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Recomend a scary/disturbing book?

Discussion in 'Tilted Entertainment' started by Strange Famous, Aug 12, 2011.

  1. Strange Famous

    Strange Famous it depends on who is looking...

    Location:
    Ipswich, UK
    I would say "The Mothman Prophecies" by John A Keel

    If you have seen the film, I can only tell you that this is only very very loosely connected to the book. If you discount that this is a simple book of fiction (and most of it is simply too strange) - you are either looking at an account of demonic or otherwordly phenomona which is frightening and threatening and exceptionally dark, or at a close up and first hand view of a mental breakdown, of a man literally become disconnected from reality (while at the same time connected enough to know that what he is experiencing is not right)

    The way that Keel slowly becomes to believe that at the level of unspoken intention he can influence the phenomona around him (and this leading to at least one death), and Indrid Cold (whatever the fuck HE is)... just haunt me.

    As someone who has always questioned the normality of my own responses to the world at times... this book scares me at the level of a punch in the guts.

    The possibility (which I dont actually believe) that the things Keel writes about REALLY happened is hardly more comforting.
     
  2. Plan9

    Plan9 Rock 'n Roll

    Location:
    Earth
    American Psycho.

    I had to put it down the first time I read it. It's utterly disgusting.
     
  3. Redlemon

    Redlemon Getting Tilted

    Location:
    New England
    American Psycho bored me.

    I'd recommend "House of Leaves" by Mark Z. Danielewski. Yes, the word House has to be blue. It might be about a house where the internal dimensions keep expanding. There are at least 5 nested levels of plots going on, and the footnotes just drive it further. I don't think you could buy this as an ebook; the page layout is also significant. And the book has a soundtrack; his sister, Poe, released Haunted as a companion work.
     
    • Like Like x 1
  4. Plan9

    Plan9 Rock 'n Roll

    Location:
    Earth
    House of Leaves was good but not scary. Intriguing and original, yes. Mmm, I gotta reread it now. Thanks, Red.

    I had the same feeling reading House of Leaves that I did after watching Memento for the second time.
     
  5. Redlemon

    Redlemon Getting Tilted

    Location:
    New England
    I'd call it disturbing, however, and that was the second half of what SF was looking for.
     
  6. Plan9

    Plan9 Rock 'n Roll

    Location:
    Earth
    Mmm, how about Sphere by Michael Crichton? That really made me giddy near the end.
     
  7. Lordeden

    Lordeden Part of the Problem

    Location:
    Redneckhell, NC
    Anything Charles Bukowski.

    Tales of Ordinary Madness (1983)
    The Most Beautiful Woman in Town (1983)

    I found most of his writings to be disturbing, one can only read about fucking dirty whores and his alter-ego raping kids for so long before it warps your mind.
     
  8. Strange Famous

    Strange Famous it depends on who is looking...

    Location:
    Ipswich, UK
    I sort of liked American Pyscho, but found that having to wade through a 20 line description of what everyone is wearing etc etc all the time just got boring.

    House of Leaves is a recomendation I've had before on this question, as well as "Deathbird stories" by Harlan Ellison. Havent checked out either yet but plan to.
     
  9. EyeSeePeeDude

    EyeSeePeeDude Getting Tilted

    Location:
    Nellis AFB
    Stephen King's "It" - haven't liked clowns since... ;)
     
  10. Strange Famous

    Strange Famous it depends on who is looking...

    Location:
    Ipswich, UK
    Ive read "It"... didnt do much for me. The concerp seemed too disconnected from anything that I could imagine being real to bother me, and I find King's style - while readable I suppose - not really suspensful.

    I have read MR James stories where a blanket or a whistle (if youve read his stuff you'll know the reference) has more horror in that than Stephen King can get into the end of days in my opinion.
     
  11. EyeSeePeeDude

    EyeSeePeeDude Getting Tilted

    Location:
    Nellis AFB
    I mostly agree, Kings work isnt usually flat out horror, but more "situational" I guess. I typically don't get scared by his horror but I like that he makes me think about it.
     
  12. sapiens

    sapiens Vertical

    Location:
    Fort Worth, TX
    Most of mine may be more disturbing than scary, but I find "disturbing" books more scary than "scary" books*:

    Lolita by Nabokov (pedophile protagonist).
    In Cold Blood by Truman Capote ("non-fiction" novel about brutal murder in Kansas)
    Blindness by Saramago (what happens when everyone goes blind)
    The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski (a young boys wanders from small town to small town in central Europe during WW2. Meets lots of disturbing people).

    *Not sure if that makes any sense.
     
  13. Borla

    Borla Moderator Staff Member

    Child 44 is a good read and becomes disturbing as you get into it, but not enough to be too over the top/graphic.
     
  14. fflowley

    fflowley Don't just do something, stand there!

    Bram Stoker's Dracula gave me douche chills and had me listening for bumps in the night.
     
    • Like Like x 1
  15. Derwood

    Derwood Slightly Tilted

    Location:
    Columbus, OH
    The Road - Cormac MacCarthy
    1984 - George Orwell
     
  16. arkana

    arkana Very Tilted

    Location:
    canada
    Beat me to it. I can definitely second this recommendation. It is considered to be the first true crime novel.
     
  17. Strange Famous

    Strange Famous it depends on who is looking...

    Location:
    Ipswich, UK
    Its one of my favourite books, but in a strange way I found it kind of hopeful.


    I read 1984 back to back with Brave New World. In 1984 humanity was not beaten, and there was hope (in the working classes or "proles" at least)... and even under the crushing system of the party Winston was able to rebel, even if only in simple acts like sex or the appreciation of nature, humanity was not erased. The ending where he knowing that he loves Big Brother always seemed to me a strange one, because the actual fact is that Winston regained his humanity and while the party could kill him they could not prevent him being a human being.

    In Brave New World humanity was made ridiculous, nothing more than the an odd ball eccentricity for wierdo's who prefer to go and write poetry in Iceland rather than have all the sex and drugs and titiliation they can handle. The true human being in the brave new world is driven to violence (possibly murder) and suicide.

    You cannot conquer the world with a human boot stamping on the face of mankind for all history. People will always resist - just like Winston did, and the dictatorship is always under threat.

    There is no rebellion possible against the brave new world. You cannot overthrow the system. Distraction and mindless physical pleasure and sensuality can (and really could) erase what makes us human beings. It isnt the boot stamping on your face which will rule us, it is the whispered voice in the communal nusery, the sly and creeping science that takes place being conception and birth, the bribery of the body to abandon the soul.
     
  18. Poetry

    Poetry Totally Sharky, Complete

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA
    House of Leaves... I read it off of a recommendation from a friend who reportedly found it so disturbing that he got halfway through and chucked it in a dumpster. It was interesting, sure. Scary, not so much.

    Though it's been a long while since I've read it, Poppy Z. Brite's Exquisite Corpse was supposed to have been disturbing by most accounts. Homosexuality, necrophilia, murder, I believe.

    I heard Warren Ellis' Crooked Little Vein is supposed to be unnerving, but I've yet to read it and, looking at my piles of books, likely never will.

    Ryu Murakami's Almost Transparent Blue was unnerving to me, but I think it was his writing style (or, rather, the translator's style) that bothered me. I do know that the movie "The Audition" was based off of one of his books by the same name and that movie was creepy as hell, making me expect the same from the book.
     
  19. Fremen

    Fremen Allright, who stole my mustache?

    Location:
    E. Texas
    You may laugh, but I like Dean Koontz' books. Especially the Odd Thomas books and the Christopher Snow books, "Fear Nothing" and "Seize the Night".
    There is supposed to be a third Christopher Snow book out some time in the future.

    Both series deal with some pretty weird stuff. From super smart monkeys and dogs, to other supernatural stuff.
     
  20. Japchae

    Japchae Very Tilted

    I like Dean Koontz, Fremen.
    There's one I'm doing now by Tess Gerritsen called The Sinner that's pretty disturbing... pregnant nuns and a Rat lady. I just finished The Apprentice had some necrophilia and many murders.
    Atlas Shrugged is quite disturbing, actually. Ayn Rand picks apart the parts of humanity a lot of us don't want to admit exist and gets down to the bases of society.
    I've never been disturbed by a book, never put one down because it dealt with something I didn't like or whatnot. Even It, Thinner, and The Shining. They got to me and creeped me out, but never really disturbed me. I love those things.