# Book moments that scarred you for life **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 9, 2006, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-moments-that-scarred-you-for-life/356111 "2006-05-09T19:52:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-moments-that-scarred-you-for-life/356111/81 "2006-05-11T17:58:52Z")
When I was in junior high I read a short story called _Deathstar_. It was a cheery little tale about the appearance of a supernova that ultimately ends up driving all life on Earth underground. The sheer mass-scale helplessness of the scenario really freaked me out. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-moments-that-scarred-you-for-life/356111/82 "2006-05-11T18:16:14Z")
[QUOTE=interface2x] I couldn’t get over the fact that the entire premise of the story was physically impossible. Otherwise, it was pretty gross, though. [/QUOTE] OK, give me a spoiler for “Guts”, please. I gotta know. ---
**Author:** ![moonstarssun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@moonstarssun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moonstarssun)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-moments-that-scarred-you-for-life/356111/83 "2006-05-11T18:22:23Z")
[QUOTE=M. Meursault] I remember hearing about people fainting at readings of Chuck Palaunik’s short story “Guts.” I always thought “pansies”…until I read it. Oh my god that’s a disturbing story. I’m getting squicky thinking about it now, and I can’t even type out a spoiler, I’m so icked out. Google it if you want; it’s online somewhere. _shudder_ [/QUOTE] I shouldn’t have read that. I really, really shouldn’t have. But I like Chuck Palahniuk, and I thought, “How bad can it be?” Gah! I used to like calamari. ---
**Author:** ![Beadalin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Beadalin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beadalin)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-moments-that-scarred-you-for-life/356111/84 "2006-05-11T19:44:30Z")
> [@Ol'Gaffer](#): > > I don’t know if any of you are familiar with a German book called Strumpelpeter. It’s more widely known as **Strewelpeter**. My Dad was German and so I grew up with these stories. I was especially fascinated by the kids that got ground up by the butcher for sausage. A play was developed out of these stories, with the music performed by the [Tiger Lillies](http://www.shockheadedpeter.com/). I saw it in a small theater in Minneapolis and laughed so hard I cried. I’ve read a lot of horror. The woman in the bathtb from \*The Shining[/g] is a top contender, but oddly, is edged out for the win of Scarring My Life Forever by H. P. Lovecraft’s _At the Mountains of Madness_. To this day, I find penguins (especially large ones) creepy. I have not watched “March of the Penguins” for this reason, and probably never will. The previews alone literally gave me goosebumps. Oh weird! I’ve been poking around in the Tiger Lillies site and found two relevant things: 1. They’ve also done a play about the story I mentioned above, called “Mountains of Madness.” 2. A poem for **Hal Briston** under [Band](http://www.tigerlillies.com/2003/index.php?main=band) ---
**Author:** ![TPWombat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbce88/32.png) [@TPWombat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TPWombat)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-moments-that-scarred-you-for-life/356111/85 "2006-05-11T19:48:36Z")
No mention yet of **The New Mother** by Lucy Lane Clifford? Sheesh, I read it just couple of years ago after hearing about it on these very boards and the scar isn’t ever going to heal. the bit that really hits something deep inside me me is when the children are calling out to their mother, telling her it’s ok now, they’ve stopped being naughty and she can come now. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-moments-that-scarred-you-for-life/356111/86 "2006-05-11T19:52:17Z")
[QUOTE=moonstarssun] Not from a book, but I remember this from something I saw on TV not too long ago…_Supernatural,_ maybe? [/QUOTE] I’m not familiar with this. Is it an ongoing series like the Twilight Zone or something? I wonder if it’s as creepy to watch as it was to read. ---
**Author:** ![Battle\_Pope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Battle\_Pope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Battle_Pope)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-moments-that-scarred-you-for-life/356111/87 "2006-05-11T19:55:06Z")
[QUOTE=Anaamika] If it doesn’t scare you too much, can you tell us in a spoiler box? [/QUOTE] Its been a while since I read the book - I’m sure others will add more. Its a scifi novel. The main charcter missunderstands an aliens offer to become part of its household. What the offer actually mean is to become totally dependent on it. They cut away all the flesh of his hands between the bones. The result is desrcibed in the book as him having fingers that start at his wrist. This isn’t mentioned in detail until quite a way into the book, but is hinted at almost from the first page. ---
**Author:** ![moonstarssun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@moonstarssun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moonstarssun)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-moments-that-scarred-you-for-life/356111/88 "2006-05-11T19:55:31Z")
Yeah, it’s a TV series. They didn’t show that story, but one character told it to the other, trying to scare him. It was the first time I’d heard it. ---
**Author:** ![Ol\_Gaffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Ol\_Gaffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ol_Gaffer)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-moments-that-scarred-you-for-life/356111/89 "2006-05-11T19:56:27Z")
[QUOTE=Beadalin] It’s more widely known as **Strewelpeter**. My Dad was German and so I grew up with these stories. I was especially fascinated by the kids that got ground up by the butcher for sausage. A play was developed out of these stories, with the music performed by the [Tiger Lillies](http://www.shockheadedpeter.com/). I saw it in a small theater in Minneapolis and laughed so hard I cried. [/QUOTE] Cool. Thanks (I think). ---
**Author:** ![moonstarssun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@moonstarssun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moonstarssun)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-moments-that-scarred-you-for-life/356111/90 "2006-05-11T19:58:17Z")
[QUOTE=moonstarssun] Yeah, it’s a TV series. They didn’t show that story, but one character told it to the other, trying to scare him. It was the first time I’d heard it. [/QUOTE] Sorry–that was supposed to be a response to **WOOKINPANUB.** What the hell happened to my quote box? ---
**Author:** ![Beadalin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Beadalin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beadalin)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-moments-that-scarred-you-for-life/356111/91 "2006-05-11T20:03:13Z")
> [@](#): > > Cool. Thanks (I think). Oh, you’ll thank me, all right. Hee hee! ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-moments-that-scarred-you-for-life/356111/92 "2006-05-11T20:12:14Z")
[QUOTE=Lemur866] > [@interface2x](#): > > I couldn’t get over the fact that the entire premise of the story was physically impossible. Otherwise, it was pretty gross, though. OK, give me a spoiler for “Guts”, please. I gotta know. [/QUOTE] My WAG about the “physically impossible” part: [spoiler]The narrator talks about being a teenager, sitting naked on the bottom of the family pool - on the pool drain - and jacking off while holding his breath. Then he tries to swim up and finds that he has prolapsed intestines, caused by the pool drain suctioning them out through his anus, through which he can see things like an undigested vitamin, corn, etc. He rips part free, there’s blood and intestinal contents everywhere, he gets out of the pool and gets medical attention. Later, his sister turns up pregnant but presumably a virgin - impregnation via pool water. His family never talks about these interconnected events. - I’m not entirely sure that a pool drain could prolapse the intestines of a healthy adult/teen. Maybe a little kid. - Even if it did prolapse, you wouldn’t see your intestines looking like a stuffed sausage. Unless you had a major rip around your rectal area which they were being pulled through somehow, the intestine would have been turned inside out, and the contents would be a muddy mess in the pool water. - I really, really doubt that properly chlorinated pool water - or even not-so-chlorinated - would be a good enough environment for sperm to live in long enough for a teenage girl to take a dip in at some undetermined point after her own brother had his guts ripped out in the bottom, before the pool guy was brought in to clean it even (a point noted in the story). [/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![Battle\_Pope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Battle\_Pope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Battle_Pope)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-moments-that-scarred-you-for-life/356111/93 "2006-05-11T20:38:29Z")
[QUOTE=Beadalin] …is edged out for the win of Scarring My Life Forever by H. P. Lovecraft [/QUOTE] I had to stop reading Lovecraft at night before going to sleep as I was started having the most bizarre dreams 😃 :eek: ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-moments-that-scarred-you-for-life/356111/94 "2006-05-11T20:47:06Z")
another one that really really bothered me was Johnny Got his Gun by Dalton Trumbo. I shiver whenever I check it out to some poor soul at the library. For anyone who doesn’t know, it’s a kinda heavy-handed anti-war book in which the main character gets shot up in the war, loses all his extremities and his ability to speak or see but somehow horribly managed to survive. Nightmare city. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-moments-that-scarred-you-for-life/356111/95 "2006-05-11T20:48:16Z")
[QUOTE=Beadalin] I’ve read a lot of horror. The woman in the bathtb from _The Shining_ is a top contender, but oddly, is edged out for the win of Scarring My Life Forever by H. P. Lovecraft’s _At the Mountains of Madness_. [/QUOTE] I’ve heard the Lovecraft story is going to be filmed. I’d almost look forward to that, because a crappy movie might get the horrific story out of my head. I read HPL in my teens, and had NO trouble believing that the Old Ones existed. I even called bookstores looking for the Necronomicon. I didn’t want the book, but with every store that said No, I felt more at peace. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f07891/32.png) [@Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Plastic_Ninja)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-moments-that-scarred-you-for-life/356111/96 "2006-05-11T21:01:14Z")
[QUOTE=Farmwoman] I was probably 8 when I read [Beautiful Joe](http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/saunders/joe/joe.html) and although I’ve read quite a bit of horror and depravity in the years since, this is still what I thought of when I read the OP. [/QUOTE] There’s another human being alive who’s read this book?! :eek: It was given to me by a friend of my mother’s when I was about ten. I loved it, even though it was a little distressing. No, I was freaked out by _The Shield of Three Lions_. My dear grandmother got it for me, and I’m certain she didn’t then and doesn’t now know the content of it. On the cover, in the first chapter, and even flipped to a random page it looks like your traditional historical fiction of a girl dressing up as a boy and running off to join the Crusades. And if it hadn’t been for all the bestiality and sex acts ranging from the merely graphic to the truly depraved, my eleven-year-old self wouldn’t have been half bothered. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-moments-that-scarred-you-for-life/356111/97 "2006-05-11T22:47:10Z")
The ribbon story is The Black Velvet Ribbon, and the jigsaw puzzle story is The Jigsaw Puzzle (imagine that!) – they’re from collections called Tales for the Midnight Hour by J. B. (Judith Bauer) Stamper. I haven’t been able to find out anything about the eating out of boxes TV show. It sounds like something the Brits would do. They’ve always been braver than the US, when it comes to gross stuff on TV. ---
**Author:** ![ianzin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@ianzin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ianzin)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2006, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-moments-that-scarred-you-for-life/356111/98 "2006-05-12T00:08:04Z")
Ian Banks. _Walking on Glass_. It’s not, ostensibly, a horror story of any kind, but it does contain, in my opinion, one of the most stunning, ingenious ‘twists’ that any author has ever sprung upon his readers. When I reached the point at which the ‘twist’ was revealed, I almost felt sick, although at the same time I was delighted at the sheer brilliance of the book’s construction and the way Banks had lured me into his trap. I wouldn’t say it ‘scarred me for life’ exactly, but it did make me think again about the lengths some people will go to in order to deceive / abuse others, and just how badly some people can treat others who don’t deserve it. ---
**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2006, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-moments-that-scarred-you-for-life/356111/99 "2006-05-12T00:14:30Z")
Jane Eyre scared the crap out of me as a kid. Where the Red Fern Grows is a truly horrible book to give any child (dead dogs and sad boy a la Old Yeller) and my elementary school was obsessed with reading the book and showing the film every freakin’ year. When I won the district spelling bee they presented me with an autographed copy of the book ☹ Jay’s Journal is a “true” account (not) of a high school kid who dabbles in the dark arts and ends up committing suicide. It’s a piece of stupid and badly written propaganda but really frightened me as a pre-teen (it seems to be very popular in my home state of Utar) ---
**Author:** ![Dervish\_Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@Dervish\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dervish_Jones)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2006, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-moments-that-scarred-you-for-life/356111/100 "2006-05-12T07:04:58Z")
Hey, I’ve read \*Beautiful Joe \* too! It was in a collection of four rather depressing dog stories. The only one that horrified me, though, was _A Dog of Flanders_. _Where the Red Fern Grows_ was the first book that made me cry and _The Fellowship of the Ring_ made me afraid to sleep alone for two weeks. Man, those Nazgul were scary. I’ve only been really scarred by two books. The first was _The Hunchback of Notre Dame_ which I read when the Disney movie came out; I think I was twelve. Toward the end, Frollo threatens to torture Esmeralda; I don’t remember if he actually does, but his description of crushing the bones in her feet will stay with me forever. I don’t remember the title of the second, just the protagonist hearing a cry and looking to see her Nazi guards throw something in the air and shoot it. At first she can’t process what she saw, but she realizes that it was a baby. She’s just standing there in shock repeating, “It was not a bird. . .” I wanted to throw up. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-moments-that-scarred-you-for-life/356111.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-moments-that-scarred-you-for-life/356111.md?page=6)