# Did you ever read a book so upsetting that you wish you hadn't read it at all? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 22, 2005, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-read-a-book-so-upsetting-that-you-wish-you-hadnt-read-it-at-all/313622 "2005-07-22T12:43:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-read-a-book-so-upsetting-that-you-wish-you-hadnt-read-it-at-all/313622/61 "2005-07-22T18:19:54Z")
Pretty much anything by Robert Ludlum or Clive Cussler…oh, you mean that the topic matter was upsetting, not the tortured grammar… 😉 Seriously, Russell Bank’s _Affliction_ was pretty disturbing to me; I read it, and I don’t wish I hadn’t, but it put me in quite a funk. Some of his short story writing is pretty harsh, too, but I haven’t read another of his novels that has had quite the same impact. Kafka’s _The Trial_ started slowly but became ominous. I’ve never seen Welles’ film adaptation of it but it’s on the list. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![yellowval](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/919ad9/32.png) [@yellowval](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowval)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-read-a-book-so-upsetting-that-you-wish-you-hadnt-read-it-at-all/313622/62 "2005-07-22T18:20:35Z")
> [@pasunejen](#): > > Well, see, there’s this short story called “Guts” by Chuck Palahniuk… > > _shudder_ > > I’m not going to describe it. It’s been more than a year, and my boyfriend (who doesn’t seem to be affected by these things so much) still mentions it every time he wants to freak me out. > > You can google it; I’m pretty sure it’s around somewhere in full. You may now count me among those who wish they’d never read this story. I can’t even describe how I felt after reading that. ---
**Author:** ![Blackclaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e68b1a/32.png) [@Blackclaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackclaw)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-read-a-book-so-upsetting-that-you-wish-you-hadnt-read-it-at-all/313622/63 "2005-07-22T18:28:37Z")
I read “Where the Red Fern Grows” in 8th grade and I have been depressed about it ever since. I hate that book. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-read-a-book-so-upsetting-that-you-wish-you-hadnt-read-it-at-all/313622/64 "2005-07-22T18:34:21Z")
> [@Blackclaw](#): > > I read “Where the Red Fern Grows” in 8th grade and I have been depressed about it ever since. > > I hate that book. Same here, only it was about 4th or 5th grade. I was inconsolable for days. ---
**Author:** ![BubbaDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bubbadog/32/333_2.png) [@BubbaDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BubbaDog)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-read-a-book-so-upsetting-that-you-wish-you-hadnt-read-it-at-all/313622/65 "2005-07-22T18:35:58Z")
**Left Behind** I bought into the hype and the story from others and then was extremely pissed that I wasted my time reading such a poorly written book. I still think that the concept and general plot are good material but the actual prose in the book could have been written by a bright 10 year old. ---
**Author:** ![Axel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6de8d8/32.png) [@Axel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Axel)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-read-a-book-so-upsetting-that-you-wish-you-hadnt-read-it-at-all/313622/66 "2005-07-22T19:01:34Z")
> [@Greywolf73](#): > > **Sophie’s Choice** shook me up pretty good (not the whole book just her gut-wrenching ‘choice’). I read the book and then was stupid enough to watch the movie, which had the same effect on me. I haven’t read the book or seen the movie, but I’ve been thinking for a whole that perhaps I should. I’ve seen a particular clip from that film played on TV many times, and the whole concept of that choice is so disturbing that perhaps reading the full story would set my mind at rest. Or is it worse? Two stories with such depressing endings that I recommend nobod ever reads them: ‘How to be Good,’ by Nick Hornby. Good book, well-written and based on an unsual plotline, but man what a downer to end on. What a depressing view of life. ‘Gridlock,’ by Ben Elton. It’s not that well-written either. Never before have I read a story where the hero (who really is a hero worthy of respect - great character, and very sympathetic) dies, then his equally-heroic friends die, then the baddies kill some other people and blame their deaths on the goodies, and get away with it, and succeed in a scheme which will doom the entire Earth. And all with the same sort of plot that would lead you to expect exactly the opposite ending. ‘Stone Butch Blues,’ by Leslie Feinberg. Lots of my friends love this. It’s a good book. But I got a third of the way through and couldn’t handle reading about any more rapes. A book by Susan Sontag, I can’t remember which one, but it was more my professor’s analysis that got to me: the book was about free will, and how it’s not possible. Because for every choice there must be traceable reasons, and there must be reasons for those reasons, and so forth, back until the dawn of time. This basically means that everything is predetermined and free will is impossible. That sent me into quite a deep depression. (My wa out of it now is to say that _what_ we do isn’t as important as how we react, emotionally, to it. I got that from a short story too, ‘The Story of Your Life,’ by Ted Chiang). Hannibal was a stupid, bad book and it made me wonder about the psyche of the writer. ---
**Author:** ![tremorviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@tremorviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tremorviolet)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-read-a-book-so-upsetting-that-you-wish-you-hadnt-read-it-at-all/313622/67 "2005-07-22T19:13:24Z")
> [@pinkfreud](#): > > I started to read _American Psycho_, but I found it so disturbing that I couldn’t finish it. A friend who did not know that I was a rape survivor had recommended the book; she told me that it was a satire. FWIW, I’m not a rape survivor and I couldn’t read it either. Maybe it was satire but I found it too vile to even contemplate. David Foster Wallace’s short story “The Girl with Curious Hair” (from the same titled book) disturbed me immensely and I wish I hadn’t read it. Joining in on the Stephen King creep, his short story about the family that is going to be beamed to Mars (or somewhere). All the passengers were put under because it would be too horrible to be awake during the matter transport process. But the boy held his breath (tho’ I find this part unbelievable. I mena, in the future, couldn’t they make _sure_ everyone was really unconcious?) and didn’t get put under. When they awake on the new planet, the kids insane having spent _eternity_ a disembodied conciousness. For some reason this story creeped me out way more than even the surgeon eating his own body. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-read-a-book-so-upsetting-that-you-wish-you-hadnt-read-it-at-all/313622/68 "2005-07-22T20:00:44Z")
> [@tremorviolet](#): > > Joining in on the Stephen King creep, his short story about the family that is going to be beamed to Mars (or somewhere). That WAS creepy! "It’s longer than you think Dad! It’s longer than you think!"What a disturbing thing to contemplate. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Goob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c77e96/32.png) [@Mr.Goob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Goob)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-read-a-book-so-upsetting-that-you-wish-you-hadnt-read-it-at-all/313622/69 "2005-07-22T20:05:49Z")
> [@tripthicket](#): > > I don’t remember the name of the book, as I got it from my brother, who is into sex/horror books, or whatever that category is called. It was a book of short stories, by different authors, IIRC. Some of them rose, in various degrees, toward disturbing, but I was somewhat inured to them, having borrowed such books from my brother over the years (hmmm, guess that means I’m into sex/horror fiction, too. _heh_). That sounds like _Splatterpunks_, there’s 2 volumes. I have no problems with the gore and goop like _Guts_ or \*American Psycho. \* _Hannibal_ pissed me off because of what others said about Starling going off character, but I still don’t have minded reading it. My vote is \*Time Enough for Love \* by Heinlein. I was never much of a SciFi fan, a friend wore me down until I read it. I was really liking it, Lazarus Long seemed cool. A prolonged life with all the adventures sounded like fun until he got bored and decided to go back in time to fuck his mother. C’mon WTF? I refused to read another word of his. I really-really liked that book until the last chapter. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-read-a-book-so-upsetting-that-you-wish-you-hadnt-read-it-at-all/313622/70 "2005-07-22T20:20:35Z")
King’s story about the surgeon eating his own body never creeped me out because the whole idea was just too dumb. Steve, man, what do you think happens when you starve to death? _Your body eats itself!_ Hacking off parts of your body, cooking(?) it, then eating it would be _less_ efficient, because you’re wasting all those calories preparing it, instead of just lying very still and letting your metabolism do all the work for you. Even as a kid, I couldn’t get past that. _Pet Sematary_, on the other hand… The first part of _The Handmaid’s Tale_, when the Gileans take over the country, creeped me out to no end. Made me want to buy a gun, just in case the Domionists ever try something. I don’t remotely regret reading it, but for years after reading _The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant_, I’d occasionally pinch myself hard, just to make sure I wasn’t developing leprosy. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-read-a-book-so-upsetting-that-you-wish-you-hadnt-read-it-at-all/313622/71 "2005-07-22T20:26:29Z")
_The Red Pony_ by Steinbeck. Sometimes I like to fantasize about what my life would be like if I didn’t have the image of them putting a button into the pony’s trachea lurking in my subconsious somewhere. Better, I think. ---
**Author:** ![SnakesCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4af34b/32.png) [@SnakesCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnakesCatLady)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-read-a-book-so-upsetting-that-you-wish-you-hadnt-read-it-at-all/313622/72 "2005-07-22T20:38:39Z")
**American Psycho** ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-read-a-book-so-upsetting-that-you-wish-you-hadnt-read-it-at-all/313622/73 "2005-07-22T20:40:05Z")
For me, it was an HP Lovecraft short story. Damn if I can remember the name of it. There’s a very evil old woman who is enamoured of the dark arts. There is a second character who lives in close proximity and is terrorized by her, and then there is the narrator. After the evil old woman dies — a couple weeks after — the narrator hears a knock at the door and opens it to find the second character, trapped in the evil old woman’s not-merely-dead but two-weeks-decomposed liquefying body…the evil one has forced the body swap. The victim is unable to speak because the body is too far gone to allow speech. ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-read-a-book-so-upsetting-that-you-wish-you-hadnt-read-it-at-all/313622/74 "2005-07-22T20:48:22Z")
> [@Elysian](#): > > _Flowers for Algernon_, couldn’t finish it, it was too disturbing. I read that at school, fantastic book, but very disturbing. ---
**Author:** ![FisherQueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/58f4c7/32.png) [@FisherQueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FisherQueen)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-read-a-book-so-upsetting-that-you-wish-you-hadnt-read-it-at-all/313622/75 "2005-07-22T20:51:00Z")
I finally got my reserved copy of **Extemely Loud and Incredibly Close** , and spent about the last third of it sobbing like someone had squashed my kitten. I really resent the author for making me feel that way. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-read-a-book-so-upsetting-that-you-wish-you-hadnt-read-it-at-all/313622/76 "2005-07-22T20:59:19Z")
_Another Country_ by James Baldwin. I was 21, alientated and cynical when I read this and it only served to increase my alienation and cynicism. I took away from it that people are basically instruments to one another and that real love is not possible. After I got through with this book, I wanted to throw it across the room. _Blood and Guts in High School_ by Kathy Acker. If your idea of a meaningful literary experience is having your teeth kicked down your throat, don’t miss this one. After I got through with this book, I wanted to throw its _author_ across the room. ---
**Author:** ![Phish\_Head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9adbd/32.png) [@Phish\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phish_Head)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-read-a-book-so-upsetting-that-you-wish-you-hadnt-read-it-at-all/313622/77 "2005-07-22T21:11:20Z")
[The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas](http://www.enotes.com/ones-who/) by _Ursula K. Le Guin_ [sniff] That poor little child… ---
**Author:** ![SolGrundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@SolGrundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SolGrundy)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-read-a-book-so-upsetting-that-you-wish-you-hadnt-read-it-at-all/313622/78 "2005-07-22T21:41:42Z")
> [@susan\_foster](#): > > _The Black Dahlia_ by James Ellroy. That was going to be my answer. I just kept getting the sense that the author was _damaged_. Not just ineptly going for shock value or hard-edged crime drama, but genuinely troubled. I thought the whole thing was just gross and pointless. ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-read-a-book-so-upsetting-that-you-wish-you-hadnt-read-it-at-all/313622/79 "2005-07-22T21:51:25Z")
> [@tremorviolet](#): > > Joining in on the Stephen King creep, his short story about the family that is going to be beamed to Mars (or somewhere). That’s “The Jaunt” from _Skeleton Crew_. Creeped me out a little as well. There was a story I read in a sci-fi anthology when I was about 12. The story was called “The Death Star”, and I picked it up because I assumed it had some kind of Star Wars connection. Nope. It was about a star that goes supernova and eventually makes the surface of the Earth uninhabitable. Just the sort of thing to scare the living shit out of me, and it did. ---
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-read-a-book-so-upsetting-that-you-wish-you-hadnt-read-it-at-all/313622/80 "2005-07-22T21:52:24Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > For me, it was an HP Lovecraft short story. Damn if I can remember the name of it. > > There’s a very evil old woman who is enamoured of the dark arts. There is a second character who lives in close proximity and is terrorized by her, and then there is the narrator. After the evil old woman dies — a couple weeks after — the narrator hears a knock at the door and opens it to find > > the second character, trapped in the evil old woman’s not-merely-dead but two-weeks-decomposed liquefying body…the evil one has forced the body swap. The victim is unable to speak because the body is too far gone to allow speech. That is a scary one indeed. It’s called “The Thing on the Doorstep.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-read-a-book-so-upsetting-that-you-wish-you-hadnt-read-it-at-all/313622.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-ever-read-a-book-so-upsetting-that-you-wish-you-hadnt-read-it-at-all/313622.md?page=5)