Controversial/unnerving books. Recommendations?

[JasonVoorhees]

Hi all

Been browsing the good old World Wide Web this chilly Saturday evening while my LO is with her dad, and came across an article regarding the most "traumatizing books people have ever read". Basically books that stick with you forever, due to their disturbing content.

I'm an avid reader and pretty bored of mainstream novels. Read a few weird books in my time and recently bought Lolita (a literary classic, so I've heard). WIBU to ask your experiences and/or recommendations?

Looking forward to your replies, hopefully some of you Mumsnetters are as weird as me.

Sophie’s Choice.
It has stayed with me. I read it 20 years ago.

A Little Life.

A Town Like Alice.
I still think of the characters and hope they were happy (sounds cheesy).

A Prayer For Owen Meany.

Must read more!

Happy reading, lovely.

American Psycho
A Little Life
The Dumb House

Another for American Psycho, I wish I hadn't.

I second The Road (don’t read if pregnant though. Or with young kids. It really disturbed me)

Agree with ZenNudist and The Little Stranger.
Chilling.

Has "the wasp factory" been mentioned yet?

American Psycho is awful but absolutely brilliant. I remember reading it on my commute and being paranoid that the people around me knew exactly what I was reading and thought I was disgusting!

Children of the Siege by Pauline Cutting. Read it 30 years ago and it still haunts me.

The collector by john fowles a man kidnaps and holds a young woman captive after becoming obsessed by her it's told from both the captor and captives perspectives. it has been described as one of the most accurate portrayals of how the mind mind of a kidnapper or serial killer type character works.

The comforts of madness.
It's one of my favourite books, it is told from the perspective of a catatonic man and therefore describes his perspective of living fully alert but trapped within a non communicating unmovable body and how people behave in front of him or towards him because they don't see him as a conscious being.

I also enjoyed
Prozac nation, film was shit though
Girl interrupted
The red tent
Room
Lovely bones film, again film was crap
All of these are not what you would call fluffy or lighthearted books.

The Tin Drum Gunter Grass. My favourite book which I have read several times. It's very freaky and stays with you.

Oh and I love the author mo hayder, she is one of my favourites.

Iv haven't started these yet but Iv just been recommended john connely by someone who always seems dead on if they recommend an author to me.

Handmaids tale too.

A Chinese Cinderella. I remember bawling on the bus reading it. But it's so well written and a great narrative. Struggles and hardship.

Also as mentioned already American psycho

Just finished The Dice Man, banned in several countries just after it was written. It wasn't bad although the sex scenes/sexual projection got a little tedious after a while.

I found The Story Of O in the university library not long after I joined which was, ahem, a bit of a surprise.

Posting so I can find this again!

Tampa, by Alissa Nutting.

Station 11 definitely. It's beautifully written too. However avoid for the time being if you're anxious about Coronavirus

The Wasp Factory... decades later, the horror..
The Road... it really makes you thinks how easily we could suddenly all be trying to survive..

It’s a kids book, but The Tulip Touch by Ann Fine used to frighten the bejeesus out of me.

Getting some of these!

1984

The MaddAdam Trilogy (Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood and MaddAdam) by Margaret Atwood. Oryx and Crake haunted me for a while. I also really like Minette Walters' books.

Ah everyone bet me to it! Posting anyway so I remember to come back

Crash by J G Ballard

Child of God is indeed McCormac and is WORSE than The Road. Child of God trigger warning >>> sexual violence

Sorry, sorry; McCarthy. Actually, Child of God needs every warning. I enjoy an “uncomfortable” read, but even I felt repulsed by CoG

I second Monster Love. It goes off a bit at the end but there's some really chilling writing in there.

Also American Psycho. It's revolting 🤮

I found The Handmaid's Tale quite disturbing but maybe I'm a wimo? I just remember this pervading sense of anxiety throughout the whole book.

Also Under the Skin by Michael Faber. It's completely different from the film with Scarlet Johanssen and very thought -provoking.