Books that disturb you?

He's one of my favourite authors, but I find almost everything written by David Foster Wallace disturbing.

His writing style so clearly mirrors the way he thought and experienced life, his racing thoughts and over analysis of every little thing make for some incredible prose but imagine the inside of your head being like that? The fact that he suffered such awful depression and committed suicide hangs over it all too.

The Wasp Factory. Just odd

FeliciaJollyoodfellow it wasn't A Child in Time by Ian McEwan, was it? From what I remember the child disappeared from the father's shopping trolley in that.

The Bone People by Keri Hulme, because of the way the main character clearly loved the boy and yet ... (don't want to spoil it for those who haven't read it)
Wild Swans by Jung Chang: I remember being aghast at how someone so obviously bonkers could devastate the lives of two generations of the world's most populous country.
First Love, Last Rites by Ian McEwan, because the actions narrated in each story are probably happening all around us all the time and they are just horrible/nasty.

The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks is the only book I've ever felt unable to finish because I was so unnerved by the main character. I didn't even try to read The Lovely Bones.

Shawnie by Ed Trewavas. It's based in Bristol and I read it whilst living there at the time. It's horrifically possible.

This is a great thread and brings back memories. I remember reading Flowers in the attic when I was a young teenager which was very disturbing. I started reading The Lovely Bones but stopped as too upsetting for me. Also the first time I read the Wasp Factory, thinking how can someone make this stuff up, Iain Banks always seemed very normal in interviews! Loved his other books but not into science fiction.

I read a book called the Birthing House set in 1800s Canada which upset me but probably because I was pregnant at the time!
Also started reading Brave New World years ago but was hard going too especially as some of what he predicted has already come true from what I remember.
Read Lord of the Flies just recently which was also disturbing but to me demonstrates how groups can work and bully others that are weaker.

I've read lots of these books as I love dystopian fiction. I'd like to read The Road again - depressing, but I like it!

One book I couldn't read I can't remember the name of. It was about a child, a toddler, that goes missing from his car seat when his father stops to stretch his legs at a rest stop. My husband bought it for me when I was on maternity leave - less than a chapter in I put it down and have never picked it up again.

I won't read American Psycho again. It gave me nightmares (and was required reading for one of my university courses).

I find the thought of eternity unsettling. So a short story in a sci-fi compilation about a young woman that lives right until she is thrown into the sun when the earth explodes is one I regularly think about!

I have read many here and I agree with the pat barker prosititite murder there is one bit (gross) that pings back into my head

I also recently discovered Joyce carol oates - she is dark dark dark and I won't even go near daddy love

Ageee with Belinda Bauer

And the one about the parents that kill their little girl (monster love ) also haunts me to this day

There are some books you just have the throw away afterwards

The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea by Yukio Mishima. Its very good, and a slim volume, but yeah, utterly disturbing.

Entwined by Linda La Plante. I read it years ago but it still haunts me.

Great thread I will be trying some of the suggestions! I loved "The ghost of Lily Painter" by Caitlin Davies. It has supernatural elements but is more a detective mystery. The disturbing parts is reference to the baby farmers. Overall the best book and I would add to that "Blacklands" by Belinda Bauer. It's horrifying and moving at the same time.

threshold for being disturbed clearly varies from person to person, for instance, I cant handle most horror films, and am at the way some people laugh them off.

I'll be following up some of the book discussions on this thread but I still cant think of a single book which has disturbed me aside from the 'true ghost stories' books that I read as a child

The Gone Series by Michael Grant. It's YA, but particular parts of the story have stayed with me for years.

I'm not having a go at you Do you not know what a discussion is? People can discuss books without being angry at each other, you know.

If you are so sensitive as to think disagreement = aggression, then i guess you could find So Much For That a disturbing book.

Yes, I find it disturbing.

What I found antagonising was you making out that it was the woman's cancer storyline I found disturbing, and sneering at me for it, when it was clear from the prior post that wasn't what i was talking about.

Why are you going on at me, Cote? I really CBA with this on a thread that I hoped to enjoy and get interesting suggestions from.

I'm sorry you think asking you what you meant was "antagonizing".

Yes YMMV and all that but so what if a penis was deformed and its owner shot himself as a result? That wasn't even a part of the main plot. How could it make the book a disturbing one? It was told in a rather flippant way, like the rest of the book and its title:

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"You ain't seen nothing yet," Jackson muttered to himself, while fiddling with his apology for a penis. He had always known Carol wanted him to be better hung, so had undergone secret extension surgery – which, predictably, went wrong, leaving him with a lumpy tuber.

Jackson showed Carol his new, deformed penis. "I'm not going anywhere near that," she shrieked. "Nor am I!" screamed the prostitute he showed it to later. "Fuck the lot of you," Jackson wept, putting a shotgun in his mouth and pulling the trigger. "It's sooo unfair," Flicka said. "How come Dad gets to kill himself and I don't?"
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And you find that "disturbing"?

The ice people by Maggie Gee, horribly disturbing future vision.

Got it - The Way the Crow Flies by Ann-Marie Macdonald. Set in Canada, not the U.S.

Complicity by Iain Banks was another disturbing one. Didn't regret reading it, though!

I read a very disturbing book a few years back, can't remember the exact title - something about a crow, but not Ian Banks The Crow Road before anyone suggests it. This was a real epic set in a military base in the US but told from the point of view of an 8 yo girl - all about a creepy teacher and the disappearance of another little girl on the base. Horrid twist at the end.

Of course, Cote, YMMV. Life's rich tapestry and all.

But the antagonism was a bit much for a thread about books.

Whilst I agree Kevin was disturbing, I never wished I hadn't read it and I've reread a few times.

I did wish I hadn't read So Much For That because of the Jackson outcome!

Well that clearly hasn't traumatized me as much as it did you.

I don't think that makes a book disturbing, though.

Oh yes I remember now