I want to know about the books you read years ago that were so impactful, so life-changing or so disturbing that you cannot get them out of your head even if you haven’t picked up the book in literal years. Characters or stories that you still think about on a regular basis.
Here are the squatters that taken up constant space in my brain, for at least the last five entire years:
The Giver by Lois Lowry (this book rewired my brain when I read it at age 8)
Room by Emma Donoghue
House of Leaves by Mark Z Danielewski
Marlena by Julie Buntin
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Only Ever Yours by Louise O’Neill
by panini_bellini
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Book bot doesn’t seem to work in the post body so I’ll paste the titles here for the bot to pick up:
{{Room by Emma Donoghue}}
{{House of Leaves by Mark Z Danielewski}}
{{Marlena by Julie Buntin}}
{{Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro}}
{{Only Ever Yours by Louise O’Neill}}
*Der Hauptmann von Köpenik* by Carl Zuckmayr
*100 days* by Lukas Bärfuss
*The diary of Anne Frank* as well as *My time with Anne Frank* by Miep Gies
*The perfume* by Patrick Süskind
*The boy in the striped pyjamas* by John Boyne
One that stayed since I was a teenager:
{{The Giant Under The Snow by John Gordon}}
Not too impressive from an adult perspective, but its treatment of ancient Anglo-Saxon legends was frightening. It also has magic flying sequences that were unlike anything I’ve read since, nothing like e.g. *Harry Potter*.
I think of a short story by Alice Munro. Throughout, it was a very simple character sketch, remembering her childhood. Not only was she an only child, but the aunts on both sides were unmarried and childless. Her mom’s sisters were a rollicking bunch, busy with careers and volunteer work, always back from or off to an interesting destination. Her father’s sisters, in contrast, lived extremely quiet lives in the house they grew up in, their childhoods just extended forever in a way. But it ended with this unforgettable line:
“Everyone is dead now, and the life buried here is one you have to think twice about regretting.”
Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood. A haunting coming of age story told in flashbacks.
Worm by Wildbow!!!!