Looking for books that leave a visceral emotional impact on me. Whether it’s because they are horrifying, unnerving, or tragic as long as I’m left in a strong emotional state regarding the contents of the books. For me, Saving Max left me in a state of deep shock, especially because of the description of murder included and what followed that. I look forward to hearing your recommendations!
by ToLiveToLearn
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Wizard and Glass by Stephen King did this to me. Read it in twelve hours and ened up a destroyed emotional wreck.
It is book four of a series, but is mostly a self contained story.
In Universes by Emet North. I’ve been going through some things, and it called me out in ways that I thought were unique to me.
All non-fiction: “The Rape of Nanking”, “Ordinary Men”, “Thought Reform”, “Red Famine”, “Bloodlands”, “KL”, “Eyewitness to a Genocide”, “First They Killed My Father”.
* The Sparrow by Maria Doria Russell (sci-fi)
* Babel by R. F. Kuang (fantasy, alternate history)
* The Power by Naomi Alderman (speculative fiction)
* No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood (kind of impossible to pin a genre down for this one)
* Exhalation by Ted Chiang (sci-fi/speculative fiction short story collection)
The Exorcist
We Need to Talk About Kevin
Building Stories by Chris Ware absolutely wrecked me for about a week recently. Read with caution.
Also:
MAUS by Art Spiegelman
My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (the mandatory mention on this sub)
The Woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abe
The Trial by Franz Kafka
_And the Band Played on: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic_ by Randy Shilts. I think the title is pretty self-explanatory. Not only is it written beautifully, but it gives a realistic perspective on the international history, social, and cultural impacts of the AIDS epidemic from the beginning. And not just patients, also the communities as a whole, nurses, volunteers, family members, researchers, and politicians. It highlights the heroes both big and small, and doesn’t hold back with criticism. Prior to reading this I had only learned about HIV and AIDS from a scientific perspective (for that I recommend _Spillover_ by David Quammen, which also shook me).