First, to exclude both ends of the extrema, I would posit nothing hard-core: a minor should be able to purchase this book in a non-specialty bookstore. Also, no Lovecraftian fill-in-the-blanks scary: Saying that something is horrible is cheating. Describing its tentacles, tipped with barbs and slick with the fluids of your companions, isn’t.
My nominations:
Firefly, Piers Anthony.
Take all the disturbing psychosexual images in the Xanth Jordonology, pressurize them, and picture being sprayed by them. With a firehose. You’ve read Firefly. I’m pretty sure it’s technically illegal under child pornography laws.
Grunts, Mary Gentle.
This book will RUIN Tolkien for you. You will never again be able to look at Hobbits again without shuddering. Features a orc/hobbit pairing, and most eeeeevil ending to a BSDM scene ever:
The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon is the only book I’ve ever quit in the middle of, not because I was bored or some such, but because I was freaked out by what it was doing to my head.
I admit I haven’t read too many creepy books, so my nomination for American Psycho may seem a bit poor. But come on, the scene in the zoo with the little boy…that’s just fucked up shit!
Tells the life story of Elphaba, who grows up to be the Wicked Witch of the West, as in L. Frank Baum’s Oz. The book is brilliant, but what makes it disturbing is the way it shows Elphaba changing from a bright, idealistic girl into the horrible Wicked Witch of the West.
“The hot zone” by Richard Preston, the actual story of EBOLA, Steven King said “chapter 1 was the scariest thing I have ever read, then it got scarier” (possible paraphrasing by me).
On the lit-tra-chure side, Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. Mad and lyrical and horriffic. In McCarthy’s hands the Kid, Captain Holden and The Judge demythify the American West. You’ll never be able to look at Duke and Coop the same way.
On the pop side, The Chill by Ross McDonald. The best of the Lew Archer detective series. Love and death in SoCal.
Oh yes. Blood Meridian is truly beautiful and horrifying. That’s a book chock full of nightmares.
However, the only book I’ve ever stopped reading because of its horror is Naked Lunch. Around the dozenth young boy who was raped and then murdered right as the rapist ejaculated, I thought, “why am I still reading this?” and put it down.
Right on. I couldn’t finish even this book, despite my admiration of McCarthy’s writing style.
The most disturbing book that I’ve read as an adult is Margaret Atwood’s Bodily Harm. To the best of my recollection, it’s about a journalist who sees a gruesome pornography exhibit, has a vaguely abusive relationship, and then travels to an unidentified South American country in which she is imprisoned and tortured. I don’t know why I read it to the end…I certainly didn’t enjoy it.
When I saw the thread title, I knew that this one was going to be on the list – I hadn’t expected it to show up in the OP.
My Piers Anthony nomination has to go to one of the short stories (from “Anthonology”) – called “On the Uses of Torture”. Oh god how I cringed in pain while reading that…
A book called “Inquisition” with a subtitle I can’t recall. It was basically a pictorial of various torturte devices used in the period and included commenbts on how they were used and what the person who was being tortured went through. Then there were those creepy period drawings of these deeds being done. Absolutely horrifying. I get a chill just thinking about it.
Nonfiction - Probably “The Poet” by Michael Connelly or “Flower’s in the Attic” by Andrews. That grandmother just gave me the chills!
The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski and The Naked Lunch by William Burroughs. I read both when I was 13, or 14 and it was waaaayyy too early in development for that to have been a good idea.
By FAR the most disturbing book I have ever read (and then read again) was Gerald’s Game by Stephen King. Just when you think you’ve gotten it figured out :eek:!
The scariest thing is that it really could happen (to me).
And now I need to go buy EVERY SINGLE OTHER BOOK mentioned in this thread. I love the creepy stuff!
