# 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:** 9
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-traumatized-you-as-a-child/487200/161 "2009-02-27T02:10:50Z")
I remember sitting on the bus at age 10 and hearing the lady in front of me give a glowing endorsement about [Hollywood wives](http://www.amazon.com/Hollywood-Wives-Jackie-Collins/dp/0671704591) and the promptly checking it out from the library. I had a very mixed up picture of oral sex for several years after that. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-traumatized-you-as-a-child/487200/162 "2009-02-27T02:22:29Z")
> [@Shalmanese](#): > > I remember sitting on the bus at age 10 and hearing the lady in front of me give a glowing endorsement about [Hollywood wives](http://www.amazon.com/Hollywood-Wives-Jackie-Collins/dp/0671704591) and the promptly checking it out from the library. > > I had a very mixed up picture of oral sex for several years after that. Oh lordy, that reminds me of a book, no idea what the book was, that I read when I was 11 or 12 where a man, whose name was I think Maurice, had such an enormous penis that he damaged his lover’s internal organs with it. This book was lying around the house! Mom! Dad! One of you traumatized me for life with that image! It might have been by Harold Robbins. I’m not sure. Ick. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-traumatized-you-as-a-child/487200/163 "2009-02-27T02:25:43Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > Oh, ugh! I read The _Tale of Despereaux_ about two years ago and it traumatized me. Seriously. The dungeon, the description of the beatings, the breaking of cartilage in the “cauliflower” ears, the unrelenting and irredeemable dumbitude of Miggory Sow, the insufferable bitchiness of Princess Pea…I kept waiting for some sort of moral good to come out of this obvious allegory, only it never came. I was truly disturbed by it, and can’t figure out for the life of me why it’s a children’s book or children’s movie. > > (However, I agree that not all Newberry Books are traumatizing. For example, there’s…uh…well, there’s…er…let me get back to you on that… 😃 ) First, one “r” in Newbery. Figured that out last year, letting the world know :). Second, I hadn’t thought about that angle in **Despereaux** , especially with the cartilage. Yeah, that’s kind of grim. But I think it’ll be all right. Third, another great Newbery to read (although I can imagine being traumatized by it) is _Holes_. Totally weird, starts off seeming like it’s gonna be all character-building, but it’s really a tight bit of plotting and a very well-told story. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-traumatized-you-as-a-child/487200/164 "2009-02-27T05:38:40Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > (However, I agree that not all Newberry Books are traumatizing. For example, there’s…uh…well, there’s…er…let me get back to you on that… 😃 ) Madeleine L’Engle’s wonderful _A Wrinkle In Time_ is not all that traumatic, and it won a Newbery award. ---
**Author:** ![Marathon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7cd45c/32.png) [@Marathon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marathon)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-traumatized-you-as-a-child/487200/165 "2009-02-27T06:33:45Z")
Loved John Bellairs as a kid - creepy, but didn’t traumatize me. This: > [@Lissla\_Lissar](#): > > Right, and there’s a scene in (I think) _The Curse of the Blue Figurine_, where the main character is walking down a windy, moonlit road, and sees something that looks like a paper plate blowing back and forth. It gradually blows up to his feet, and it’s a death mask. I still think of that blasted scene on windy, moonlit nights. …is from _The Revenge of the Wizard’s Ghost_. More Edward Gorey [cover art!](http://www.ne.jp/asahi/wweg/gorey/Media/Full-Images/OtherBooks/1985-Revenge.jpg) As for what traumatized ME … I was nine, in 1987, when the book [_Communion_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communion_(book)) came out. Jesus, THAT [THING](http://ghostradio.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/communion.jpg) ON THE COVER. I was, of course, horridly fascinated, and read enough of it to scare myself sleepless. I recently found it in a used bookstore and paged through parts of it … it’s absurd, badly-written trash, naturally, but I’ll be damned if I don’t think of that image sometimes in the middle of the night and get a little creeped out. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-traumatized-you-as-a-child/487200/166 "2009-02-27T06:46:26Z")
My dad had a book called “The Politics of Cruelty.” It was a non fiction scholarly book that basically compiled various stories of people from Communist countries who had been tortured, raped, et cetera. The only one that really bothered me was this account from some Russian political prisoner about how they were trying to get a false confession out of him, and they locked him in a tiny cell that was too low to stand up in and too short to lie down in. On top of that, the cell was lit by a 2,000 watt light bulb. All of the stories about torture, beatings, rape, execution, I read without being bothered one bit. But that part about the cell that you couldn’t stand up in and couldn’t lie down in - it made me shiver just thinking about it. For years and years and years. ---
**Author:** ![Omgalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/41988e/32.png) [@Omgalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omgalion)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-traumatized-you-as-a-child/487200/167 "2009-02-27T07:18:12Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > That’s not it, but thanks; that was fun to read!I would imagine the story I read was somewhat cribbed from that and simplified for young readers. In the last thread I mentioned it, some kind Doper (\*\*Auntie Pam \*\*maybe?) linked me to a book of short stories that contains it, though not the original book where I saw it. If she or anyone else can recall I’ll be much obliged! I went searching on Amazon for the book after you reminded me of it. I’m pretty sure the book (the one I remember the black velvet ribbon story from, anyway) is _Tales for the Midnight Hour_ by J. B. Stamper. ---
**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 27, 2009, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-traumatized-you-as-a-child/487200/168 "2009-02-27T13:05:43Z")
> [@loafish](#): > > When I was about six, my older sister read me a story from her English class (she was in 6th grade) about a book collector that finds a one-of-a-kind book in a shop and takes it home where he starts examining it and taking notes about it. One of the pages has a picture of a skinny dragon sitting on a pile of skulls. He meticulously counts the skulls and writes it in his notebook. After making other notes about this particular picture he goes to bed, leaving the book open to the picture. The story jumps to one of his rival collectors who is now in ownership of the book and the original collector’s notes. We learn that the original collector mysteriously disappeared and that the new owner is also examining the picture of the dragon but he notes that the dragon is not nearly as thin as the previous owner had described and that there is also one more skull than the former owner had noted in the picture. I’m sure there are details that I’m forgetting but the implication was that if the book was left open to that page, the dragon could escape and it would then take you back into the book and eat you. > > To this day, I can’t leave books open when I go to sleep. As a child I was sure that whatever was in the book would escape (it never mattered whether it was a scary book or not, I always assumed that whatever was coming out would be bad). As an adult, I find I’m just superstitious. > > I also spent the years before I got to 6th grade anxiously anticipating having to read the same story for my English class. When the time came, I wasn’t as terrified as I had been as a six-year-old, but I still made sure I closed the book before I went to bed. Pretty sure this story is included in [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), which I mentioned upthread. Can’t find a title right now though. The story in the book that always affected me most was the one about the radio show host who had himself chained to a bed in a spooky old house to give atmosphere to the scary story he was telling about the faceless monster from the swamps. Only he failed to take into account the power of belief created by all those radio listeners… ---
**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:** [February 27, 2009, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-traumatized-you-as-a-child/487200/169 "2009-02-27T14:09:11Z")
> [@ellere](#): > > I went searching on Amazon for the book after you reminded me of it. I’m pretty sure the book (the one I remember the black velvet ribbon story from, anyway) is _Tales for the Midnight Hour_ by J. B. Stamper. Yes! That’s it! Thanks, **ellere**. You’re a peach 😉 ---
**Author:** ![jali](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecae2f/32.png) [@jali](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jali)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-traumatized-you-as-a-child/487200/170 "2009-02-27T14:13:35Z")
> [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#): > > [The Other: Tryon, Thomas, Campbell, Ramsey: 9781933618265: Amazon.com: Books](http://www.amazon.com/Other-Thomas-Tryon/dp/1933618264/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1235567835&sr=1-4) > > The Other by Thomas Tryon. > > Read it in elementary school 'cause I found it on my older sisters bookshelf. > > It still scares me. I forgot! Yes - I was a kid too - I can’t remember how old but this scared me to death for a long, long time. I won’t read this again. ---
**Author:** ![CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crankyasanoldman/32/11670_2.png) [@CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrankyAsAnOldMan)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-traumatized-you-as-a-child/487200/171 "2009-02-27T15:06:01Z")
There was a Little Golden Book with a Sesame Street theme called “The Monster At The End Of The Book” or something. It is revealed early on that there is a monster at the end of the book. Grover (the main character of the book) is unnerved by this (OMG Monster!), and does not want the reader to get to the end and reveal the monster. Grover spends the rest of the book PLEADING with the reader to not turn the page, threatening, cajoling, building elaborate barriers to page-turning… the book disturbed me on many levels. One issue is how frantic Grover gets, and yet of course the reader just inevitably goes on turning pages. As a rather tense kid myself, I didn’t like seeing him come unglued. It also bugged me that the book had illustrations of things like brick walls (on one page there is an illustration of Grover frantically applies mortar and slaps bricks up in a stack trying to prevent the turning of a page). Instead of recognizing this as a witty way of breaking out of the typical book format, I felt like they were violating the sacred rules somehow. The equivalent of breaking the forth wall in a play, I guess. It wasn’t that Grover was addressing the reader, it was the construction of physical barriers (albeit just drawings, to the reader) that were supposed to be happening in real time as you read along. I suppose I need a spoiler warning for those of you eager to go out and buy this literary treasure for yourself, but it turns out that the monster at the end of the book is, in fact, Grover himself. He is both relieved and embarrassed over all the fuss. But what lso bothered me is that I didn’t really think of Grover as a MONSTER. Cookie monster is a monster, sure. It’s part of his name. There were also other muppets which were readily identifiable as monsters by their horns, eyebrows, or behavior. They were a class unto themselves, not necessarily scary but noble in their own way. But Grover, to me, was just is just a furry creature with ridiculous habits. It didn’t seem right for him to usurp the label of monster. I really disliked that book. I still do. ---
**Author:** ![Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-traumatized-you-as-a-child/487200/172 "2009-02-27T15:06:55Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > Oh lordy, that reminds me of a book, no idea what the book was, that I read when I was 11 or 12 where a man, whose name was I think Maurice, had such an enormous penis that he damaged his lover’s internal organs with it. > > This book was lying around the house! Mom! Dad! One of you traumatized me for life with that image! I’ve posted before about how my dad carelessly left his adult fiction mixed in with his Asimov and Heinlein books. So I read some pretty hardcore sci-fi/fantasy erotica when I was a pre-teen. I remember being shocked and fascinated, but not really upset. As for Newberries, though - I read _The Giver_ a few years ago and found it quite disturbing. Although it probably wouldn’t have bothered me as much when I was a kid. ---
**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-traumatized-you-as-a-child/487200/173 "2009-02-27T15:47:48Z")
> [@CrankyAsAnOldMan](#): > > There was a Little Golden Book with a Sesame Street theme called “The Monster At The End Of The Book” or something. It is revealed early on that there is a monster at the end of the book. > > Grover (the main character of the book) is unnerved by this (OMG Monster!), and does not want the reader to get to the end and reveal the monster. Grover spends the rest of the book PLEADING with the reader to not turn the page, threatening, cajoling, building elaborate barriers to page-turning… the book disturbed me on many levels. > > One issue is how frantic Grover gets, and yet of course the reader just inevitably goes on turning pages. As a rather tense kid myself, I didn’t like seeing him come unglued. It also bugged me that the book had illustrations of things like brick walls (on one page there is an illustration of Grover frantically applies mortar and slaps bricks up in a stack trying to prevent the turning of a page). Instead of recognizing this as a witty way of breaking out of the typical book format, I felt like they were violating the sacred rules somehow. The equivalent of breaking the forth wall in a play, I guess. It wasn’t that Grover was addressing the reader, it was the construction of physical barriers (albeit just drawings, to the reader) that were supposed to be happening in real time as you read along. > > I suppose I need a spoiler warning for those of you eager to go out and buy this literary treasure for yourself, but it turns out that the monster at the end of the book is, in fact, Grover himself. He is both relieved and embarrassed over all the fuss. But what lso bothered me is that I didn’t really think of Grover as a MONSTER. Cookie monster is a monster, sure. It’s part of his name. There were also other muppets which were readily identifiable as monsters by their horns, eyebrows, or behavior. They were a class unto themselves, not necessarily scary but noble in their own way. But Grover, to me, was just is just a furry creature with ridiculous habits. It didn’t seem right for him to usurp the label of monster. > > I really disliked that book. I still do. Oh HELLS yeah. I remember this very vividly and since I, like you, was both a tense and ridiculously empathetic kid (didn’t you find yourself feeling horrible for causing Grover’s increasing panic?), this was not a book I think of fondly. I guess the lesson we were supposed to be learning was _not_ to be afraid, since that which we feared turned out to be non-threatening, but sadly I never managed to get that far! I just learned not to turn the damn pages and avoid the fear in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-traumatized-you-as-a-child/487200/174 "2009-02-27T16:09:47Z")
I remember that book too, but I guessed the ending right at the beginning and so I just thought it was funny turning the pages. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-traumatized-you-as-a-child/487200/175 "2009-02-27T16:12:18Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > Oh lordy, that reminds me of a book, no idea what the book was, that I read when I was 11 or 12 where a man, whose name was I think Maurice, had such an enormous penis that he damaged his lover’s internal organs with it. > > This book was lying around the house! Mom! Dad! One of you traumatized me for life with that image! > > It might have been by Harold Robbins. I’m not sure. Ick. _Goodbye, Janette_, Harold Robbins. I read the exact same book, for the exact same reason (MOM! WHY?!) at the exact same age. Maybe a smidge younger. There was also a really classy scene with the woman putting on a really sturdy cotton nightgown to avoid having it ripped off her by her lover, but he gets an extra harsh cat o’ nine tails and whips it off her anyway. THANKS FOR NOTHING, MOM. I also read Stephen King’s _IT_ at an inappropriately young age (9, I think) and had issues with shower drains for years afterward. ---
**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 27, 2009, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-traumatized-you-as-a-child/487200/176 "2009-02-27T16:27:21Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > _Goodbye, Janette_, Harold Robbins. I read the exact same book, for the exact same reason (MOM! WHY?!) at the exact same age. Maybe a smidge younger. There was also a really classy scene with the woman putting on a really sturdy cotton nightgown to avoid having it ripped off her by her lover, but he gets an extra harsh cat o’ nine tails and whips it off her anyway. THANKS FOR NOTHING, MOM. I’m thinking in retrospect that one of my junior high teachers might have been a bit of a perv. He used to lend me Harold Robbins books to read (the only one I remember the title of now was _The Betsy_, but there were several others). It was very strange, because there wasn’t ever any indication (at least to me) that there was a problem–it wasn’t like he tried anything else (though I think he had a rep for trying to look down girls’ shirts when he could get away with it). I was such an innocent that it never occurred to me to be disturbed by any of this. I rather liked the books, though some of the racier descriptions did make me a little oogy. ---
**Author:** ![Alastair\_Moonsong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3e96dc/32.png) [@Alastair\_Moonsong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alastair_Moonsong)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-traumatized-you-as-a-child/487200/177 "2009-02-27T16:33:42Z")
> [@Caveat\_lector\_1](#): > > Where the Red Fern Grows is the only book only book that has ever made me cry and it had me not just crying but sobbing. This. No movie, book or song, no painting, drawing, or dance, no expression of artistic or linguistic creativity has EVER made me cry. Except that one. > [@choie](#): > > Oh HELLS yeah. I remember this very vividly and since I, like you, was both a tense and ridiculously empathetic kid (didn’t you find yourself feeling horrible for causing Grover’s increasing panic?), this was not a book I think of fondly. I guess the lesson we were supposed to be learning was _not_ to be afraid, since that which we feared turned out to be non-threatening, but sadly I never managed to get that far! I just learned not to turn the damn pages and avoid the fear in the first place. I loved that book! Had a copy when I was really little and loved it; lost it at some point, and then a few years ago my girlfriend at the time (god bless her) found a copy at a garage sale and, knowing I loved it, bought it for me. I still have it and will never lose it again! ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-traumatized-you-as-a-child/487200/178 "2009-02-27T16:46:43Z")
> [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](#): > > I’ve posted before about how my dad carelessly left his adult fiction mixed in with his Asimov and Heinlein books. So I read some pretty hardcore sci-fi/fantasy erotica when I was a pre-teen. I remember being shocked and fascinated, but not really upset. Anything approaching normal sex didn’t bother me. Giant-penis-dude causing mayhem and possibly an emergency room visit was a different story! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![phungi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/phungi/32/395_2.png) [@phungi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phungi)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-traumatized-you-as-a-child/487200/179 "2009-02-27T17:08:58Z")
> [@Ceejaytee](#): > > [Follow My Leader](http://www.amazon.com/Follow-My-Leader-James-Garfield/dp/0140364854) by James Garfield. It’s a fabulous book about a boy who is blinded and shows how he learns to read Braille, gets around with his cane, and finally, gets a guide dog named Leader. Wonderful book. But Jimmy is blinded by a firecracker, and ever since I read that book (about 30 years ago now) I have been terrified of firecrackers. I didn’t know anyone else even KNEW about this book! I recently purchased an old copy and read it to my (then 7-year-old) son… I have the same aversion to firecrackers. As much as the book taught good lessons, and educated me about guide dogs, it scared the snot out of me. On another note, I recall reading _Are you there, God, it’s me, Margaret_ by Judy Blume in 4th grade, in an effort to gain insight into the female species. I had a vision of Margaret rubbing a hairy brown mole on her thigh, which was her 'special place." I was eventually able to gain better insight and a keener sense of anatomy, but I can still recall the puzzlement and horror of that image. ---
**Author:** ![badbadrubberpiggy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/57b2e6/32.png) [@badbadrubberpiggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/badbadrubberpiggy)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2009, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-traumatized-you-as-a-child/487200/180 "2009-02-27T17:28:28Z")
> [@Marathon](#): > > As for what traumatized ME … I was nine, in 1987, when the book [_Communion_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communion_(book)) came out. Jesus, THAT [THING](http://ghostradio.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/communion.jpg) ON THE COVER. I was, of course, horridly fascinated, and read enough of it to scare myself sleepless. I recently found it in a used bookstore and paged through parts of it … it’s absurd, badly-written trash, naturally, but I’ll be damned if I don’t think of that image sometimes in the middle of the night and get a little creeped out. Oh lord, that thing scared the crap out of me, I was about 7when it came out. It still sort of does, so I’m not clicking on your link. I think I was under the vague impression it was a true story, for some reason, which scared me even more. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-traumatized-you-as-a-child/487200.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-traumatized-you-as-a-child/487200.md?page=10)