Which are the most disturbing books you've read?

[flamebat]

Following on from the film thread, many people said that American Psycho was worse as a book than a film, so wondered about other books.

For me, has got to be American Psycho

I read one as a child all about children who died before being christened or something too which upset me lots... Don't remember the name though - Tilly maybe?

Hi shee, don't I know you from somewhere??

Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks. The description of the night in the trenches before they go over the top. Just can't forgte it and it's been 10 yrs since I read it.

From the corner of his eye...........Dean Koontz

oh wordsmith, I read Charlotte Grey this summer - the book written after Birdsong. Deeply affected me. The descriptions of the two little boys, so terrrible. My husband tells me some of the Birdsong characters are in Charlotte Grey, older men as it is set in WW2. I am now steeling myself to read Birdsong.

TM - do read it, it's fantastic. The first half is really erotic and the second half (about life in the trenches) is incredibly evocative. Charlotte Grey is a great book but not a patch on Birdsong.

On a tangent, if you like Birdsong you may also like the Regeneration trilogy by Pat Barker.

thanks wordsmith - birdsong is now definitely next on my reading list. I cannot think how Charlotte Grey can be bettered that much, but I am prepared to find out.

I saw the film of 'Don't Look Now' and was so scared it's untrue. It's based on a Daphne Du Maurier short story, but I can't bring myself to read it - thinking of the film gives me palpitations. I turned on the radio in the car once and they were reading the story and I had to turn it off because I started reliving how scared I'd been in the film and thought I was going to crash (my driving is erratic at the best of times!).

Of course it's by Iain Banks..... typing without brain switched on!! duuurrrrrr

PML Ellbell you are funny!! But I shouldn't laugh.. I have a thing about zombies.. '28 Days Later' traumatised me for weeks and then some friends coerced me into watching Shaun Of The Dead which I allowed myself to be coerced into watching because it is actually just a pisstake of Dawn Of The Dead.. but it still scared me sh*tless!! And then..

..2 nights ago my sister - whilst staying at our house - starting watched Dawn of the Dead late at night just as I was going to bed (her body clock is all wrong) and I watched about half an hour of it.. and then went to bed and had terrible nightmares!! And Dh was not even there.. he was on a golf trip...!! I just hate zombies... bleeuuuurrghhhhhhh

SJ x

I have just finished a Masters and am starting a PhD in Gothic literature specialising in the psychology of the child and exactly why they are so disturbing. Have used lots of Iain Banks and Ian McEwan (all highly unsettling) and I like William Golding's Lord of the Flies.

Also love Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper, the final scene is just so creepy. ETA Hoffmann's short story The Sandman is still spooky after many reads and anything by Poe, but particularly The Fall of the House of Usher. Matthew Lewis's The Monk is incredibly disturbing and Angela Carter's The Passion of New Eve is just plain weird.

SleepyJess, talking of scary movies, dh and I went to see the Amityville Horror remake on the first night of our honeymoon (romantic, huh?) and he screamed in the middle of the cinema. He just can't live it down, especially since I insist on bringing it up every time we have company (he likes to pretend he's macho to all our friends) and add the odd embelishment (usually adding -like a girl- to the 'he screamed' bit). Plus we were in Edinburgh, reputedly one of the most haunted cities in the world and we had to walk across the deserted city at 1am to get back to our hostel. DH had to sleep with the light on. Aah, bless.

embellishment

I'm doing a PhD but I can't for the life of me spell before 9am...

A Clockwork Orange, The Wasp Factory, Trainspotting, and a short story, probably some pulpy horror thing, with a graphic description of a man being boiled alive! Read it when I was at school and really wished I hadn't, one of those images you can't get out of your head. Oh, Clive Barker's Books of Blood are wonderfully disturbing too. One called, I think, 'Meat', combines fear of meat with fear of clowns, two of my own pet hates (I never claimed to be sane).

Children of the Flames, Dr Mengele and the untold story of the twins of Auschwitz was very moving. Equally so was Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi.
I also found the book 'H', the true story of a 13 year old child prostitute and heroin addict very disturbing.