What is the most disturbing book you've ever read

[Marie79]

I agree that Flowers in the Attic is a very disturbing novel. The incestuous relationship between the brother and sister is strange. I always wondered if it developed just because they were forced to live so closely together. In other words, could it have developed even if they lead normal lives? I think Andrews may have been suggesting that the urge to commit incest is genetic because the mother fell in love with her own uncle. Any opinions?

[Carlotta Melzi]

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne .

In a way, it's the fiction counterpart of The Banality of Evil.

The most disturbing think is that you imagine how the book will end from the beginning, but you cannot believe it!

[milestogo]

I'd say Sybil still remains one of those books that makes me shudder when I think about the kinds of torture's the mother put Sybil through. Although it seems, after all these years, that a lot of it was debunked as false memories or made up by the author. Still, disturbing, however.

[eMeLvs2rd]

The passage by Justin Cronin .. So scary and creepy.. ive had to set it down... I pick it back up .. but ive have yet to finish it......very disturbing.

Running with scissors Augusten borroughs was very disturbing also.

[Brooks127]

For me it would probably be the "Flowers in the Attic" series by V.C. Andrew. That whole series was extremely disturbing.

I also really hate what I call "what may come..." books. You know like "1984" by George Orwell,
"Brave New World" by Aulous Huxley, and even to a certain extent "The Hunger Games" Trilogy by Suzanne Collins.

Orwells is more disturbing to me now because I thought that book was supposed to teach us all something. So much for trying.

[LanDroid]

I am very surprised that no one has said, "The Bible." Perhaps not many of you have read it. Anyone who does SHOULD be disturbed by it.

Indeed it is a most disturbing book, filled with bloodcurdling examples such as the following from Deuteronomy 20.

When you march up to attack a city, make its people an offer of peace. If they accept and open their gates, all the people in it shall be subject to forced labor and shall work for you. If they refuse to make peace and they engage you in battle, lay siege to that city. When the Lord your God delivers it into your hand, put to the sword all the men in it. As for the women, the children, the livestock and everything else in the city, you may take these as plunder for yourselves. And you may use the plunder the Lord your God gives you from your enemies. This is how you are to treat all the cities that are at a distance from you and do not belong to the nations nearby. However, in the cities of the nations the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes.

[bemorton]

Mary Lupins original comment, "For me, when a book, study or paper is intellectually disturbing is because it has upset some bit of understanding I had. It forces me to reexamine what I think I know in the light of new evidence. I do find it disturbing but also enlivening. I like the reminder that there is always more to understand, and that even the things I think are most certain are open to new evidence." A GOOD EXAMPLE OF THIS IS THE DISCUSSION NOW UNDERWAY IN NON-FICTION BOOKS ABOUT THE BOOK BY BRUCE MORTON: TWO HUMAN SPECIES EXIST: THEIR HYBRIDS ARE DYSLEXICS, HOMOSEXUALS, PEDOPHILES, AND SCHIZOPHRENICS. HERE IS A COMPLETLY NEW IDEA THAT EXPLAINS MANY PREVIOUSLY MYSTERIOUS HUMAN ANOMALIES

[soonershoot]

There are several disturbing books that I can think of right off hand. At this point in time, I would say that Brave New World by Aldous Huxley would be close to the top of the list. It bothers me so much because so many of the ideas pursued in the text, genetic manipulation, in vitro births, cloning, etc have become a near reality in 21st century America. The second one would be a small tome called Night by Elie Weisel. This one is is disturbing first because it is a first person narrative of an actual event--the Jewish holocaust. The fact that it is non-fiction ratchets up the "disturbing" factor a lot.

[Brooks127]

I find it disturbing that what is disturbing to people are out standing works of literary merit. Night, The Hunger Games, Brave New World? These books are not disturbing. So much of what is out there currently is designed for cozy, comfort reading, that I think our society might actually be losing out on powerful moral lessons that writers who take a risk perform.

My personal thought is one needs to be careful with labeling books. History has shown us this is not a good practice.

[soonershoot]

I agree with Brooks127 that we must be careful in labelling books, but to claim a book is disturbing does not label it as "bad" or something to be avoided. To claim a book as disturbing is more of a badge of honor. It means that the author has reached into our souls and touched something we were afraid to admit was even there. All books should be disturbing. Maybe that way the human experience can grow beyond the drivel that passes for popular reading today.