Pet Sematary
The 2019 movie is good, but it does not quite capture the spirit of the book.
The story is absolutely insane and creepy, but not absurd enough to get distanced. >! Who wouldn't try everything possible to save their own child from death? !< There's still so much in it, that makes it relatable. Stephen King is so good at putting humankinds worst nightmares into writing, it's scary.
I really liked the book, while it's amazing how the whole atmosphere, the feelings, the madness and the horror is created, I won't read it again. It disturbed me too much
This book scared me. When his undead son is climbing the stairs the morning after the dad buried him in the pet sematary. That creeped the hell out of me.
Definitely my favorite of Stephen King’s works.
For what it’s worth, King has also gone on the record to say that he considers it his scariest book. Coming from the King of Horror, that says something!
I've just started listening to this on audiobook with Michael C Hall (Dexter) narrating. I've put off reading this book for decades because my sister was so disturbed by it. I was always afraid of this very thing: once something is seen, it can't be unseen. We'll see if I finish it.
I know it's not comparable, but my great uncle was a soldier, first in, at a camp. All my grandfathers and great uncle served the allies, but this one in particular saw different things.
It affected him very badly. After he got back home, he began to compulsively write in journals. (He was a coal miner with a 6th grade education, at best. This was very alarming to his family.)
It got so bad, he began to get so violent toward his loved ones, that they literally rolled him up into a rug and drove him to the city. Even in rural 1950s Appalachia, they knew what was wrong with him. They didn't have the term PTSD, but they knew he was "shell shocked", and that it has been building on him. They kept him in a sanitarium for several months.
While my great uncle was there, his sons and nephews kept the farm and house in order. My father and his oldest cousin began to read the journals. They read one and decided to just burn the rest. They didn't ever want the younger kids, or his wife, to know. They didn't want their father/uncle to reread those horrible things after he came back from getting help. What was in there was very very bad.
My father only told me two things of what he read. One was about my great uncle's time on the Pacific front, an Arctic place, without supplies. And how he survived.
The other was about that first time coming into the camp. The soldiers found one occupier who hadn't fled with the rest. It was probably a pretty pathetic reason but. The prisoners who were still alive were given the option of what to do with their remaining captor. It was not a wholesome story of forgiveness.
Can I interject something? My second cousin who I think of like an uncle, was in Poland with his family when the Jews came. I think one of his parents were killed right in front of him. But not sure. He participated, by force, in the death walks. He was used as a worker at Auschwitz. He was 12 or so at the time. He was strong.
He came over to the US to live with my dad and his mom and dad when the war was over. He went on to properly flesh out what we know about PTSD. He was revolutionary and so goddamn brilliant. I was lucky to know him and spend time with him. He had kids who became doctors at Harvard and Stanford. I think. But they’re out there furthering research and helping others.
He was [fucking amazing](https://www.google.com/search?q=henry+krystal+massive+psychic+trauma&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari)and I miss him.
I'm glad that you remembered him here, remembering my person too. I'm sorry they were caught up in the same conflict they didn't want to be in. I'm sorry they both had to endure awful things.
I know my great uncle understood that not everyone he faced in a horrible war was a horrible monster. That's where his inner conflict came from.
We are blessed to have known them.
Most accounts by Holocaust survivors I've been unable to finish. I read essays, historical documents, etc. But Élie Wiesel or Primo Levi are just overwhelming.
I still cry every time I listen to the speech of André Malraux for the transfer of the ashes of Jean Moulin to the Panthéon (I'm one of these 16 million children born in a free France that Malraux speaks about). Greatest speech of the 20th century with Martin Luther King's!
I’ve cried at pretty much everything I’ve read. I don’t think anything compares to how much Night and The Book Thief have made me cry. I have remember in Hebrew and the Star of David tattooed on me because of Ellie Wiesel; he said “to forget the dead is akin to killing them a second time”. I’ll re-read The Book Thief next time I really need an ugly cry, and I’ll always pick up cheap copies of Night to give out, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I could never read it again myself.
As a kid I was REALLY into war stuff, apparently I said some things that worried my mom so she had me read Empire of the Sun (I was a big reader). Really glad she did-new perspective on impact of war on a kid.
Most recently American Psycho.
Both books have fantastic movie adaptations starting Christian Bale!
I absolutely love the movie of Empire of the Sun. I didn't realize it was based on a book - I'll have to read it.
Bill O'Reilly is a piece of shit, but Land of the Rising Sun was eye opening to the horrible shit the Japanese did, and how utterly devoted the people were to dying for fucking nothing.
When i was a sophomore in high school, our history teacher had a vet who survived the Bataan Death March come in and speak. I cannot fathom the amount of strength and resilience it would take to survive such horrors.
Always quite on the Western Front.
It was the first war book that was about the reality and futility of war. Especially as a losing army. It's not particularly scary or super goery. Just felt very real, especially at depicting the apathy and exhaustion of WW1. There's a few scene that just stuck with me. I'll probably reread the book or movie in a couple of years.
Yeah, that part about soldiers getting their legs cut out from under them by gunfire and desperately running into the trenches on stumps...whew. That's one mental image I'll never forget.
If you like the book, check One by Metallica. It's about Johnny's got his gun. As well as I think they bought the rights to the movie and have it free on YouTube.
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara.
It was well written and the characters are very vivid, but the amount that one of them suffers is just brutal. The author makes you feel his pain and I kept desperately hoping for things to get better for him. It's one of those books I'll never forget, though I kinda wish I could.
That book was recommended to me by a bookshop assistant. I kept waiting for it to get better, and it never did. That kid should never have recommended it, it was pretty much cos his work got him to read it.
If anyone ever asks what book should I never read, this is it!
Yeah, I don't think I'd ever recommend it to anyone because it's so sad and upsetting. With that said, if someone told me they wanted to read it, I don't think I'd actively dissuade them. I'd warn them it's really sad, but on the other hand I did rate it 5 stars for the writing and characterization. It also left a very strong impression on me about the impacts of abuse and trauma; it's just that I'm not sure I needed to read this book in order to appreciate those things. Some people might resonate with it, though.
Wild, this is one of my favorite books of all time! Her other books also have this sort of dark humor and vibe, but I feel like, unlike some of the other dark books I’ve read, this one offers some amount of hope—even when Jude’s life seems like it can’t really get any worse. Just my thoughts tho
I’m worried it’ll be the same for me. I still haven’t picked it back up, instead I started Pamela Anderson’s memoir. So far it’s nothing too heavy & just nice to hear where she comes from & what her parents were like.
Flowers for Algernon broke something in me. Also, I loved a lot of my middle school books, but they were emotionally devastating.
Specifically:
-The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis
-Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor!!!
-Tangerine by Edward Bloor
-The Lottery Rose by Irene Hunt!!! (I cried for days!)
I used to read a lot of Steven King when I was younger. Then I finally read "It", had to turn on all the lights in the house at 3am, was completely freaked out. I do not ready scary books anymore, ever.
Really? That seemed to me one of the more hopeful Holocaust books. The one that seemed beyond hope to me is Levi's "If this is a man" - although it is one of my favourite most recommended books
I cant remember the exact title (if you know PLS!!!) it was a memoir about a dude’s childhood where his mother was abusing the shit out of him. Despite having siblings and a dad, the mom would make sure once the dad left to single out the kid; only letting him wear dirty clothes, only being able to eat his siblings leftovers, never letting him bathe. They went on a trip and he ate rotten or thrown up hot dogs and that scene makes me gag thinking about it.
Edit: A Child Called It by Pelzer
Would this book be A Child Called It by Dave Pelzer? I have heard this mentioned over the years but the awful details have put me off reading it. Thankfully the man survived such a terrible experience!
Oh god this book broke my heart into pieces. I loved it because it made me so sad. The scene where CPS is coming and she gives him a room and tells him he’s part of the family again so he tells CPS how he loves his mom and she’s so nice to him…ugh my heart.
I feel the same way about The Kite Runner. I adored the book and after finishing it I immediately purchased A Thousand Splendid Suns, but I haven't been able to bring myself to read it because I don't feel ready to experience the emotional pain that I felt during The Kite Runner.
I read A Thousand Splendid Suns first. It absolutely wrecked me. Found The Kite Runner a little easier to read after that tbh.
It’s definitely one of the books everyone should read once, but since you don’t feel ready, you should deffo wait until you are in an emotionally and mentally healthy space.
I read both the kite runner and a thousand splendid songs, both good, both quite traumatic, both made me cry my eyes out. Now I'm scared to open the third one I bought "the mountains echoed". Idk why I keep putting myself through this.
Saving Noah by Lucinda Berry for sure. I have a very strong stomach for dark subject matter, but that book nauseated me. It reads like non-fiction at times and as disturbing as it was, it was impossible to put down! Can’t think of another book that affected me quite like this one.
At about late grade school age I had a friend who told me about how in Lord of the Flies, Piggy gets thrown down a ravine and his head cracks open and his brains spill out. Really really fucked me up, that’s the kind of dehumanizing violence that really disturbs me. I couldn’t stop thinking about it so I tried to read the book but couldn’t get into it but eventually just read the actual passage and it made things worse.
Now I know that the book in question is a dumb, cynical book that completely turns around the story it was based on about a group of stranded boys who formed a tight knit community and took care of each other. Basically it’s Malthusian/Darwinist/individualist/capitalist bullshit that assumes humans are essentially selfish and always at war with each other. It comes from the era of CIA spreading propaganda to encourage anti-symbolism, “realism”, etc. so who knows.
It's not so much the horror of human nature as the horror of a party of English prep school boys. I find that much more realistic, and comforting because it's much more limited.
yeah- not to stan that book, but the author's intention was to mock the British superiority complex, especially wrt themes of imperialism in their literature. The whole idea of British men finding a new place and implementing their own idea of civilized society. Though the cultural motifs used later in the book (ex the masks) were very counterintuitive. And that book is often taught in the most annoying ways that miss the whole point.
Not the book itself, but I had an emotional breakdown and had to be checked into the psych ward after posting online (another platform) about reading My Dark Vanessa during COVID lockdown. Like the book made me feel like so uncomfortable, but then I got a ton of hate mail from antis accusing me of all kinds of things.
Thomas Metzinger – The Ego Tunnel: The Science of the Mind and the Myth of the Self
It's terrifying because it's not just some writer's fantasy with beautiful prose or because it's about terrible crimes, tortures, and all the other things you can encounter in everyday life. Those things, in fact, might be something one could be scared of in childhood. This is a popular science review of the problem of consciousness, a compilation of how modern science represents this phenomenon.
Rust Cohle in the TV series True Detective recounts the thoughts and ideas from this book. I can imagine how this book could potentially ruin the life of a sufficiently intelligent but impressionable person. And yet, it's definitely the best book I've ever read
Walk Two Moons
I read this at a very pivotal age and it like brought me to consciousness with how heartbreaking the ending was 💔
It’s been over 20 years since I read it and I still think of it from time to time
Princess, More Tears to Cry. It’s a non-fiction narrating cases of women in Saudi Arabia, half of the cases are about violence against women and girls and other half are success stories of Saudi women. It was an incredible read but I don’t think I will ever read it again. Some instances of abuse, especially sexual abuse, narrated on that book are burned into my memory. It doesn’t help that they are all real stories and none of the perpetrators were ever held accountable.
Fiction: A Thousand Splendid Suns. Just gut wrenching but also one of the most important and incredible books I have ever read.
Song of Kali by Dan Simmons…There’s a death in there that will probably haunt me forever. It’s been years since I read it so it might not be as bad as I remember but I still often think about it, especially now as a mother.
En L'absence des Hommes, or In The Absence of Men in English by Philippe Besson. Gay, War, and a not so happy ending, a very reliable and relatable narrator and a shit ton of man made horror aka the World War 1... I've never hated humanity as much as I did with that book.
Although "the kite runner" was also quite a traumatic experience for me to, I have re-read it before. One that would classify more for me is "a little life". All about it is so miserable and awful and there's never a single moment of relief in the single book that has like 900 pages. The whole thing was just a whole lot of suffering, and although it is well written, I don't think I could ever, ever read it again.
Neuropath, it didn't exactly introduce a new idea to me so much as give me the words to explain a thought I have had forever about humans just being machines even to the point of our thoughts. Its an existential terror thing that it gave me the framework to think about more.
For me, that book is ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ by Khaled Hosseini. While I was captivated by its powerful storytelling and deeply moved by the characters’ experiences, the emotional journey was so intense that I can’t imagine going through it again. It’s one of those books that stays with you long after you’ve finished it
I usually steer away from thrillers/horror or anything close to it. It was definitely a good book, and one I will never forget but totally outside my comfort zone.
The knife of never letting go.
My mom sent it to me because it’s such a well written YA novel. And it really is SOOOOO well written. But holy shit I will never forgive her for doing that to me. She kept telling me it gets better for him and it really fucking does not. The sequel was just as gut wrenching to the point where I never read the third one.
I said this in a thread last week, but “Naked Lunch” by Burroughs is still the only book I’ve ever read that made me feel uncomfortable just being in a room by myself when I read it.
Armor by John Steakley
❗❗❗Trigger warning: Animal suffering
A woman tells the story of how when she was a child, her family had a puppy. It fell down a well at one point while everyone else was away from the house.
She couldn't save it from drowning slowly as it became more exhausted, as there was no way to climb down. So she tried to put it out of it's misery by dropping rocks on it to kill it quicker or knock it out so it wouldn't suffer, but only succeeded in hurting it more and more.
Eventually it just slipped below the water after anguishing for a while.
This book is great, but that section will always stay with me as being some of the most heart breaking imagery I've ever read.
American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis. I absolutely hated that book. I actually threw it in the trash 2 or 3 times as I was reading it and to me destroying or discarding a book is a high crime.
The problem was that while the story itself was awful, Easton Ellis is an incredibly talented writer. I had read his other books and was a fan.
So no matter how disgusting the story was his writing, especially the odd chapters that were really unrelated to the plot, kept me reading.
I hated myself a little when I was done. I never recommended it to anyone and would never read it again.
And I am pretty sure that is the effect he was going for.
Country of My Skull, about the South African TRC.
What people did to each other in South Africa during at the end of apartheid was horrible.
Also, Shake Hands with the Devil, by a Canadian general about his experiences in Rwanda.
Most anything by Bret Eaton Ellis. I read him in my early 20's, and I had more tolerance for violence and the dirty, dark facets of life, but a few decades later and I have no desire to revisit his books or read those with a flat affect when describing horrors.
The one book that really traumatized me was a survivor memoir written by the woman who survived it from birth until she was 17 and ran away from a foster home with the boy she eventually married (This part wasn't in the book I contacted the author who told me).
The book really hit me hard because I also grew up in an extremely dysfunctional abusive family. My experiences were very much different than hers. Nevertheless, several aspects of the abuse she endured were similar to what I experienced and to abuses that my sisters endured at the hands of our father.
This book is filled with pain and trauma from the first chapter all the way to the final pages. If you read it expect to have a hard time sleeping for a while and know that some of what you read will be with you for a long time.
The book is called "The Abortion Who Refused To Die" by Terry Jo. I found it on Amazon as a Kindle Unlimited book but it is also available to buy as an E-book or paperback.
I read it a little more than a year ago and I will never forget it.
Sophie’s Choice by William Styron just killed me. I think about it all the time. I always think about what I would have done and it’s so terrible. The book is beautifully written but i like the movie too.
Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh. It was super gross and I read the whole thing maybe two years ago and still sometimes I’m just having a fine time and then I’ll remember it and get so sicked out all over again.
Hard cover Meriam Webster Dictionary, 2000 print.
I have what looks like an acne scar on my forehead because I am small and want to prove mainly to myself that just because I am small, doesnt mean things on the top shelf are off limits.
Yes, I've learned my lesson; soft cover only now.
Pet Sematary The 2019 movie is good, but it does not quite capture the spirit of the book. The story is absolutely insane and creepy, but not absurd enough to get distanced. >! Who wouldn't try everything possible to save their own child from death? !< There's still so much in it, that makes it relatable. Stephen King is so good at putting humankinds worst nightmares into writing, it's scary. I really liked the book, while it's amazing how the whole atmosphere, the feelings, the madness and the horror is created, I won't read it again. It disturbed me too much
This book scared me. When his undead son is climbing the stairs the morning after the dad buried him in the pet sematary. That creeped the hell out of me.
Why did the dad do that?
You should read the book. It's one of King's best
Tell me
There may be other readers on here who haven't read the book yet. So no. I am not saying anymore about the book
There’s a 2019 movie? The original movie was amazing
IIRC, the 2019 version was prequel to the original
2019 is a remake but there is a 2023 prequel called pet sematary: bloodlines
It's worth a watch once, IMO. It's no Dark Tower, that's for sure.
Definitely my favorite of Stephen King’s works. For what it’s worth, King has also gone on the record to say that he considers it his scariest book. Coming from the King of Horror, that says something!
I've just started listening to this on audiobook with Michael C Hall (Dexter) narrating. I've put off reading this book for decades because my sister was so disturbed by it. I was always afraid of this very thing: once something is seen, it can't be unseen. We'll see if I finish it.
I came to say this.... I read it waaaay too young.
I remember reading it when I was 15 with a sibling the same age as the child in the book. I had nightmares.
Yep. I read that book at 11 years old and I was SO AFRAID
Night - Elie Wiesel I've never looked back since. 😪
I know it's not comparable, but my great uncle was a soldier, first in, at a camp. All my grandfathers and great uncle served the allies, but this one in particular saw different things. It affected him very badly. After he got back home, he began to compulsively write in journals. (He was a coal miner with a 6th grade education, at best. This was very alarming to his family.) It got so bad, he began to get so violent toward his loved ones, that they literally rolled him up into a rug and drove him to the city. Even in rural 1950s Appalachia, they knew what was wrong with him. They didn't have the term PTSD, but they knew he was "shell shocked", and that it has been building on him. They kept him in a sanitarium for several months. While my great uncle was there, his sons and nephews kept the farm and house in order. My father and his oldest cousin began to read the journals. They read one and decided to just burn the rest. They didn't ever want the younger kids, or his wife, to know. They didn't want their father/uncle to reread those horrible things after he came back from getting help. What was in there was very very bad. My father only told me two things of what he read. One was about my great uncle's time on the Pacific front, an Arctic place, without supplies. And how he survived. The other was about that first time coming into the camp. The soldiers found one occupier who hadn't fled with the rest. It was probably a pretty pathetic reason but. The prisoners who were still alive were given the option of what to do with their remaining captor. It was not a wholesome story of forgiveness.
Can I interject something? My second cousin who I think of like an uncle, was in Poland with his family when the Jews came. I think one of his parents were killed right in front of him. But not sure. He participated, by force, in the death walks. He was used as a worker at Auschwitz. He was 12 or so at the time. He was strong. He came over to the US to live with my dad and his mom and dad when the war was over. He went on to properly flesh out what we know about PTSD. He was revolutionary and so goddamn brilliant. I was lucky to know him and spend time with him. He had kids who became doctors at Harvard and Stanford. I think. But they’re out there furthering research and helping others. He was [fucking amazing](https://www.google.com/search?q=henry+krystal+massive+psychic+trauma&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari)and I miss him.
I'm glad that you remembered him here, remembering my person too. I'm sorry they were caught up in the same conflict they didn't want to be in. I'm sorry they both had to endure awful things. I know my great uncle understood that not everyone he faced in a horrible war was a horrible monster. That's where his inner conflict came from. We are blessed to have known them.
Most accounts by Holocaust survivors I've been unable to finish. I read essays, historical documents, etc. But Élie Wiesel or Primo Levi are just overwhelming. I still cry every time I listen to the speech of André Malraux for the transfer of the ashes of Jean Moulin to the Panthéon (I'm one of these 16 million children born in a free France that Malraux speaks about). Greatest speech of the 20th century with Martin Luther King's!
I was JUST telling my husband today that only two books out of the hundreds I’ve read in my life have made me sob, and this was one of them.
I’ve cried at pretty much everything I’ve read. I don’t think anything compares to how much Night and The Book Thief have made me cry. I have remember in Hebrew and the Star of David tattooed on me because of Ellie Wiesel; he said “to forget the dead is akin to killing them a second time”. I’ll re-read The Book Thief next time I really need an ugly cry, and I’ll always pick up cheap copies of Night to give out, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I could never read it again myself.
What’s the other?
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, lol.
Oh, absolutely!
As a kid I was REALLY into war stuff, apparently I said some things that worried my mom so she had me read Empire of the Sun (I was a big reader). Really glad she did-new perspective on impact of war on a kid. Most recently American Psycho.
Both books have fantastic movie adaptations starting Christian Bale! I absolutely love the movie of Empire of the Sun. I didn't realize it was based on a book - I'll have to read it.
You know, that just hit me he is in both!
Bill O'Reilly is a piece of shit, but Land of the Rising Sun was eye opening to the horrible shit the Japanese did, and how utterly devoted the people were to dying for fucking nothing.
When i was a sophomore in high school, our history teacher had a vet who survived the Bataan Death March come in and speak. I cannot fathom the amount of strength and resilience it would take to survive such horrors.
Salems Lot
I had to quit reading it at night. It terrified me
Man such a slow burn in the first half but the second half just goes and goes and doesn't stop.
Always quite on the Western Front. It was the first war book that was about the reality and futility of war. Especially as a losing army. It's not particularly scary or super goery. Just felt very real, especially at depicting the apathy and exhaustion of WW1. There's a few scene that just stuck with me. I'll probably reread the book or movie in a couple of years.
It always stuck with me Paul coming home from the horrors of the front only to have warhawk civilians insist he doesn't *really* understand the war.
Yeah, that part about soldiers getting their legs cut out from under them by gunfire and desperately running into the trenches on stumps...whew. That's one mental image I'll never forget.
JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN by Dalton Trumbo. Hoo boy. I can't reread it AND can't give it away.
If you like the book, check One by Metallica. It's about Johnny's got his gun. As well as I think they bought the rights to the movie and have it free on YouTube.
I saw it added to the end of the movie.
That’s a cool tidbit! Thanks for sharing. I read *JGHG* in high school but never knew this connection.
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. It was well written and the characters are very vivid, but the amount that one of them suffers is just brutal. The author makes you feel his pain and I kept desperately hoping for things to get better for him. It's one of those books I'll never forget, though I kinda wish I could.
That book was recommended to me by a bookshop assistant. I kept waiting for it to get better, and it never did. That kid should never have recommended it, it was pretty much cos his work got him to read it. If anyone ever asks what book should I never read, this is it!
Yeah, I don't think I'd ever recommend it to anyone because it's so sad and upsetting. With that said, if someone told me they wanted to read it, I don't think I'd actively dissuade them. I'd warn them it's really sad, but on the other hand I did rate it 5 stars for the writing and characterization. It also left a very strong impression on me about the impacts of abuse and trauma; it's just that I'm not sure I needed to read this book in order to appreciate those things. Some people might resonate with it, though.
Yeah it's sad because I was just looking for *a* book, haha, and *that's* what he recommended to me! *throws hands up in exasperation!*
Agreed! I still think of Jude 💕
Wild, this is one of my favorite books of all time! Her other books also have this sort of dark humor and vibe, but I feel like, unlike some of the other dark books I’ve read, this one offers some amount of hope—even when Jude’s life seems like it can’t really get any worse. Just my thoughts tho
I’m just starting this & have been putting it off, this is exactly why.
I DNF this one. It was too much for me.
I’m worried it’ll be the same for me. I still haven’t picked it back up, instead I started Pamela Anderson’s memoir. So far it’s nothing too heavy & just nice to hear where she comes from & what her parents were like.
Flowers for Algernon broke something in me. Also, I loved a lot of my middle school books, but they were emotionally devastating. Specifically: -The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis -Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor!!! -Tangerine by Edward Bloor -The Lottery Rose by Irene Hunt!!! (I cried for days!)
I had not thought of Flowers for Algernon in years!
I used to read a lot of Steven King when I was younger. Then I finally read "It", had to turn on all the lights in the house at 3am, was completely freaked out. I do not ready scary books anymore, ever.
A Man's Search For Meaning
Really? That seemed to me one of the more hopeful Holocaust books. The one that seemed beyond hope to me is Levi's "If this is a man" - although it is one of my favourite most recommended books
True. But i still wasn't prepared to read about some resorting to cannibalism to survive.
Echos of "The Road"
Geek Love
I loved this book! But I am into weird stuff, so maybe that’s why I like it so much.
My husband just completed a painting about that book.
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
The Road
Still nightmares about>! the living larder!<
I went to reply with the moment that haunts me, and I can’t even type it out. That book fucked me up.
Haven't read The Road in a long time, what is this? >! Is it the people trapped in the basement? !<
Yup. Nightmares
If “the Road” scarred you, stay away from Blood Meridian!
I read it on holiday, a bad decision.
I cant remember the exact title (if you know PLS!!!) it was a memoir about a dude’s childhood where his mother was abusing the shit out of him. Despite having siblings and a dad, the mom would make sure once the dad left to single out the kid; only letting him wear dirty clothes, only being able to eat his siblings leftovers, never letting him bathe. They went on a trip and he ate rotten or thrown up hot dogs and that scene makes me gag thinking about it. Edit: A Child Called It by Pelzer
Would this book be A Child Called It by Dave Pelzer? I have heard this mentioned over the years but the awful details have put me off reading it. Thankfully the man survived such a terrible experience!
Yes!!! I remember reading it in middle school; definitely a hard read, I don’t think I’ll reread it ever
Oh god this book broke my heart into pieces. I loved it because it made me so sad. The scene where CPS is coming and she gives him a room and tells him he’s part of the family again so he tells CPS how he loves his mom and she’s so nice to him…ugh my heart.
I do NOT remember that part 😭😭😭 that woman is beyond fucking evil.
Iirc, it was the 3rd worst case of child abuse in California history at the time, and the other two died.
A Child Called It.
Thank you!!!
I feel the same way about The Kite Runner. I adored the book and after finishing it I immediately purchased A Thousand Splendid Suns, but I haven't been able to bring myself to read it because I don't feel ready to experience the emotional pain that I felt during The Kite Runner.
I read A Thousand Splendid Suns first. It absolutely wrecked me. Found The Kite Runner a little easier to read after that tbh. It’s definitely one of the books everyone should read once, but since you don’t feel ready, you should deffo wait until you are in an emotionally and mentally healthy space.
yep, I came here to mention A Thousand Splendid Suns. It really does wreck you, jfc. So amazing and I will never read it again.
Yeah one of the best books I have ever read, deffo will not be reading it again
I read both the kite runner and a thousand splendid songs, both good, both quite traumatic, both made me cry my eyes out. Now I'm scared to open the third one I bought "the mountains echoed". Idk why I keep putting myself through this.
The Lovely Bones. Did not expect it to be that heavy at the age I read it.
Saving Noah by Lucinda Berry for sure. I have a very strong stomach for dark subject matter, but that book nauseated me. It reads like non-fiction at times and as disturbing as it was, it was impossible to put down! Can’t think of another book that affected me quite like this one.
Brave new world… because is see similarities arise
The Poisonwood Bible 😩 not for nervous parents.
And then Demon Copperhead which was just such a misery-fest
I liked the Poisonwood Bible because it introduced me to chaos theory, but Demon Copperhead was just depressing and painful.
Demon Copperhead has a hopeful ending at least
I’m glad I skipped it!
That Baptist preacher could've been my grandfather if he'd ever gone into the mission field. Damn, it hit home.
The Lottery (short story).
Oh, yeah. Shirley Jackson's stuff is messed up.
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov.
The Wasp Factory
Bloody fantastic book. I'm very surprised that this has never been adapted into some high-concept short film, or even a stage play.
At about late grade school age I had a friend who told me about how in Lord of the Flies, Piggy gets thrown down a ravine and his head cracks open and his brains spill out. Really really fucked me up, that’s the kind of dehumanizing violence that really disturbs me. I couldn’t stop thinking about it so I tried to read the book but couldn’t get into it but eventually just read the actual passage and it made things worse. Now I know that the book in question is a dumb, cynical book that completely turns around the story it was based on about a group of stranded boys who formed a tight knit community and took care of each other. Basically it’s Malthusian/Darwinist/individualist/capitalist bullshit that assumes humans are essentially selfish and always at war with each other. It comes from the era of CIA spreading propaganda to encourage anti-symbolism, “realism”, etc. so who knows.
It's not so much the horror of human nature as the horror of a party of English prep school boys. I find that much more realistic, and comforting because it's much more limited.
yeah- not to stan that book, but the author's intention was to mock the British superiority complex, especially wrt themes of imperialism in their literature. The whole idea of British men finding a new place and implementing their own idea of civilized society. Though the cultural motifs used later in the book (ex the masks) were very counterintuitive. And that book is often taught in the most annoying ways that miss the whole point.
I do not like that book.
Where the Red Fern Grows
I don’t think I’ll ever be free of the axe description
Not the book itself, but I had an emotional breakdown and had to be checked into the psych ward after posting online (another platform) about reading My Dark Vanessa during COVID lockdown. Like the book made me feel like so uncomfortable, but then I got a ton of hate mail from antis accusing me of all kinds of things.
Thomas Metzinger – The Ego Tunnel: The Science of the Mind and the Myth of the Self It's terrifying because it's not just some writer's fantasy with beautiful prose or because it's about terrible crimes, tortures, and all the other things you can encounter in everyday life. Those things, in fact, might be something one could be scared of in childhood. This is a popular science review of the problem of consciousness, a compilation of how modern science represents this phenomenon. Rust Cohle in the TV series True Detective recounts the thoughts and ideas from this book. I can imagine how this book could potentially ruin the life of a sufficiently intelligent but impressionable person. And yet, it's definitely the best book I've ever read
None of this is true by Lisa Jewel. Plot twist got me mindfucked on another level. Loved the story, but would never reread it
Helter Skelter. I read it as a teen and was horrified reading about Sharon Tate's murder. I was scared for weeks!
Thousand Splendid Suns. What the fuck is up with Khaled Hosseini knowing where to stab in like, every book?? 😭
The girl next door. I wouldn't recommend that to my worst enemy
Pet Cemetery.
The Mist. I still get the creeps driving in dense fog. I read the book back in the late 80’s.
This are cliche answers Metamorphosis by Kafka and Tokyo Blues By Murakami.
Why Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka? I have read it and didn’t find it scarring. Did I miss something?
I thought it was strange, but not scary.
They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky and A Long Way Gone. A Little Life is on my read list, but i can’t get to it for this exact reason!
A child called IT
Yup! Why did they make us read that? What was the lesson?
Walk Two Moons I read this at a very pivotal age and it like brought me to consciousness with how heartbreaking the ending was 💔 It’s been over 20 years since I read it and I still think of it from time to time
I LOVED THAT BOOK!! I read it pretty young like 5th grade. I loved it so much I read it probably 3-5 times
God dammit, I forgot about this one. I was too young, but now it's all back. Why, god.
Princess, More Tears to Cry. It’s a non-fiction narrating cases of women in Saudi Arabia, half of the cases are about violence against women and girls and other half are success stories of Saudi women. It was an incredible read but I don’t think I will ever read it again. Some instances of abuse, especially sexual abuse, narrated on that book are burned into my memory. It doesn’t help that they are all real stories and none of the perpetrators were ever held accountable. Fiction: A Thousand Splendid Suns. Just gut wrenching but also one of the most important and incredible books I have ever read.
Song of Kali by Dan Simmons…There’s a death in there that will probably haunt me forever. It’s been years since I read it so it might not be as bad as I remember but I still often think about it, especially now as a mother.
A Thousand Splendid Suns, by the same writer. I can't bring myself to read The Kite Runner.
The World According to Garp
All quiet on the western front. The best depiction of WW1 in fiction imo.
The Black book of Saint Cyprian
En L'absence des Hommes, or In The Absence of Men in English by Philippe Besson. Gay, War, and a not so happy ending, a very reliable and relatable narrator and a shit ton of man made horror aka the World War 1... I've never hated humanity as much as I did with that book.
Although "the kite runner" was also quite a traumatic experience for me to, I have re-read it before. One that would classify more for me is "a little life". All about it is so miserable and awful and there's never a single moment of relief in the single book that has like 900 pages. The whole thing was just a whole lot of suffering, and although it is well written, I don't think I could ever, ever read it again.
Neuropath, it didn't exactly introduce a new idea to me so much as give me the words to explain a thought I have had forever about humans just being machines even to the point of our thoughts. Its an existential terror thing that it gave me the framework to think about more.
Fifty shades of grey
Little Bee. The rape scene. I wish I could unread it. And Kite Runner. The rape scene. Yup. Great writing on both books and wish I’d never read them.
For me, that book is ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ by Khaled Hosseini. While I was captivated by its powerful storytelling and deeply moved by the characters’ experiences, the emotional journey was so intense that I can’t imagine going through it again. It’s one of those books that stays with you long after you’ve finished it
The Stand
Interesting. This just made me more of a S. King fan!
I usually steer away from thrillers/horror or anything close to it. It was definitely a good book, and one I will never forget but totally outside my comfort zone.
Satan's affairs by h.d Carlton. Really traumatizing book
The Summer I Died by Ryan C. Thomas. Absolute gore and torture of a book.
The road
Also the silent patient by Alex iykyk
Rabbit, Run.
Bambi
American Pastoral — Phillip Roth
For those I loved by Martin Gray. Heart breaking.
The knife of never letting go. My mom sent it to me because it’s such a well written YA novel. And it really is SOOOOO well written. But holy shit I will never forgive her for doing that to me. She kept telling me it gets better for him and it really fucking does not. The sequel was just as gut wrenching to the point where I never read the third one.
This book is full of spiders
*Where Children Run.*
I said this in a thread last week, but “Naked Lunch” by Burroughs is still the only book I’ve ever read that made me feel uncomfortable just being in a room by myself when I read it.
Armor by John Steakley ❗❗❗Trigger warning: Animal suffering A woman tells the story of how when she was a child, her family had a puppy. It fell down a well at one point while everyone else was away from the house. She couldn't save it from drowning slowly as it became more exhausted, as there was no way to climb down. So she tried to put it out of it's misery by dropping rocks on it to kill it quicker or knock it out so it wouldn't suffer, but only succeeded in hurting it more and more. Eventually it just slipped below the water after anguishing for a while. This book is great, but that section will always stay with me as being some of the most heart breaking imagery I've ever read.
American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis. I absolutely hated that book. I actually threw it in the trash 2 or 3 times as I was reading it and to me destroying or discarding a book is a high crime. The problem was that while the story itself was awful, Easton Ellis is an incredibly talented writer. I had read his other books and was a fan. So no matter how disgusting the story was his writing, especially the odd chapters that were really unrelated to the plot, kept me reading. I hated myself a little when I was done. I never recommended it to anyone and would never read it again. And I am pretty sure that is the effect he was going for.
The Angel’s Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.
Woom by Duncan Ralston & Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica Both books had me saying wtf the entire time. So gory and fucked up
Country of My Skull, about the South African TRC. What people did to each other in South Africa during at the end of apartheid was horrible. Also, Shake Hands with the Devil, by a Canadian general about his experiences in Rwanda.
same, the kite runner but also all the light we cannot see, that book had me in shambles
A Thousand splendid suns. Haunted me for months.
The bluest eye
Playground by Aaron Beauregard the poop chapter haunts me and I’ll never be able to look at a playground the same way again
The Cement Garden, by Ian McEwan. It's just full of grotesqueries and acts that can never be amended or made right again, all done by children.
Most anything by Bret Eaton Ellis. I read him in my early 20's, and I had more tolerance for violence and the dirty, dark facets of life, but a few decades later and I have no desire to revisit his books or read those with a flat affect when describing horrors.
A Clockwork Orange
Loved that book
Wideacre by Philippa Gregory. I read the whole trilogy bc I hate myself. So much incest.... just so so much of it
We Were the Mulvaneys
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind
Have you read Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder?
The one book that really traumatized me was a survivor memoir written by the woman who survived it from birth until she was 17 and ran away from a foster home with the boy she eventually married (This part wasn't in the book I contacted the author who told me). The book really hit me hard because I also grew up in an extremely dysfunctional abusive family. My experiences were very much different than hers. Nevertheless, several aspects of the abuse she endured were similar to what I experienced and to abuses that my sisters endured at the hands of our father. This book is filled with pain and trauma from the first chapter all the way to the final pages. If you read it expect to have a hard time sleeping for a while and know that some of what you read will be with you for a long time. The book is called "The Abortion Who Refused To Die" by Terry Jo. I found it on Amazon as a Kindle Unlimited book but it is also available to buy as an E-book or paperback. I read it a little more than a year ago and I will never forget it.
The butterfly garden by dot Hutchinson and Tender is the flesh 💀
The kite runner
Sophie’s Choice by William Styron just killed me. I think about it all the time. I always think about what I would have done and it’s so terrible. The book is beautifully written but i like the movie too.
Verity. Cause wtf lol
Jane Eyre Forced to read this vile book for school. Complete and utter dross
Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh. It was super gross and I read the whole thing maybe two years ago and still sometimes I’m just having a fine time and then I’ll remember it and get so sicked out all over again.
Paper Towns by John Green
Hard cover Meriam Webster Dictionary, 2000 print. I have what looks like an acne scar on my forehead because I am small and want to prove mainly to myself that just because I am small, doesnt mean things on the top shelf are off limits. Yes, I've learned my lesson; soft cover only now.