Books that have stayed with you.

[FrostyChocolateMilkshake]

Currently reading a book called Unravelling Oliver and I already know it will stay with me; the writing is fantastic but the subject matter is surrounding domestic violence. A powerful read so far.

Another book was The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum. Based on the murder of Sylvia Likens in the 1960s (don't Google if you are easily upset).

So AIBU to ask, what is a book that has stayed with you and why?

Any recommendations (I enjoy controversial books in particular) would be greatly appreciated too.

@NoIDontWatchLoveIsland

Not william faulkner. Its william styron, I think

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Dee Brown. It really brings home just how decimated Native Americans were by Western colonisation of North America. If you've ever read of the ghost dance movement, it's just heart breaking

All the pretty horses

The alchemist

Lots mentioned here: Keep the aspidistra flying (it's so real I got it jumbled with my own memories), The woman who walked into doors, Never let me go, Middlemarch, Rebecca, A Fine Balance, Wild Swans, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (and several others by Muriel Spark). Also Life After Life by Kate Atkinson.

We Need to Talk About Kevin
Middlesex
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
Tully

@NotMyDayJob

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Dee Brown. It really brings home just how decimated Native Americans were by Western colonisation of North America. If you've ever read of the ghost dance movement, it's just heart breaking

And this! Wow. Didn't predict that one being mentioned.

Oh god I've not said any why.

The Bone Clocks - just a good imaginative story and there was something compelling about the fact that you know that despite being a bit of an evil fucker Hugo Lamb actually sort of loves Holly

All quiet on the western front: just really captures the senselessness of ww1 and the humanity of the young soldiers who really had no idea what they were doing there.

A day in the life of Ivan Denisovich - I just felt like it was a testament to human resilience.

Keep the aspidistra Flying - I really understand Gordon. It's like he has this epiphany that if you stop trying you never fail...I don't like him, but I love the book.

The colour purple - great writing, great characters, the relationships between the women in the book are powerful & despite the shit that happens to Celie its heart warming

Sophie's choice - sophie is such an amazing character, this one person on the surface and behind it consumed with this utterly raw guilt and grief.

Of human bondage - Philip is just a bit of an idiot repeatedly but I also an object of pity, and you just want to hit him sometimes for being bloody stupid, but like so many of us he has to hit rock bottom to find his way and it's sort of satisfying when you get to the end. Lots of interesting characters - it's almost like a series of vignettes with this common thread connecting them (Philip).

The painted veil - it's a good love story against an interesting backdrop. They treat each other like shit but eventually see the best in each other and fall in love.... it's so romantic but sad.

Life after Life - this and the Bell Jar are probably two of my favourite books of all time. I love how it depicts cause and effect considering so many possible outcomes of her life. There's lots of tragic endings but you get to dismiss them and leave them behind.

Dr Manhattan yes whoops!! I've got it next to me so that is inexcusable

I see a lot of people love A Little Life

I got about 100 pages in but stopped as I found it very bleak and didn't really get what the fuss was about

Maybe I need to persevere?!

A Million Little Pieces - James Frey (and My Friend Leonard). These books have remained a firm favourite of mine for the last 15 years. They stick in your mind and resonate on a level whether you've ever struggled with addiction or not. There was controversy at the time as it was sold as a memoir and whilst its loosely a true story there are significant embellishments.

Senor Vivo and the Coca Lord by Louis de Bernieres. The main character defies the drug cartels and is seemingly magically protected from their efforts to silence him. I loved the escapism and magical realism which lulls you into a false sense of security. There is a graphic torture scene which has always stayed with me.

Yes to Wild Swans and We Need To Talk About Kevin

There are quite a few books I read as a young teenager too - The Cay by Theodore Taylor. It literally made me cry when Philip asks Timothy if he's still black.

Napody never let me go! Also so so good.

I think you might be me.

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
Eleanor Oliphant is Absolutely fine by Gail Honeyman
The Ballroom by Anna Hope
I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes

Roots - Alex Hayley. Read it 20 years ago and can still recall a particular part where I had to sit up in bed to have a good ugly cry at the plight of some of the slaves.

American Psycho - Brett Easton Ellis. Nothing like I'd ever read at the time.

Nothing to Envy - Barbara Demick. A sad insight into life in North Korea.

The Loney by Michael Andrew Hurley. I've listened to the audibook several times and love it more each time. It's incredibly atmospheric and strange and ambiguous. The plot revolves around a religious retreat and dubious miracle.

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. I work in the biotech/immunopharna industry now and although the events in the book are driven by a character with a logic spiral so fierce that all 'moral judgement' driven out by the strength of his conviction, it is close enough to home to give me nightmares.
Don't even get me started on chickinobs. (Shudder)

The English Patient. It's just beautifully written and I think the way he depicts passionate, romantic love takes me back to how I felt when I first fell in love with my OH (...who I'm still in love with now!)

Stephen King - Different Seasons.
Has four short stories, including the one the shawshank redemption is based on and stand by me was based on The Body. The story that stuck with me the most in it though was The Apt Pupil. If you've seen the film adaptation don't judge it on that god awful interpretation but the book is so good and looks at the psychological reason behind why the ending happens and is chilling. Under the Dome is pretty dark as well and one I couldn't put down. Lots of the book was left out and toned down for the TV series so couldn't get into it having read the book first.

Also agree with A Thousand Splendid Suns and Jurassic Park. I always hope Jurassic Park gets made into a film which does it justice. The book was cinematic and exciting but also menacing.

Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee. It's my all time favourite book. Doesn't shy away from the sheer hardness of life, but it confirmed to me that I would have been happier in the past (I've always thought this)

Some good books mentioned on this thread. Some of mine - The Women's Room, Marilyn French and The Long Walk (ultimate reality show) Stephen King, and Rage, again Stephen King.

@FrostyChocolateMilkshake glad to share! It's by Gordon Burn, & shook me up with the details. Few True Crime books at the time made the effort to really get behind the banner headlines. This appalled me, like viewing the worst t.v. through yr fingers but unable to actually Stop Looking.
That's why the Bugliosi book was gripping-helter skelter it's called, you prob read it - as he was the Detective who pursued the case (& put together the title theory).
There's another true crime book, again not for faint hearts or those feeling low; It's called As If, by Blake Morrison, a writer who attended every day of the trial & researched further the lives of the little boys who murdered an even smaller boy. It's about the James Bulger killing. Bleak it is.

Thank you for this thread, I love to see what has imprinted on other people, & why.
I could go on for pages, but a cple more of my own Never Forget, perspective-altering books are:
Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe, as he documents the acid-soaked ride of Ken Kesey & the Merry Pranksters across 60s USA. Put me On The Bus ;)
Brave New World (Not the sex-soaked travesty on tv but a real horror-show of seer-writing by Aldous Huxley. Sadly, also nicked the mustard & warm water trick for eating disorder last resort if forced to eat. How bizarre a use of highbrow literature!)
1984 for same prophecy-shocks.
Cancer Ward by Solzhenitsyn wracked me.
Crime & Punishment by Dostoevsky is a perfect p.o.v flip to empathise with impoverished protaganist.
Nausea by Sartre gave voice to my early 20s existentialist angst. I Am The Tree!
And the bell jar by Plath & the catcher in the rye by Salinger are eternally my go-to re-reads for teenage I hate the world nostalgia.
Having recommended Beauty Myth by Wolf for assisting my getting to grips with anorexia, I noticed a few of the Worship wrapped as memoir anorexia books listed. Got to say, Marya Hornbacher's Wasted is a repugnant book, she postures as giving us a cautionary tale, but comes across as classic competitive eating disorder victim. It's sad. Second Star to the Right by Deborah Hautzig is more honest.
Ah, I've gone on again.
Loving this thread.
Re-reading Withdrawn Traces by Sara Hawys Roberts & Leon Noakes at mo, as it's 26 years since Richey Edwards of Manic Street Preachers vanished. A warm testimony to him as a brother, son & talented writer, as well as exposing the excruciatingly half-hearted 'efforts by the 3 police forces involved to locate him/search for clues. A tragedy, a travesty, with love throughout.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas! Hunter S Thompson.
Short read, gratifying laugh out loud & jaw dropping moments.

LOVED Unravelling Oliver! Liz Nugent is a great author!