Comment what books have caused you to become distressed, traumatized, or unsettled in any way. Please elaborate as to why.
Tough question, but I found The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch to be very disturbing. It really freaked me out in places.
Notes From The Underground - Fyodor Dostoevsky. It’s a dark mirror that presents itself to me. And while I detest looking at it, I also find it difficult not to.
Chuck Palahniuk’s Haunted(a collection of short stories). It made me close my legs and squirm, and feel disgusted. The first story ‘‘Guts’’ made me put down the book and not touch it due to fear of what i am about to read next.
As Wikipedia describes it : It is a tale of violent accidents involving masturbation, in which the reader is instructed to hold their breath in the very first line.
Yeah, reader beware.
@SeverianWolf@beehaw.org > Haunted
I came here to post this!
I am not much of a horror/disturbing stories fan, but Guts was simply astonishing, I read this more than 10 years ago and still remember the story vividly.
Same experience.
The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks. The narrator and main character is a psychotic teenager, and being inside their head just feels so gross. Fantastic book, but genuinely disturbing.
In close second is Earthlings by Sayaka Murata. The main character goes through some stuff as a child, and comes to believe that she isn’t human. Meets some others like herself and it gets weird. Great book, not for the faint of heart!
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
It was an assigned reading in 11th grade. When I finally finished it, I remember feeling like my skin was crawling, and my thoughts were a jumbled mess - I was questioning everything, how I viewed others and how they viewed me, was it right or wrong, how would I have behaved in those situations…
I remember l just staring out my bedroom window into the pitch black night for an hour just digesting it all. I also remember sleeping with the lights on because I was a little creeped out.
Being an impressionable teen probably helped, but that book left a profound impact on my way of thinking about how I interact with the world and the people in it.
It was also my gateway book to classic literature and how good it can actually be!
