The Most Disturbing Book You've Ever Read.

  • Late Night Luau

    Late Night Luau (100)

    :
    Member
    Gender:
    Age:
    29
    Location:
    United States
    I don't know if this counts as an actual book because it's just a rough draft of it... The draft got published though so good for the author! I read it on Wattpad and it's about this psycho killer named Clover who kidnaps innocent-looking girls and rename them after flowers (like "Lily"), then go off in the middle of the night to kill prostitutes. It's really disturbing and I had to skip parts. Makes me shudder just thinking about it!
    March 4th, 2014 at 04:45am
  • Rebell

    Rebell (100)

    :
    Member
    Gender:
    Age:
    32
    Location:
    United States
    The Jungle by Upton Sinclair.
    There's nothing like reading a book about the conditions of places that make food--even if it happened in the early 1900's.
    That's the book that made Roosevelt create the FDA, if that tells you anything about how disgusting it was.

    Also Tenderness by Robert Cormier, and not for the same reasons. That book is one of my favorites of all time, but the ending has stayed with me for years because it was so upsetting.

    And then Pet Semetary by Stephen King. And maybe that sounds dumb? But it's such a real world idea. I mean who wouldn't want to bury their dead loved ones in a cemetery that made them come back to life? His depictions of grief and the desperation it creates are so so so spot on that it's completely possible to imagine it happening for real. And there's this scene that describes the main character breaking into a cemetery to dig up his sons body (so he can bury him in the other cemetery and bring him back to life) that is absolutely haunting.
    March 5th, 2014 at 05:45am
  • January Rose

    January Rose (100)

    :
    Member
    Gender:
    Age:
    24
    Location:
    Canada
    @ Leaahhh
    I've read that story! It kind of creeped me out at first, but it is such a good story. It's being turned into a real book on March 1st. I may buy it.
    March 8th, 2014 at 04:37pm
  • ptvjaime

    ptvjaime (1600)

    :
    Member
    Gender:
    Age:
    29
    Location:
    United States
    Living Dead Girl. I don't remember the name of the author, but I remember the book very clearly. It was about a teenage girl who had been kidnapped at a young age and molded into the "little girl" sex slave of the man who had kidnapped her. It was a good book, though.
    March 10th, 2014 at 06:26pm
  • Lightmydarkness

    Lightmydarkness (150)

    :
    Member
    Gender:
    Age:
    29
    Location:
    Australia
    I have read way to many disturbing books. One that comes to mind is "Forgotten" by Les Cummings which is an auto-biography about sexual abuse.
    March 10th, 2014 at 11:17pm
  • early_graves

    early_graves (100)

    :
    Member
    Gender:
    Age:
    26
    Location:
    United States
    Switching Time. I don't remember the name of the author's name but it's nonfiction about this psychologists journey with somebody with multiple personality disorder. This woman ended up having 17 different personalities or alters. They describe the sexual and physical trauma that she endeaured when she was young and it's so disturbing and it's amazing she survived.
    March 12th, 2014 at 03:22pm
  • Nyctophilia.

    Nyctophilia. (100)

    :
    Member
    Gender:
    Age:
    29
    Location:
    United States
    I know I read a couple more disturbing ones, but the two that will always pop into my head without a doubt is House of Evil : The Indiana Torture Slaying & Sybil. Both true stories, both have made me cry.
    March 18th, 2014 at 07:53pm
  • RumpusRoom

    RumpusRoom (100)

    :
    Member
    Gender:
    Age:
    27
    Location:
    United States
    Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs. That is a crazy disturbing book.
    March 19th, 2014 at 10:43pm
  • wish on a firefly

    wish on a firefly (885)

    :
    NaNoWriMo 2017
    Gender:
    Age:
    33
    Location:
    United States
    Misery and Pet Semetary were a little disturbing since Misery has Annie Wilkes being obsessed with her favorite author, leading her to saving him from an accident and holding him hostage so he can write more Misery novels for her. Pet Semetary was disturbing because it deals with people raising their loved ones back frim the dead.
    June 30th, 2014 at 11:50am
  • FuckNo

    FuckNo (100)

    :
    Member
    Gender:
    Age:
    34
    Location:
    United States
    The Jungle by Upton Sinclair was mentioned and that one did horrify me. So did Night, but those books I had to be reminded of by looking at this thread. Probably there are more, but I can't think of them.

    Stephen King's It is the first book that I read where I can definitely remember that it disturbed me, but not for the reason most people will think. Although even as a kid, I thought the ending was a total letdown. However, one scene that a lot of people I've talked to seem to have blocked out or skipped or just forgotten about from that book is one I can't seem to forget. In the book, there's a scene where the kids (they're like, 11-13 years old or something) have just defeated the creature for the first time. They're in a sewer and in order to escape, they have to regain their power or energy or something? Either way, Stephen King decided that the only way to do that and 'bridge the gap between childhood and adulthood' was to have every single boy take turns having sex with Beverly.

    Which, Stephen King can say the scene was just metaphorical or whatever he wants to, but he's in absolute denial if he thinks that. If it's just a metaphor for transitioning to adulthood, then why put so much detail into it? Why have Beverly think to herself that the fat nerd has the biggest penis? For me an adult putting that much thought into a sex scene between children is ridiculously disturbing.

    Plus, the rest of the book is ten kinds of crazy.
    June 30th, 2014 at 05:09pm
  • spektor

    spektor (100)

    :
    Member
    Gender:
    Age:
    26
    Location:
    United States
    The Book of the Dead by Patricia Cromwell.

    The characters weren't developed and they were boring, and apparently it's a part of a series (so I'm probably missing something), but the killer in this one is just... Wow

    This isn't really a spoiler (like the dust jacket mentions it *cough* *cough* like a quizilla description *cough* *cough*, but the killer like gets these women drunk in an ice bath, kills them, fills their eyes with Iraqi sand, grills the low of their back and then eats it, and I think he flays their breasts off and fills them with sand too.

    Crazy, but twelve year old minds are very impressionable.
    June 30th, 2014 at 07:40pm
  • lana mutt

    lana mutt (100)

    :
    Member
    Gender:
    Age:
    26
    Location:
    Portugal
    @ RumpusRoom
    I've been dying to read that book. I found an English print in a bookstore the other day, but I didn't have my wallet on me...
    --

    One book that really made me take a step back and just sit and be absolutely shocked was 1984. It might be kind of a common place, but that book is just not okay. I can't even begin to name all the things that are wrong with it.
    (This will be kind of spoilery, but nothing specific.)
    I think what impressed me most was the fact that he was just cornered. Outside of Oceania, there's either Eurasia and Lestasia, which are essentially Oceania with another name, or that piece of land whose name I can't remember where they were basically slaves that jumped from one country to another. Doublethink was also something that really made me feel uncomfortable, because there's so many times when we say we believe one thing and do the other while believing we are right to do so: and that's just one step away from doublethink, if you think about it. Mostly though, it was that ending. How things can just go back to normal after such traumatic events. How a man can be stripped of his individuality, his consciousness, and not only does he accept it, but he embraces it, too.
    I don't know. Dystopian fiction, particularly the kind that goes into politics in great depth, messes with my brain.
    July 6th, 2014 at 10:34pm
  • RumpusRoom

    RumpusRoom (100)

    :
    Member
    Gender:
    Age:
    27
    Location:
    United States
    @ brynne

    I couldn't even really finish it. Not because of the disturbingness of it but it was so non-linear plot wise. I read like a little less than half and I don't know what it's really about. It's like little pieces floating around
    July 8th, 2014 at 03:53am
  • elixir

    elixir (100)

    :
    Member
    Gender:
    Age:
    28
    Location:
    United States
    @ Sailor.Mercury.Hina
    Misery & Pet Sematary are both crazy good and crazy scary.
    Stephen King is my favorite author honestly because he makes the strangest plot lines feel realistic.
    I can't say the same about the crappy movie versions, though
    July 8th, 2014 at 09:13pm
  • wish on a firefly

    wish on a firefly (885)

    :
    NaNoWriMo 2017
    Gender:
    Age:
    33
    Location:
    United States
    @ elixir
    Actually the Pet Sematary movie was decent to me but the second movie was definitely crap. I agree witb you though. King does haveva realistic way of writing horror and suspense
    I'm currently reading The Shining.
    July 8th, 2014 at 10:06pm
  • she's fresh to death

    she's fresh to death (100)

    :
    Member
    Gender:
    Age:
    32
    Location:
    United States
    July 14th, 2014 at 07:16am
  • Kawaii Emotions;

    Kawaii Emotions; (100)

    :
    Member
    Gender:
    Age:
    29
    Location:
    United States
    ptvjaime:
    Living Dead Girl. I don't remember the name of the author, but I remember the book very clearly. It was about a teenage girl who had been kidnapped at a young age and molded into the "little girl" sex slave of the man who had kidnapped her. It was a good book, though.
    I agree, it was pretty horrifying and (at the time) probably the most graphic box I've read.
    August 14th, 2014 at 11:43pm
  • based

    based (200)

    :
    Member
    Gender:
    Age:
    27
    Location:
    Italy
    Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z Brite was pretty bad, but for some reason Just Listen by Sarah Dessen almost made me faint during the parts about her sister's eating disorder. I was reading it in class in 7th grade and it made me feel so lightheaded and weak. I don't know why. I never finished it. I thought it was boring anyway.
    August 18th, 2014 at 09:29am
  • shelbyvengeance

    shelbyvengeance (100)

    :
    Member
    Gender:
    Age:
    28
    Location:
    United States
    The Town by Bentley Little. It's just so weird.
    September 2nd, 2014 at 06:22pm
  • southpaw

    southpaw (565)

    :
    Member
    Gender:
    Age:
    29
    Location:
    United States
    I don't know if it counts, since it's a short story, but "Guts" by Chuck Palahniuk fucked with me for a while. I got through it, but at what cost? Brilliant descriptions, though. Absolutely disgusting and horribly graphic, but the imagery is very well-done. XD
    September 6th, 2014 at 02:59am