Books that disturb you?

[TheMasterNotMargarita]

I don't mean books that are obviously horror genre or thriller type or misery-lit.
I just finished A Handmaid's Tales and it gave me the heebie jeebies. Everyone under the regime having their place. Not knowing who you could talk to about anything. Chilling.

I was also quite freaked out by The Midwich Cuckoos and scared myself with Rebecca.

Any others had a similar effect on you?

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

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.

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 Wasp Factory. Just odd

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.