Readers Reveal The Most WTF Books They’ve Ever Read
Oryx and Crake
“Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. It’s the first in the Maddaddam Trilogy. Atwood is great at dystopia and powerful descriptions. Handmaid’s Tale was fantastic so I wanted to read more of her stuff. But Oryx and Crake shook me. It was just too much. The cruelty and sexual violence at the center of the story is so emotionally draining that the novel nearly broke me. She’s so good that I had to keep reading even though every page I turned just contained more suffering. The ending is amazing and also pretty soul crushing. I started the second book hoping for some small glimpse of hope in her bleak universe, but it’s Atwood, so I just found more sexual violence and suffering. I bailed after about 5 chapters. I refuse to look up the name of the second book because I’m afraid it will trigger more memories of terrible pain; mine and her poor, tormented characters. She is a true master of her craft but I will never open another Atwood novel again.” — EpilepticFits1
My Dark Vanessa
“I’ve read it so many times. It’s about a teacher who grooms a student and how she is both repelled and drawn to him, which is exactly how I feel about the book. Wonderful writing and a fantastic book but I can’t shake it.” — rawnerve1975
American Psycho
“It’s so much worse than the movie. I was nauseated reading it.” — IUMogg
American Gods
“Neil Gaiman is a complete whackjob, and I mean that in the most complimentary way possible.” — Babstana
The Swimmer
“It’s a short story, but ‘The Swimmer’ by John Cheever. It just drained all energy I had for the rest of the day. I’ve reread it several times, but it still just drains the want to do anything after you read it. Only thing that’s came close to the feeling it gave me is Bradbury’s ‘There Will Come Soft Rains.'” — Spyguy122204
House of Leaves
There was a moment while reading Johnny talk about Thumper. I was reading during the day in a park at a picnic table. I never do that. I just thought ‘this is a good time to try reading outside in the fresh air’ so I went to a nearby park, got myself set up and got engrossed from where I left off. I eventually had a though. ‘Hm….. I don’t think….. I don’t think I can look away from the page. I can’t stop reading. I don’t want to stop reading. I don’t think I can WANT to stop reading even if I try. I’m vulnerable right now. Someone could be coming behind me with a knife and there’s nothing I can do-‘ and then the moment was over, and I was just a guy in a park reading a book on a nice day. For a brief few seconds, I was convinced I was trapped, and then I was fine.” — I_FIGHT_BEAR
The Road
“Reading that when my son was a toddler was a terrible, TERRIBLE idea. I had a thing for post-apocalyptic fiction for a while, but that book put a quick end to that.” — vidarino
The Girl Next Door
“By Jack Ketchum, a novel based on the unbelievably horrific real life case of Sylvia Likens. (The info on this is soul-crushingly depressing, so fair warning before you click.)” — LadySygerrik
Slaughterhouse Five
“Kurt Vonnegut. It was…an interesting read.” — StarWarsCrazy1
Trainspotting
“Anything by Irvine Welsh really. Filth and Marabou Stark Nightmares are the top weird ones for me. He can write terrible characters that you are still interested in, not supporting exactly, but you want to know what happens next. I like how he writes with an accent.” — timesuck897
A Scanner Darkly
“Made me question my own sanity.” — scijay
Johnny Got His Gun
“I chose to read this cause I picked it pretty randomly from a list of ‘war’ books.. oh my gosh… For the unaware it is about an injured war veteran, a ‘basket case’ who was hit by a bomb and loses all 4 limbs, his eyes, mouth, nose, and his hearing too, essentially he can think and move his torso and stumps… as you can guess it doesn’t exactly have a happy ending.” — hsunicorn
A Child Called It
“That book is one of the most heartbreaking books I have ever read.” — 0xspaceinvaderx0