Comment what books have caused you to become distressed, traumatized, or unsettled in any way. Please elaborate as to why.
The House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. It wasn’t scary per say but I had an interesting experience where I had a manic episode reading it, barely slept, and got absolutely obsessed with the idea of it as I read it.
10/10 loved the immersion aspect.
This book also didn’t scare me in a traditional way but is definitely one of the most unsettling things I’ve read.
A Scanner Darkly is an incredibly moving and haunting novel to anyone who’s ever struggled with drug addiction. For a nonfiction book probably “Kill Anything That Moves” which is about the horrifying and infuriatting reality of the U.S. war in Vietnam, and “The Hot Zone” by Richard Preston
That afterword in A Scanner Darkly! Intense.
“This has been a novel about some people who were punished entirely too much for what they did. They wanted to have a good time, but they were like children playing in the street; they could see one after another of them being killed—run over, maimed, destroyed—but they continued to play anyhow. We really all were very happy for a while, sitting around not toiling but just bullshitting and playing, but it was for such a terrible brief time, and then the punishment was beyond belief: even when we could see it, we could not believe it….”
Loved The Hot Zone! Nonfiction that reads like a thriller.
The House in the Dark by Tarjei Vesaas. It’s a surrealist account of life under the Nazi occupation. It was written in Norway during the occupation. After writing it, Vesaas immediately buried the manuscript in the forest until the war was over - being caught with it would have meant immediate death.
1962 cold-war drama Fail-Safe is also very disturbing.
American Psycho made me so claustrophobic reading it I had to give up really quickly. Which means it was terribly effective, but not something I can make myself read.
Lolita, it’s simply unsettling.
Also Starship Troopers as I used to be in the military for a bit.
Chuck Palahniuk’s Haunted(a collection of short stories). It made me close my legs and squirm, and feel disgusted. The first story ‘‘Guts’’ made me put down the book and not touch it due to fear of what i am about to read next.
As Wikipedia describes it : It is a tale of violent accidents involving masturbation, in which the reader is instructed to hold their breath in the very first line.
Yeah, reader beware.
Same experience.
I like to think I’m pretty adventurous (like I love to watch horror movies, etc). But that book is just too much. What are other books gave you that effect?
Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby Jr. I still can’t believe I actually read the whole damn nightmare.
Exquisite Corpse by Poppt Z. Brite. It’s the only book I’ve ever loved that it recommend to exactly nobody. It’s very graphic (violent).
In the Tall Grass by Steven King and Joe Hill.
So unsettling until the scary. And then the scary got worse!
Notes From The Underground - Fyodor Dostoevsky. It’s a dark mirror that presents itself to me. And while I detest looking at it, I also find it difficult not to.
The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks. The narrator and main character is a psychotic teenager, and being inside their head just feels so gross. Fantastic book, but genuinely disturbing.
In close second is Earthlings by Sayaka Murata. The main character goes through some stuff as a child, and comes to believe that she isn’t human. Meets some others like herself and it gets weird. Great book, not for the faint of heart!
I don’t know if disturbing is the word I’d use but Empire Falls left me feeling profoundly sad for a few weeks after finishing it. It was a beautiful book and I’d recommend it to anyone but it definitely stuck with me for a bit and was hard to shake
As long as it unsettles you in some way, it counts.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
It was an assigned reading in 11th grade. When I finally finished it, I remember feeling like my skin was crawling, and my thoughts were a jumbled mess - I was questioning everything, how I viewed others and how they viewed me, was it right or wrong, how would I have behaved in those situations…
I remember l just staring out my bedroom window into the pitch black night for an hour just digesting it all. I also remember sleeping with the lights on because I was a little creeped out.
Being an impressionable teen probably helped, but that book left a profound impact on my way of thinking about how I interact with the world and the people in it.
It was also my gateway book to classic literature and how good it can actually be!
Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist. The supernatural monsters in the novel are rank amateurs at being horrific compared to some of the human characters. While well written and a smooth read, I could not finish it.
Gotta be a tie between Pet Semetary and Blindsight, although for different reasons.