Bret Easton Ellis has haunted some of our readers for days, and on the books desk we’re still getting over certain depictions of dangerous obsessions and hellish orgies. Which fiction has most unnerved you?

While we often discuss lovely, life-affirming quotes and sweetly memorable scenes in books, reader slovenia46 recently suggested we talked about the grim. We did a quick sweep of the books desk – and here are some of our most disturbing reads, and some that our readers came up with on this week’s Tips, Links and Suggestions blog. What is yours? Add it in the comments below, and we’ll include a selection in the piece.

Naked Lunch by William S Burroughs (1959)

“I can’t remember how I came into possession of a copy of Naked Lunch in my teens but it so horrified me that it’s the only book I have actually, physically destroyed. I still remember the waves of nausea provoked by the the molestation of boys in Hassan’s Rumpus Room: “‘No, no!’ screams the boy. ‘Yes. Yes.’ Cocks ejaculate in silent ‘yes’. (it gets worse).

“In the 1966 trial that cleared the book of obscenity, Gore Vidal argued: “Just as Hieronymus Bosch set down the most diabolical and blood-curdling details with a delicacy of line and a Puckish humor which left one with a sense of the mansions of horror attendant upon Hell, so, too, does Burroughs leave you with an intimate, detailed vision of what Hell might be like, a Hell which may be waiting as the culmination, the final product, of the scientific revolution.” Yes, yes, the adult me assents. “No, no,” screams the teenager.” —Books editor Claire Armitstead

Notes on a Scandal by Zoë Heller (2003)

“Novels that invite you inside the minds of dangerous obsessives, unaware of their own toxic natures, always leave me very unsettled when done well. I wasn’t expecting that the narrator of Zoe Heller’s Notes on a Scandal to be quite as malign as she is, and the hatred lurking inside what she thinks is love for her beautiful young teacher colleague left me rattled for days.” —Lindesay Irvine

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami (1994)

“It is not what one expects when reading a Murakami novel – especially one where you find yourself in a world of cats, pasta, music, domestic problems and dreams – to be abruptly faced by a horrifically detailed torture scene. The shock factor makes even worse the impact of a painfully slow and thorough account of the murder of a Japanese soldier in Mongolia during the second Sino-Japanese war, told in one of the flashbacks that abound in the book. To this day, I find it difficult to think of that novel without getting the chills.” —Marta Bausells

Hristina Hristova (@_hristina) @GuardianBooks I'd place '1Q84' right up next to 'The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle'. Two words: Little People.

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis (1991)

“For me it’s American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis – I read it two years ago and I’m still haunted by certain passages …” —judgeDAmNation

“I’d agree and take it further – anything by Easton Ellis. Whenever I finished one of his books, I just felt horrible for days.” —BaddHamster

Leah Holroyd concurs:

Leah Holroyd (@WordsAboutBooks) Glad it's not just me haunted by American Psycho. Still have nightmares. Tip: Don't read if you've just started online dating @GuardianBooks

City of God by Paulo Lins (1997)

“Not the whole book, but there is a passage where one character kills his child to get back at his girlfriend. This is described in excruciating and gory detail which I won’t go into here, and stayed with me for weeks. I’m sure it’s not unusual to say that I find the death of children in novels to be particularly powerful and devastating.” —Oranje14

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy (1985)

“Blood Meridian is pretty disturbing, even for McCarthy.” —woodstok

“I found Blood Meridian to be violence pornography – one, long waterfall of blood cascading down the page.” —conedison

Kisscut by Karin Slaughter (2011)

“There’s a Karin Slaughter book about paedophilia that I mistakenly picked up as a light criminal/cop-type read some years ago. It was so unpleasant that I couldn’t even bring myself to give it to a charity shop and ended up putting it in the bin.” —deltajones

What Is the What by Dave Eggers (2006)

“Because it’s true. The truth is always more disturbing than fiction.” —FunkBrother69

The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks (1984)

“Certain passages throughout the book are incredibly disturbing. This is a dark, dark story, both in terms of theme, and its graphic depiction of murder (among other things).” —Matt Brown

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A still from the film Naked Lunch, directed by David Cronenberg. Photograph: Ronald Grant Archive

Oryx & Crake by Margaret Atwood (2003)

“Margaret Atwood’s Oryx & Crake still invades my dreams from time to time. What a nightmarish vision of the future. In fact, it terrifies me so that I can’t bring myself to start the second novel in the trilogy, The Year of the Flood.” —mlrb



“The scene where Crake casually slits Oryx’s throat and is then, in turn, shot by Snowman happens so suddenly, with no warning, it’s shocking and leaves you numb; I had to stop for a moment to recover. And so many other scenes: the description of the awful child porn films Oryx was forced to perform in, after being sold by her parents to a slimy shyster (the stench of urine in the backseat of his car); the genetically modified chickens with no brains, just mouths to take in food to produce meat (think animals without a face); the pandemic that wipes out almost all of humanity leaving Snowman with those unintelligent subhumans for company; all of it an endless horror. I’m not sure if I can ever return to it.” —thelogician

Guts by Chuck Palahniuk [short story] (2004)

“It’s a short story, not a novel, but Chuck Palahniuk’s Guts is the single most disturbing thing I have ever read. (The author claims that it has been responsible for 73 fainting episodes during readings, which should tell you all you need to know).” —amyelb

“Yeah, I felt really ill after reading that. Couldn’t get it out of head for ages.” —Billy Howard

“I was doing SO WELL, too! I had managed to not remember that it existed until right this moment and now it’s there again. I didn’t even finish it, I had to put down the paper (I think it was in the Graun’s weekend mag several years ago) and never pick it up again. *weeps* 5 years, at LEAST, it’s taken to get rid of the mental images. God knows how long it’ll take this time.” —Rohan Seeliger

Beside the Sea by Véronique Olmi (2010)

“Knowing what is coming doesn’t make it any easier ...” —MysteryTrampNR

“Beside The Sea is incredibly disturbing. You feel helpless because you can’t somehow reach into the pages and rescue them - not just the children, but their mother as well. That sense of claustrophobic desperation is really hard to take.” —stpauli

Share yours in the comments below, and we’ll include a selection in the piece.

