Note: This is my first post, so I am not sure about the tags... Mods are very welcome to fix!!!

Title: The Torn Skirt
Author: Rebecca Godfrey
Availability: I found it at my library, so anywhere.

My review:
Though not very disturbing, I found this book enchanting and hard to put down. And it did have a few disturbing moments... I will try to explain the best I can...

The Torn Skirt is about a girl named Sara, 16, who finds out her boyfriend and his stoner buddies gang-raped a girl Sara has admired from afar. The incident is told to her by the guys, and they laughed as they told her how afterword, they stuck a garden hose inside her to "clean her out"... And when she confronts the girl in question, she says something along the lines of not caring. Confused, Sara skips school the next day and goes downtown, where she meets Justine, a runaway Sara's age, for the first time. Sara becomes obsessed with her, and meets some other guys downtown, putting her in a dangerous situation she doesn't realize. This book is fast-paced, a whirlwind of prostitution, drugs, violence, sex, rape, sex communes,and runaways... I loved this book. It was short, but worth the read. :)

Rating: 4/5 stars!
Pages: 208


If my description was confusing, here are Amazon reviews:

"As a teen in the mid-'80s in British Columbia, Sara Shaw has two lives. At home, she is the responsible daughter who cleans, launders, and manages the bills for her feckless, addicted father. At school, aptly nicknamed "Mount Drug," she hangs out with a group of stoned delinquents. When her father suddenly abandons her, she leaves home for the back alleys of Victoria where she is swept into the world of runaways, pimps, prostitutes, and addicts. Despite the graphic sexual situations and language, this is a touching book about a sensitive, articulate teen who longs for security while recklessly courting danger. She misses her mother who still lives in the commune Sara and her father had left. She regrets not befriending a girl at her school, and tries to compensate by helping the young women she meets on the streets and in a shelter. She imagines life with the kind foster family she is offered, but can't make herself leave the streets and go to them. This first novel is suspenseful, surprisingly funny, and thought provoking. Godfrey's portrayal of the anguish and hope of troubled teens has a searing authenticity."
Kathy Tewell, Chantilly Regional Library, VA

From Publishers Weekly

"When Sara's hippie father catches her masturbating after school, he can't handle what he's witnessed. In one of this whip-smart debut's many surreal scenes, he decides to move out effective immediately. Godfrey's novel is full of equally disconcerting episodes, but its brash honesty gives them a giddily delightful spin. The departure of 16-year-old Sara's single father leaves her to fend for herself, and she quickly heads down the wrong path in mid-'80s Victoria, British Columbia. An obsession with Justine, a strangely alluring street girl, leads her into the red-light district, where she meets China, a teenage prostitute who persuades Sara to help her rob a john. As the new friends flee the crime scene, the deceived man threatens Sara, vowing to get revenge. Sure enough, just as she finally finds Justine again, she is accosted by the man, and Justine nearly kills him with a knife belonging to Sara. Though the book is a hell-ride through the lives of burned-out teens killing time in homeless shelters and drug houses, the scenery is transformed by Godfrey's angry cleverness: one character is "like the rising rowdy moment of a party just before the cops arrive and send everyone home." Though secondary figures like Sara's father and China don't get the thorough treatment Godfrey gives Sara, Godfrey's singular voice is a perfect barometer of teenage rage and insecurity."

The Woods are Dark by Richard Laymon

There are 2 versions of this novel - it was released in 1981 only after it was heavily butchered by the editors (almost 50 pages were removed). In 2008 the original, unedited version was released and this is the version that I just read, last night in one shot, lol.

I don't want to give too much away so all I have to say is that the novel is fucked up on page 1 and after that I really don't think there were any pages that weren't fucked up, lol.

( Little bit of a summary - not really a spoiler but just in case...Collapse )

prettyh discussed "The Handmaid's Tale", by Margaret Atwood, in THIS ENTRY about a year ago - she was kind enough to send me a copy of the novel after I told her that I like dystopian novels (Thank you!!).

There were a few opinions on the original post but I thought we could talk about it again.

I thought it was a good novel but I felt that it was lacking a certain "something" when compared to some of my other favorite novels such as 1984, Brave New World, and The Giver.

What do you think? Do you agree or disagree?

Ah, how I love birthday season. I've been spoiled rotten all month, and some of the best gifts came in the form of books I can now offer up here! I ♥ you, hippie_chick!

Last summer sometime, I was lazing about on a Sunday morning and happened to catch an HBO movie about which I'd heard nothing before. It was called "Longford", and it opened up a whole new world of books to hunt down. The movie chronicled the Moors Murders, committed by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, and between the amazing performances (Andy Serkis as a serial killer? Oh, hell, yeah!) and the gruesome subject matter, I was hooked.

So I now come bearing the book that Ian Brady has written whilst serving his bazillion life sentences in an English asylum for the criminally insane. (I guess he wrote it between hunger strikes...?) I've only just begun reading, but it's definitely grabbed my interest. Also, fans of Peter Sotos, take note: he wrote the afterword about the horrifying audiotapes that would eventually blow the lid off Myra Hindley's involvement in the rapes and murders.

TITLE: THE GATES OF JANUS: Serial Killing And Its Analysis (also titled "The Gates Of Janus: An Analysis of Serial Murder by England's Most Hated Criminal")
AUTHOR: Ian Brady
WHAT'S IT ABOUT?: Having not read it to its completion yet, I defer to the wise words of Amazon and such to explain why this book might be of interest to you...although I think a book about serial murder BY a serial killer automatically scores some points on the "WTF" scale.

From Publisher's Weekly:
The infamous "Moors Murderer," writing from his U.K. jail cell, Brady provides a rambling account of the socio-philosophical and psychological genesis of the modern day serial killer, but it's emphatically "not an apologia." The child pornographer and convicted killer (of 10-year-old Lesley Ann Downey, 12-year-old John Kilbride and others) spends the first half of the book contending that killers such as himself, who are free from societal, religious and moral chains, are able to provide greater insight into the criminal mind than psychiatrists, crime reporters or police. But this argument, in and of itself, is unsurprising, and any logical authority Brady might have been able to build up is undermined by page after page of his nihilistic ranting. Pointing to myriad problems present in overpopulated, self-satisfied, privileged societies, Brady imagines contemporary culture as a breeding ground for serial killers. To prove his point, he attempts psychological profiles of Henry Lee Lucas, John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy and other notorious killers. But these chapters are not profiles so much as they are detailed accounts of the gruesome crimes committed. While revisiting such felonies might be enjoyable for the hardcore true crime fan, for most readers the depictions will feel as gratuitous as the heinous crimes they describe. The relentlessly abrasive and controversial social critic [Peter] Sotos (Pure), an aficionado of murders recorded on audio tape, adds a provocative afterword.

---

I'd have to agree; Brady does seem to spend a lot of time peacocking about and discussing how much smarter he is than anyone who's tried to analyze him. But that makes the book fascinating in a way that's different from your average "let's look into the mind of a killer" tome. To actually read Brady's words, arrogant and nihilistic though they may be, is a breed of chilling that's all its own.

NOTE! Our first anniversary (September 18th) is fast approaching, and we the Mods are contemplating various ways to mark it (giveaways, for instance; a PayPal raffle ticket setup where $1 buys you 3 shots at one of the books we've featured; etc.). If you have any suggestions, please feel free to add them to the Suggestion Post! We're also looking into the possibility of a community-wide Book Trade, which would give members a chance to unload their old titles in exchange for those they haven't yet read. Stay tuned!

A new book by Peter Sotos = a new entry in disturbingbooks, of course. Lordotics was officially released on Tuesday in hardback, limited to one hundred thirteen copies. (Judging by Creation's MO on other Sotos titles, a non-limited paperback should be out in a few months.) Creation say they still have some left to order. I'd suggest acting quickly; if they're going in order, and I was the last person to order one, they have ten left (my copy is #103). Update: I've just got word that the limited edition is now sold out.

( warning: not for the easily offendedCollapse )

And oh yes, my bitches, feast your eyes on this bad boy. [jumps up and down like a kid at Christmas who just got a Red Ryder BB gun]

Hey all. Great to find this community. After eagerly reading through others suggestions for disturbing reading I'll throw mine out there. Keep those suggestions coming please!

Find it here.

I just finished reading this (it's 3am if that's any indication of how enthralling this novel is) and... wow. Just wow. DEVASTATING. I've gotta say, guys, this book is beyond chilling. By the time I reached the epilogue, I was shaking uncontrollably and bawling my eyes out. I know I tend to get pretty emotional over characters (who doesn't, right?) but, honestly, I don't think a novel has really had an impact like this novel has. It was really just an entirely different level of disturbing. I think the fact that it's based on real life events makes it that much more haunting.  

Did anyone else have a strong reaction? What are your thoughts/feelings on the book? I'd think it's definitely not for someone who wants to continue wearing their rose coloured glasses haha =). But despite this, I still give it 5/5 stars, because any book that can stir that much emotion in a person deserves an applause. I'm so glad I read it.

Now to sit through the movie... 

Another entry from teh n00b! :D I love this place. I read way too much but I never get the chance to discuss what I'm reading, and you guys have been awesome to discuss books with :D So as suggested in my previous post, I figured I might as well blog about Fall On Your Knees.

Find it on Amazon here. You'll have to buy it used though. I couldn't find it in any local bookstores, but I did find it on the local bookstores' websites so that might be the way to go for you.

A sprawling saga about five generations of a family from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Fall on Your Knees is the impressive first fiction from Canadian playwright and actor Ann-Marie MacDonald. This epic tale of family history, family secrets, and music centers on four sisters and their relationships with each other and with their father. Set in the coal-mining communities of Nova Scotia in the early part of this century, the story also shifts to the battlefields of World War I and the jazz scene of New York City in the 1920s.

I hope you don't mind, but I thought I'd post this excerpt I found here. The excerpt on Amazon doesn't do this novel justice.




So yes. I think it really paints a picture. The first time I read the above passage sent shivers down my spine. By reading the book all the things that don't make sense in the excerpt start to come together, and it really blows you away how twisted this family is. You'll be floored by the end; MacDonald really takes you for a ride as you struggle to piece together the small bits of info she throws at you. 

Once again, incesty, so maybe not the book for you if you can't stomach that. And it's also subtly disturbing... it creeps up on you, I must admit. You don't quite realise what you're in for until you're nose to nose, and by then you can't back away. The father is especially.. *shudders*

-Christina

Hey guys, another newbie here. I'm a bit of a huge fan of the strange, the disturbing and the wacky (I'm apart of the Palahniuk cult, what do you expect?!) I'm also so excited about this community because it helped me find the Jersey Devil story! I read the short piece years and years ago in a magazine and it horrified me to death, but I've never been able to find it since and, annoyingly, I could never quite remember the ending of the story. Stupidly, it was also 3am when I found this comm the other night so... thanks for that, guys! No sleep for the stupid, haha! 

Anyway, I wanted to bring to you Haunted by Palahniuk (my diehard favourite!), but I have a feeling it's already been heavily discussed on here ;) so insteaaaad I'll bring to you... 

The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan. 

Because I suck at descriptions, I'll snag this from Amazon:
"In the oppressive, claustrophobic atmosphere of an old house, one of the few left standing in a London urban renewal area strewn with rubble, a family of four children, ranging in age from six to seventeen, try to survive on their own after the death of their father, first, and then, their mother. Because the three younger children will have to go into "care" if their mother's death is known, they dispose of her body themselves in the basement of their decaying house and carry on as if their parents are still alive."

I think I'd have to describe it as one of those subtly disturbing novels. The concept freaked me out the moment I heard it and I just had to read it. I think what makes this book so disturbing is the fact that these children are so convincing - they believe what they're doing is the right course of action, that burying their mother in a pile of cement is perfectly normal. I don't want to give anything away - although I'm pretty sure the amazon reviews already do - but this book is slightly very incestuous, as a warning in case you can't stomach that sort of thing.

It's also pretty short - you'll be able to finish it off in an afternoon, but it leaves such an impact on you. It ends on such a big BANG. There's also a movie which I haven't seen - if anyone has, please let me know what you think! 

I'd love to know if anyone has read this. I haven't been able to convince anyone to read it and I'm dying to hear other people's thoughts. 

Also, and since I'm here (LOL gotta love how I'm avoiding writing an essay by writing a mini one)... what are everyone's thoughts on incest in fiction? I personally find it unbelievably fascinating and disturbing all at once. It's such a huge car crash - you can't watch but you can't look away either. Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie Donald would be another disturbing incesty novel (I could write another review on this if anyone wants it?).

-Christina

This collection came up some time ago here, and I've been meaning to post it separately since then. Anyway, I found my copy the other day, which has prompted me to post this.

Title: Omnibus - Kiss Kiss, Someone Like You, Switch Bitch, Over to You, Four Tales of the Unexpected, and My Uncle Oswald.
Author: Roald Dahl
About? A collection of short stories. Some of them surreal, some of them cruel, some darkly funny, but all disturbing in their own way. This is quite a large collection, so it is difficult to summarise. We have murder, intrigue, revenge, manipulation, animal and human cruelty, crazy schemes and inventions, ethically dubious practices of sperm harvesting, infidelity, despair, war stories, reincarnated classical composers and the story that inspired my long-time suspicion of rabbits. And that's not even scratching the surface.

Some Amazon reviews here.

I also want to include a picture of my copy (which I now see may actually have been worth something if not for...well, you'll see.) My brother's dog came across it one day, had a few bites of it, and the results were... amusing.

( Irony, you say?Collapse )

Hi, I'm new here, what a great topic for a community. The most memorably disturbing stories/books I've read include:
-the horror story about a girl at home alone, her dog, and the Jersey Devil
-almost anything we read in my 8th-grade English class, including such classics as "The Lottery" (Shirley Jackson), "Lamb to the Slaughter" (Roald Dahl), and one by Jack Finney
-Rape: A Love Story by Joyce Carol Oates
-ETA: Ghost Girl by Torey Hayden, which I bought used, read, and promptly returned to the thrift store because I didn't want it anywhere near me--from what I remember it involved implications of cult abuse
I'm sure there are others I'll think of later.

I'm not sure if I would use the word "disturbing" to describe the following books, but they certainly touch upon invasive and hostile.




The Story of O by Pauline Reage

Amazon says: "The classic erotic novel, The Story of O relates the love of a beautiful Parisian fashion photographer for Rene. As part of that intense love, she demands debasement and severe sexual and pychological tests. It is a unique work not to be missed."





Clown Girl by Monica Drake
Booklist says: "An introduction by novelist Chuck Palahniuk and a rubber chicken on the cover promise lots of nervous laughs for Drake's dark debut. The tale revolves around Nita (aka Sniffles the Clown), who inhabits Baloneytown, a depressed, crime-infested metropolis where residents peer warily out their windows when a cop car drives by. Nita aspires to high art but finds herself caught in a vicious cycle of corporate clown gigs that creep ever closer to prostitution. She misses her boyfriend (and fellow clown) Rex Galore, who has gone off to interview at Clown College. And now her dog has gone missing, her relationship with her housemates is on the skids, and the only friend she has left is a golden-haired policeman who is surprisingly concerned about her well-being."




Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey by Chuck Palahniuk

Bookmarks Magazine says: "Zombies, government conspiracies, religious epiphanies, time travel, a postmodern Typhoid Mary, and a woman who mixes thumbtacks into her cookie dough—all are fair game in Rant, Chuck Palahniuk's eighth novel. Critics agreed that Rant is vintage Palahniuk, a grim thriller ride filled with his signature black humor, withering social commentary, and stomach-churning details."


...OK, that last one is definitely disturbing. Awesome and creatively told story, though.

Title: Pig Tales
Author Marie Darrieussecq, translated from the French into English by Linda Coverdale
About? From the inside cover:

A brilliant first novel about a stunning young woman who lands a prized position in a beauty 'massage' parlour. She enjoys extra-ordinary success in bringing home the bacon (in part due to her increasingly rosy and irresistable backside) until she slowly metamorphoses into a pig.

Gender, politics, and social hypocrisy all come under scrutiny in this entertaining and enlightening novel. Pig Tales is a Metamorphosis for the nineties, a dark fable of political and sexual corruption, and a grim warning of what can happen to a society without a soul.

I'm not sure everyone will have found this as disturbing as I did. It's been a long time since I have read it, but I can still feel the growing horror as the main character described her changing body and the way in which she is treated by opportunists. I hope this is not too tame for this community.

I'd be interested to hear from anyone who has read it in translation and in the original - whether the language changes anything significant about the story or the atmosphere.

TITLE: Mistress of the Dark
AUTHOR:Sephera Giron
WHAT'S IT ABOUT?:Meet Abigail Barnum. She’s new in town, eager to make it big in New York. Hers is the darker side of the city. Her friends are strippers and drag queens, and she works as a waitress in a tourist bar with a back room that’s definitely for adults only. But the most important thing about Abigail is…she’s deadly.

Abigail has gone insane. Voices and hallucinations are drawing her deeper and deeper into her own world, a world of obsession and pain, seduction and murder. Few suspect just how dangerous Abigail is, but one woman knows her grisly secret. As Abigail descends into madness, can anyone she touches ever hope to be safe?


I just happened to come across this in the library while browsing for something new. Written in the first-person the reader gets to see how Abigail's mind deteriorates with time. The prose style isn't spectacular and is rather blunt, but it won't leave you grinding your teeth either. The sex is bizarre at times, but I think how she obsesses over the Johnny Depp look-alike is creepier. It also messes with your head a bit as you are reading it. Overall I enjoyed reading this and would like to have my own copy of it.

i hope i'm doing this right.

this is one of my most favorite books. i hope it's alright that i'm stealing a description from wiki. i'm no good at explaining things right now.



"The story is mostly narrated by a middle-aged pedophile and child killer who is serving a life sentence.

He receives correspondence from a 19-year-old girl who is on her summer holiday from college and has plans to seduce a 12-year-old neighbourhood boy. The child killer encourages her and gives her tips on seducing children and he delights in the girl's letters detailing the progress of what she is up to. The scenes involving the girl (who is never named) are written from a third-person perspective."

Title AMERICAN PSYCHO
Author Bret Easton Ellis
What it's about it's not like the movie i tell ya! i found alot of it at the beginning sort of boring because it's all talk about designer suits and ties and business cards and restaurant reservations, but once you get in to it, it gets very graphic and stomch turning.

What it says at Amazon...

"In American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis imaginatively explores the incomprehensible depths of madness and captures the insanity of violence in our time or any other. Patrick Bateman moves among the young and trendy in 1980s Manhattan. Young, handsome, and well educated, bateman earns his fortune on Wall Street by day while spending his nights in ways we cannot begin to fathom. Expressing his true self through torture and murder, Bateman prefigures an apocalyptic horror that no society could bear to confront."

( From Library Journal, maybe some spoilersCollapse )


i heard too that it was found on the night table of Paul Bernardo (the guy in those true crime books that were mentioned here a couple weeks ago), and there are alot of similarities. really disturbing if you can get past the dull stuff.

TITLE: Hell House
AUTHOR: Richard Matheson
WHAT'S IT ABOUT?: A ghost research team goes to Hell House, a forbidding mansion located in northern Maine (because only hermits and lunatics live that far north, ayuh). Other teams have investigated and died in the process. This house isn't a "normal" haunted house--unimaginable debauchery and atrocities were committed there, leaving a psychic imprint on it. Just as the team thinks they're getting a handle on things, all hell breaks loose.

I still own my copy, and would be happy to part with it. Considering how little I'd get for it at Half-Price Books, I'd be happy to give it to an interested party. Send me your address and it's yours.

TITLE: Perfect Victim: The True Story of "The Girl in the Box"
AUTHOR: by Christine Mcguire and Carla Norton
WHAT'S IT ABOUT?: This book is about a woman who is kidnapped and help captive by this man for years. It tells the story of how she went from terrorized prisoner, to a willing family member. Despite being tortured constantly throughout her stay with her captors.

I found this book to be graphic and horrific. Stockholm Syndrome is something that personally touches my life, so parts of this book hit a little too deep. Aside from my personal sore spots, the depictions of the various boxes she was kept in chilled me to the bone and kept me up at night.

I highly recommend this book to any true crime fan.