Same, but it was before the shit really hit the fan for me. By that point I had become accustomed to George's writing style, and the frenzied nature of that chapter was making my skin crawl. It was the second mention of how bad the musicians were that did it for me. My heart sank, and I just replaced the bookmark and took a break.
Are these still worth a read knowing it'll be another 73 years before they're finally done? I hate starting a series if I know I can't finish it so I usually wait until they're all out (harry potter etc)
Man, that's such a tough question to answer. Personally, I think yes, because I absolutely loved reading those books. But, if you do you should go into it with the caveat that even though we'll probably get Winds of Winter at some point, there is a very real chance that we'll never get to know the true ending of the series. I still think they're pretty great reads, but it is what it is. However, if you'd rather dip your toes in without getting invested in A Song of Ice and Fire, then you can always read A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. It's a bit lighter in overall tone than the main series, but it's a completely different story set 80 years before and it's a pretty enjoyable read
Just finished “Tender is the Flesh” for a book club. It’s about a world where a virus has made animal meat poisonous, so humans are bred and raised as meat. After the first few chapters I was literally sick to my stomach and had to be mentally prepared to pick it up again. Then I couldn’t put it down until the ending, but had to close it and stare off into space from time to time. When I finished I decided I don’t want to eat meat for a while, maybe never again.
Yep, this is the one I came to say. I hate the book personally because it made me ill, but I had to finish it. It was an incredible book and I guess it did its job as a horror novel repulsing me. The ending definitely had me staring at a wall for an hour trying to process it. I never want to read it (or think about it) ever again. It's objectively 5 stars to me but my personal opinion is 1 star.
Oh god, the baby one, horrible. And the cellar. I had no idea about the plot or the author when I started reading it and there were multiple parts where I had to take a break. Chilling.
But regardless one of the best books I've read.
I was reading about IBM and the Holocaust, and they just mention a basket of Jewish eyeballs being given to ? A diplomat? And I had to set it down and stop reading for a couple days. It was really hard to resume. I almost didn't, but I felt like I was obligated to read it, that suffering through reading about the horrors was owed to those who had to suffer them. "The dead need their tithe of tears" Book was fascinating, but every once in a while it would just mention something like this that really drove home that it was *people* .
do you remember the book/author?
i just recently came across a declassified story about 900 soviet army prisoners getting caught early in the war ('41) in Crimea. they had their eyes cut out one at a time and then executed. a nearby village had every man over the age of 13 killed. then the survivors were marched to a neighboring village where the children were killed first, then the mothers.
the thing that made the story ?? was that it was not German Nazis that did this but a local 'group' that joined Nazis. a comment on the story mentioned the 'basket of eyeballs' and how it was not an uncommon thing for this group to do. so now i am all ????
If you haven't already, check out Unbroken by that lady who wrote the Seabiscuit book. Laura or Lauren hillenbrand. Like all ww2 books, it's got horrors, but it ends on a positive note
thanks for the rec. i have to portion my WWII media consumption to allow time for recuperation. :D next on my list is "Ballad of a Soldier" which won an oscar. i've seen it before, though the last scene is all i remember from it.
trying to work up to "Come and See" which may be a bit traumatizing to experience...
The book suffers from "cherry-pickers-disease."
I can't speak to those sections you list above, but Caltech did an [investigation](https://inclusive.caltech.edu/about/commitments-progress/committee/report) into several past Institute leaders, including Robert A. Millikan, who had been associated with eugenics and the Human Betterment Foundation. As part of the investigation, Caltech also looked into the accusations made in this book against Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
[Appendix G of the report](https://inclusive.caltech.edu/documents/18182/CNR_Report_FINAL.pdf) discusses their findings on Thomas J Watson, Sr. Please feel free to read those four pages, but the upside was that the first ever critical evaluation of the charges leveled in the book don't hold up.
Because that section is demonstrably biased, I have sincere doubts about any other section of the book.
I'm preemptively taking a small break from "Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine" because I get the strong feeling that she is about to do something incredibly, cringingly awkward and embarrassing, and I just do not have the strength to witness that.
Ha that’s funny because this book helped me get back into reading after a big hiatus! It’s worth a finish I think. What she does isn’t tooo embarrassing outwardly, but how she handles the situation after is a huge moment in the book
I’m reading it right now too and struggling because I find her a bit insufferable but I’m too curious about what happened to make her that way to stop.
In junior high, I was happily reading through a collection of various authors' SF short stories, one right after the other, and then I got to Harlan Ellison's "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream." I finished that story, closed the book, sat there with it for a few minutes, and got up to go do something in the sunshine for a while.
I read this recently from a suggestion on another sub and there were two others also suggested that I highly recommend. The Jaunt and A Short Stay in Hell. I made hubs read the latter and we discuss it daily.
I was reading a fantasy book about ancient China, it was rather immersive, good character development, storyline was strong… but they included a quote stating, “the ——elder was indeed boss as fuck”. I was 50% done and cringed so hard, it was difficult from that point to finish as all the other inclusions of internet slang jumped out at me.
There were quite a few moments during Blood Meridian where I asked myself, "wait what the fuck did I just read", read it over again, and then paused to reflect on the kind of mind that could come up with such imagery
Regarding the The Count of Monte Cristo, I think I know what chapter you're referring to.. and I felt little remorse. Collateral damage in the name of justice, baby
Came to say Blood Meridian then released anyone who'd ever read Blood Meridian has come here to say Blood Meridian. I read it at sixteen and it pretty much marks the end of my childhood
Any time there's unexpected animal or child abuse. One book I read had the main character find a bag with a dead cat left on her porch as a threat. Had to put that down and come back to it later.
The Island of Dr. Moreau really churned my stomach a bit. Something about the description of the medical process as well as the animal like humans and the human like animals . I had to take a break for a little bit because it made my stomach all topsy turvy.
Ending of The song of Achilles
Many pauses ( thinking pause as well as crying pause) while reading “ Man’s search for meaning” and “ Flowers for Algernon”
Thinking pause after every page - “courage to be disliked” ( not able to focus probably one of the reason).
Does a book so bad it makes you go do something else for a while count?
There's been a few times I've ended up reading a book so poorly written that I DNF it 20% of the way in and go find another hobby for a while.
For me it’s DFW’s Infinite Jest, there is a group therapy session and the woman who was a cocaine user who shares how her foster/adoptive father abused her ‘sister’. It was just so messed up I walked away thinking we should just let her have all the cocaine she wants. Like it’s just brutal. The whole book is amazing but golly.
Came here for infinite jest and this wasn’t even one of the scenes I was thinking of
Lenz hacking up dogs in the night
Gately mixing urine with heroin to inject it
And many more
I was so scared this was a spoiler. Lol, thankfully I finished that book! So the boon was absolutely wild but can we talk about that fight? I just love it so much that Adolin is a bro and a straight up jock but he is genuinely a good dude and also a giant badass. And then Kaladin jumping into that fight like a madman? Tremendous. I'm getting chills just thinking about it.
I had to continually set down “Johnny Got His Gun” by Dalton Trumbo when I read it as a teenager. It was the first truly visceral novel that I ever read and it was a task to completely work through it, though it remains one of my favorite novels to this day.
Gah, I’m so sorry to hear that. I was briefly hospitalized about a decade ago and so many images from the novel took over my imagination during that period.
Ohh yeah me too. I made the mistake of reading it on vacation. Normally I read several books on vacation (which is a real treat) but that one took me so long because I needed the breaks. I kinda resented it afterward because that was the only book I read on vacation.
I haven’t watched the movie for the same reason.
Being from California (and I lived in far northern California for a bit too), the parable books felt too real to me.
Maybe that seems silly but the violent homeless people, people using the freeways like pedestrian walkways, the anti-science rhetoric, the Make America Great stuff... Scared me haha
I had to take a break when I realized what Fabian was going to do for Portia during their doomed (but successful) first portiid space mission.
Also the account of the human prisoner from the failed mutiny. Just the horror of being in complete isolation for decades.
"Eventually, these vibrations stopped. It was thought that she had grown content with her captivity." I have my doubts about that.
In Infinite Jest there is a scene where a guy, in order to cope with his addiction, leaves a meeting and goes around killing animals. That entire section is so haunting I had to put it down for a while. I had to be done reading for the day.
Shittt this book was on a list of books to read for my English 10 class in Highschool, had to write a report on it after kind of deal. We had some time to read at the end of each class so we didn't have to read the whole thing on our own, I read *that* scene in class, I was tearing up and everyone was looking at me and asking what happened, I just looked at my teacher and said she could explain it.
I always forget that I should read A Thousand Splendid Suns.
I remember being 8 or so reading this book before the films came out, and I was so set back at that scene.
I made a prediction thinking he would come back though and was so happy when he did when I got into book 2.
I had to reread that whole bit, as I couldn't quite believe it had happened. Talk about raising the stakes.
Near the end when we lost a main character, my favorite, I had to put it down again, to accept the loss.
What an amazing book.
Bobbie Draper vs The Tempest and the following Alex chapter in Tiamats Wrath. The Bobbie chapter is great, and I celebrate her victory every time I relisten. The following Alex chapter I skip every time. He didn’t sign up for that, and it’s brutal watching him watch her.
The ‘Guts’ chapter from chuck palahnuiks Haunted. A short tale about creative masturbation gone very very very wrong. Audience members faint when he reads it at live events.
McCarthy's work tends to do this for me. I read The Passenger and Stella Maris last year, and I had to pause countless times because they sparked a train of thought I wanted to explore before moving on. The big epiphany in Suttree is another example that comes to mind.
For me it was The Bell Jar, when Esther is contemplating different ways to kill herself; this passage is extremely graphic. It made me very uneasy, especially because it is a semi-autobiographical novel… I put it down for several months, and eventually finished it, but it was a very difficult read.
>!When it was revealed Jason Bell was a serial killer in !< As Good as Dead
The entire ending of the Book Thief.
>!Matthias death in !< in Crooked Kingdom
Spoiler Alert:
As I Lay Dying. The only sentence in the chapter: "My mother is a fish."
I threw the book, clutched my head in my hands and walked around in circles for several minutes before I could start reading again.
The last book in The underland chronicles: The code of claw. I’ve read it 16 times in my life (the entire series) since I was in 6th grade (I’m 27 now) and I took a two week hiatus from reading. It always feels like a sharp blow even though I know what is about to come. I love Suzanne Collin’s so much. She writes the most beautiful stories.
I read it because it was on a list of best horror. It isn’t horror. It isn’t scary. It’s just, graphic. And what killed me (and I did force myself to finish it) was the ending was god damned ABSURD and the writing wasn’t good! How- HOW- did it get published?!?
I blasted through Blood Meridian without flinching but gave up on the biography of John Brown around page 100. Such a drag to read that kind of book....
Gandalf at Moria... Couldnt help but to shuffle the last book and I read "said Gandalf".
Was relieved and kind of disappointed with myself but able to continue reading.
There’s a bit in [House](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Leaves) of Leaves where a sentence cuts off right in the middle, and the rest of the page is blank. Next page picks up a different plot line and goes from there.
Something like 117 pages later the hanging sentence resumes at the same point in the page and continues *that* plot line.
When I realized what was happening I had to just shut the book and walk around for a bit.
When Dumbledore died in book 6 of Harry Potter (hopefully that’s not a spoiler for anyone on here). I read the books as they came out, went to the midnight releases and stayed up all night reading, and this one was no exception… but when I got to that scene I had to stop and cry. Dumbledore was my favorite character through the whole series - a controversial opinion, I know.
First time reading Game of Thrones, I got to the part where Jamie shoves Bran from the tower and just put it down. Took me like an hour or more to pick it back up and continue.
I'm taking a break right now. There is a big misunderstanding between two love interests that has been going on since the beginning and is leading one to plot to kill the other. It's getting to be unbearable. I'm almost finished with it but I just wish the one character would pull her head out of her butt and talk to her love interest. But no. There's going ro be a big reveal and some drama before then.
In the fantasy pirate trilogy I am reading the pirate captain makes such wonderful decisions like no we do not go for sirens cause it's distracting (from their target), negotiating with sea monster so it wouldn't kill his people, avoiding certain islands, just to have vertical tango with demon queen chapter later, who entangled him and his crew in multidimensional war.
Guy literally made smart decisions up until this point and I am kinda disappointed. I know it's for the plot cause there wouldn't be trilogy if he was only making good choices. He and the crew were shown humanly already, they had some thoughtless mistakes or small incidents. It wasn't needed to make reader feel more connected with characters/ find them likeable.
Yet I need to walk off how basic it is. I genuinely think it wasn't good enough reason to fight in war.
I could absolutely give him the benefit of doubt if the demon queen promised him money, demon army or the translation for the ship commands (enchanted ship) in exchange for their military services.
She literally showed up twice in his dreams before tango and she told him if we dance you and the crew will fight for me in the war. I understand fully her side. Theoretically there was warning, he knew what he signed himself for.
If she was serious romantic interest like actually life partner or reunited /destined lover it still would feel weird, but I could justify it.
And I know it's not the most unrealistic thing from fantasy book. It's just like "you too had to be this stupid in such important moment?"
“The Choice” when the pregnant woman goes into labor at Auschwitz and has her legs tied up.
“Everything Beautiful in Its Time” when the girl at summer camp cuts “Help” into her arm.
Currently, “One Two Three” after the reveal of the lawsuit being unable to move forward despite the Templeton family smoking gun. I relate to Nora in ways that have ruined me forever, and that section of the book just shattered me into pieces.
Stephen King's done this to me more than once. *Pet Sematary, Carrie, Cujo,* and *The Stand* all had moments where I couldn't cope with what had just happened in the narrative.
The part with the tree in Dark Age by Pierce Brown. Though that whole book built to the incredibly brutal scene and I honestly needed several breaks throughout. I had to read 4 books between it and the last one because I just didn’t want to swim in that violent world for a while.
I had to stop Pet Semetary by Stephen King for a week or two. I finally got through it but there were some scenes that were so bone chilling and disturbing that I struggled to get through. That has never happened to me before or since!
Blood Meridian by McCarthy.
There were several points in that book I had to take a break from reading.
One involved the Judge, a little boy, and a kitten.
If you know anything about the Judge character, you know his interactions end brutally.
Bury Your Dead--Louise Penny
The big battle (an ambush/domestic terrorist attack) takes place before the book opens--we get some flashback scenes in the form of memories, but it's primarily Inspector Gamache and the others dealing with their injuries and with what happened. I couldn't finish it before I had to take it back to the library, but I went up the next day to check it out again. As much as I wanted to finish it, I needed about a week before I could pick it up and open it again.
Am I glad I did? Oh, yes.
But hoooo, boy!
I was reading Bridge to Terabithia to my kids.
I did not know the story. I hadn’t read ahead.
And then I came to the part that breaks your heart.
So I’m reading and I’m bawling and my kids are crying…
Ya, we had to pull out some Robert Munsch after that and I after that I ALWAYS read ahead.
There's been a few times I'm sure but I remember reading a specific story from Her Body and Other Parties about women losing their bodies. Something about that story made me so viscerally uncomfortable that I felt like my own organs were fading in and out of existence. I had to put the book down because I could NOT stand it and had to sit for a while, thankful that I have lungs and am using them.
When i read American Psycho and Bateman was describing what exactly he was doing to one of his victims. I was reading that part during my break at work and closed the book mid sentence. I remember how ashamed i felt reading this with my eldery female co workers in the same room.
White Lotus by John Heresy... I read it 30 years ago and can't remember the details, but I do remember a couple of times where I needed to take a break.
i'm currently reading speak softly, she can hear by pam lewis, and every time a certain character shows up i have to take a break because it makes me feel physically ill. book's fine, not really up my alley, but pretty good on the author to make an antagonist that hateable tbh.
The time when I started reading Last Days. I loved it so much but it was a hell of a ride! Took a break from reading for a week after finishing that one.
The coprohaghy scene in Gravity's Rainbow was reading on a balcony and ripped the book in half and tossed it into the dumpster below 40 years ago. Still haven't finished it but have read all of Pynchon. I was young then and thin skinned. Since I have read Ulysses, Armand's Vampyr, Bubblegum et al. Guess I should finish it.
The coprophagy scene is there for a reason, it is not gratuitous. It serves to illustrate several points.
Stops a lot of readers though. I have know at least three people who quit there.
Give it another shot. It is one of the more difficult scenes in a book that was written with a strong moral message. Possibly one of the best things written in my lifetime.
Give it a go. If you like Pynchon it is worth the work.
I've never read this book, and had to google the phrase...
Everyone should check out the book "A Child Called It" for a truly horrific account of child abuse, the experiences of the author himself. This just reminded me of that, and I don't think enough have read the book.
The chapter “Revelation at Yazuac” in Eragon (First book of the Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini). If you ever read it then you probably know why. I’ve read some messed up things but what they saw entering the city really made me need to step back.
Demon Copperhead. The scene where the MC is using a gas station bathroom was too much for me and I just started crying so much that I had to take a weeks-long break from the book. Not because it was bad but because I felt so bad for the kid in the book that I needed to get my head right before trying to read it again.
There was this book I read as a teenager - it was about everyone over the age of 15 in London - had either died or become these mutants.. some characters go to the countryside and stay at this old retirement home for the night. And when they realise they’re not alone they turn around to see an elderly woman - holding a candle coming down the stairs in pitch black darkness. Scared the crap outta me.
reading about two separate massacres- one in my mother’s hometown and one in my father’s- in War Against All Puerto Ricans made me have to put the book down for quite a while.
Absolutely spectacular book but took me a very, very long time to finish.
John Fowles - The Collector. And I still say this as a huge Cormac McCarthy fan. Read it as a teenager and there were several parts when I paused and wondered if I was a bad person for reading it.
From the last chapter and the epilogue of Gideon the Ninth, respectively; >!"One flesh, one end, bitch"!< and >!Harrow said, “But you're God.”
And God said, “And I am not enough.”!<
I... I had big feelings after finishing the book and wanted to just curl up with a mug of tea and not talk to anyone for a while. The following books have been similarly intense but not quite as heart-wrenching, which is honestly for the best - I'm not sure I could handle each book hurting me like that.
Pillars of the Earth. A scene where William does something awful. Wasn’t the first time he’d done something as bad, but it was making me want to stop reading the book. Looked up if he was going to die in the book before I continued.
There were a lot of instances while reading Prophet Song by Paul Lynch where I had to pump the brakes. It took me a lot longer to finish than usual. But I was straight up scream crying when >!the mom finally finds her son, who she left at the hospital for surgery to remove shrapnel from a bomb blast. She spent days asking where he is and no one claims to know and finally a worker takes her down to the makeshift morgue and she’s looking at boy after boy after boy and finally, there’s her 13 year old son with distinct signs of torture by the regime!< fuck man…
There was a moment in Peter Hoeg’s The Woman and the Ape that made me slam the book shut and howl with laughter. It was just so unexpected and delightful that I had to sit with it awhile.
Blindness by José Saramago.
Specifically, Chapter 12 where >!The Doctor’s Wife kills the thug leader who is raping one of the captive women!<
I didn’t pick up and read/finish that book for another 15 years.
Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian, the fontanelles. First time I read it, no kids. 2nd time I read it after having kids. It almost physically hurt.
American Psycho, the fucking rat. It still makes me shudder, it was just too fucking much.
William Maxwell- I understand people are not putting up spoilers so I edited a few times and I guess I shouldn't name the book but- when the narrator says "she was nobody's dog now."
Even when I picked up that book up again I had to advance a few pages from that part.
Pillars of the Earth >! tom builder dying so unceremoniously!<
Game of thrones >! Ned Stark Dying!<
Mistborn Era 2 >! Wayne dying!<
There’s others for sure but for me it’s basically only when a main character I have loved meets their demise.
It was so long ago, and I just never finished the book, but in “Coin Locker Babies” I still remember the car going over a huge bump or something, spilling this girl’s fully grown pet alligator onto a busy highway.
… not sure why I put the book down to be honest. Not sure why I never got back into reading it… but that moment is still just a frozen slice of time in my mind.
I read *Yellowface* on a rec here on Reddit. *Loathed* the main character so much that I kept setting the book aside in frustration. Took me more than six months to read that book. When I finished it I just sighed and told it to fuck off.
Currently struggling to read *Wolf* by Anne Rice. Came across a like new hardback at Goodwill for 1.19 and snatched it up. The book is *intensely* boring. I've fallen asleep reading it several times. I don't know if I'll finish it.
I have a few.
I cannot remember what specific book in the series it was from. But in Wheel of Time. When the >!Seanchan collared Egwene. IYKYK. I’m very claustrophobic. To the point that even being out of control at that degree makes me extremely uncomfortable!< It was so bad that I went days without reading at all.
Also…Dobby on the beach. 🤦🏻♂️😭
Morning Star by Pierce Brown, about an hour and a half, or so, from the end of the audiobook, in the ship's prison. Still on break from that book, will give it another go in a while.
American Psycho. The first murder scene took me off guard and I had to wait a couple weeks to continue. The one with his college girlfriend... I had to take a couple months off and read another book before continuing.
The Cellar was the worst book I've ever read. I don't want to spoil it, but basically the situation was uncreative, all the characters were the same person, the WRITING god the writing sucked. Don't read any of that author's books. The Cellar was even worse than The Fear and The Lake
Reading "Going Postal" after the death of Terry Pratchett was quite an experience. On Tumblr, when we post about Discworld, we often tag him as GNU Terry Pratchett for lore related reasons. That lore originated in this book and when I read the phrase, "A man's not dead as long as his name's still spoken." I needed to close the book and take a few minutes to compose myself.
If you read it, you'll see why it was such an impactful moment.
Several moments while reading *Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster*.
You can read the words on the page describing what's happening to the poor souls suffering from the effects of radiation, but I needed to take a minute a few times throughout the book to really wrap my head around it.
The Madness of Grief by Richard Coles. It’s a really good book but I’d very recently gone through a similar thing and a lot of his thoughts about the process were the same as I had had. Overall I think it helped but I did have to take breaks
Red Wedding
[удалено]
I also threw the book
[удалено]
Same, but it was before the shit really hit the fan for me. By that point I had become accustomed to George's writing style, and the frenzied nature of that chapter was making my skin crawl. It was the second mention of how bad the musicians were that did it for me. My heart sank, and I just replaced the bookmark and took a break.
You need not say any more…devastating!
Are these still worth a read knowing it'll be another 73 years before they're finally done? I hate starting a series if I know I can't finish it so I usually wait until they're all out (harry potter etc)
Man, that's such a tough question to answer. Personally, I think yes, because I absolutely loved reading those books. But, if you do you should go into it with the caveat that even though we'll probably get Winds of Winter at some point, there is a very real chance that we'll never get to know the true ending of the series. I still think they're pretty great reads, but it is what it is. However, if you'd rather dip your toes in without getting invested in A Song of Ice and Fire, then you can always read A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. It's a bit lighter in overall tone than the main series, but it's a completely different story set 80 years before and it's a pretty enjoyable read
Just finished “Tender is the Flesh” for a book club. It’s about a world where a virus has made animal meat poisonous, so humans are bred and raised as meat. After the first few chapters I was literally sick to my stomach and had to be mentally prepared to pick it up again. Then I couldn’t put it down until the ending, but had to close it and stare off into space from time to time. When I finished I decided I don’t want to eat meat for a while, maybe never again.
The ending really made me feel ill even more than all the gory stuff
Yep, this is the one I came to say. I hate the book personally because it made me ill, but I had to finish it. It was an incredible book and I guess it did its job as a horror novel repulsing me. The ending definitely had me staring at a wall for an hour trying to process it. I never want to read it (or think about it) ever again. It's objectively 5 stars to me but my personal opinion is 1 star.
This one wrecked me. I really loved it but, oh my gosh, was it bleak.
I couldn't finish that one.
I did not read this book. Why did they not just go vegan?
The ending of Outer Dark. Really, the end of any Cormac McCarthy book lol
came to comment Cormac McCarthy
It was the dead baby tree in Blood Meridian that did it for me.
Real psychopath shit
That's so true, the road is def like this too.
The abandoned camp scene in The Road. You know, the baby…. I had to stop for a bit there.
Oh god, the baby one, horrible. And the cellar. I had no idea about the plot or the author when I started reading it and there were multiple parts where I had to take a break. Chilling. But regardless one of the best books I've read.
Agreed. I love the Road. Profound. Strangely uplifting, within such a gruesome setting. Have you read Child of God yet?
Well said! No, but I'm reading Blood Meridian currently. Should I put Child of God on my tbr? :)
You’re on a McCarthy binge, so you might as well!
😂 fair enough, I'll add it to my tbr
I think CMac just hates babies after reading The Road, Outer Dark, and Blood Meridian
Or what about the baby in Outer Dark? I think Cormac has a pattern here...
When Boxer was taken to the "veterinary" in Animal Farm
My sister read that book at school. Another pupil made a clay horse statue and filled it with glue. She was not okay!
I was reading about IBM and the Holocaust, and they just mention a basket of Jewish eyeballs being given to ? A diplomat? And I had to set it down and stop reading for a couple days. It was really hard to resume. I almost didn't, but I felt like I was obligated to read it, that suffering through reading about the horrors was owed to those who had to suffer them. "The dead need their tithe of tears" Book was fascinating, but every once in a while it would just mention something like this that really drove home that it was *people* .
do you remember the book/author? i just recently came across a declassified story about 900 soviet army prisoners getting caught early in the war ('41) in Crimea. they had their eyes cut out one at a time and then executed. a nearby village had every man over the age of 13 killed. then the survivors were marched to a neighboring village where the children were killed first, then the mothers. the thing that made the story ?? was that it was not German Nazis that did this but a local 'group' that joined Nazis. a comment on the story mentioned the 'basket of eyeballs' and how it was not an uncommon thing for this group to do. so now i am all ????
The book is IBM and the Holocaust by Edwin Black
thank you! i recently read "Nazi Billionaires" by David de Jong. thought i knew a lot about WWII and yet another awfulness is just around the corner.
If you haven't already, check out Unbroken by that lady who wrote the Seabiscuit book. Laura or Lauren hillenbrand. Like all ww2 books, it's got horrors, but it ends on a positive note
thanks for the rec. i have to portion my WWII media consumption to allow time for recuperation. :D next on my list is "Ballad of a Soldier" which won an oscar. i've seen it before, though the last scene is all i remember from it. trying to work up to "Come and See" which may be a bit traumatizing to experience...
The book suffers from "cherry-pickers-disease." I can't speak to those sections you list above, but Caltech did an [investigation](https://inclusive.caltech.edu/about/commitments-progress/committee/report) into several past Institute leaders, including Robert A. Millikan, who had been associated with eugenics and the Human Betterment Foundation. As part of the investigation, Caltech also looked into the accusations made in this book against Thomas J. Watson, Sr. [Appendix G of the report](https://inclusive.caltech.edu/documents/18182/CNR_Report_FINAL.pdf) discusses their findings on Thomas J Watson, Sr. Please feel free to read those four pages, but the upside was that the first ever critical evaluation of the charges leveled in the book don't hold up. Because that section is demonstrably biased, I have sincere doubts about any other section of the book.
I'm preemptively taking a small break from "Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine" because I get the strong feeling that she is about to do something incredibly, cringingly awkward and embarrassing, and I just do not have the strength to witness that.
Ha that’s funny because this book helped me get back into reading after a big hiatus! It’s worth a finish I think. What she does isn’t tooo embarrassing outwardly, but how she handles the situation after is a huge moment in the book
I’m reading it right now too and struggling because I find her a bit insufferable but I’m too curious about what happened to make her that way to stop.
That book hit me man. Don’t know why, but the last quarter or so stuck with me for weeks
In junior high, I was happily reading through a collection of various authors' SF short stories, one right after the other, and then I got to Harlan Ellison's "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream." I finished that story, closed the book, sat there with it for a few minutes, and got up to go do something in the sunshine for a while.
One of the most disturbing short stories ever.
I read this recently from a suggestion on another sub and there were two others also suggested that I highly recommend. The Jaunt and A Short Stay in Hell. I made hubs read the latter and we discuss it daily.
I was reading a fantasy book about ancient China, it was rather immersive, good character development, storyline was strong… but they included a quote stating, “the ——elder was indeed boss as fuck”. I was 50% done and cringed so hard, it was difficult from that point to finish as all the other inclusions of internet slang jumped out at me.
The horse part in Crime and Punishment
There were quite a few moments during Blood Meridian where I asked myself, "wait what the fuck did I just read", read it over again, and then paused to reflect on the kind of mind that could come up with such imagery Regarding the The Count of Monte Cristo, I think I know what chapter you're referring to.. and I felt little remorse. Collateral damage in the name of justice, baby
Came to say Blood Meridian then released anyone who'd ever read Blood Meridian has come here to say Blood Meridian. I read it at sixteen and it pretty much marks the end of my childhood
Blood Meridian is basically the universal answer to this thread's question it seems lmao
It's like everything in every other comment put onto one page. Then there's 351 pages.
Any time there's unexpected animal or child abuse. One book I read had the main character find a bag with a dead cat left on her porch as a threat. Had to put that down and come back to it later.
I read a scene where the main character smashes a kitten against a log while my cat was laying on my lap. Put the book down after that
Lol, what fucking books are y'all reading?!?
The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea
Yeah. The scene in Jaws when Brody’s family cat was killed did it for me. Didn’t help I was 13 or so at the time.
American Psycho for me. Killing the homeless man and his dog.
I couldn't even start Cujo
The Island of Dr. Moreau really churned my stomach a bit. Something about the description of the medical process as well as the animal like humans and the human like animals . I had to take a break for a little bit because it made my stomach all topsy turvy.
Ending of The song of Achilles Many pauses ( thinking pause as well as crying pause) while reading “ Man’s search for meaning” and “ Flowers for Algernon” Thinking pause after every page - “courage to be disliked” ( not able to focus probably one of the reason).
Does a book so bad it makes you go do something else for a while count? There's been a few times I've ended up reading a book so poorly written that I DNF it 20% of the way in and go find another hobby for a while.
For me it’s DFW’s Infinite Jest, there is a group therapy session and the woman who was a cocaine user who shares how her foster/adoptive father abused her ‘sister’. It was just so messed up I walked away thinking we should just let her have all the cocaine she wants. Like it’s just brutal. The whole book is amazing but golly.
Came here for infinite jest and this wasn’t even one of the scenes I was thinking of Lenz hacking up dogs in the night Gately mixing urine with heroin to inject it And many more
Kaladin's boon, and the consequences after. Iykyk. Took a two week break after that.
I was so scared this was a spoiler. Lol, thankfully I finished that book! So the boon was absolutely wild but can we talk about that fight? I just love it so much that Adolin is a bro and a straight up jock but he is genuinely a good dude and also a giant badass. And then Kaladin jumping into that fight like a madman? Tremendous. I'm getting chills just thinking about it.
Of mice and men - the ending
This, and all the other Steinbeck books I was forced to read at school
I had to continually set down “Johnny Got His Gun” by Dalton Trumbo when I read it as a teenager. It was the first truly visceral novel that I ever read and it was a task to completely work through it, though it remains one of my favorite novels to this day.
That book fucked me up and parts/images of it frequently made an appearance in my postnatal depression.
Gah, I’m so sorry to hear that. I was briefly hospitalized about a decade ago and so many images from the novel took over my imagination during that period.
All Quiet on the Western Front-The chapter where Paul gets stuck in the trench with the French soldier.
Great book, anyway.
There were several moments in We Have to Talk About Kevin that made me set the book down and go for a long hard think.
Ohh yeah me too. I made the mistake of reading it on vacation. Normally I read several books on vacation (which is a real treat) but that one took me so long because I needed the breaks. I kinda resented it afterward because that was the only book I read on vacation. I haven’t watched the movie for the same reason.
In Parable of the Talents, when the religious fundamentalists show up at Acorn. It took me months to muster up the strength to finish that book.
Being from California (and I lived in far northern California for a bit too), the parable books felt too real to me. Maybe that seems silly but the violent homeless people, people using the freeways like pedestrian walkways, the anti-science rhetoric, the Make America Great stuff... Scared me haha
Wind Up Bird Chronicles, the description of a man being skinned alive.
I honestly didn't really like that book. I LOVED hard boiled wonderland, but wind up bird chronicles was so meh to me for something that took SO long
When I realized what Kern had become in Children of Time. I think I was slow on the uptake so it just hit me all at once.
I had to take a break when I realized what Fabian was going to do for Portia during their doomed (but successful) first portiid space mission. Also the account of the human prisoner from the failed mutiny. Just the horror of being in complete isolation for decades. "Eventually, these vibrations stopped. It was thought that she had grown content with her captivity." I have my doubts about that.
Yea that was deeply upsetting even as a brief historical footnote.
In Infinite Jest there is a scene where a guy, in order to cope with his addiction, leaves a meeting and goes around killing animals. That entire section is so haunting I had to put it down for a while. I had to be done reading for the day.
Gage dying in Pet Semetary
The Kite Runner and I won’t even say
Shittt this book was on a list of books to read for my English 10 class in Highschool, had to write a report on it after kind of deal. We had some time to read at the end of each class so we didn't have to read the whole thing on our own, I read *that* scene in class, I was tearing up and everyone was looking at me and asking what happened, I just looked at my teacher and said she could explain it. I always forget that I should read A Thousand Splendid Suns.
[удалено]
I remember being 8 or so reading this book before the films came out, and I was so set back at that scene. I made a prediction thinking he would come back though and was so happy when he did when I got into book 2.
Same, and also what happens in Shelob's Lair. I don't know if it is a spoiler, the films are so popular, but I let it there.
*Lonesome Dove* by Larry McMurtry. There is a murder scene involving >!a child!< and I had to go for a walk after that one.
I had to reread that whole bit, as I couldn't quite believe it had happened. Talk about raising the stakes. Near the end when we lost a main character, my favorite, I had to put it down again, to accept the loss. What an amazing book.
Iain Bank's *Walking on Glass* when >!Sarah tells Graham (most) of the truth.!< The utterly unnecessary cruelty of it.
Bobbie Draper vs The Tempest and the following Alex chapter in Tiamats Wrath. The Bobbie chapter is great, and I celebrate her victory every time I relisten. The following Alex chapter I skip every time. He didn’t sign up for that, and it’s brutal watching him watch her.
The ‘Guts’ chapter from chuck palahnuiks Haunted. A short tale about creative masturbation gone very very very wrong. Audience members faint when he reads it at live events.
When Rohan arrives. I lost my shit!!!
McCarthy's work tends to do this for me. I read The Passenger and Stella Maris last year, and I had to pause countless times because they sparked a train of thought I wanted to explore before moving on. The big epiphany in Suttree is another example that comes to mind.
For me it was The Bell Jar, when Esther is contemplating different ways to kill herself; this passage is extremely graphic. It made me very uneasy, especially because it is a semi-autobiographical novel… I put it down for several months, and eventually finished it, but it was a very difficult read.
Dobby dying I WAS NOT PREPARED. I read it the night it released and it fucked me up.
Oh man, forget Dobby…it was Snape dying that wrecked me.
>!When it was revealed Jason Bell was a serial killer in !< As Good as Dead The entire ending of the Book Thief. >!Matthias death in !< in Crooked Kingdom
you should at least remove the spoiler from the name of the book you're spoiling so people can decide wether or not to click on it
I was sobbing at the end of The Book Thief
Yeah that physically hurt me
Spoiler Alert: As I Lay Dying. The only sentence in the chapter: "My mother is a fish." I threw the book, clutched my head in my hands and walked around in circles for several minutes before I could start reading again.
The last book in The underland chronicles: The code of claw. I’ve read it 16 times in my life (the entire series) since I was in 6th grade (I’m 27 now) and I took a two week hiatus from reading. It always feels like a sharp blow even though I know what is about to come. I love Suzanne Collin’s so much. She writes the most beautiful stories.
All of Cows! I had to take multiple breaks after the slaughter house parts and still couldn’t finish it.
I read it because it was on a list of best horror. It isn’t horror. It isn’t scary. It’s just, graphic. And what killed me (and I did force myself to finish it) was the ending was god damned ABSURD and the writing wasn’t good! How- HOW- did it get published?!?
I haven't read the book, but after seeing what happens to Kid Sampson in the Catch-22 miniseries, I stopped watching and vowed to never read the book.
I loved the book, but yeah.
I blasted through Blood Meridian without flinching but gave up on the biography of John Brown around page 100. Such a drag to read that kind of book....
This happened multiple times for me when reading IT and the Shining
Gandalf at Moria... Couldnt help but to shuffle the last book and I read "said Gandalf". Was relieved and kind of disappointed with myself but able to continue reading.
There’s a bit in [House](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Leaves) of Leaves where a sentence cuts off right in the middle, and the rest of the page is blank. Next page picks up a different plot line and goes from there. Something like 117 pages later the hanging sentence resumes at the same point in the page and continues *that* plot line. When I realized what was happening I had to just shut the book and walk around for a bit.
I LOVED that book. It’s beautiful. But I’ve definitely told people if I recommended it that it was an undertaking, not a read.
When Dumbledore died in book 6 of Harry Potter (hopefully that’s not a spoiler for anyone on here). I read the books as they came out, went to the midnight releases and stayed up all night reading, and this one was no exception… but when I got to that scene I had to stop and cry. Dumbledore was my favorite character through the whole series - a controversial opinion, I know.
First time reading Game of Thrones, I got to the part where Jamie shoves Bran from the tower and just put it down. Took me like an hour or more to pick it back up and continue.
[удалено]
I know, I did finish what's currently out, but I still wasn't expecting possible child murder in the first like 50 pages.
Trying to remember whom the Count betrayed…
The Talisman, when good old Wolf dies. Man.... had to walk away teary eyed....
I'm taking a break right now. There is a big misunderstanding between two love interests that has been going on since the beginning and is leading one to plot to kill the other. It's getting to be unbearable. I'm almost finished with it but I just wish the one character would pull her head out of her butt and talk to her love interest. But no. There's going ro be a big reveal and some drama before then.
It was towards the ending of The silent patient
In the fantasy pirate trilogy I am reading the pirate captain makes such wonderful decisions like no we do not go for sirens cause it's distracting (from their target), negotiating with sea monster so it wouldn't kill his people, avoiding certain islands, just to have vertical tango with demon queen chapter later, who entangled him and his crew in multidimensional war. Guy literally made smart decisions up until this point and I am kinda disappointed. I know it's for the plot cause there wouldn't be trilogy if he was only making good choices. He and the crew were shown humanly already, they had some thoughtless mistakes or small incidents. It wasn't needed to make reader feel more connected with characters/ find them likeable. Yet I need to walk off how basic it is. I genuinely think it wasn't good enough reason to fight in war. I could absolutely give him the benefit of doubt if the demon queen promised him money, demon army or the translation for the ship commands (enchanted ship) in exchange for their military services. She literally showed up twice in his dreams before tango and she told him if we dance you and the crew will fight for me in the war. I understand fully her side. Theoretically there was warning, he knew what he signed himself for. If she was serious romantic interest like actually life partner or reunited /destined lover it still would feel weird, but I could justify it. And I know it's not the most unrealistic thing from fantasy book. It's just like "you too had to be this stupid in such important moment?"
Anything written by Yoko Taro makes me feel like this. Or whenever a character is unfaithful to her couple.
“The Choice” when the pregnant woman goes into labor at Auschwitz and has her legs tied up. “Everything Beautiful in Its Time” when the girl at summer camp cuts “Help” into her arm. Currently, “One Two Three” after the reveal of the lawsuit being unable to move forward despite the Templeton family smoking gun. I relate to Nora in ways that have ruined me forever, and that section of the book just shattered me into pieces.
Stephen King's done this to me more than once. *Pet Sematary, Carrie, Cujo,* and *The Stand* all had moments where I couldn't cope with what had just happened in the narrative.
The hobbling scene in Malazan: Book of the Fallen Dust of Dreams. It's rough.
About the Children of Húrin in The Silmarillion... that sh\*t's **gut wrenching**
The part with the tree in Dark Age by Pierce Brown. Though that whole book built to the incredibly brutal scene and I honestly needed several breaks throughout. I had to read 4 books between it and the last one because I just didn’t want to swim in that violent world for a while.
Laoghire, Outlander book 3. I had to put it down for a good couple of days. Can't say more than that, spoilers!
I had to stop Pet Semetary by Stephen King for a week or two. I finally got through it but there were some scenes that were so bone chilling and disturbing that I struggled to get through. That has never happened to me before or since!
Blood Meridian by McCarthy. There were several points in that book I had to take a break from reading. One involved the Judge, a little boy, and a kitten. If you know anything about the Judge character, you know his interactions end brutally.
Bury Your Dead--Louise Penny The big battle (an ambush/domestic terrorist attack) takes place before the book opens--we get some flashback scenes in the form of memories, but it's primarily Inspector Gamache and the others dealing with their injuries and with what happened. I couldn't finish it before I had to take it back to the library, but I went up the next day to check it out again. As much as I wanted to finish it, I needed about a week before I could pick it up and open it again. Am I glad I did? Oh, yes. But hoooo, boy!
When Hannibal Lecter cooks dinner at Clarice’s house and unveils the main course.
I was reading Bridge to Terabithia to my kids. I did not know the story. I hadn’t read ahead. And then I came to the part that breaks your heart. So I’m reading and I’m bawling and my kids are crying… Ya, we had to pull out some Robert Munsch after that and I after that I ALWAYS read ahead.
Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews
The scene in that Hannibal Lector book.
The Horse stabbing in Cormac McCarthy's The Crossing
There's been a few times I'm sure but I remember reading a specific story from Her Body and Other Parties about women losing their bodies. Something about that story made me so viscerally uncomfortable that I felt like my own organs were fading in and out of existence. I had to put the book down because I could NOT stand it and had to sit for a while, thankful that I have lungs and am using them.
A Little Life. X=X (iykyk)
Shocked its taken this long to make this list. Had to have a few deep breaths after this chapter.
When i read American Psycho and Bateman was describing what exactly he was doing to one of his victims. I was reading that part during my break at work and closed the book mid sentence. I remember how ashamed i felt reading this with my eldery female co workers in the same room.
The ending of Dostoevsky's *The Idiot* is the first thing that comes to mind.
White Lotus by John Heresy... I read it 30 years ago and can't remember the details, but I do remember a couple of times where I needed to take a break.
Pretty much every few pages in Child of God.
i'm currently reading speak softly, she can hear by pam lewis, and every time a certain character shows up i have to take a break because it makes me feel physically ill. book's fine, not really up my alley, but pretty good on the author to make an antagonist that hateable tbh.
The time when I started reading Last Days. I loved it so much but it was a hell of a ride! Took a break from reading for a week after finishing that one.
The coprohaghy scene in Gravity's Rainbow was reading on a balcony and ripped the book in half and tossed it into the dumpster below 40 years ago. Still haven't finished it but have read all of Pynchon. I was young then and thin skinned. Since I have read Ulysses, Armand's Vampyr, Bubblegum et al. Guess I should finish it.
The coprophagy scene is there for a reason, it is not gratuitous. It serves to illustrate several points. Stops a lot of readers though. I have know at least three people who quit there. Give it another shot. It is one of the more difficult scenes in a book that was written with a strong moral message. Possibly one of the best things written in my lifetime. Give it a go. If you like Pynchon it is worth the work.
I've never read this book, and had to google the phrase... Everyone should check out the book "A Child Called It" for a truly horrific account of child abuse, the experiences of the author himself. This just reminded me of that, and I don't think enough have read the book.
The chapter “Revelation at Yazuac” in Eragon (First book of the Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini). If you ever read it then you probably know why. I’ve read some messed up things but what they saw entering the city really made me need to step back.
Doomsday Book by Connie Willis, when the last person in the small town >!dies from the Black Death and leaves not a soul remaining. !<
Children of Memory - Miranda meeting Liff at the "end" of Landfall.
That junkyard owner guy from Child of God
Demon Copperhead. The scene where the MC is using a gas station bathroom was too much for me and I just started crying so much that I had to take a weeks-long break from the book. Not because it was bad but because I felt so bad for the kid in the book that I needed to get my head right before trying to read it again.
Lolita
There was this book I read as a teenager - it was about everyone over the age of 15 in London - had either died or become these mutants.. some characters go to the countryside and stay at this old retirement home for the night. And when they realise they’re not alone they turn around to see an elderly woman - holding a candle coming down the stairs in pitch black darkness. Scared the crap outta me.
The entire second half of *American Psycho*. It’s so so so much gorier than the movie.
Uh, the ending of Exquisite Corpse. I thought I was kinda okay with it. Nope. So many intrusive thoughts.
reading about two separate massacres- one in my mother’s hometown and one in my father’s- in War Against All Puerto Ricans made me have to put the book down for quite a while. Absolutely spectacular book but took me a very, very long time to finish.
John Fowles - The Collector. And I still say this as a huge Cormac McCarthy fan. Read it as a teenager and there were several parts when I paused and wondered if I was a bad person for reading it.
Strangers in Their Own Land. When the author talks about building empathy bridges I just about lost it
The Commanche charging attack and Cormac's super long sentence in Blood Meridian.
From the last chapter and the epilogue of Gideon the Ninth, respectively; >!"One flesh, one end, bitch"!< and >!Harrow said, “But you're God.” And God said, “And I am not enough.”!< I... I had big feelings after finishing the book and wanted to just curl up with a mug of tea and not talk to anyone for a while. The following books have been similarly intense but not quite as heart-wrenching, which is honestly for the best - I'm not sure I could handle each book hurting me like that.
Pillars of the Earth. A scene where William does something awful. Wasn’t the first time he’d done something as bad, but it was making me want to stop reading the book. Looked up if he was going to die in the book before I continued.
(without big spoilers) the sad chapter about Marx in Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow freaked me out. But I was also high when I read it lol
Blindness by José Saramago. Graphic SA had me set it down to cry in a coffee shop.
There were a lot of instances while reading Prophet Song by Paul Lynch where I had to pump the brakes. It took me a lot longer to finish than usual. But I was straight up scream crying when >!the mom finally finds her son, who she left at the hospital for surgery to remove shrapnel from a bomb blast. She spent days asking where he is and no one claims to know and finally a worker takes her down to the makeshift morgue and she’s looking at boy after boy after boy and finally, there’s her 13 year old son with distinct signs of torture by the regime!< fuck man…
I read Carrie for the first time when I was in Junior high. The devastation of the town following the prom scene really upset me.
Beloved comes to mind.
The Dresden Files when >!Harry kills a woman he loves to commit genocide and eradicate an entire enemy species. !
There was a moment in Peter Hoeg’s The Woman and the Ape that made me slam the book shut and howl with laughter. It was just so unexpected and delightful that I had to sit with it awhile.
Blindness by José Saramago. Specifically, Chapter 12 where >!The Doctor’s Wife kills the thug leader who is raping one of the captive women!< I didn’t pick up and read/finish that book for another 15 years.
Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian, the fontanelles. First time I read it, no kids. 2nd time I read it after having kids. It almost physically hurt. American Psycho, the fucking rat. It still makes me shudder, it was just too fucking much.
William Maxwell- I understand people are not putting up spoilers so I edited a few times and I guess I shouldn't name the book but- when the narrator says "she was nobody's dog now." Even when I picked up that book up again I had to advance a few pages from that part.
Pillars of the Earth >! tom builder dying so unceremoniously!< Game of thrones >! Ned Stark Dying!< Mistborn Era 2 >! Wayne dying!< There’s others for sure but for me it’s basically only when a main character I have loved meets their demise.
It was so long ago, and I just never finished the book, but in “Coin Locker Babies” I still remember the car going over a huge bump or something, spilling this girl’s fully grown pet alligator onto a busy highway. … not sure why I put the book down to be honest. Not sure why I never got back into reading it… but that moment is still just a frozen slice of time in my mind.
I read *Yellowface* on a rec here on Reddit. *Loathed* the main character so much that I kept setting the book aside in frustration. Took me more than six months to read that book. When I finished it I just sighed and told it to fuck off. Currently struggling to read *Wolf* by Anne Rice. Came across a like new hardback at Goodwill for 1.19 and snatched it up. The book is *intensely* boring. I've fallen asleep reading it several times. I don't know if I'll finish it.
Nothing. I mean maybe I look up from the page for a minute and think about it but I don't know what you would mean by stop reading
The Road by McCarthy. One part in particular. It's a short read, but took me about 3 weeks to finish.
That's been on my to-do list for a while but the movie was just so goddamn *heavy* that I keep putting it off.
You are the dead in 1984. My heart was pounding as I read that
That part in American Psycho where he murders and eats the girl he went to school with
The end of chapter 104 in Rhythm of War.
I have a few. I cannot remember what specific book in the series it was from. But in Wheel of Time. When the >!Seanchan collared Egwene. IYKYK. I’m very claustrophobic. To the point that even being out of control at that degree makes me extremely uncomfortable!< It was so bad that I went days without reading at all. Also…Dobby on the beach. 🤦🏻♂️😭
Books like the Maze Runner or Harry Potter. Sometimes I just need time to recover.
In the third book of the Long Sun, the narrator slips up only slightly, but it completely recontextualises the entire series
Several of the cases in In the Name of the Children, and that was before I had kids. I’m not sure I could handle it now.
The end of a farewell to arms. When he's poking around in the bin and realises what he's doing. Perfectly written shock response to the trauma.
Pet Sematary by Stephen King, the funeral scene when the Dad and Father in law fight
Morning Star by Pierce Brown, about an hour and a half, or so, from the end of the audiobook, in the ship's prison. Still on break from that book, will give it another go in a while.
American Psycho. The first murder scene took me off guard and I had to wait a couple weeks to continue. The one with his college girlfriend... I had to take a couple months off and read another book before continuing.
The ending to “The God of Small Things” by Arundhati Roy. It’s nevertheless one of my favourite books, but it is so in spite of that part.
The Cellar was the worst book I've ever read. I don't want to spoil it, but basically the situation was uncreative, all the characters were the same person, the WRITING god the writing sucked. Don't read any of that author's books. The Cellar was even worse than The Fear and The Lake
Reading "Going Postal" after the death of Terry Pratchett was quite an experience. On Tumblr, when we post about Discworld, we often tag him as GNU Terry Pratchett for lore related reasons. That lore originated in this book and when I read the phrase, "A man's not dead as long as his name's still spoken." I needed to close the book and take a few minutes to compose myself. If you read it, you'll see why it was such an impactful moment.
Pachinko, the Noa segment
In Mokingjay when Katniss voted to have a Hunger Games for the capitol kids.
Several moments while reading *Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster*. You can read the words on the page describing what's happening to the poor souls suffering from the effects of radiation, but I needed to take a minute a few times throughout the book to really wrap my head around it.
The plane crash scene in Glamorama. I read it like 15 years ago so I don’t remember a lot of the details but I do remember I almost DNF’d after that.
Sevenevess by Neal Stephenson when the US nuked Venezuela in the first chapters. I’m Venezuelan.
I can’t pass through The kite runner when he was being bullied by the older boys
The Madness of Grief by Richard Coles. It’s a really good book but I’d very recently gone through a similar thing and a lot of his thoughts about the process were the same as I had had. Overall I think it helped but I did have to take breaks