Disturbing but a page-turner
925475
Having read Mary Renault's "The Persian Boy" a few years ago (I would have read this story immediately after if I'd known the two were connected), I was interested in reading this conclusion.  While the characters involved were interesting, the portrayal of the woman in the novel is horrible.  Nonetheless, I came away with two favorite characters in the novel: Phillip (Arridais) and Eurydike.  Though Phillip is sometimes patronized and Eurydike is sometimes portrayed less than flattering, both emerge as fascinating characters.  Though Eurydike may or may not like Arridais, she seems to have genuine care and concern for him.  They emerge as the most likeable characters in the novel, though Bagoas is also enjoyable. The novel keeps the reader guessing to the end as to who is going to inherit Alexander's throne, but its questionable treatment of women keeps me from highly recommending the book.
2458019
This isn't the sort of book I can say I "liked" but I'm certainly glad I read it.  The subject matter is dark and disturbing but the story well written and extremely insightful.
296076
This is perhaps the most disturbing book I have ever read. I'm not into the "weird fiction" or horror genre but this book got passed around my family and I was curious. My brother literally had to get the book out of his house so he could go to sleep at night. My mother said she hated it, but wouldn't put it down. So I read it. Aronovitz' writing is is compelling and "true" in that the characters and their words/actions are natural, real, believable. That made the weird and creepy things that happened far more weird or creepy than one might normally expect from a genre book. I recommend this, but don't blame me if it gets to you.
4052988
It's very disturbing, to say the least, but well done.
1604056
absolutely loved "Gone Girl" so I couldn't wait to read more from the very talented Gillian Flynn! "Sharp Objects" was a superb but quite disturbing book. Ms. Flynn has a knack of developing characters who get under the reader's skin, which I find riveting, yet borderline creepy at the same time. I read somewhere that characters should be the vehicle in which the story is told, and that is certainly true of this book. Slowly but surely, the layers of each character are stripped away, to reveal the nitty gritty of the plot underneath.
I didn't particularly like the protagonist, Camille Preaker, nonetheless I found her compelling. The more we discover about her past, the easier it is to understand her personality. Let's just say that she has the mother from hell, and that's an understatement!
This book is a dark psychological thriller, and not for the faint-hearted. I enjoyed it, and plan on reading "Dark Places" as soon as I've digested "Sharp Objects".
3203090
Fascinating story. Gripping and disturbing but very well written.
2616113
Wonderfully disturbing.  The first of the series grabs your attention and pulls you in.  The premise is brilliant and unbiased - there is no clear stance where the author resides on the whole pro choice vs. pro life debate.  What is clear is that he has envisioned a future where neither side won the Heartland War that fought over this issue, and a third, more macabre alternative resulted.

I read this book because it is a book that is in the curriculum for one of my children's language arts classes this year and was the only one on the list that I had not read. I immediately was taken in and could not stop.  I just finished Unwholly and will start Unsouled tonight. I think that this dark, morbid book is going to haunt younger readers but not terrify them.  It is not overly graphic, except one scene that will be hard to read. It took my breath away and I had to stop reading for a few moments after that.  I consider this a triumph on the author's part - deeply moving, disturbing, gut wrenching, and left such an impression that I paused and had to take time to regain my composure.  That doesn't happen often with books that I read, let alone books intended for young adults!
3981498
HANNAHWHERE is a mystery, and it is a love story, and it is a complex horror story. There are some supernatural  elements interwoven with very real physical and psychological terror that, in the hands of a less capable writer, could have become so entangled as to never reach a suitable conclusion. John McIlveen did not resort to any convenience of plot to overcome the entanglements but rather followed the convoluted path wherever it might lead while giving his reader a truly gut-wrenching ride. At times it was hard to turn the pages fast enough.

The way we look at the issue of child abuse, or for that matter any abuse, has changed, in my lifetime, from something never to be mentioned to being emblazoned on the front page of the newspaper, or blog, or TV news. I don't believe that this is due to an increase in this horrendous behavior, but rather due to an increase in the willingness to talk about it. Abuse is a fact of life with which we should all be uncomfortable, and, at the same time, something that must never be ignored.

Key to the telling of the tale is the sympathetic language used to describe horrors we would like to think are unimaginable. By sometimes talking around the barbaric acts, a clearer picture emerges, images we would rather never see. I never felt that this language was meant to diminish the savagery. In some ways, the careful choice of words made the violence that much more real.

For the most part, the presentation here is highly polished and readable. However, there are several streaks that mar the finish. Overall, they are mere blips that ultimately do nothing to diminish the story.

HANNAHWHERE is one of those books that it is difficult to say you enjoyed reading, yet it is not unique in this characteristic. There have been any number of books that I am glad that I read but feel that to say I enjoyed them would reflect badly on me. Sometimes it is enough to read and understand what the author is saying to make a novel a worthwhile read. HANNAHWHERE is a worthwhile read.
4514263
This is a gripping, though very disturbing, book. I marveled at Margaret Humphreys' determination to research the families of the hundreds of people who were shipped to Australia and other countries as children as part of a secret plan ("scheme" as referred to in the book) and her sensitivity to the many psychological ramifications the re-unification had for both the families and the adult children. It is definitely a book that is worth reading. When I saw the movie based on the book several years ago, I found it upsetting but did not realize until I read the book the enormous number of people who were affected by this "scheme."
1033502
The book is written in two different POV's, the FBI investigating the crimes and one of a surviving victim. It is a dark, disturbing, methodical and well-written story. The author hooked me from the beginning. I usually can't  finish a book that deals with sexual violence because I find the subject distasteful and hard to stomach but I couldn't put down The Butterfly Garden. I finished this book in one day, not because I didn't know how it was going to end, but because I wanted to hear the rest of the victim's story.  So, if you are the least bit squeamish about the treatment of women, you may want to take a pass. However, if you can handle the subject, the writing is worth the journey. This is one book that  will keep you up all night.
4152688
This was a disturbing page turner. Full of mystery. The ending was a shocker, even for me. Definitely will have me thinking for days to come.
4206869
I found this book deeply disturbing and so detrimental to my preconceived ideas about the state of Israel that after every chapter, I had to put it down for a day or two before I could continue reading it.  I was profoundly shocked at the behavior of the founding members of the Jewish state, those whom I thought, and I think most of us were taught to think  of as  heroic.  The book is well written and reads as a novel, drawing one inexorably into the dark world of murder, theft, and mind bending ethical callousness that beget and still informs the behavior of this renegade entity that has  embedded itself into the middle east.  I came away from the final chapter with a sense of moral outrage and commitment to spread the word about a political entity that in it's current condition, cannot be allowed to continue, as from it's very foundation has and ,is behaving exactly  like South Africa before the world brought down apartheid.
1483077
I just finished reading this last night and while it was a page turner, I would not have selected this book had I known the content. By the time the plot unfolded, I had to know what happened and kept reading. Being a mother of a daughter, however, I found this book disturbing. I am not naive to the non-fictional similarities of this book and the depravity of the world, I'd just have preferred to know what I was getting myself into prior to selecting it. While I would recommend the book, I would not recommend it to someone with a young daughter unless you enjoy sleepless nights.
3539726
The Author did a good job of narrating a time-line of events that described an escalating climate of Fatherly abuse and Neighborly fraud.  The story was well documented, a fast-read and fascinating page-turner.
As a side note, the Pilgrim Family children sounded intelligent, yet were so thoroughly manipulated and controlled.  Its disturbing to imagine other abusive scenarios that must exist where someone takes advantage of their position of trust and authority for selfish reasons.
1574479
I couldn't put this book down.  It is hard to imagine that anyone has to endure such abuse.  Very well written, but disturbing, book.
3273783
It was hard to put down.  Not unlike seeing a car crash, it is disturbing but you can't help but look.  A.M.Homes is a very provocative writer who gives you a keyhole to look through to characters you would never possibly meet.
474211
I am completely fascinated with the "They Walk Among Us" genre. Probably because of an unhealthy obsession with Animorphs at a young age. Regardless, I was really excited when I found out what this book was about, and almost immediately went out to the bookstore and bought it. I knew it was a Young Adult novel, but I guess I didn't really know what to expect. Certainly not what I got.

The 5th Wave is quite disturbing for a YA book. It's very gory, probably to goriest YA book I've ever read. Not all people shooting each other, mind. It's more that the sickness that spreads through the land is described pretty graphically. But it's not really the blood and guts that makes it disturbing. It's the very difficult themes. Cassie doesn't know who to trust, and it turns her into a killer. Watching her trust and belief in humanity degenerate is hard. And the brainwashing of children to become killers was really disturbing to me too.

That aside, The 5th Wavewas certainly the most fascinating YA action/adventure novel I've read in a long time. While I don't know whether I would say I enjoyedit, it is brilliantly written. It was like watching a train-wreck, disturbing or not I just couldn't look away. The end of the world was so realisticallywritten, I couldn't put it down.

The characters are flawlessly executed, both believable and dynamic. The plot unfolds at just the right pace, revealing bits of the secret at a time, never quite slow enough for you to see them coming, but not fast enough to feel like you're racing either. The romance is a little hokey, but at least reflects the truth that you don't always fall for the people you might expect. There is no doubt that I'm going to have to go readThe Endless Sea.