure. It was not pleasurable. Another book that has some disturbing parts is Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood. There is a part in the book where she describes an abortion gone awry.

Brave New World, 1984, and Fast Food Nation all disturbed me, but in a good way. Definitely all eye-openers. It is quite amazing how so many things in BNW are somewhat true today.

Yes, I agree with 1984, here's a bit of trivia, George Orwell actually married into my family :)

I just finisihed Eating the Cheshire Cat by Helen Ellis... that's definitely up there on my list.
It wasn't graphic or anything... just really, really, really weird.

Michelle Remembers freaks the crap out of me. I know it's supposed to be fictional, but it still gives me the creeps!

White Hotel by DM Thomas. I had to read it for my freshman seminar and I remember thinking "is this really the kind of weird sh!t they're going to have us reading in college?" Here is the summary from Barnes & Noble:

Heart of Darkness. Its well...dark.

Johnny Got His Gun (can't remember who wrote it), such a good book but INCREDIBLY disturbing. It's about this guy who gets f'ed by a grenade in I think WWII and ends up surviving, but w/ no arms or legs, and he can't talk, see, or hear either. He breaths through a tube so he can't even kill himself. It basically tells about how he slowly goes insane inside his mind and how he eventually learns to communicate by morse code. This book was the inspiration for Metallica's song "One," a great song.

This book really depressed me, anyone who is serious about wanting to go to war and throwing their life away should read this book first. Wars should be fought w/ bombs and robots, not people :p

The Stand - absolutely frightening.

That, and "The Enemy Within" by (can't remember - very similar writing style as Tom Clancy) about a terrorist style war against the US, published in the mid-90's - some frightening parallels to our current war on terrorism, and even the power outage on the east coast - his writing was unfortunately all too believable when I first read it, and even more so since 9/11.

Johnny Got His Gun (can't remember who wrote it), such a good book but INCREDIBLY disturbing. It's about this guy who gets f'ed by a grenade in I think WWII and ends up surviving, but w/ no arms or legs, and he can't talk, see, or hear either. He breaths through a tube so he can't even kill himself. It basically tells about how he slowly goes insane inside his mind and how he eventually learns to communicate by morse code. This book was the inspiration for Metallica's song "One," a great song.

This book really depressed me, anyone who is serious about wanting to go to war and throwing their life away should read this book first. Wars should be fought w/ bombs and robots, not people :p

My Check Book;)

LOL - lately, I would agree!!

My most disturbing books are:

The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski (sp?) This is supposed to be a somewhat biographical account of Roman Polanski's youth. The imagery is terribly disturbing, and I literally threw up after reading the one scene. It was assigned as part of a literature class - nobody told me until afterwards that the professor was writing a book on cannabalism!!!! :eek:

The other was Let's All Play At the Adam's or something quite similar. It's about a family who hires a college junior to babysit their two kids while they go on a second honeymoon. The rotten kids team up with the neighborhood kids to imprison then torture this poor woman (who talks a lot about being a Kappa, btw). After she's been raped & tortured in hideous ways, they finally kill her before the parents get home and say she ran away with her boyfriend. I didn't sleep for a LONG time afterwards!!

"Cruel Sacrifice"

It was a book about this local girl named Shanda Sharer who was murdered when I was in grade school. She was burned alive by a jealous girlfriend (Melinda Loveless) and her friends. It's mostly a story about Melinda and how truly truly F-ed up her life was beginning with her parents culminating up to the murder. Very interesting.

"Jesus' Son"

Denis Jonson who is a brilliant writer writes with such apathy for life, that it actually manages a fairly distrurbing picture. It's Super short so you should read it

1984 and Fahrenhiet 451 were very disturbing books. But I loved them.
The Lord of the Flies, Heart of Darkness (random note: the movie "Apocalypse, Now" was inspired by this book) and A Clockwork Orange were disturbing books that I'm not sure if I liked or not...

Eating the Cheshire Cat was a disturbing book but only because it's not so far fetched. I can believe some of that actually happening, and that's frightening.

Speaking of Sylvia Plath, has anyone ever read any of her husband's (Ted Hughes) poetry? Specifically the collection entitled "Crow." Those are some seriously disturbing poems.

HELLOOO hasn't anyone read American Psycho?!?! That book is so f'ed up, I couldn't even finish it because it makes me nauseated. If you have seen the movie, well, that's rated G compared to the book. THe guy is seriously psychotic because he gets off on killing and torturing women (sometimes men)...for example, he kills a prostitute by having a rat climb inside her and eat her innards. SOOOO...don't even talk to me about disturbing books cuz this takes the cake HANDS DOWN.

I hated Lord of The Flies.

It took me forever to finish reading it, I only did because it as for school. It was pretty disturbing, but I also found it boring and drawn out, and there was only so much testosterone that I could handle. I wouldn't recomment this book to anyone. I thought a poke in the eye with a sharp stick would have been more enjoyable that this book.

oh just reading your comment about the rats almost made me throw up... American Psycho is definitely the most disturbing book I've ever read... and you're right, the movie is nothing compared to the book. But then again, a lot of his books are pretty disturbing. She's Come Undone is my favorite book ever though, and Bukowski is my favorite writer, so maybe I'm a little disturbed myself :)

Stephen King's The Stand is an awesome book. Also his book Christine is pretty disturbing as well. Both are two really good books to read.

In Cold Blood. that book was scary.

"The Dead Room" was one of the freakiest books I have ever read. Several graphic murders and a good deal of realistic forensic stuff. However they are right "American Pyscho" does take the cake.

Re: The Most Disturbing Book You've ever Read
 

I totally agree! When I finished that book, I was sooooo depressed!

Lord of the Flies takes the cake for me, but maybe because the guy who played Piggie in the movie reminded me so much of my little brother (whom I absolutly love, he's such a sweetie) that I couldn't finish watching it. So the book makes me really upset.

The Exorcist was the most disturbing and downright scariest book I've ever read.

Go Ask Alice, Foxfire by Joyce Carol Oates, She's Come Undone and I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb.

I agree. I had to read it TWICE (9th and 10th grade!)

I loved Fahrenheit 451 though... It was odd, but a really good book.

A Child Called It by Dave Peltzer. It's a true story about one of the worst cases of child abuse in California history. Its the most disturbing book that I've ever read. I didn't think that anyone could be that cruel to a child.

I read that book. It was really disturbing. I haven't gotten to read the other ones though, from after he was moved into a foster home or whatever the outcome was. (It's been a while, I don't remember what happened at the end!)

Having to read 1984 was one of the reasons why I chose to take a more media-based English course in Grade 11 over the literature course. Unfortunately, I had to sit through The Beauty Myth....BIG MISTAKE.

As a little girl I read "My Sweet Audrenia" and it completely freaked me out. Also, "The Bluest Eye" freaked me out too big time but I didn't understand what was going on at the very end until my teacher told me. Also, "All Around the Town" by Mary Higgins Clark. I know its fiction but it disturbed me in the way they vividly tortured that woman.

Johnny Got his Gun is by Dalton Trumbo and I agree that it's very disturbing!

I'll add Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath" to the list.

The end was actually the prologue, his teachers removed him from his original home.

I feel sick just thinking about that book so I would guess it's got my most disturbing vote. I generally don't like reading horror type books - I would rather see the film.

COMMUNION - Sick book. Hard to get through a woman obsessed with her Catholic faith & the lengths she goes through to see the man she loves become pope & the death of their illegitimate daughter. Then we see her descend into madness. Creepy.

I loved "My Sweet Audrina". I felt really bad for her, although I don't think what they did is possible. I know kids tend to believe what people tell them, especially their parents, but I think that's a bit too odd...

"The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things" by JT Leroy is my favorite book, but it is VERY disturbing. I highly recommend it, but only if you can deal with reading about the worst kind of child abuse.