# The Most Disturbing Scenes in a Book (Spoilers) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 11, 2003, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-disturbing-scenes-in-a-book-spoilers/147898 "2003-01-11T04:06:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sleestak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@sleestak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleestak)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-disturbing-scenes-in-a-book-spoilers/147898/1 "2003-01-11T04:06:51Z")
Today I bought the book “Houses Without Doors” by Peter Straub. While reading a story called ‘Blue Rose’ I came across the most disturbing fiction I have ever read. It actually almost made me sick. In the story a kid, Henry Beavers, hypnontizes his little brother. When Henrys little brother, Eddie, is under Henry pierces Eddies arm with a hat pin. Henry then goes on to thread the hat pin through his little brothers arm. The story really freaked me out. The story was so vivid I almost had to put it down. The only other story I can think of that affected me that way was "Gerald’s Game’ by King. In “Gerald’s Game” the woman had to cut her wrist and peal back her skin to get out of the handcuffs. That image just grosed me out. Those are the only stories that actually made me feel sick. I love stories but they are really disturbing. What stories bother you that you love? Slee ---
**Author:** ![Mephisto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/48db29/32.png) [@Mephisto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mephisto)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-disturbing-scenes-in-a-book-spoilers/147898/2 "2003-01-11T04:21:24Z")
_thows copy of Gerald’s Game in trash_ Stephen King’s bathroom scenes in _Carrie_ and _Dreamcatcher_ are both pretty disturbing IMHO. The girls chanting “plug-it-up-plug-it-up” when Carrie gets her first period, and the alien shit weasel working its way out of that guy’s body during the fruity smelling bowel movement from hell . . . disturbing stuff, my friends, disturbing stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Mephisto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/48db29/32.png) [@Mephisto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mephisto)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-disturbing-scenes-in-a-book-spoilers/147898/3 "2003-01-11T04:23:50Z")
_thows copy of Gerald’s Game in trash_ Just kidding. 🙂 Stephen King’s bathroom scenes in _Carrie_ and _Dreamcatcher_ are both pretty disturbing IMHO. The girls chanting “plug-it-up-plug-it-up” when Carrie gets her first period, and the alien shit weasel working its way out of that guy’s body during the fruity smelling bowel movement from hell . . . disturbing stuff, my friends, disturbing stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Badtz\_Maru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@Badtz\_Maru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badtz_Maru)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-disturbing-scenes-in-a-book-spoilers/147898/4 "2003-01-11T05:58:05Z")
In ‘Bad Guy Hats’ a person has a .22 rifle shoved up their ass and fired repeatedly. The person doing the shoving explains as he does it that a less subtle guy might use a shotgun, but this way he’ll probably survive a while. If I recall correctly this was while he was being forced to have sex with a corpse, but I may be mixing it up with another part of the story. ---
**Author:** ![kung\_fu\_lola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f4b2a3/32.png) [@kung\_fu\_lola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kung_fu_lola)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-disturbing-scenes-in-a-book-spoilers/147898/5 "2003-01-11T06:02:20Z")
How about all of Barbara Gowdy’s _We So Seldom Look On Love_. I wasn’t all that disturbed by the necrophilia story, but the one where The little girl is killed by a restaurant ceiling fan, disturbed me so much I had to put the book down and literally shake for a while. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-disturbing-scenes-in-a-book-spoilers/147898/6 "2003-01-11T06:08:23Z")
I’ve already posted this in another Cafe Society thread … but I read _Zorba the Greek_ when I was a kid, and the scene where a mob murders the widow — somebody cuts her head off with a pocket knife — happened so suddenly I didn’t see it coming. It shocked and horrified me to the pit of my guts. I don’t know how I made it all the way through the book, but I never touched anything by Kazantzakis again. That was just too intense for a kid to read. 30 years later, I think I still have the mental scars from it. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-disturbing-scenes-in-a-book-spoilers/147898/7 "2003-01-11T06:26:15Z")
If you only saw the movies, _The three musketeers_ adventure usually ends halfway, with the jewels of the queen returned. However, in the continuing history, one of the enemies of the musketeers (Milady) does kill one of the main characters. HER trial and execution, tough justified, was too disturbing when I read it when I was a teen. No wonder this is usually left out of all the Musketeer retellings and movies. This could be the reason though why many critics think _The 3 Musketeers_ by Dumas is one of the most filmed classics without any of the movies being itself a classic. If you want to spoil the tale, here is the chapter: [http://www.hoboes.com/html/FireBlade/Dumas/Musketeers/Chapter65.html](http://www.hoboes.com/html/FireBlade/Dumas/Musketeers/Chapter65.html) [sub](Click on Execution to go to the next chapter)[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-disturbing-scenes-in-a-book-spoilers/147898/8 "2003-01-11T06:39:39Z")
WARNING: this is really gross, though very eloquently written and not done for exploitative reasons: In \*\*Under the Skin, \*\* the alien woman gets her first look at the holding area/basement where all the human males are kept to be fattened up for slaughter; they are delicacies back on her planet. She’d been capturing and dropping them off but had never seen what happened to them afterwards. Their tongues had been removed and…I think I’ll stop here. And it really bothers her, as it should. ---
**Author:** ![big\_alex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e56c9b/32.png) [@big\_alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/big_alex)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-disturbing-scenes-in-a-book-spoilers/147898/9 "2003-01-11T20:25:05Z")
OK the part in “Goodnight mister Tom” where the kid returns from his mother again after being neglected, and the killing of Simon and the images after in “Lord of the Flies” ---
**Author:** ![Orange\_Skinner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3be4f8/32.png) [@Orange\_Skinner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orange_Skinner)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-disturbing-scenes-in-a-book-spoilers/147898/10 "2003-01-11T20:33:05Z")
In my freshman year, we read a book called _A Day No Pigs Would Die_. The disturbing scene in question wasn’t one that I minded that much myself, but the rest of my class did. They were wide-eyed and appalled when we hit the chapter where Pinky the Pig is…um…deflowered. Brutally. For 6 or 7 consecutive pages. ---
**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:** [January 11, 2003, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-disturbing-scenes-in-a-book-spoilers/147898/11 "2003-01-11T21:02:25Z")
I remember the first couple of pages of that book, **Orange** , where a pig- or is it a cow?- gives birth…or something. Never got past that part. As for books that have disturbed me…the scene in Carrie with her period. I first read that part when I was 13 and hadn’t yet gone on the rag. It didn’t exactly make me look forward to the momentous occasion. The Exorcist- the crucifix scene. Why is it that everything that disturbs me revolves around females bleeding from their nether regions? ---
**Author:** ![Orange\_Skinner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3be4f8/32.png) [@Orange\_Skinner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orange_Skinner)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-disturbing-scenes-in-a-book-spoilers/147898/12 "2003-01-11T21:20:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Zoggie \* > **I remember the first couple of pages of that book, Orange, where a pig- or is it a cow?- gives birth…or something. Never got past that part.** Oh yeah! That was pretty gross, too actually. I think it was a cow…and it’s choking on something…(a goiter, whatever that is, IIRC)…and the main character takes off his pants :eek: and uses them to tie the cow to a tree or something, and then he rips whatever it is out of the cow’s mouth and the cow (if it was a cow) chomps down on the kids’ hand and takes off running. The kid is dragged pantsless through the woods and his junk takes a severe beating. (Pun may or may not have been intended). ---
**Author:** ![Loneraven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c0e974/32.png) [@Loneraven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loneraven)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-disturbing-scenes-in-a-book-spoilers/147898/13 "2003-01-11T22:33:10Z")
Well… I read this long ago, and consequently I’ve forgotten completely what the story was called, who it was by, etc. But I never forgot the subject matter. It was about a woman calling up an old friend of her husband’s for help - her husband has behaving in really strange ways - and they have a nice, ordinary conversation. But he (the friend, that is) keeps breaking off mid-sentence, and then he says he can’t talk much longer, he’s getting dizzy. When she asks why, he says, “It’s not unusual when you’re suffering extreme blood loss.” He says something else about the skin being cut too deep for the blood to clot. Cue shocked realisation on _my_ part… “Funny you called when you did, really… I tried to leave my dad a note, but the blood got all over it… tell him I don’t want him to put me in a box…” The trauma of that hit me like a tonne of bricks. Strange, I can remember all those details, but I can’t remember the name of the story… ---
**Author:** ![Vinnie\_Virginslayer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/53a042/32.png) [@Vinnie\_Virginslayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vinnie_Virginslayer)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-disturbing-scenes-in-a-book-spoilers/147898/14 "2003-01-11T23:13:13Z")
There’s a couple of pretty graphic torture scenes in James Ellroy’s _The Cold 5,000_. ---
**Author:** ![raygirvan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ac91a4/32.png) [@raygirvan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raygirvan)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-disturbing-scenes-in-a-book-spoilers/147898/15 "2003-01-11T23:41:57Z")
_GIGObuster If you only saw the movies, The three musketeers adventure usually ends halfway_ Apart from the [1973 version](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0072281) and its [1974 sequel](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0073012), which together tell the whole story. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Elvis\_Rojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@El\_Elvis\_Rojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Elvis_Rojo)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-disturbing-scenes-in-a-book-spoilers/147898/16 "2003-01-11T23:49:23Z")
Simon’s death in **Lord of the Flies** really creeped me out as well. In fact, the whole book is rather creepy. Wonderful, but the thought of kids doing that shit is, well…not really off base, and that’s even more terrifying. The worst for me, I think, is the scene in **American Psycho** when he kills the little boy at the zoo. The simple stabbing the child in the neck wasn’t so bad, it’s the going back, pretending to be a doctor, then _ripping the wound open more with his bare hands_ that really got to me. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Death](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecccb3/32.png) [@Evil\_Death](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Death)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2003, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-disturbing-scenes-in-a-book-spoilers/147898/17 "2003-01-12T00:56:32Z")
I think most of Clive Barker’s \* Books of Blood \* qualify. ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2003, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-disturbing-scenes-in-a-book-spoilers/147898/18 "2003-01-12T04:46:46Z")
Harlan Ellison’s short story Mephisto in Onyx (or is it ‘Black’?) where the bad guy (don’t recall his name, haven’t read the story in years) kills a woman by disembowelling her, but she’s still alive for a short time, and he forces her to lick her intestines. ---
**Author:** ![Rubystreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2003, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-disturbing-scenes-in-a-book-spoilers/147898/19 "2003-01-12T07:35:35Z")
Zombie, by Joyce Carol Oates, b/c the narrator/serial killer goes blithely unpunished after several (graphically depicted) grisly murders, one of a teenage boy. I have never so thoroughly hated a narrator and craved his comeuppance only to be denied. This is one book I wish I had never read. The beginning of Survivor, by Chuck Palahniuk, where the narrator has eaten most of a lobster, but then discovers the hearts still beating. That upset me greatly and made me both queasy and glad I’m a vegetarian. The ending of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I enjoyed it and recommend it, but I threw it across the room when I finished it. All that time identifying with McMurphy, it just messed me up when he was defeated so soundly by Ratched. The part in It by Stephen King where a young boy is keeping a puppy in a refrigerator in the dump, watching it die slowly. I was glad when the monster got him. Lord of the Flies, when Piggy died. I read that book in 7th grade reading class, and the image of Piggy’s brains coming out and turning red freaked me out bigtime. Also, the killing of the pig,when Roger shoves the spear up its ass. I teach this book now and it still disturbs me mightily. I sort of feel badly for inflicting these images on kids, but I imagine they’ve seen worse already. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2003, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-disturbing-scenes-in-a-book-spoilers/147898/20 "2003-01-12T08:15:19Z")
_Under the Skin_ was truly nauseating, so I read it backwards. _American Psycho_ was mostly annoying because so many of the disgusting parts were not anatomically feasible. As a child I was quite terrified of the aliens in _The City of Gold and Lead_ when the humans’ deception was discovered. I am still amazed that anyone gives _Wuthering Heights_ to children. I just find it horrifying. “Nellie, I am Heathcliff”–I guess I’m supposed to find this romantic, but _brrrr!_ There are other creepy bits, with devils and hanged dogs, but mostly it’s the identity merger that creeps me out. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-disturbing-scenes-in-a-book-spoilers/147898.md?page=2)