I love listening to audiobooks on holiday (saves on the old arms and squint lines!) so downloaded this as it was on the site's 5 Star list. It was probably the most disturbing, horrific book I've ever listened to (or read) and lots of (to me) gratuitous violence but it was sort of addictive in that I couldn't stop listening to it either, I wanted to know what happened.
Apparently, it's the long-awaited follow-up to Afraid, one of the most horrifying books ever written. It was meant to be published in paperback in 2010 but, after reading the 1st version of it, the publisher refused to release it. After extensive changes, the publisher still refused. I can only find it as an audiobook and for Kindle so maybe a hard-copy publisher hasn't taken it on. Not surprised!
I just knew someone would mention this author, he is a seriously good horror writer. Regarding the book that was supposed to be published last year - this was taken from Amazon:-
A Word of Warning:
Originally scheduled to be released in paperback in 2010, the publisher read the final version of the manuscript and refused to release it.
This is a disturbing, terrifying book. You may think you're brave enough to handle it. But you're probably not...
They have this on both the page for Trapped and Endurance, I just thought PR stunt at first - but you can't seem to be able to buy the books new in paperback form. Anway I'm currently listening to Endurance on audio and I just can't stop listening - it's not for the faint of heart. I will be picking up Afraid and Trapped next.
The Amityville Horror creeped me out when i was a teenager. Although I've long since realised the book is pretty much a work of fiction, it still creeps me out.
No Time For Goodbye by Linwood Barclay. Maybe it was my own fault for mainly reading it at night, but I found it so creepy I had to sleep with the light on for about a week after finishing it.
Saw this thread and decided to buy Trapped and Draculas as I haven't read any decent horror stories lately and these were fairly cheap for the Kindle.
Draculas had a warning at the beginning about 'don't read this if you have a weak stomach blah blah' and I thought maybe I had made a mistake buying it. In reality I found it quite amusing! I was expecting the bit with the clown to be really horrible but as I read it I actually laughed. Its just such a ridiculous thing to happen, the surrealness of the whole book meant it didn't really affect me and by the end I was thinking 'is there a sequel? I really want to read a sequel!'.
Trapped on the other hand - :eek: I'm not even that far into it but the stuff that is happening is VERY scary. Its more realistic, I could actually imagine something like this happening, which makes it all the more horrible to read. I think i'm definitely going to be downloading more books from Jack Kilborn.
About a man who gets blown up in World War One and there's virtually nothing left of him. Won't say too much in case anyone wants to read it, but it's truly horrifying.
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess as well. Was probably too young to read that when I did!
We need to talk about Kevin wasn't as disturbing as I thought it would be. I enjoyed it, actually, so much so I've read it twice.
I'm going to add Lord of the Flies in. Admittedly I skipped over it a bit cause I found it a bit dull, but it did genuinely freak me out (though I think that had something to do with reading it in a cottage my brother had tried to convince me was haunted)
Wuthering Heights. I had a horrible feeling all the way through, but couldn't stop readind as I wanted to see if anything good happened. I was glad to get to the end of it, although the morbid, depressing feeling it left me with didn't go away for a few days. I think the Brontes were a disturbed family.
My most disturbing book by far is House of Dolls by Ka - Tzetnik.
Well over sixty years since its first publication and like most if not all books on the subject matter of the treatment of the Jewish peoples this book should be read. That is what I find to be most disturbing.
Characters being eaten by rats, raped by chainsaws or other such graphic horror is not truely disturbing, gruesome yes but far from the true horror of man's inhumanity to man.
A very disturbing book. Even more so, IMO, are 5 Chimneys by Olga Lengyel and Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account by Miklos Nyiszli. All three of these books were given to me when I was 10 by my father who considered that every child should be brought up with full knowledge of the Holocaust.
Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter now that was horrific! and Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens they gave me nightmares for years :eek: and don't even get me started about Harry Potter books by J.K.Rowling, was she on drugs or something?
Frank's Dad has to be one of the most monstrous characters in fiction.
Not really. He didn't see the use in females. He was also a genius the way he deconstructs the feminine, has no female influences about to encourage the female that is Frank. It is perhaps one of my most favourite and sociologically interesting book that I have read as being a social scientist, the book opens up a lot of devious and fascinating workings if you manage to unpick all the themes within the book.
I don't see what is wrong in bringing a woman up as a man. Other cultures bring up men as women. Franks ritualises himself,he carries out a lot of male behaviours and acts male. There is nothing there to suggest he is female until he discovers the Tampax.
I just love the way the book chops away at heteronormative analogies and of course binary compositions.
While we have the deconstruction game going on, we have the reconstruction game in progress and the lovely whiz bang line "you've got a sister!"
Had Frank not discovered he is female and still believed he was a mutilated male, who would Frank be? I've always loved that question.
Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter now that was horrific! and Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens they gave me nightmares for years :eek: and don't even get me started about Harry Potter books by J.K.Rowling, was she on drugs or something?
To some J.K Rowling is an assimilist. There is a borg like quality to her books. If you pick her books to pieces, you find the work of others in there.
About a man who gets blown up in World War One and there's virtually nothing left of him. Won't say too much in case anyone wants to read it, but it's truly horrifying.
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess as well. Was probably too young to read that when I did!
When my peers and I were teenagers we had a morbid fascination for "A Clockwork Orange". We digested it, we regurgiated sayings from it. We wanted to see it but it was banned here but on an trip to Barcelona, I discovered they regularly showed it in cinemas and I went to see it and was bitterly disappointed. The myth had gone and the film was different to how I had imagined the scenes to be from merely reading it. The film may well have been a ballet in the style it was filmed and I distanced myself from it.
Sometimes banned things are not as exciting as they are made out to be.
The Amityville Horror creeped me out when i was a teenager. Although I've long since realised the book is pretty much a work of fiction, it still creeps me out.
This book also did the rounds when I was a teenager and we used to read it out loud on the school bus.
Wetlands by Charlotte Roche - disturbing that someone should write something so rubbish (book is about a girl's obsession with her lady parts and sex) and that it should be seen as feminist.
Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z Brite - graphic and v.disturbing
Another fascinating book. I love the themes within Exquisite Corpse and it is one of my favourites with pride of place on my regular book shelf.
Andrew Compton is disturbing as he is based on that awful serial killer Dennis Nilsen and it gives the novel more bite as the fear Nilsen gave me as a youth, is relived in this gothic novel.
Not really. He didn't see the use in females. He was also a genius the way he deconstructs the feminine, has no female influences about to encourage the female that is Frank. It is perhaps one of my most favourite and sociologically interesting book that I have read as being a social scientist, the book opens up a lot of devious and fascinating workings if you manage to unpick all the themes within the book.
I don't see what is wrong in bringing a woman up as a man. Other cultures bring up men as women. Franks ritualises himself,he carries out a lot of male behaviours and acts male. There is nothing there to suggest he is female until he discovers the Tampax.
I just love the way the book chops away at heteronormative analogies and of course binary compositions.
While we have the deconstruction game going on, we have the reconstruction game in progress and the lovely whiz bang line "you've got a sister!"
Had Frank not discovered he is female and still believed he was a mutilated male, who would Frank be? I've always loved that question.
Not really? And what's wrong with it?
Are you serious?
And who would Frank be? A seriously f****d up individual but hey ho, his murdering days are in the past so all's well.
Comments
I just knew someone would mention this author, he is a seriously good horror writer. Regarding the book that was supposed to be published last year - this was taken from Amazon:-
They have this on both the page for Trapped and Endurance, I just thought PR stunt at first - but you can't seem to be able to buy the books new in paperback form. Anway I'm currently listening to Endurance on audio and I just can't stop listening - it's not for the faint of heart. I will be picking up Afraid and Trapped next.
That's the one that came immediately to my mind when I saw this thread title...
I agree with We Need To Talk About Kevin too.
Draculas had a warning at the beginning about 'don't read this if you have a weak stomach blah blah' and I thought maybe I had made a mistake buying it. In reality I found it quite amusing! I was expecting the bit with the clown to be really horrible but as I read it I actually laughed. Its just such a ridiculous thing to happen, the surrealness of the whole book meant it didn't really affect me and by the end I was thinking 'is there a sequel? I really want to read a sequel!'.
Trapped on the other hand - :eek: I'm not even that far into it but the stuff that is happening is VERY scary. Its more realistic, I could actually imagine something like this happening, which makes it all the more horrible to read. I think i'm definitely going to be downloading more books from Jack Kilborn.
About a man who gets blown up in World War One and there's virtually nothing left of him. Won't say too much in case anyone wants to read it, but it's truly horrifying.
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess as well. Was probably too young to read that when I did!
I'm going to add Lord of the Flies in. Admittedly I skipped over it a bit cause I found it a bit dull, but it did genuinely freak me out (though I think that had something to do with reading it in a cottage my brother had tried to convince me was haunted)
I remember the film and not being too bothered by it. The book was pretty disturbing as the abuse of the boys was so graphic it made me feel sick.:(
A very disturbing book. Even more so, IMO, are 5 Chimneys by Olga Lengyel and Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account by Miklos Nyiszli. All three of these books were given to me when I was 10 by my father who considered that every child should be brought up with full knowledge of the Holocaust.
The Woman in Black - Susan Hill
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
Germinal - Emile Zola. Infact I hear that the works in Zola's Rougon-Macquart 20 novel series are fairly depressing/disturbing in general.
Frank's Dad has to be one of the most monstrous characters in fiction.
Not really. He didn't see the use in females. He was also a genius the way he deconstructs the feminine, has no female influences about to encourage the female that is Frank. It is perhaps one of my most favourite and sociologically interesting book that I have read as being a social scientist, the book opens up a lot of devious and fascinating workings if you manage to unpick all the themes within the book.
I don't see what is wrong in bringing a woman up as a man. Other cultures bring up men as women. Franks ritualises himself,he carries out a lot of male behaviours and acts male. There is nothing there to suggest he is female until he discovers the Tampax.
I just love the way the book chops away at heteronormative analogies and of course binary compositions.
While we have the deconstruction game going on, we have the reconstruction game in progress and the lovely whiz bang line "you've got a sister!"
Had Frank not discovered he is female and still believed he was a mutilated male, who would Frank be? I've always loved that question.
To some J.K Rowling is an assimilist. There is a borg like quality to her books. If you pick her books to pieces, you find the work of others in there.
When my peers and I were teenagers we had a morbid fascination for "A Clockwork Orange". We digested it, we regurgiated sayings from it. We wanted to see it but it was banned here but on an trip to Barcelona, I discovered they regularly showed it in cinemas and I went to see it and was bitterly disappointed. The myth had gone and the film was different to how I had imagined the scenes to be from merely reading it. The film may well have been a ballet in the style it was filmed and I distanced myself from it.
Sometimes banned things are not as exciting as they are made out to be.
This book also did the rounds when I was a teenager and we used to read it out loud on the school bus.
Another fascinating book. I love the themes within Exquisite Corpse and it is one of my favourites with pride of place on my regular book shelf.
Andrew Compton is disturbing as he is based on that awful serial killer Dennis Nilsen and it gives the novel more bite as the fear Nilsen gave me as a youth, is relived in this gothic novel.
Ghost girl. By Torey Hayden
Let the right one in.
Not really? And what's wrong with it?
Are you serious?
And who would Frank be? A seriously f****d up individual but hey ho, his murdering days are in the past so all's well.