I actually dislike lists like these…trying to come up with the 15 most distressing films and the Top 10 Most Disturbing Novels seems like a waste of a person’s energy, better applied by going to the beach or taking the day off to go skiing. How many troubling movies or unsettling books does one have to absorb in order to determine the short lists? It sounds like a depressing enterprise; and yet there is a fascination with such things.

I’ve only seen one of the films from the movie list—Deliverance, and the James Dickey book was better. As for the novels, I’ve not read any of them…because I don’t choose my reading based on how disturbing a book is likely to be. I prefer reading about ideas, interesting characters, or sensing the tension of a gripping noir novel. Nonetheless, see what these folks came up with.

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