# Have you ever read a book and loved it- even though it really upset you? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 12, 2010, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-read-a-book-and-loved-it-even-though-it-really-upset-you/553531 "2010-09-12T19:16:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2010, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-read-a-book-and-loved-it-even-though-it-really-upset-you/553531/1 "2010-09-12T19:16:20Z")
I recently read _The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell_ and I loved it. It is really well written and totally enthralling, but… I found it a very difficult read. I actually couldn’t read some of the passages, and wrestled several times with just putting it down, but I reckoned I had to find out what happened.\* It literally gave me nightmares, but I’m still glad I read it. Anyone ever had a similar experience? What was the book and why did it affect you? - I can’t say what distressed me without giving the plot away, other than to say that I think that I’m a breastfeeding mother had a lot to do with my reaction, but if you’re wondering… A major plot point deal with the murder of infants, and one passage in particular describes newborn twins being taken from their mother (she thinks they’re going to new lives- we know they’re going to die). ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2010, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-read-a-book-and-loved-it-even-though-it-really-upset-you/553531/2 "2010-09-12T20:12:49Z")
The _Millenium_ trilogy by Stieg Larsson is wildly popular right now, even though there’s some graphic and disturbing sexual violence in the first book. I liked it–I don’t feel the need to read it again, but I liked it–but that scene was really, really hard to get through. And of course there’s _Bridge to Terabithia_, but that may be another thing entirely. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_A.Robrin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sam_a.robrin/32/14497_2.png) [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2010, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-read-a-book-and-loved-it-even-though-it-really-upset-you/553531/3 "2010-09-13T02:50:35Z")
I tend to be the exception to the rule stated by Don Marquis that “If you make people think they’re thinking, they’ll love you; But if you really make them think, they’ll hate you.” I imagine a lot of people here are similarly exceptional. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2010, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-read-a-book-and-loved-it-even-though-it-really-upset-you/553531/4 "2010-09-13T02:52:28Z")
I thought Donaldson’s _Gap_ series was written by a sociopath and found it really disturbing. Every time I reread it, I still think it was written by a sociopath… but they’re among my favorite Space Operas. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2010, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-read-a-book-and-loved-it-even-though-it-really-upset-you/553531/5 "2010-09-13T02:56:48Z")
Sure, memoirs of horrible experiences are often both upsetting and simultaneously enlightening. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2010, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-read-a-book-and-loved-it-even-though-it-really-upset-you/553531/6 "2010-09-13T15:29:40Z")
Tolkien’s (or should I say Tolkiens’) _Children of Hurin_ is incredibly depressing. But the writing is just so beautiful in places that you don’t even care. Or rather, you do care, too much, but you still are glad for having read it. ---
**Author:** ![Big\_Norse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/big_norse/32/9954_2.png) [@Big\_Norse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Big_Norse)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-read-a-book-and-loved-it-even-though-it-really-upset-you/553531/7 "2010-09-14T00:08:30Z")
Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. It kept getting more and more horrible and I knew where it all was going to end, but I couldn’t stop reading it. Some of the images stayed with me for weeks. I kind of want to see the movie now, but kinda don’t want to put myself through it. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-read-a-book-and-loved-it-even-though-it-really-upset-you/553531/8 "2010-09-14T00:17:41Z")
Into Thin Air about rhe everest climbing disaster. The Poisonwood Bible about a zealous missionary family in Africa both cut too close to home and I won’t reread them ans I normally rweread books. both were really good books that I would recommend as well. Even posting this kinda gives me the heebie jeebies ---
**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-read-a-book-and-loved-it-even-though-it-really-upset-you/553531/9 "2010-09-14T00:25:11Z")
Harrison Salsbury’s\* 900 Days\*. Similarly, _Enemy at the Gates_. When you’ve got two sociopaths with armies that hate eachother, some pretty shocking things happen. ---
**Author:** ![MTCicero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a4c791/32.png) [@MTCicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MTCicero)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-read-a-book-and-loved-it-even-though-it-really-upset-you/553531/10 "2010-09-14T01:06:22Z")
Like **China Guy** , my first thought was Jon Krakauer’s **Into Thin Air** , as well as **Into the Wild**. But the book of his that disturbed me the most (and pissed me the hell off), but was written quite compellingly, is **Under the Banner of Heaven**. Also, I should mention Sebastian Junger’s **The Perfect Storm**. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-read-a-book-and-loved-it-even-though-it-really-upset-you/553531/11 "2010-09-14T01:12:06Z")
> [@Sam\_A.Robrin](#): > > I tend to be the exception to the rule stated by Don Marquis that “If you make people think they’re thinking, they’ll love you; But if you really make them think, they’ll hate you.” I imagine a lot of people here are similarly exceptional. Similarly, I feel that if something really makes you feel, a lot of people dislike it. I’m always amazed at the people who talk about disliking a book that was very sad or involved a death that upset them. For me to be affected by a book, it has to be well written. Plus, I think I’ve read so many things I’ve gotten jaded. I didn’t bat an eye at any of the stuff in the first Millennium book. I didn’t read the rest, mainly because I just wasn’t that into them. ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-read-a-book-and-loved-it-even-though-it-really-upset-you/553531/12 "2010-09-14T01:42:42Z")
I love the short story “What Maise Knows.” I love it, a very good short story. I will never read it again. I don’t know why but it really bothered me for some reason. What makes it worse is my brain likes to start thinking about it as I’m starting to fall asleep, and if I let that happen I’ll stay up all night. ---
**Author:** ![Bag\_of\_Mostly\_Water](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bag_of_mostly_water/32/1029_2.png) [@Bag\_of\_Mostly\_Water](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bag_of_Mostly_Water)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-read-a-book-and-loved-it-even-though-it-really-upset-you/553531/13 "2010-09-14T02:26:07Z")
I read _Lucifer’s Hammer_ by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle just after I moved to California. I loved the book, but it gave me nightmares for days. I also just finished _The Time Traveler’s Wife_ by Audrey Niffenegger. I did like it, but, for reasons I can’t explain, I found it very disturbing. ---
**Author:** ![BaneSidhe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c5a1d2/32.png) [@BaneSidhe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BaneSidhe)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-read-a-book-and-loved-it-even-though-it-really-upset-you/553531/14 "2010-09-14T02:29:58Z")
_Black Beauty_ by Anna Sewell. Her descriptions of what happened to Ginger and later on, Beauty, broke my heart. But I still love the book. The final book of the LAST HERALD MAGE series by Mercedes Lackey made me bawl too. ---
**Author:** ![Miss-Informed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8dc957/32.png) [@Miss-Informed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss-Informed)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-read-a-book-and-loved-it-even-though-it-really-upset-you/553531/15 "2010-09-14T03:33:27Z")
> [@China\_Guy](#): > > The Poisonwood Bible about a zealous missionary family in Africa I’ll second this, but unlike **China Guy** I have re-read it twice. And I’ll add “She’s Come Undone” and “I Know This Much is True”, both by Wally Lamb. The protagonists in both are just so broken and in such a raw, human way. ---
**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:** [September 14, 2010, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-read-a-book-and-loved-it-even-though-it-really-upset-you/553531/16 "2010-09-14T04:04:49Z")
Orwell’s _1984_ had that effect on me when I read it in the late 1970s. Creeped me totally the fuck out. It felt like some factions in society were using it as a goddam blueprint. ---
**Author:** ![Maiira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Maiira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maiira)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-read-a-book-and-loved-it-even-though-it-really-upset-you/553531/17 "2010-09-14T05:11:17Z")
Stephen King’s **Misery**. I dabble in writing a bit myself, so the idea of having someone burn the only copy of what you believe is your best writing makes me cringe. I actually had to put it down a couple times, it disturbed me so much. Nonetheless, I thought it was the best King book I’d ever read. ---
**Author:** ![Rala](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@Rala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rala)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-read-a-book-and-loved-it-even-though-it-really-upset-you/553531/18 "2010-09-14T12:02:41Z")
_Brave New World_. So depressing, and so damn plausible. I fell in love with the book even though the societies in it left me shuddering. ---
**Author:** ![Illuminatiprimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/illuminatiprimus/32/11520_2.png) [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-read-a-book-and-loved-it-even-though-it-really-upset-you/553531/19 "2010-09-14T12:30:06Z")
The book _Was_ by Geoff Ryman is the first book to upset me (I was about 20 at the time) and I cried my fucking eyes out. Really really upset me and has totally ruined any enjoyment of the Wizard of Oz for me (you need to read the book to see what I’m talking about). A couple of Will Self’s books have dealt with unpleasant material and I couldn’t finish them because of it - in _Dorian_ one of the characters is in hospital dying of AIDS which, as a gay guy, hits a bit too close to home for me, and I had to stop reading. Another one, _How the dead live_, was all about death and partly a woman coming to face hers, and at that point I hadn’t come to terms with my own mortality enough to be able to read it. I should probably try both of them another time as they were good, just, unsettling. More recently _John dies at the end_ is a pretty disturbing book and some of the imagery in it made my skin crawl. There is a bit at the end where David’s TV comes on and it looks like the people from Shit Narnia are going to break through, but they don’t that had me reading transfixed in absolute horror. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2010, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-read-a-book-and-loved-it-even-though-it-really-upset-you/553531/20 "2010-09-14T12:44:28Z")
Rolling Stone writer Mikal Gilmore’s account of his brother Gary’s execution in [Shot in the Heart](http://www.amazon.com/Shot-Heart-Mikal-Gilmore/dp/0385478003). Very hard going but shit he can write. He begins: _I have a story to tell. It is a story of murder told from inside the house where murder is born. It is the house where I grew up, a house that, in some ways, I have never been able to leave._ [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-read-a-book-and-loved-it-even-though-it-really-upset-you/553531.md?page=2)