For me, it was a book called ‘The Outsiders’ by S.E Hinton. It is known as a literary classic these days, but it was quite hard hitting when it was released back in the 1960s.
In a nut shell; It is about a group of semi-impoverished greaser friends growing up in 1960s Tulsa, Oklahoma, and all the life challenges they face, and how they react to prejudice against them whilst coping with family issues.
It was the first book that made me realise that some people in society don’t get it easy growing up, and I discovered what it meant to live on the ‘wrong side of town’ and what societal prejudice was. The outsiders was the first novel I read that brought up hard subjects like; domestic violence, alcoholism, street gang violence etc.
It was the first book to shatter my naive way of thinking about the world, at 13 years old! It is still one of my favourite stories to this day, and for all its slightly dark themes, I love the compassionate friendship and brotherhood that is displayed in this book!
Dreams by Derrick Jensen. It’s the only book to have that kind of sudden dramatic effect on me.
Tbh the author is legitimately insane. He believes he has muses on the ‘other side’ telling him what to write and what not. The bulk of the book is basically him explaining why he believes that. The main story isn’t what affected me though.
He’s also a pretty hard core environmentalist. He advocates for blowing up damns and such(crazy). Which I can’t really get behind but he also just talks about the state of the environment. And the way he was able to describe the current distress of the natural environment shook me to my core. That was almost ten years ago now and I still haven’t recovered.