Thoughts Most Disturbing Book(s) You've Ever Read?

[F.U.B.A.R.]

I liked The Wasp Factory but agree with you. There was nothing disturbing in that book. If you enjoyed it, The Bridge, Canal Dreams, Walking on Glass and Complicity are all very good by the same author, especially that last one.

These are all on my to do list. But his sci-fi stuff is unparalleled imo. Sentient starships that travel at millions times C. The guy was a fuckin genius and died too young.

 

[ChemicallyEnhanced]

- "Assisted Living" by Nikanor Teratologen
- "Snuff" by Chuck Palahniuk
- "Torture Garden" by Octave Mirbeau

I'm reading my first Chuck Palahniuk right now as it happens (Haunted). Have several of his others ready on my Kindle too. The one's that peak my interest the most are: Invisible Monsters, Snuff, Choke and Lullaby.

Palahniuk and Bret Easton Ellis are the most recent authors I'm really getting into (although I read and loved American Psycho probably ten years ago). AP is SO brilliantly written. One of my favourite passages is:

"There is an idea of a Patrick Bateman, some kind of abstraction, but there is no real me, only an entity, something illusory. Although I can hide my cool gaze, and you can shake my hand and feel flesh gripping yours, and even sense our lifestyles are probably comparable. I am simply not there......I feel lethal, on the verge of frenzy. My nightly bloodlusts have slipped into the day. I fear my mask of sanity has begun to slip."

 

[ChemicallyEnhanced]

These are all on my to do list. But his sci-fi stuff is unparalleled imo. Sentient starships that travel at millions times C. The guy was a fuckin genius and died too young.

I've never really been into Sci-Fi, so I've never red any of his Sci-Fi stuff (his Sci-Fi novels are all published under "Iain M Banks" and all his other works are published under "Iain Banks", which I like because it means fans of one genre or the other don't end up buying books they're not interested in by accident).
Would you recommend them for all, or just genre fans?

Complicity was my first book of his and may still be my favourite. Don't watch the film, though. It's shit (and incredibly hard to find).

 

[F.U.B.A.R.]

I've never really been into Sci-Fi, so I've never red any of his Sci-Fi stuff (his Sci-Fi novels are all published under "Iain M Banks" and all his other works are published under "Iain Banks", which I like because it means fans of one genre or the other don't end up buying books they're not interested in by accident).
Would you recommend them for all, or just genre fans?

Complicity was my first book of his and may still be my favourite. Don't watch the film, though. It's shit (and incredibly hard to find).

Heh, I'm the other way. I've not read any Iain Banks stuff (although I do possess 'The Wasp Factory', 'The Bridge' and 'Canal Dreams'). But Iain M Banks is my favourite science fiction author. I've read them all and hate the cunt for dying without writing any more. Same with Terry Pratchett...

 

[ChemicallyEnhanced]

Heh, I'm the other way. I've not read any Iain Banks stuff (although I do possess 'The Wasp Factory', 'The Bridge' and 'Canal Dreams'). But Iain M Banks is my favourite science fiction author. I've read them all and hate the cunt for dying without writing any more. Same with Terry Pratchett...

I feel that way about Richard Laymon (horror writer). He's overall my favourite author but he died when he was 54 and I think of how many more books he'd have out by now (he died in 2001) if he was still alive. I'm also gutted because I would have loved to meet him but I didn't discover his books until I was 13 and he'd been dead over 8 years by then.

 

[Jabberwocky]

I liked The Wasp Factory but agree with you. There was nothing disturbing in that book. If you enjoyed it, The Bridge, Canal Dreams, Walking on Glass and Complicity are all very good by the same author, especially that last one.

i'll check them out (i actually read some of your previous recommendations from a different thread about books so trust you). i can't afford new books right now but my boyf might actually have some of these at his parents.

 

[Jabberwocky]

also completely forgetting that i have in fact read the bridge and enjoyed it. that's what happens when i write things without even one cup of tea in me!!

 

[Phoenix_03]

Exactly ! That toothpick in the mouth guy was freakin out every time that lid started shaking. Just re-watched that the other day. Never read the book though.

Started reading King in the 80's and kept up with him until around 2006. Started to be almost able to predict the outcomes of his books as he never really changed his style much. I am always amazed at his ability to imagine all sorts of scenarios. I guess I thought they were disturbing because I could imagine it all happening in real life.

When you first read a Bachmann book ( and didn't know it was King ) how many chapters did it take you to realize it was him ( if you did ). I had him pegged at halfway through the book because of the words he used and the way he describes things. He is for sure one of a kind. I have about 10 of his hardbacks in my library.

My all time favorite is The Stand with second choice being The Gunslinger series.

The Stand is epic . One of his best.

 

[Phoenix_03]

Most people (including King himself) say that it [Dreamcatcher] is one of his worst but I actually REALLY liked it. The book is much better than the movie (not that the movie is awful, Morgan Freeman's huge crazy eyebrows included). I re-read it about a year ago and still really enjoyed it.

I was born in '96 so by the time I started reading King/Bachman in 2005ish the secret had already been public knowledge for a long time. It would have been cool to have NOT known, though. I've often wondered if I would've been able to clock it.
Which book was it you were reading when you guessed?

He definitely has some disturbing shit in there and the "real" stuff is more disturbing to me, too. Like I said about the depictions of Spinal Meningitis in Pet Sematary. I found the hate-crime of Adrian Mellon in It quite disturbing, too. I remember in a couple different books there was some heavy racist bullying that was hard to read.

I take it you much prefer his fantasy stuff to straight-up horror then? Have you read the The Talisman and Black House duology that he co-wrote with Peter Straub? That's very fantasy-centric and I definitely think you'd like it if you like the Dark Tower books. A lot of it is set in the same (Universe? Dimension?) as Gunslinger.
The Talisman is good but Black House is amazing. It's like 700 pages and I read it in one day.

So hard to pick a favourite!
In no particular order, I'd say:
1) Misery
2) It
3) Carrie
4) The Long Walk
5) The Shining
6) The Stand
7) The Institute
8 ) Dreamcatcher
9) Desperation
10) Rose Madder

I loved Desperation and the companion story The Regulators

 

[AutoTripper]

I haven’t read it but I heard a passionate plea for- “Meetings with remarkable men.”

“Tales of Beelzebub” may be another, or the same one I’m not sure now.

 

[alasdairm]

Complicity was my first book of his and may still be my favourite. Don't watch the film, though. It's shit (and incredibly hard to find).

complicity is great. i loved the bridge which was, for the longest time, my favourite book.

the crow road is also very good.

alasdair

 

[HLH12]

The Consumer by Michael Gira.

 

[ageingpartyfiend]

Heh, I'm the other way. I've not read any Iain Banks stuff (although I do possess 'The Wasp Factory', 'The Bridge' and 'Canal Dreams'). But Iain M Banks is my favourite science fiction author. I've read them all and hate the cunt for dying without writing any more. Same with Terry Pratchett...

Highly recommend The Wasp Factory, (edit - and The Bridge), stunning iirc

Edit - Have read allsorts over the years but the only book to truly disturb me, to cause the turning of a page to be an anxious event and to literally get in my dreams and disturb me there too...was Bram Stoker's 'Dracula'

Actually also dreamed heavily whilre reading Toni Morrison's incredibly written and hauntingly harrowing masterpiece 'Beloved'

 

[Phoenix_03]

I do love Stephen King but some of the books feel a little bloated (Dreamcatcher, Under the Dome. I was gonna add Duma Key but I loved it), his short story collections are really under-appreciated. He definitely has some of his best hidden gems in those collections. Also, no one ever mentions Geralds Game, which was disturbing, fascinating and it linked with Dolores Claiborne. (Another one people never seem to appreciate!)
- Sorry end rant.

 

[Nurse Ratched]

I do love Stephen King but some of the books feel a little bloated (Dreamcatcher, Under the Dome. I was gonna add Duma Key but I loved it), his short story collections are really under-appreciated. He definitely has some of his best hidden gems in those collections. Also, no one ever mentions Geralds Game, which was disturbing, fascinating and it linked with Dolores Claiborne. (Another one people never seem to appreciate!)
- Sorry end rant.

Agree on all points. ( except apologizing for the rant ) It was a nice post and I agree with your perspective on those books. Forgot about a couple of them until you posted.

 

[neversickanymore]

Some of Kings work is so bloated I have rolled through around 270 pages and just looked up shook my head and basically never thought about anything from any of those pages ever again. Some of that, in his early works may have come from one line.. three pages.. new beer.. repeat or something like that. Temporary written diarrhea. I really love some of his work though.