what's the most disturbing book you've read recently?

[Hectic Cum Balthazar]

For me this:

Doris Lessing - The Fifth Child (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fifth_Child)

really disturbing, but to call it a 'horror novel' doesn't really do it justice... but then she is a nobel prize winner so it's hardly surprising I guess... It's kinda like an Allegory.. but really easy to read, sparse and efficient... not a wordy mouthful. Pretty remarkable writing. Probably not a good book for pregnant women.

Always meant to read her sci-fi, think I will do next.

[V Knid esq]

Platform by Michel Houellbecq

It's disturbing that anyone takes that pisstaking twat seriously.

[V Knid esq]

I read Doris Lessing's 'Shikasta' twice at an impressionable age. It's impenetrable, weird and wonderful... hippie bollocks in a lot of ways, but extremely constructive and provocative in others. I must read it again actually, see how it comes over when not massively stoned.

[Sheridan]

The most disturbing book I've ever read was M. Gira's The Consumer.
It was dark and sad and horrific.

[Yer_Maw]

the corner, david simon and ed burns.

if you dont get the wire, then read this. All the same points, but more real and in book form so it hits harder.

[Orang Utan]

notes from underground and crime & punishment unnerved me and made me think dark thoughts more than any other books have. they're frightening glimpses of tortured souls and how close we are to becoming like them. esp notes from underground - i felt almost physically effected by the narrator's disgust for humanity but more alarming is how you find yourself agreeing with him. crime & punishment made me feel guilty about everything i'd ever done and said and even might do in the future.
equally revealing about human nature are gitta sereny's writings, especially cries unheard, which covers the case of a child killer. also the german trauma which talks about how normal people could end up doing such awful things. as if by blake morrison also talks about this and covers the same ground but with a narrower focus - the cruelty of children and how easy it can be to become a killer, to commit appalling violence on another human being. books like this horrify and disturb me far more than explicitly violent horror fiction could ever do, as they show us that we are all capable of evil.

[Orang Utan]

but if you want to be disturbed in a more conventional manner by sickening extreme violence, then read cows by matthew stokoe - it's got just about every transgression you can think of - murder, rape, incest, bestiality, wound-fucking, shit-eating, babies being nailed to walls and an underground dwelling herd of psychotic man-eating cows. http://www.amazon.com/Cows-Matthew-Stokoe/dp/1840680059
equally explicit and over-the-top is the gas by charles platt. it might even still be banned. people have been prosecuted for selling it, but you can now get it for pennies in amazon marketplace. it's about an experimental nerve gas that escapes a research lab and causes everyone in britain to lose their inhibitions in an orgy of sex and violence. again, all transgressions you can think of are described in explicit detail but the scenarios are so absurd and contrived, it reads more like pornography with added violence rather than the serious sci-fi horror it thinks it is. one scene, for example has the hero and a priest parachuting out of a plane and on the way down, the priest can't help himself and starts noshing off the hero in mid-air. great cover too:
http://www.savoy.abel.co.uk/HTML/gas.html
n occ
recently, i found let the right one in rather disquieting, esp one scene which slowly gets more intense and violent until it's almost too much - i actually had to put the book down occasionally to sum up the courage to read more.

[Hectic Cum Balthazar]

I pretty much don't want to be disturbed these days to be honest, but that's why the Lessing book was so good... drew me in.

I've had notes from the underground sitting on my shelf for 5 years. should get round to it.

[dan gulberry]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6b/DaVinciCode.jpg

[thepigjockey]

Aside from depressing Russian novels I really try to stay away from that kind of thing. Being deprived of sunlight might have something to do with the fact that I'd usually rather read something either neutral or uplifting. The exceptions have been only mildly disturbing- Strindberg's By The Open Sea and Ian McEwan's Chesil Beach.

@ orang- I was just about to say that I didn't find Crime and Punishment that disturbing, then I realised that I only read that kind of novel in the summer as it depresses me too much in the winter. It's still one of the best books I've read in my life though.

@ dan- You didn't really read it did you?

[Orang Utan]

the da vinci code is kind of awesome but for all the wrong reasons. you need to know your enemy, so it's important to read this kind of thing from time to time. to his credit, the da vinci code made me think about the mechanics of writing more that any other fiction book has.

[decadnids]

the da vinci code is kind of awesome but for all the wrong reasons. you need to know your enemy, so it's important to read this kind of thing from time to time. to his credit, the da vinci code made me think about the mechanics of writing more that any other fiction book has.


DAN FUCKING BROWN

the only book I've thrown across a room.

[Loz]

Dan Brown exists so that there is an answer to the question:

"Is there a worse author than Dean Koontz?"

[wheezer]

yes fuck knowing my enemy

[Orang Utan]

who out of you have actually read him?

[soulcheck]

Some Zola books.

[Orang Utan]

which ones? i've only read nana which i thought was great

[decadnids]

who out of you have actually read him?

Well I took the brave step to read the Da vinci code as I was slating it so much, and thought I should at least read it... and I threw the book against the wall, twice. I couldn't finish it and I thought it was possibly the worst book I've ever tried to read.

Umberto Eco does it so much better in foucault's pendulum - similar concept, SO SO SO SO SO much better, someone who actually knows about the subject matter they are writing about.

[Loz]

I borrowed it off a friend, read it on a plane. It was pretty good airplane fodder, as your brain doesn't really need to think. I can understand why so many people loved it, too. The story is quite exciting. But his writing style is so fucking poor.

[JE:5]

but if you want to be disturbed in a more conventional manner by sickening extreme violence, then read cows by matthew stokoe - it's got just about every transgression you can think of - murder, rape, incest, bestiality, wound-fucking, shit-eating, babies being nailed to walls and an underground dwelling herd of psychotic man-eating cows. http://www.amazon.com/Cows-Matthew-Stokoe/dp/1840680059
equally explicit and over-the-top is the gas by charles platt. it might even still be banned. people have been prosecuted for selling it, but you can now get it for pennies in amazon marketplace. it's about an experimental nerve gas that escapes a research lab and causes everyone in britain to lose their inhibitions in an orgy of sex and violence. again, all transgressions you can think of are described in explicit detail but the scenarios are so absurd and contrived, it reads more like pornography with added violence rather than the serious sci-fi horror it thinks it is. one scene, for example has the hero and a priest parachuting out of a plane and on the way down, the priest can't help himself and starts noshing off the hero in mid-air. great cover too:
http://www.savoy.abel.co.uk/HTML/gas.html
n occ
recently, i found let the right one in rather disquieting, esp one scene which slowly gets more intense and violent until it's almost too much - i actually had to put the book down occasionally to sum up the courage to read more.

I've still not found a reasonably priced copy of Cows, it's a book i've been desperately wanting to read for the last 3 or 4 years.

[thepigjockey]

I've still not found a reasonably priced copy of Cows, it's a book i've been desperately wanting to read for the last 3 or 4 years.

Try abebooks, often cheaper than amazon.

[dan gulberry]

@thepigjockey - Ha, no, but I fancy it just to see how far I can throw a book across the room.

[emef]

all this know your enemy stuff is well funny, ya pretentious pricks

i read the da vinci code, i liked it


i like trashy books as well as books that make me look clever when i tell people i read it

[soulcheck]

which ones? i've only read nana which i thought was great

Germinal had some impact on me. Mind you i was pretty young when i read it.

edit: i just noticed that the thread is about recent reading. oh, well

[wheezer]

Well I took the brave step to read the Da vinci code as I was slating it so much, and thought I should at least read it... and I threw the book against the wall, twice. I couldn't finish it and I thought it was possibly the worst book I've ever tried to read.

Umberto Eco does it so much better in foucault's pendulum - similar concept, SO SO SO SO SO much better, someone who actually knows about the subject matter they are writing about.

+1 for Foucaults Pendulum, that was a book I thoroughly enjoyed. Unfortunately for Dan, I had also read this some time before Da Vinci Code came to my attention, I just couldn't even imagine reading that book to be a worthwhile undertaking.

[mdk]

which ones? i've only read nana which i thought was great

i havent managed to finish that yet. i'll have to give it a go again soon.