Guts by chuck palahniuk.
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson was the one that did it for me.
Hardfought, by Greg Bear. Sci-fi set in the far future, spoken with a military patois that is difficult to understand but is meant to highlight the alienness of the forever war that the story takes place in. Themes upon themes fifteen-plus layers deep, even though this is only a novella.
I have something north of 3,000 volumes in my library, and if I was to pick the most influential fiction story of my life, this would be it. I had difficulty reading it as a teenager who was typically reading at a university level while in high school, so it’s going to take serious effort by most to truly benefit from it. But when you finally understand those themes… holy shit.
The cold equations
I remember having read this one as a child in elementary school. Had to keep the anthology book it was in checked out for several months, as I kept re-reading it trying to grapple with the ethics of the story. It was brutal for a 10yo.
Of mice and men
Does that count as a short story?
Definitely bleak though.
I think it’s normally considered a novella. But it might be able to squeak by to qualify for the question. 🤷
It’s not a very long book
I’m just wondering what the definition of a short story is. It’s definitely short by book standards though.
I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream. If comics count, The Enigma of Amigara Fault.
The Dweller in the Gulf by Clark Ashton Smith.
Random shitposts on the internet have wiped away all the trauma I got from anything I read in school.
“Nachts schlafen die Ratten doch” still haunts me…
Short stories:
- Flowers for Algernon
- I have no mouth and I must scream
Short-ish:
- Of mice and men
- Brave new world
Except I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, my highschool definitely made us read those.
Maybe not disturbing enough, but the short story that really stuck with me was: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamb_to_the_Slaughter
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
We actually had to read that for our English course. What still haunts me is how weird random German words look in an English book. Like they’re not supposed to be there
We had to read ‘Der Vorleser’ in which a 15 year old boy gets into a relationship with a 36 year old woman. A strange choice to force kids about that age to read (we were a bit older than 15, I think. But still…)
Or they become President of France
High school teacher had us read Survivor Type - thus began my love for stephen king
