# Books that traumatized you as a child **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 24, 2009, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-traumatized-you-as-a-child/487200 "2009-02-24T15:42:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-traumatized-you-as-a-child/487200/101 "2009-02-25T17:59:27Z")
I’ve been reading adult books since elementary school, including some horror stuff like Stephen King, but I can’t say that anything ever traumatized me. There weren’t even many movies that could really unsettle me, and I was allowed to see pretty much anything from birth (saw Alien when I was about 6!). And to this day, seeing or reading of someone about to get caught and get in trouble for doing something is much more suspenseful to me than someone about to get killed. However, Where the Red Fern Grows and My Side of the Mountain probably came closest in that they were both about young boys dealing with extremely real dangers and emotional ordeals. And the latter also because of it’s existential loneliness. ---
**Author:** ![Beadalin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Beadalin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beadalin)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-traumatized-you-as-a-child/487200/102 "2009-02-25T18:00:41Z")
Oops, wrong place. That’s embarrassing. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-traumatized-you-as-a-child/487200/103 "2009-02-25T18:05:37Z")
Sorry about replying to myself, but I missed the edit window. The story was called [“The Boy Who Drew Cats,”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boy_Who_Drew_Cats) and I got the details a little wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/bc8723/32.png) [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unauthorized_Cinnamon)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-traumatized-you-as-a-child/487200/104 "2009-02-25T18:28:07Z")
> [@Beadalin](#): > > My Dad was German, and that’s why we had an illustrated copy of the [Struwwelpeter](http://www.amazon.com/Struwwelpeter-English-Translation-Heinrich-Hoffmann/dp/0486284697/ref=pd_sim_b_1) stories. I was completely repulsed and fascinated by them. Little boys getting ground up into sausages and having their thumbs snipped off by scissors, etc. Creepy. Get the fuck out of town! I thought they made that up as part of Dwight’s background on The Office. I can’t decide if it’s hilarious or terrifying that it’s real. This thread highlights a question for me - I’m trying to get my 5 1/2 year old re-interested in reading. She loved her picture books for a long time, but now is more interested in playing and doing gymnastics, even at bedtime. So I started hauling out my old chapter books. She saw the play of Bunnicula a few months ago, so that is a winner. And we played a bit of the Coraline Wii game, so I mentioned that I had that one too (yeah, I read it as a grownup). So now she’s all excited to read Coraline. And I’d forgotten how freaking creepy it is. But on the other hand, I think the GK Chesterton quote Gaiman cites may be true in her case: “Fairy tales are more than true — not because they tell us dragons exist, but because they tell us dragons can be beaten.” So, for now I’ve let her start reading it with me, but I’ve told her if it gets too scary, let me know. What do you all think? ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-traumatized-you-as-a-child/487200/105 "2009-02-25T18:30:35Z")
_Coraline_ scared the snot out of me as an adult. ---
**Author:** ![Mojo\_Pin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mojo\_Pin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mojo_Pin)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-traumatized-you-as-a-child/487200/106 "2009-02-25T19:06:57Z")
I was probably 6 or 7, reading a collection of stories with animal heroes (I’m not sure that it’s Aesop) and I remember one story about a bear who went from being a weakling to a badass king of the forest, and then one day realizes that his best days are behind him and now young bears are stronger than him. I think he ends up being mauled and dying, and he just accepts his fate. I was so sad and _angry_ that it had to be that way. ---
**Author:** ![Elyanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b5ac83/32.png) [@Elyanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elyanna)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-traumatized-you-as-a-child/487200/107 "2009-02-25T19:10:00Z")
_I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings._ Child Rape. ---
**Author:** ![Momofgirls](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/momofgirls/32/21798_2.png) [@Momofgirls](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Momofgirls)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-traumatized-you-as-a-child/487200/108 "2009-02-25T19:38:08Z")
> [@StGermain](#): > > In the doctor’s office there was this book of religious short stories for kids. In one story, and kid goes to visit his friend in the hospital. The friend is dying, and thinks he has to have his hand raised so Jesus knows to take him. So the kid sneaks back into the hospital to sit with the kid and hold his hand up until he dies. Or maybe I’m misremembering the whole thing. Very odd. > > StG Oh, my God - I remember that story! That whole book was kind of odd, but that story in particular, with its illustrations really did a number on me. I was reading The Amityville Horror when I was about ten or eleven, and just as I got to the part with the red pig eyes in the window, I looked up to see eyes in my window! It was just our cat, but she was black and it was night, so it scared the hell out of me. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-traumatized-you-as-a-child/487200/109 "2009-02-25T19:52:02Z")
Hey, Bunnicula fans! Have you seen _The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit_, a Wallace and Gromit film? I don’t remember how old I was, but a teacher read us a poem by a Great American Poet. A charming family is outdoors, being charming and familial. A lad is cutting up a fallen tree with a chainsaw. Mother yells for everyone to come in for dinner. The saw, _as if to show it knew what dinner meant_, kicked back and lopped off the lad’s hand! Aaaaack! My stomach still hurts, just retelling it. I was quite young when I saw a Three Stooges bit that freaked me out. One of the Stooges got a bowl of chowder or fish stew, and a clam reared up and snapped at him. Might have spit in his eye, too, I’m not sure. I’m still wary of bivalves, after all these years.:eek: ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-traumatized-you-as-a-child/487200/110 "2009-02-25T20:01:14Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > Same with me w/r/t _Alice in Wonderland_. The image of Alice with her neck 20 times its normal sized creeped me the F out. Me too! I forgot all about that one! ---
**Author:** ![the\_Lady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bb73d2/32.png) [@the\_Lady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_Lady)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-traumatized-you-as-a-child/487200/111 "2009-02-25T20:20:11Z")
All I ever did as a kid was read, so you’d think I would have come across a pile of things that bothered me…and sitting here I can only think of one. The story of Bluebeard the pirate, who keeps dead wives in a locked room, discovered by his currently living wife, who gets blood on the key so he knows she’s been in there… ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-traumatized-you-as-a-child/487200/112 "2009-02-25T20:27:39Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > _Coraline_ scared the snot out of me as an adult. Gonna see the movie? ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-traumatized-you-as-a-child/487200/113 "2009-02-25T20:29:38Z")
I’ve read adult books since I could read (my aunt was a librarian, I hung out there with her unsupervised and read some really troubling stuff kids shouldn’t know about). But as for more of “children’s” books, a book of the more obscure and unadulterated Grimm’s Fairy Tales gave me nightmares for months. There were also several books of Alfred Hitchcock’s stories-for-young-readers anthologies. Most were pretty lame. But there was one story that has haunted me to this day - involves a “garbage monster” that was chased out of town and buried in a field…and a young girl? woman? - at the end lay down on the ground where it was buried and could hear it deep below in the earth. Creepy as all hell, no explanations, very short. Just wierd!..“Black Beauty” or anything at all featuring cruelty to animals. “Haunting of Hill House” by Shirley Jackson - read this at age 12 and have slept with a nightlight ever since! ---
**Author:** ![Hockey\_Monkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a183cd/32.png) [@Hockey\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hockey_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-traumatized-you-as-a-child/487200/114 "2009-02-25T20:40:42Z")
We were forced to read _Where the Red Fern Grows_ as an English assignment, then if that weren’t torture enough, we had to watch the movie in class. I’ll never forgive Mrs. Miller for that. I read _Salem’s Lot_ and _Pet Semetary_ when I was 9. Both books gave me nightmares and hooked me on Stephen King. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-traumatized-you-as-a-child/487200/115 "2009-02-25T21:14:30Z")
> [@AskNott](#): > > I don’t remember how old I was, but a teacher read us a poem by a Great American Poet. A charming family is outdoors, being charming and familial. A lad is cutting up a fallen tree with a chainsaw. Mother yells for everyone to come in for dinner. The saw, _as if to show it knew what dinner meant_, kicked back and lopped off the lad’s hand! Aaaaack! My stomach still hurts, just retelling it. :eek: What kind of demented poem for children is _that_? I could (almost) understand a cautionary tale about chainsaw safety, but to make the chainsaw _sentient_ is just nuts! ---
**Author:** ![Ro\_Carter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7feea3/32.png) [@Ro\_Carter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ro_Carter)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-traumatized-you-as-a-child/487200/116 "2009-02-25T21:18:19Z")
A couple of stories kind of soaked into my brain, and still pop up and have to be forced down every once in a while. They never actually flat out scared me (that was reserved for Planet of the Apes), but they did disturb me. The first was a short story in a sci-fi anthology about a fuzzy, intelligent, gray alien that comes to say hi to earth. He is captured by some backwoods hick, kept in a cage, and essentially turned into a zoo animal. It made me feel ill. The second was some book I pulled off a classroom shelf one day when I was bored. I can’t even remember the title (it seems like it was two words, like “The Cell” or something). The main character is a girl who gets in a fight with one of her friends. She is going to meet the friend to drop off a typewriter in kind of a “I don’t want your stuff anymore” gesture, but within sight of the friend, is grabbed by some people in a van. She wakes up to find herself in a little cellar, with a bucket to use as a toilet, a bucket of water, and some donuts (I think?). The rest of the book covers the letters she writes and slips out the crack of the cellar door in hopes of someone finding her while she slowly dies of starvation/water deprivation. Additionally, I could never finish Animal Farm. I hated that book. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-traumatized-you-as-a-child/487200/117 "2009-02-25T21:22:50Z")
> [@StGermain](#): > > In the doctor’s office there was this book of religious short stories for kids. In one story, and kid goes to visit his friend in the hospital. The friend is dying, and thinks he has to have his hand raised so Jesus knows to take him. So the kid sneaks back into the hospital to sit with the kid and hold his hand up until he dies. Or maybe I’m misremembering the whole thing. Very odd. > > StG I know the story you mean. My grandma had a whole series of these books (in fact, I think I have them now). They all had red covers and were called Bedtime Stories for Children or something else too generic to search for. I do remember the climax of the story, when the little boy is found, his arm propped up by pillows, face shining with peace because he’s gone to be with Jesus. How sweet! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-traumatized-you-as-a-child/487200/118 "2009-02-25T21:23:15Z")
> [@Ro\_Carter](#): > > The first was a short story in a sci-fi anthology about a fuzzy, intelligent, gray alien that comes to say hi to earth. He is captured by some backwoods hick, kept in a cage, and essentially turned into a zoo animal. It made me feel ill. That sounds somewhat like “The Star Beast,” by Nicholas Stuart Gray, one of my favorite authors. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-traumatized-you-as-a-child/487200/119 "2009-02-25T21:35:55Z")
This book traumatized me, but in a good way, and this seemed like the right place to share it: [Ghosts and More Ghosts](http://www.amazon.com/Ghosts-More-Robert-Arthur/dp/0394811925/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1235597117&sr=8-8), by Robert Arthur. When I was a kid, I could never remember the name, but I was familiar with the cover (it had a skeleton on it), and I checked it out of the library every time I happened to run across it. An odd title, come to think of it…I’m not sure there’s more than one ghost story! I’m bummed because my library doesn’t have any Margaret Ronan. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2009, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-traumatized-you-as-a-child/487200/120 "2009-02-25T21:36:27Z")
Roald Dahl’s _Charlie_ books were a bit disturbing. The bedridden grandparents, the people lying still in Minusland, etc. The story of the girl who took a bunch of pills from the medicine cabinet and now has to spend all day on the toilet really freaked me out. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-traumatized-you-as-a-child/487200.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-traumatized-you-as-a-child/487200.md?page=7)