Looking for Disturbing Books

Anjasa · Feb 2, 2012

I love reading messed up books that have a lot of gritty reality to them. Books about sexual slavery, incest, teens with issues, etc. etc. I read them like nuts. Unfortunately most of them are pretty hard to get.

Think "Let's Go Play at the Adams" or "Slave Girls" or "Taming the Beast" or pretty much anything by V.C. Andrews.

Anyone have some favourite disturbing novels they'd like to share?

cletus · Feb 2, 2012

Have you read "The Girl Next Door" by Jack Ketchum?

leahzero · Feb 2, 2012

If you liked Taming the Beast, try Innocents by Cathy Coote. Hits the ol' Teens With Issues + Age-Inappropriate Sexual Relationship + Psychological and Sexual Hangups spot.

Sam K. · Feb 2, 2012

My list:
The End of Alice by A.M. Homes (paedophilia, one of the darkest books I've ever read, my favourite)
Bear by Marian Engel (bestiality)
Crash by J.G. Ballard (crash dummy fetish)
Child of God by Cormac McCarthy (necrophilia)
C**t by Stewart Home (uhhh can't really describe this one)
Vurt by Jeff Noon (excellent sci fi with incest, drugs and Inception-style happenings)
Black Hole by Charles Burns (graphic novel, drugs, very disturbing imagery)
Wetlands by Charlotte Roche (not so much disturbing as ridiculously explicit about female hygiene, you cannot not cringe)
The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks (classic disturbing lit)
Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson (psychopathic and amazing, very good film with Casey Affleck, too)
American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis (another classic)
Less Than Zero by Easton Ellis (my personal favourite by him, great scenes with a lot of apathy in them that are disturbing)
The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter (mistress of gothic, brutality, sex and feminism)

I've read all but...two of these, but the two are on my to-read list come from people I believe have really good taste in books! I'm a big fan of the disturbing, especially in terms of sexual taboos.

As a warning, I would say The End of Alice requires a very strong stomach, since apart from describing his acts in very explicit detail (it borders on pornographic), he also talks to the reader in parts. Very creepy, very sick, but very rewarding with beautiful prose.

Anjasa · Feb 2, 2012

cletus said:
Have you read "The Girl Next Door" by Jack Ketchum?

Oddly enough, that's the one I'm currently reading!

Thanks everyone for the suggestions! *Goes to edit wishlist*

thebloodfiend · Feb 2, 2012

The cement garden by Ian mcewan
Haunted by chuck palahnuik, particularly guts

Defintely the girl next door. That's one of my fav books. Vc Andrews is kind of tame IMO

Parts of It are pretty disturbing, too

Anjasa · Feb 2, 2012

Yea, I haven't read V.C. in years, but thematically, I enjoyed their stuff.

blacbird · Feb 2, 2012

Under the Banner of Heaven, by Jon Krakauer. Nonfiction, but if you want disturbing, read it.

caw

seun · Feb 3, 2012

The War Zone by Alexander Stuart.

scarletpeaches · Feb 3, 2012

Anything by the cannibalism-and-rape-obsessed Richard Laymon.

Thump · Feb 3, 2012

A Clockwork Orange is pretty disturbing and one of my favourites.

Purple Rose · Feb 3, 2012

I found Prince of Tides disturbing but nothing upset more than Last Exit To Brooklyn. Both were made into movies which I never watched and hopefully never will.

I agree with blacbird's choice - I too found Under the Banner of Heaven disturbing but more because of things that happened and how they evolved due to the sheer bloody stupidity of most of the characters.

crunchyblanket · Feb 3, 2012

The Trick Is To Keep Breathing, by Janice Galloway. One of the most realistic and stark portrayals of mental illness I've ever read.

The War Zone by Alexander Stuart.

Good call. Tim Roth directed the film adaptation of this, which was both brilliant and horribly hard to watch.

seun · Feb 3, 2012

scarletpeaches said:
Anything by the cannibalism-and-rape-obsessed Richard Laymon.

Laymon definitely had a rape thing going on. I read a few of his books when I was younger and never got the impression he featured it to add to the horror but more for the shock value. Or maybe he just got his jollies that way.

cletus · Feb 4, 2012

scarletpeaches said:
Anything by the cannibalism-and-rape-obsessed Richard Laymon.

I wouldn't class Laymon as disturbing, his books are too much fun. He's one of my go-to authors when I need something that's an easy enjoyable read.

Auroch · Feb 4, 2012

Lolita by Nabokov

Reading this for the first time in high school disturbed me quite a bit. The fact that there are sick people like Humbert Humbert in every city around the world really creeps me out.

Lucas · Feb 5, 2012

The sickest book ever written has never been translated to English.

It is called Äldreomsorgen i Övre Kågedalen and is written by a guy who calls himself Nikanor Teratologen (who is rumoured to once have broken into a morgue and drinking himself drunk amongst all the corpses).

http://www.insane.org/aldreomsorgen.pdf

The book is very disturbing. It contains sodomy, molesting, antisemitism, satanism, misogynism and ultra-violence to a disturbing degree.

At the same time, it is hysterically funny, in a very dark manner.

It is written on a very distinct north Swedish accent.

He also wrote Hebbershålsapokryferna, a sort of "non-canonical" prequel to Äldreomsorgen which is a parody of the bible and the story of Moses (Morfar instead of Moses, Satan instead of God, Nazi Aryans instead of Israelites, Skelleftea instead of the land of Caanan).

http://www.vertigo.se/hebbersutdr.htm

Some of the things could get interpreted through google translate, but its hard because its written on such a bad Swedish that it is near impossible to decipher.

To some extent, its an ideological tract. For "homosadonazisatanism", whatever that is.

Anjasa · Feb 5, 2012

Auroch said:
Lolita by Nabokov

Reading this for the first time in high school disturbed me quite a bit. The fact that there are sick people like Humbert Humbert in every city around the world really creeps me out.

I love Lolita. The contrast of the beautiful writing against the disgusting plot was amazing, and anyone who said that it portrayed child molestors in a positive light never read the book.

My favourite part is

at the end of Part 1 when he beds her and she tries to run but then comes back at him and Humbert says "Don't you see, dear reader. She didn't have any other choice." (From memory so may not be exact)

I think that pretty much settled any idea of consent or willingness on her part.

randi.lee · Feb 5, 2012

Toxin by Robin Cook is messed up in its own right. Can't bring myself to re-read that one.

cara · Feb 5, 2012

Sam K. said:
American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis (another classic)
Less Than Zero by Easton Ellis (my personal favourite by him, great scenes with a lot of apathy in them that are disturbing)

I think anything by Bret Easton Ellis is usually disturbing or weird in some way. 'The Informers' has a real-life vampire.

ANNAGOTI · Aug 5, 2013

Read this.

Read "daddy's girl" by Janet Inglis and the sequel "father of lies".
Very good books.

Ken · Aug 5, 2013

... Gang Girl by Don Elliot from 1959.
Be forewarned ! (Good, solid read overall.)

ps There are a lot of books from the 50's that feature
the stuff you are into, though they are not as graphic
as you might like.

williemeikle · Aug 5, 2013

Dhalgren by Samuel R Delaney is another SF example. Brilliant and disturbing.

MelissaWood · Aug 5, 2013

You absolutely have to read The Dark Duet series by CJ Roberts. Be warned, there is captivity, rape, and BDSM in these books and it's intense.

If you go for really psychologically twisted stuff, Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes is amazing. It's one of the most emotionally disturbing/gut wrenching books I've ever read.

Others on the short list:
Break Her by BJ Harlen - Rape and psychological manipulation.

Consequences by Aleatha Romig - Captivity, rape, psychological manipulation

Generational Sins by Samantha Blair - BDSM, abuse, violence

All these are very good if you like to read dark/disturbing/taboo books.

LilahLangdon · Aug 6, 2013

I'd certainly second Angela Carter - any of her books, but The Bloody Chamber is a nice introduction. It's exquisitely written - very decadent - and dark. Beautiful.

Brett Easton Ellis will guarantee good times as also previously mentioned by another.

The Girl Next door was going to be my other suggestion, but seems I'm too late on that front too.

I'm a massive Laymon fan, but would agree it's more a fun-ride than disturbing. This said, if you're looking for a little lighthearted cannibalism/rape and revenge... you can't go wrong with Laymon.

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