Most DISTURBING fiction book you've ever read? (human, stephen king, writing)

[Tracysherm]

I did a search to see if there was already a thread on this, but didn't find one.

I ask about fiction, because there are lots of non-fiction books people would find disturbing, and I don't want the thread to get political when people post that some book they politically oppose is "disturbing," or to get into religious debates with people claiming the Bible or The Origin of Species are "disturbing."



So, did you ever read a work of fiction that you found disturbing, so disturbing that the images stayed with you for a while, and you wanted to get them out of your head?

For me, the most disturbing fiction work I've read was The End of Alice by A. M. Homes. (1997)

It was about a pedophile child-killer in prison, and a young woman admirer who is his pen pal. She is also an aspiring pedophile, and the book is about her planning to seduce, and finally and seducing a young boy, and sharing her stories with the prisoner who enjoys the stories. There were also flashbacks to his molestation and murder of a little girl.

I bought the book back when it first came out because in Barnes & Noble, it was on one of the employee recommendations shelves.

Even all these years later, the memory of the story disturbs me, and I literally feel a little sick to my stomach.

How about your most disturbing book?

[DawnMTL]

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis.

[Mark S.]

The Girl in a Swing by Richard Adams. No cute and fuzzy bunnies in that one.

[Clark Fork Fantast]

"Disturbing" can go two ways: Gross and nasty, and challenging your previous assumptions.

In the category of "challenging previous assumptions" I think I'd have to say Sartre's play No Exit. When I read it now I can see it's a metaphor for life, but when I was very young I read it literally--locked in hell for all eternity with two people you hate, and no mirrors! --and somehow those ideas never really let go of me...

Gross and nasty, I'd have to (reluctantly) say "The Highway" by C.J. Box. Reluctantly, because I love his Joe Pickett series, but there's something really ugly about "The Highway" which is not in the Pickett series. Evil on the loose. I'm sure the ugliness is supposed to be resolved/redeemed in a 3rd book ("Back of Beyond" was the first in this series), but I am not going to give it a chance.

I usually end up feeling "dirty" after reading Sandford's "Prey" books, for the same reason: A very detailed exploration (exploitation?) of fear and pain. (Interestingly, his Virgil Flowers books strike a totally different cord, which is probably why he started the series--the books have a lot of underplayed humor and quirky personalities. I always imagine Virgil being played by Owen Wilson... )

I generally stay away from anything in the horror genre. Otherwise I could probably come up with something way more disturbing.

I thought of another one! That one creeped me out to the extent that it took me years to actually read the ending: The Swedish author Selma Lagerlöff's The Phantom Carriage (1912). The carriage, picking up newly dead souls, is driven by a soul of a bad man who died at midnight on New Year's Eve, and he is doomed to drive the carriage until he can find another bad guy who dies at midnight on New Year's Eve, so he can leave the reins to him and finally find peace. That's just the background story--the real story is about the people who live and die during the tale, and how one person's story inexorably leads to a midnight death on New Year's Eve...I'm getting chills just writing about it!

[NVplumber]

I have to go with Stephen Kings "Misery" on this. The images formed in my brain had me shivering. That guy can vet into some really dark places in the human mind. The whole dismemberment bit, the soft, cooing voice as she whacked his foot off with an ax and cauterized it with a plumbers torch, sliced his thumb off with an electric carving knife.....rrrrrrrr! I guess what really disturbs me about a lot of Kings stuff is that there really are wackaloons out there like that. Worse even. Not a pleasant thought at all.

[Mark S.]

Originally Posted by Clark Fork Fantast

Gross and nasty, I'd have to (reluctantly) say "The Highway" by C.J. Box. Reluctantly, because I love his Joe Pickett series, but there's something really ugly about "The Highway" which is not in the Pickett series. Evil on the loose. I'm sure the ugliness is supposed to be resolved/redeemed in a 3rd book ("Back of Beyond" was the first in this series), but I am not going to give it a chance.

Agreed. I LOOOOOVE the Joe Picket books. But Box's Cody Hoyt? Not so much. For me, the big difference is the protagonist. Joe Picket is flawed and has problems, but he is still completely sympathetic. I not only root for Joe. I like him. I'd love to hang out with him and have his family over to my house for a cookout. Cody Hoyt is just an a-hole. The "tortured soul" detective has a long history in genre fiction, but not one I've ever cared for. It's hard for me to root for Cody Hoyt, because I keep hoping the bad guy will get him and teach him a lesson.

Originally Posted by Clark Fork Fantast

I usually end up feeling "dirty" after reading Sandford's "Prey" books, for the same reason: A very detailed exploration (exploitation?) of fear and pain.

Agreed. I don't object to violence in fiction. But Sandford's Prey books are just gratuitous and pornographic with it.

[LauraC]

Lost Boys by Orson Scott Card disturbed me as did The Long Walk by Stephen King.

Neither one is the type of book you typically expect from the author.

[jtur88]

"Atlas Shrugged".

[Siggy20]

We Need To Talk About Kevin was hugely disturbing for me because I was going through hell with my daughter when I read it. My husband was going through denial at the time and wouldn't believe me.

Of course horror still scares me but I read Shriver's book at a pretty emotional time in my life.

[Ottawa2011]

I read Where the Red Fern Grows when I was about 10. A boy's beloved dog dies...after being disemboweled. How heartwarming. Still turns my stomach, to this day, thinking about it.