# What book is just too upsetting to read?



## Grace Elliot (Mar 14, 2011)

I recently lent my copy of Cross Stitch to a lady at work. In return she lent me 'The Room' by Emma Donohue. The trouble is I read the blurb and it gave me shivers ...I cannot read anything where bad things happen to children..it's just too unspeakable. I feel I ought to read the book a) because a friend lent it me b) burying one's head in the sand is never the answer, but if you know something will upset you....do you have to face it?
How about you? 
Do you avoid certain books or do you make yourself read them on principle?


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## sixnsolid (Mar 13, 2009)

I made myself read The Lovely Bones on principal, but it really, really disturbed me (mom to five daughters here).  Still, I think there are books that are important to read....but I'm sometimes an avoider    I own Room, but haven't read it yet.


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## Aaron Pogue (Feb 18, 2011)

I avoid _lots_ of books because I find them too upsetting. It's one of the main things that will make me abandon a book mid-read.

I did read all the way through Martin's _Game of Throne's_ out of a sense of obligation, but I never touched another book in the series (and don't really intend to). I liked the fantasy and the story (and even the villains) in _The Stand_ (recommended by a friend), but I found King's casually-profane characterization too disturbing as an ongoing thing.

And I'm sure those are both relatively tame compared with the sort you're asking about, because they're safely tucked away in the fantasy setting. I don't even come close to real-world stories that seem like they're leaning in that direction.


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## history_lover (Aug 9, 2010)

sixnsolid said:


> I made myself read The Lovely Bones on principal, but it really, really disturbed me (mom to five daughters here).


Same here - I'm not a mom but it touched on personal issues for me and was very disturbing. Then I went and watched the movie too, what was I thinking?

I also avoid Jodi Picoult for this reason - I just find her stuff too depressing.


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## theraven (Dec 30, 2009)

When I'm reading for entertainment, I don't choose a book that I know will leave me feeling upset and depressed. I have a limited amount of time for enjoyment reading so I don't force myself to continue reading a book that will affect me negatively when it comes to fiction. The only books I've read on principle were ones for classes that I had to take or non-fiction that gives me a better insight on the opposite take on an issue/belief that I hold.


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## pidgeon92 (Oct 27, 2008)

I'm avoiding _Water for Elephants_, as I hear there is animal abuse.


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## DanG (Mar 10, 2011)

I avoid everything by Jane Austen. Bonnets upset me.


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## Ben White (Feb 11, 2011)

Hotaru no Haka (Grave of the Fireflies), the movie based on the book of the same name.  I honestly can't even think about it without crying.  The best movie I'll never watch again, and I imagine the book would be even more difficult to read than the movie is to watch.


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## RobynB (Jan 4, 2011)

It depends...I think there are certain topics that could be upsetting, depending on where I'm at in life or what my experiences have been. I read _The Lovely Bones_ when it came out (and loved it, despite how tough a read it was), but many of my friends/family members with kids couldn't read it (understandably so). (Sebold's memoir, _Lucky_, is also a tough read.) That said, sometimes it's important, I think, to read the icky stuff, lest we forget (think Elie Wiesel's _Night_ or, for a recent example that people are talking about, Laura Hillenbrand's _Unbroken_) and also to remind us about the good stuff. But I hear what you're all saying...and I certainly couldn't read one sad book after another like that. I need me some levity breaks! (Which is what David Sedaris is for.)


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

DanG said:


> I avoid everything by Jane Austen. Bonnets upset me.


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## JeanneM (Mar 21, 2011)

DanG said:


> I avoid everything by Jane Austen. Bonnets upset me.


ROFLMAO! I loved this comment.

In answer to the post, I agree about Water for Elephants. I wanted to read it but animal abuse is something I can't handle so have passed it by. I'm having a hard enough time with all the sad animal faces that the ASPCA has been advertising on my AOL emails.


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## bordercollielady (Nov 21, 2008)

I  avoid  most books  about  dogs because they always  seem to die  at some point  in the books -and then I'm bawling since it  makes me think about the dogs I have lost-  so  its  easier just to avoid them.


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## easyreader (Feb 20, 2011)

The Bible, to be honest.  Because it contradicts itself constantly.  People who quote it pick and choose and you could just as easily find the exact opposite quote somewhere in it.  Sort of like quoting Thomas Jefferson.  I can put quote of his side by side and they say the exact opposite thing.  Because he was wicked smart and a politician.  He said what he needed at the moment to make the point he wanted to make at the moment.


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## Steve Silkin (Sep 15, 2010)

At a certain point in Paul Auster's post-apocalyptic "Country of Last Things" I couldn't take anymore so I set it aside and thought I'd never pick it up again. I got back into it 20 years later and was glad I did.

When I was a teenager I read "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and it remains one of the best books I've ever read. Still, I was deeply bothered by the injustice of what happened to Billy.


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## Tam (Jan 7, 2010)

Two books I've read this year that were excellent and made me laugh & think, but also had incredibly sad elements that brought me to tears, are Little Bee and The Book Thief. I'm very glad I read them, but definitely needed a break to read lighter books afterwards.


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## Patrick Skelton (Jan 7, 2011)

I'm staying away from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  I hear it gets pretty explicit and disturbing.


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## Joseph Robert Lewis (Oct 31, 2010)

Ben White said:


> Hotaru no Haka (Grave of the Fireflies), the movie based on the book of the same name. I honestly can't even think about it without crying. The best movie I'll never watch again, and I imagine the book would be even more difficult to read than the movie is to watch.


Yes, thank you. You're the first person I've met who has even heard of it. I bought it, watched it once, cried on five separate occasions during it, and haven't been able to watch it a second time since. But it's not so much disturbing as just profoundly sad, so I think I will come back to it one day.


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## CJArcher (Jan 22, 2011)

Tam said:


> Two books I've read this year that were excellent and made me laugh & think, but also had incredibly sad elements that brought me to tears, are Little Bee and The Book Thief. I'm very glad I read them, but definitely needed a break to read lighter books afterwards.


The Book Thief was horrible. Oh beautifully written, thought-provoking and all that but I went through a box of tissues and was depressed for days. Life's too short to feel that way.



DanG said:


> I avoid everything by Jane Austen. Bonnets upset me.


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## luvmy4brats (Nov 9, 2008)

Grace Elliot said:


> I recently lent my copy of Cross Stitch to a lady at work. In return she lent me 'The Room' by Emma Donohue. The trouble is I read the blurb and it gave me shivers ...I cannot read anything where bad things happen to children..it's just too unspeakable. I feel I ought to read the book a) because a friend lent it me b) burying one's head in the sand is never the answer, but if you know something will upset you....do you have to face it?
> How about you?
> Do you avoid certain books or do you make yourself read them on principle?


The Room was an excellent book and it's told in such an intriguing way. Don't read any more blurbs or reviews and just read this book... I think you'll be surprised. It was my 2nd favorite book of all 124 books I read last year.

I don't like books where bad things happen to children either. I read A Child Called It a few months ago and bawled like a baby.. I had wanted to read it for years, but just couldn't bring myself to do it for a very long time because of the subject matter...


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## Christine Kersey (Feb 13, 2011)

Grace Elliot said:


> I recently lent my copy of Cross Stitch to a lady at work. In return she lent me 'The Room' by Emma Donohue. The trouble is I read the blurb and it gave me shivers


I read "Room". I don't want to give anything away, but you'd be safe to read it.


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## Ben White (Feb 11, 2011)

Joseph Robert Lewis said:


> Yes, thank you. You're the first person I've met who has even heard of it. I bought it, watched it once, cried on five separate occasions during it, and haven't been able to watch it a second time since. But it's not so much disturbing as just profoundly sad, so I think I will come back to it one day.


I'll watch it with my daughters when they're old enough. But I know I'll be a wreck afterwards.


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## Dawn McCullough White (Feb 24, 2010)

The Giving Tree

Dawn


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## sbaum4853 (May 3, 2010)

I like disturbing books, but The Road by Cormac McCarthy pushed me to the edge a few times. It wasn't so much the graphic violence, which I read plenty of, but his immensely bleak view of humanity that got to me. I think part of the appeal of his novels is that he's not totally sane but ridiculously talented anyway, so reading his books can quite literally put you in the mind of a madman.


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## JD Rhoades (Feb 18, 2011)

I have a pretty strong stomach, but I'm finding the opening passages of Tom Rob Smith's CHILD 44 to be some rough going. 

The story opens n 1930's Russia, at a time when Stalin is trying to destroy the class of "kulaks" (wealthy peasants) by, essentially, confiscating all their food and letting them starve to death in the Russian winter. (true story, BTW, and awful). 

As the book opens, a young girl dying of hunger lets her pet cat free, and it's immediately hunted down and killed for food by two young boys, one of whom then comes to grief himself. It's like a trifecta of stuff that readers have said alienates them: death of young girl, death of animal, death of child. 

I'm pushing through, because a lot of people have told me the book is great, but yeesh.


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

I have to admit it. I have never been able to finish _Lolita_. I've tried to read it a couple of times and the RELISH with which he writes about the subject just turns my stomach. I don't think I'll even try again.

I love The _Game of Thrones_ although it is a very rough book and someone who only got 1/2 way through didn't get to the bad part. ANd I still have rather nightmares about the Red Wedding in a later book. Very gritty but it has a saving grace in presenting the courage of certain characters in facing what they have to face.

A book that upset me for a week and made me cry was _Atonement_.


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## CraigInOregon (Aug 6, 2010)

Hate to admit it, but STREGA by Andrew Vacchs qualifies for me.

His understanding of child sexual abuse is unparalleled, but his characters are just too dark, too hopelessly broken... I don't think I was able to finish, and if I did, it was barely. I remember feeling ill and depressed afterward... for days.


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## tamborine (May 16, 2009)

bordercollielady said:


> I avoid most books about dogs because they always seem to die at some point in the books -and then I'm bawling since it makes me think about the dogs I have lost- so its easier just to avoid them.


Me, too! I recently didn't read "A Dog's Purpose" just for this reason.


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## Klip (Mar 7, 2011)

Agree about the dogs dying! I recently read


Spoiler



The Knife of Letting Go


 and I just BAWLED when


Spoiler



Manchee


died. Oh! It was so unfair! 

I also found "Never let me go" by Kazuo Ishiguro desperately, desperately sad, but I dont regret reading it.

I vowed I would never read a Margaret Atwood book again after "The Robber Bride". Not violence or abuse so much as relentless psychological nastiness. Some books just seem to harm me. My husband put a ban on me reading books by Chinese women about the cultural revolution. For some reason, I was reading a whole lot of them at one time. Actually, I will also NEVER read any book by Richard Morgan again. Body fluid, body parts, dismemberment, sound effects, graphic violence, graphic sex, all at the same time, in 3D technicolour. Just gross.

And Oh dear, I have a copy of "Grave of the fireflies" that I'm supposed to watch. Now I'm not sure I can face it!


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## Grace Elliot (Mar 14, 2011)

Thanks to the people who said I'm safe to read 'The Room.' I guess its also the contrast between a gritty read and my usual escapist books (after all, there is so much distress in the world already.) 
Perhaps I'm tougher than I think though - as I dont find bonnets so distressing!!


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## Randy Kadish (Feb 24, 2010)

Anything about the First World War.
Parts of _Unbroken_ were difficult to read, and at times I wanted to put it down, but somehow I couldn't.
The book kind of tore me in half, but I'm glad I finished it.
Randy


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## Ben White (Feb 11, 2011)

mashadutoit said:


> And Oh dear, I have a copy of "Grave of the fireflies" that I'm supposed to watch. Now I'm not sure I can face it!


You should definitely, definitely watch it. Just pick a day when you're feeling strong and have tissues handy


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## Cheryl Shireman (Feb 11, 2011)

I'm the same way! Especially if children are involved.

I bought Sophie's Choice and I still haven't read it because I heard how it ended (at least the general idea). I can't watch the movie for the same reason.


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## Wintings (Feb 16, 2011)

The Kindly Ones http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0099513145/?tag=kindleboards-21 by Jonathan Littell is definitely in this category. The novel takes the form of a memoir by a former SS officer who is responsible for some hideous war crimes against Jews. His account of his military career and his various justifications for his actions make appalling but compelling reading. A brilliant book (which won the _Prix Goncourt_) but not for the faint-hearted.


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## Ignacio Gimenez Sasieta (Mar 26, 2011)

In my opinion, there are lots of books too upsetting to read. For instance, I have recently read Quien Siembra Sangre (excuse me I don´t know the title in english) and some of the scenes of people being tortured were too crude. I write detective novels, but I think that extreme violence is not needed to tell a good and captivating story.
Bye

Ignacio.


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## gryeates (Feb 28, 2011)

I think the most disturbing novel I've ever read is Let's Go Play at the Adams' by Mendal W. Johnson. Like Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door, it is based on the events of the Sylvia Likens case and, thought it may be difficult to believe, is a good deal harsher as a work than Ketchum's novel. Few novels I've read have remained quite so vividly in my mind both for the high quality of the writing as well as the incredibly tough and unforgiving approach to the subject matter involved.


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## Ryl (Nov 25, 2010)

Dawn McCullough White said:


> The Giving Tree
> 
> Dawn


Yes. This. My kids know that if they want to read it, they're on their own, because Mama can't read it without crying.


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## planet_janet (Feb 23, 2010)

sixnsolid said:


> I made myself read The Lovely Bones on principal, but it really, really disturbed me (mom to five daughters here).


I read The Lovely Bones when I was pregnant with my first daughter (I have two girls).  To say that it disturbed me is an understatement. I have avoided the movie because I just _can't_. Even though it was a good book, I will never read it again and I will absolutely never watch the movie.


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## kglavin (Mar 18, 2010)

Hi All,

As for myself, one book I found particularly upsetting was Elie Wiesel's _Night_, a very powerful tale of the Holocaust. It is a fantastic book, and worth reading, but very hard to get through.

Any other thoughts on this topic, or when being "upset" can actually be a good thing (leading one towards action)?

Thanks for listening,

Kevin

_--- edited... no self-promotion outside the Book Bazaar forum. please read our Forum Decorum thread._


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## Cindy Borgne (Mar 21, 2011)

One time my husband gave me the book "Jester" to read by James Patterson. I was enjoying it just fine until about 15% through where the main character's wife and baby were killed. He found that their baby had been thrown into the fire. I had small children at the time and that bothered me so much I never picked up the book again. 

My husband said I was too sensitive.


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## Aris Whittier (Sep 21, 2010)

bordercollielady said:


> I avoid most books about dogs because they always seem to die at some point in the books -and then I'm bawling since it makes me think about the dogs I have lost- so its easier just to avoid them.


I agree. _Where the Red Fern Grows_, I cired for days!


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## JennSpot (Feb 13, 2009)

Patrick Skelton said:


> I'm staying away from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I hear it gets pretty explicit and disturbing.


It *is* disturbing...but I am on the third book now and I am definitely glad that I read all three. Someone loaned me the first one as a paperback and harassed me until I read it, then I was hooked.


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## tim290280 (Jan 11, 2011)

history_lover said:


> I also avoid Jodi Picoult for this reason - I just find her stuff too depressing.


My Sister's Keeper is a classic example. Don't get me wrong, powerful, moving, amazing story, but who didn't feel that the poor girl deserved better in the end?


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## Moissanitejewel (Mar 17, 2011)

Stories that have way too much gore are always crossed off my list. I don't buy horror for that reason, if it gets too bad then I can't finish it. Also, sad books I don't read a lot unless there is some uplifting breaks. I also can't stand the really moral dilemmas of _Simon's choice_. Die to join your daughter so she won't be lonely in heaven when the time comes for her to go? Oh no way, I can't read it no matter how curious I am!


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## NapCat (retired) (Jan 17, 2011)

"As I Lay Dying" by William Faulkner

In college, I actually got a passing grade when I reported it was too depressing to finish !!


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## Grace Elliot (Mar 14, 2011)

Thinking about it I had to stop reading 'Shogun' when they started boiling people alive....


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## mayfire (Nov 11, 2010)

mashadutoit said:


> I also found "Never let me go" by Kazuo Ishiguro desperately, desperately sad, but I dont regret reading it.


Mashadutoit, _Never Let Me Go_ is the book I was going to mention and then read your post. I agree. I wanted my book group to try it, but a few of them weren't willing. I believe that sometimes we need to read the thought-provoking ones as difficult as they might be.


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## DYB (Aug 8, 2009)

JD Rhoades said:


> I have a pretty strong stomach, but I'm finding the opening passages of Tom Rob Smith's CHILD 44 to be some rough going.
> 
> The story opens n 1930's Russia, at a time when Stalin is trying to destroy the class of "kulaks" (wealthy peasants) by, essentially, confiscating all their food and letting them starve to death in the Russian winter. (true story, BTW, and awful).
> 
> ...


All I can say is keep pushing. Though I must confess I think the novel jumps the shark with its denouement, but it's a fascinating read anyway.

I'm in the midst of "A Game of Thrones" and I must say I'm not sure I'll read the rest of the series. I turn every page with dread. Not excitement and anxiety, but dread. There must be more pleasant ways to spend my time! Like, for example, with bonnets!


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## DYB (Aug 8, 2009)

"The Painted Bird" is up there too for me.  A remarkable novel I read in high school.  (Yes, high school!  It was an AP English class and we were reading the Bible as literature.  And in conjunction with The Book of Job we had to read "The Painted Bird.")


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## Klip (Mar 7, 2011)

mayfire said:


> Mashadutoit, _Never Let Me Go_ is the book I was going to mention and then read your post. I agree. I wanted my book group to try it, but a few of them weren't willing. I believe that sometimes we need to read the thought-provoking ones as difficult as they might be.


I would say this is an excellent book to read in a book group. The thing is - although the topic is potentially very grisly, it never actually goes there. The disturbing thing about the book is how very soft and gentle everything is, how NORMAL it seems. The way the children are carefully brought up to accept the unacceptable. I was not upset in the Richard Morgan way, as having something disgusting shoved in my face, but in a much more profound way. The book made me cry from the bottom of my heart because it is about the loss that goes with any kind of love, about regret, about missed chances. Oh dear.


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## lpking (Feb 12, 2011)

cborgne said:


> <snip>He found that their baby had been thrown into the fire. I had small children at the time and that bothered me so much I never picked up the book again.
> 
> My husband said I was too sensitive.


I wonder if many women experience this feeling when their children are small. I know I did. There were books I had to put down, and movies I had to stop watching. One of my children was small when I watched the film of _Sophie's Choice_, and I had to leave the room during the critical scene. Watching the rest of it was okay, knowing what she'd done, but I couldn't watch her do it.

Years later, I can get through most of this stuff.


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## candide (Feb 15, 2011)

I found 'On the Beach' by Neville Shute hugely upsetting. That and 'Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close' by Jonathan Safran Foer are the only books that I haven't been able to finish because they were too sad. And I'm a real gruff bear of a man. Grrr.


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## triciatypes (Mar 25, 2011)

I remember back in school we had to read this book called _A Child Called It_ by Dave Pelzer. The story is an autobiography about this child who is just subjected to unspeakable abuse by his mother. Just typing this is making me shudder. I think the biggest reason it disturbs me is because it's actually based in reality...the same with stories about the Holocaust etc. I know it's important to know about these things and read these stories, but they are so upsetting to me. And rightfully so.


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## JM Gellene (Mar 30, 2011)

The Giver.


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## coffeetx (Feb 12, 2011)

I will never forget reading "Bridge to Terabithia" as a child and becoming depressed for a week.  I have a problem reading books if they are too depressing.  It just sits with me for way too long.  I felt the same way about "The Time Traveler's Wife".  Although it was a great book, it was totally depressing and I almost regretted reading it.  Same feeling towards "Bridges of Madison County" and virtually anything written by Nicholas Sparks.  I really don't want to be sent into a clinical depression when I read for entertainment!  I stopped reading these types of books many years ago.


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## kCopeseeley (Mar 15, 2011)

DanG said:


> I avoid everything by Jane Austen. Bonnets upset me.


bwhahahahaha

Definitely Jodi Piccoult and Nicholas Sparks. No books with dying and dying and dying. 
Also, I made the MISTAKE of reading Where the Heart Is by Billie Letts after my son was born. I won't go into detail, but something happens to a boy in that book that haunted me for DAYS. I literally couldn't sleep because of it.


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## JCReader (Nov 21, 2010)

CJArcher said:


> The Book Thief was horrible. Oh beautifully written, thought-provoking and all that but I went through a box of tissues and was depressed for days. Life's too short to feel that way.


The Book Thief WAS on my TBR list but just got taken off... I read for fun and for escapeism. If I wanted to be stressed out or sad I could just turn on the nightly news.

I do also stay away from Jodi Picoult she's an excellent writer but leaves you in tears by the end of every book.

The girl with the dragon tattoo is an excellent book do give it a try there are two scenes that are queit difficult but they pass quickly and the end result is good. I loved all three books!


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## laa0325 (Feb 21, 2010)

The Plague Dogs by Richard Adams has haunted me for years. (Scientific experiments on animals).  I avoid anything by Anita Shreve. She's so depressing I don't know how she gets out of bed in the morning.  And I quit reading The Shack partway through because I couldn't stomach it anymore. 

As I've grown older, I realize that what I'm reading has a profound affect on my mood. I've begun avoiding depressing or violent books and I think I'm happier for it. There's enough to worry about in real life.


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## Klip (Mar 7, 2011)

coffeetx said:


> I will never forget reading "Bridge to Terabithia" as a child and becoming depressed for a week.


Oh yes! I remember walking right into that one. The book goes on so happily, and then - BAM. It all falls apart. But I still thought it was a good book, though.


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## Sassafrazzled (Mar 14, 2010)

Ben White said:


> Hotaru no Haka (Grave of the Fireflies), the movie based on the book of the same name. I honestly can't even think about it without crying. The best movie I'll never watch again, and I imagine the book would be even more difficult to read than the movie is to watch.


What an amazing movie to watch, once. I own the dvd and tried to watch it again years after I had seen it the first time and just couldn't do it. 
Maybe some day.


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## jason10mm (Apr 7, 2009)

NapCat said:


> "As I Lay Dying" by William Faulkner
> 
> In college, I actually got a passing grade when I reported it was too depressing to finish !!


Hah! MY wife is reading this for class right now! She had to read "The Death of Ivan Ilych" as well.

I find Cormac McCarthy upsetting because of his inability to use punctuation. I read "the Road" and "Blood Meridian" and quite frankly do not see where he earned the privilege to write in such a manner and not be laughed out of the publishing house.

Certain political themed books upset me greatly, but those are easy enough to avoid.


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## Averydebow (Jan 20, 2011)

triciatypes said:


> I remember back in school we had to read this book called _A Child Called It_ by Dave Pelzer. The story is an autobiography about this child who is just subjected to unspeakable abuse by his mother. Just typing this is making me shudder. I think the biggest reason it disturbs me is because it's actually based in reality...the same with stories about the Holocaust etc. I know it's important to know about these things and read these stories, but they are so upsetting to me. And rightfully so.


I read that as research for my own novel. It was a tough read. I agree that the fact it is a true story makes it all the more horrific.

I never have put down a book that greatly disturbed me. I keep reading, even if I'm shaken to the core. Oddly enough, the books containing human atrocities are the ones that wind up fascinating me. I tend to focus on the perpetrators, wondering how they have come to the point where it's okay in their minds to do such things to other people. My interest in how their minds are working diverts my attention away from the badness enough that I can get through it.


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## summerteeth (Dec 23, 2009)

triciatypes said:


> I remember back in school we had to read this book called _A Child Called It_ by Dave Pelzer. The story is an autobiography about this child who is just subjected to unspeakable abuse by his mother. Just typing this is making me shudder. I think the biggest reason it disturbs me is because it's actually based in reality...the same with stories about the Holocaust etc. I know it's important to know about these things and read these stories, but they are so upsetting to me. And rightfully so.


The author of this book spoke to my middle school when this first came out. So heartbreaking, but the author had the most amazing attitude.


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## bashfulreader (Jan 29, 2011)

I must confess that I'm following this thread so I can compile a list of "what NOT to read".  

I'm another who can't handle animal violence at all.  I took Water for Elephants off my to-be-read list a long time ago. 

This one is probably going to sound silly, but the one book I've tried twice to read, and gave up both times is The Stand, by Stephen King.  I get a couple of chapters in, and then I'll sneeze... and completely freak out.  King just has this way of getting under my skin.  I read a few of his when I was younger and stronger... seems I have more trouble with disturbing books the older I get.


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## Kristan Hoffman (Aug 6, 2009)

GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO wasn't too upsetting to finish, for me, but the (in my opinion, entirely unnecessary) depravity did turn me off from the rest of the series. Which is a shame, b/c I loved the two protagonists.

RUNNING WITH SCISSORS by Augusten Burroughs was fairly disturbing, to me, and I didn't believe half of it, so I had to put it down.

RAPE OF NANKING by Lily Chang is a book that I would love to read, especially given its cultural significance, but everytime I've tried to read it, I get lightheaded.

Kristan


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## JMCornwell (Apr 1, 2011)

The Exorcist.  More so after the movie than before.


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## ScottF (Mar 29, 2011)

> I'm staying away from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I hear it gets pretty explicit and disturbing.


Yeah, I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I started reading this.


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## medicalhumor (Feb 15, 2011)

Yes any book that tells of any harm to children is very tough to read. Children are so innocent.


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