What is the most power, scary, wrenching book you have read?

paglynn

No bull****. No crap like ''compelling'' ''laugh out loud funny'' ''dazzling'' ''spellbinding''. I read of few books which have promised me they are hilarious and they are just not.
Seriously the few books that have made me tear a bit or feel scared or horrified or even feel anything for the characters, are these:

NOTE: NO SPOILERS

-The Book Thief
-Les Miserables (when he goes on about the sewers for 40 pages, thoughts drift to pills and razors and rope but its good.)
-Oliver Twist
-Of Mice and Men
-For Whom the Bells Toll
-The Shining ( I feared the dark for the first time in years.)
-American Psycho (I loathed this book. Its sick and pointless. But damn it provoked a reaction which is good)
-Lord of the Flies
-Lord of the Rings (God I want to see Rivendell)
-The Short History of Nearly Everything (i think thats the name) its written By Bill Bryson , made me laugh a bit and gets you really interested in the world.

So if you havent read these books, give a few books or short stories that have met the criteria above.

NB: NO SPOILERS

agaetisbyrjun

A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver

Ostrom

In all honesty - Dracula.

First read it when I was quite young, and the moment when Harker leans out his window at dusk to see the Count crawling up the castle walls remains the most horrific depiction I've encountered in text. Those scenes from Harker's first journal entry establish an unparalleled sense of menace.

paglynn

yea something similar occurred when reading American Psychio, the part when Patrick (the main character) is reffered as ''He'' instead as opposed to first person is seriously weird. Ellis uses it ( i think) to show how he is utterly insane for a few moments.