I don’t read much disturbing stuff except when it comes on me unawares, so this is pretty mild. It still freaks me out majorly though, literally making me wince every time I think of it. It’s from Look to Windward by Ian Banks (I think…)
Basically, one of the characters in the book collects torture devices. A particular one is described. It is used to destroy eyes. I don’t really want to describe it anymore than that. It still creeps me the hell out.
The description is far more involved in the actual book.
I’ve read a lot of these books, and I agree that most of them are fairly disturbing. However, much more disturbing than The Crying of Lot 49, Wicked, Gerald’s Game, The Handmaid’s Tale, Weaveworld, and The Great and Secret Show, is a book called Lost by Gary Devon.
Pet Semetary*, Stephen King. I think King himself acknowledges that this is his creepiest book ever and his wife was really disturbed by it.
Same with Apt Pupil, although it wasn’t quite as icky.
Lasher by Anne Rice. The whole story about grown teenagers who exist wholely on breast milk and there’s something psycho-sexual about it, and the affair the husband has with a thirteen year old girl who still wears ribbons in her hair, it wasn’t so much disturbing as it just got really creepy and stupid and fucked up.
I don’t remember the name, (something whispers, or visions) by it was by Dean Koontz. It was about a killer and this girl who was horribly molested when she was really little-she was psychic and telekinetic. Well, the killer called himself a vampire and said he liked to drink women’s menstrual blood…oh GOD, it was bad!
Susan Black Dahlia by James Ellroy is even more disturbing if you know that he based much of the Dahlia character on his own mother and her murder (actually using her autopsy report as source material).
I was looking at these books in Amazon as “Related Books” seem to be a good way to find another title/author. As I went to Painted Bird, I noticed this:
“Customers who wear clothes also shop for:
Clean Underwear from Amazon’s Target Store”
with a link to underwear and socks. Would I shop for dirty underwear? The other links were
“Ladybug Rain Boots from Amazon’s Nordstrom Store
Arm Warmers from Amazon’s Urban Outfitters Store
Cheetah Print Slippers from Amazon’s Old Navy Store”
Great metaphor for a novel probing the desensitized child victim of severe oppression, I think. Especially the Ladybug Rain boots…
I’ll second American Psycho, Cruddy (especially with the drawings, eek!) and The End of Alice.
Also, I’d add Survivor by Chuck Palahnuik and And the Ass Saw the Angel by Nick Cave. Both books were brilliant and I can’t recommend them enough, but both were so dark and disturbing that they put me in a horrible mood until I finished them.
There was a book called “Girl in the Box” by someone who’s name I can’t remember, a woman whose first name began with “O,” maybe. Anyway, the girl in the book is kidnapped and shut in a dark basement with only a jar of water and some bread. She has a typewriter with her, for some reason, and the whole book is told through the letters she touch types in the dark. So disturbing, because at the end, she writes about how she accidently broke the jar of water. Then there’s no more letters. Not even a epilouge. It just ends.
Of the books that have been listed, which ones are really page turners?
Although we’ve grown used to the story of Helter Skelter now and others similar murders, when I read that book in the seventies, it was sickening and really creepy. When I read at night before sleeping, I would get out of bed and place the book on the other side of the room. I didn’t want that book near me during the night. (And I am not prone to squeamishness.)
The most stunning book in its horror was my introduction to the Holocaust in the early sixties – I Cannot Forgive. I had been shielded from knowledge of these atrocities until then.
Its one thing to think about, oh, a few thousand soldiers and police commiting the atrocities of the holocaust. You can say, they were abnormal. Insane. Pathological.
It’s quite another to read that a large fraction - maybe even a majority - of the ordinary, normal people knew what was going on - and not only didn’t mind, but approved of it… participated in it.
If I had ever thought “that can’t happen here”, that book would have changed my mind.
Exquisite Corpse - Poppy Z Brite
American Psycho - already mentioned
The Rape of Nanking - Iris Chiang
There is one i forget the name of but it was about the Twins of Aushwietz it was told by survivors and told the tales of all the experiments Mengele subjected them to. It may have been called “The twins of Aushwietz”
Not so much scary, but pretty disturbing is the Wasp Factory by Iain Banks. And Grunts is one of my favourite books ever. “we’re all a little worried about Pink Squad…” Heh.
I turned this one in to a paperback book exchange program with a post-it note stuck to the first page that said something to the effect of “Warning: This book is not for the easily disturbed or disgusted. Contains scenes of extreme violence.” Of course, if I found a book with a similar warning, it would probably just encourage me to read it.
Maybe it was because I was a freshman in high school when I read it, but In Cold Blood by Truman Capote practically gave me nightmares - particularly the vivid descriptions of the executions.
“The Eleventh Plague”, I can’t remember the author. The book’s about this scientist who uses the plagues of Egypt to get back at people. You’ll never eat undercooked pork again.
Actually, you’ll find these same links for many books. Part of a new marketing strategy by Amazon, but not based on any real science.
My scary books?
Non-fiction: “No Bad Dogs” by Barbara Woodhouse. She was pretty casual about advocating the use of certain techniques/collars. It’s one of the three books I’ve thrown away in my life.
“In the Belly of the Beast” by ?? It’s a very graphic account of a New Mexico prison riot. It was required reading for some criminology course I took and 1/2 of the class didn’t get past the part with blowtorches and snitches. It made ME queasy and I read forensic pathology books for fun.
Fiction:
“The Sheep Look Up” by John Brunner. Sci-fi (sort of) set about 15 minutes into the future. It’s scary because it’s real (pandemics, corporate greed, etc).
I read most Jerry Kozinski’s stuff and Naked Lunch between 8th grade and my freshman year in high school. A little bit too much amperage.
It still creeps me the hell out.
