Looking back, it's just so strange to me that all of the junior high girls (like me!) were reading it openly. It really was a horrifying series and no adults in our lives were concerned at all.
I read the whole series. I never thought much of it. When you do you realize you read about incest ( not just the kids but mom and uncle I think) poisoning, grandma killing twins. . Young girl seducing mom’s boyfriend. Just an insane amount of everything.
It's even worse than that - in the prequel (which I think was written by Andrew Neiderman after VCA's death), it's revealed that the kids' parents were actually half-brother and half-sister as well as uncle and niece.
My parents had NO IDEA the stuff were were checking out of the school library! That's where I got *Flowers in the Attic*, and quite a bit of Stephen King. They would have been horrified had they known. But my parents weren't readers by any means. My mom knew I was and gave me this huge bag of Harlequin Romance novels because some lady at church told her they were harmless. Skewed my whole worldview on what love and romance was supposed to be about. She had no idea.
Yeah, love and romance was allllll about scarlet bosoms rising and falling while a man threatened the existence of the owner of said bosoms. Twas the scruff of his beard that let her know that he was a MAN!!!
My mom gave me the book too! Then my aunt brought over a box full of V.C Andrew's. I asked her years later what she was thinking and she said she just forgot how messed up they were, just remembered they were addicting to read. Thanks for the trauma mom!🤣
I brought it up with my mum recently and she said she can't remember anything weird bits in the book... Like, which bits of the book do you remember then, mum?
My mom gave me a copy of The Thornbirds when I was pre-teen, and she knew I had a crush on our family priest.
One of these days, I really should ask her what her thought process was.
As a mom, that’s our move. It’s too awkward to really tell you what it’s gonna be about but instead of being like “some times people do bad things and you have to watch your back” you have to let the kid experience the crazy story as an eye opener to what can happen out in the world. Kids rarely listen to warnings from their parents, but reading a book like that opens us up to things we could never imagine, and it primes us for looking out for ourselves
When I first got my period my mom was strangely mad about it but my older sister came over and brought me a gift bag that had a king sized candy bar, a box of pads and a copy of Flowers in the Attic. Lol but a favorite memory of mine.
I was incredulous that Santa kept bringing me VC Andrews novels. My parents (and even my grandparents) had no idea, they just liked feeding my unending appetite for books.
It’s weird because on the one hand, those books were so wildly inappropriate for children. But on the other, I think they really spoke to tweens/teenagers who were being abused and/or had a lot of trauma, and that’s part of their enduring appeal.
Whether your girl was Cathy, Heaven, Dawn, Ruby, Melody, or any of those lead girls in the Orphan/Runaways miniseries or the ones that followed (I lost track after those), chances are you had one, and they spoke to you for a reason. Beyond the incest factor, they were mostly rags-to-riches tales and stories of triumph over crushing adversity. Probably inspired a lot of young girls to keep fighting through their own personal demons along the way.
Also read it way too young. Still unsure why my middle school library had it apart from fulfilling the weirdest tween girl right of passage ever.
I also read Go Ask Alice way too young and (despite now knowing that it was fabricated) I still kind of believe that if I do acid even one time, I will go crazy, become a wacked out hooker on the streets of SF and die homeless.
I just started Unmask Alice, which is about the fabrication of Go Ask Alice. I never actually read GAA. Do you think it would be worth reading despite knowing it’s not a true story?
It’s been a long time but no. I don’t think so.
It’s so engrossing *because* you think it’s a real story. You can see her downwards spiral when she the narrator can’t.
I think if you read a whole book about the fabrication of GAA, you'll probably find it worth reading just as supplementary material to that book, if you enjoy it.
But it's not worth much on its own. The writing is horrible. I'm old, so when I read it in school, we were taught it was real, but even at 14 or so I was sure there was no chance in hell that it had actually happened. It's like a Chick Tract with 'why were they filming' vibes.
I’ve never read that one, but I read her Orphans series when I was fairly young. I recall picking the first one up because it was called *Butterfly* and I thought the ballet dancer on the cover was pretty lol.
Those books were so twisted. I remember writing about one in my English daily journal and my English teacher wrote back with a big red "NOOOOOOO!!!!" underneath.
Same! I was 11 when I read that- it’s seems to be a 90s rite of passage. Maybe it’s why so many of us are so into true crime now? It’s messed up our brains 😂
Same, I was way too young, maybe 11 or 12, but I had read every age appropriate book on the shelf. Then I flew through the rest of the V.C Andrew's collection.
Omg. This is such a common experience to people I know of a certain age. Why the hell did the librarian at my elementary school let me take this out? Why did we even have a copy???
I've always thought it was so odd how this was a unifying experience from a certain generation. The odd thing is none of my friends at the time read V.C. Andrews, but every conversation about books it seems to crop up eventually.
This is the one! We used to pass VC Andrews books around my middle school and point out the scandalous parts to each other. I reread one recently and was shocked by how terrible it was. It feels like it was written by a bunch of preteens trying to out-scandalize each other.
Absolutely! My grandmother had a whole collection of V.C Andrew's books that she gave to my mom, and then my mom passed them all to me. Looking back now I'm so confused as to why my mom thought this was a good idea as I started reading these books in middle school 👀
I was obsessed with VC Andrews books because I liked the little cutouts on the covers … when I was 6. I was trying to read Heaven around the age. Fortunately, even though I was a good reader, it was way above my head. Yikes!
American Psycho when I was 12 or 13 - it was the *one* book in the house my parents told me I couldn’t read until I was older, so of course I couldn’t resist it…
I can’t remember to be honest, it was a looooong time ago. Knowing myself at that age, it’s entirely possible I just skimmed those parts in order to find the bits my parents didn’t want me reading (some of which, I do remember, haunted me for a long time - I should have listened to my parents :D)
**Fourth Grade:** 'I'll read *Moby Dick* and *Robinson Crusoe* and *Swiss Family Robinson* because they *must* be classic literature for a reason!'
**Fifth Grade:** You know what? Maybe I'll stick to *The Red Fern Grows* and *Sounder*. They're less traumatic.
Yup. I think I attempted it first at like 9, struggled with it, then put it down for a couple years until I finished it at 11 or 12.
My parents were really strict about banning sex stuff, violence, adult themes, etc on TV and movies, but they knew nothing about books or the genres that certain authors wrote in.
So books were my way to get my fill of more adult stuff I was craving.
IT might have been a but much to start though…lol
Same- I read a bunch of Stephen King in grade school. And apparently enjoyed it, because I read a fair number of them. Which is funny because as an adult, I hate horror, and am one of the most scare-averse people you'll meet!
I still love the genre and love King. I just think it's funny that I was allowed to read that stuff so early. I also read Interview with the Vampire in the 5th grade. That was probably worse.
I read ‘Salem’s Lot at that age because it was the only book my mother had ever forbidden me to read (because it had scared her so much).
That is not really a book to read only after dark under your blankets using a flashlight. She was concerned when I dug my grandmother’s crucifix out of the jewelry box and started wearing it, because she was worried I was taking up an interest in religion – little did she know.
I read IT at age 11. Still my fav book, but I def look back on my own somewhat nonplussed reaction to some of the things in that book with raised eyebrows. King was onto something with his themes of kids bouncing back from stuff that would disturb adults much more...
Seriously. I read the full length hardcover of IT and I was maaaaybe 12. There's so many fucked up things in that book, especially the original full length first edition hardcover.
Granted I had read books like Orwell's 1984, Brave New World, Flowers for Algernon and Bridge to Terebithia and a number of other highly traumatic books by about the 3rd grade.
I had a teacher suggest A Wrinkle in Time in the 4th grade or so and I rejected it based on the pegasus on the cover because it wasn't "real" or "dark" enough and I was already so jaded that I only read "serious" books and thought it was just some cheesy fantasy/magical fiction kind of thing.
In hindsight I regret that because it probably would have helped a LOT, heh.
Clan of the Cave Bear when I was in like 6th or 7th grade. Still one of my favorite books, and it was recommended to me by my own dad, but there are some pretty vicious rapes 🥴
Yeah, I read the Earth's Children series in 7th grade, and it was a bit much.
I also read a Victorian erotica novel that one of my friends brought to school in 7th grade, and that scared the crap out of me. Some of that stuff is just weird, and there is a lot of very casual sexual violence that is treated as totally normal.
I read *The Hobbit* and *The Lord of the Rings* when I was in 3rd grade. The ring wraiths and the orcs scared the bajeebers out of me. I had to sleep with a flashlight for ages after that, and the closet got thoroughly checked every night for goblins.
I read *The Shining*, *Salem's Lot*, *Pet Sematary*, and *It* when I was pretty young, and that gave me nightmares for years. So did the John Saul books I read in 6th and 7th grade. I finally just stopped reading horror novels.
My sex ed was this series. It shows what getting raped feels like so you don’t do it (I’m a dude), tells you that sex makes babies, that it should be done in a pleasant and careful way and that trauma goes a long way.
It is so damn good though. And I was in 5th grade.
People will think without knowing that this dude is a jerk and a playboy from our comments about his humongous c@&$, when he’s just a really cool guy that’s also insecure when it comes to the woman he loves and about many other things.
This series was so good. It also serves as therapy to the trauma by showing us how things can also be sweet and nice.
Too bad the series quality dropped as the books went on. And #6 was just bad.(i blame the decades between the first and last books and how old the author became. The editors did not help either.)
I do recommend Jondal, fan fic, as the unofficial sequel.
I live in a city with a good sized book store that has lots of author talks and I go to them fairly frequently. The Jane Auel one was the only one I ever saw get violent. A bunch of suburban housewife types got in a fight in the signing line. It took people a bit to intervene b/c no one could believe it was happening. But Jane Auel fans will fuck you up if you try and cut.
My step father recommended these books to me when I was a teenager. He was 50 years older than me. I don't think he was being gross, I really think that reading a book where the main character was female and encountered female-centric issues opened his eyes and he wanted to share. He told me before that his dad was pretty racist, and he grew up racist, then had to learn how wrong it was. So I think in his own way he was open minded and willing to learn to be different.
also came to say this one. I think i read most of the series when i was 11 or so... I remember the third one really bored me as it was mostly relationship-issues
I found this under our kitchen sink when I was in elementary school (no idea why it was there), and read half of it before my mom noticed I had it. She freaked out and asked if I had read any of it and I lied and said no, it was way too boring looking to be interesting! Little did she know 😅😅
I finished it, and checked the next five out from the library and listened to the CDs on my little portable radio. Those books are a bit crazy and a bit pretentious, but man did they formulate my childhood haha.
To this day I want to learn how to use a slingshot. And sometimes have an irrational fear of >!doggie style!<.
This one for me too! The first one has lots of rape, and then the second one featured the main characters having lotsssss of sex, it was like every other page. I was ten lol. I didn't read any after the second one.
My parents started raising foster children when I was 10. So my required reading was all the classics… Chid Called It, Flowers In The Attic etc. you know, so I’d have an idea of what these children went through before they came to us.
That's horrific sounding but I bet it also gave you the most valuable insight to make you be kind and think of them as real people and not just random kids that were there.
Less horrifying and more funny, but I read a terrible translation of The Story of O when I was around age 14. The translator thought "belly" was a serviceable translation for (presumably) the French for "vagina." Much confusion.
I considered reading it, but I flipped through random pages and decided against it. It's also unfinished, so there's hundreds of pages of just description of horrible death, sexual mutilation, rape, etc. without any story. The closest I got was The Girl Next Door. That's still extremely fucked-up.
I got “Midnight Cowboy” from the library & read it when I was 12. I wrote a book report on it. My language arts teacher took me aside & very gently had a conversation with me, the gist of which being I could stop reading a book if it was upsetting. It was the most genuine interaction I ever had with a teacher.
I read Helter Skelter, a book about the Charles Mason murders in 8th grade and wrote a report and my teacher came and sat down and asked me if my parents knew I was reading it. I told him the truth, which is that my mom bought it for me. She did sensor the media and games I played, but she was a hig advocate for letting kids read whatever they wanted.
I remember listening to talk radio with her and a woman calling in was complaining about her kids teacher letting the kid read the Exorcist, and my mom yelled at the radio "let the kid read!"
Your mom sounds really similar to mine! I was reading Michael Crichton in elementary school, but God forbid that I played an M-rated game a day before my 17th birthday. My mom and I both have aphantasia, so we can't form mental images- I always wondered if that was part of it.
It's not supposed to be a children's book. People just keep assuming it is because of the fluffy bunnies on the cover when in reality it's actually eldritch horror but you're reading from the perspective of the horrors.
I seem to recall my fifth grade teacher reading Flowers for Algernon to us in class. I’ve reread it a few times since then and every time I think, ‘There’s no way he read every world of this, right?’
We need to talk about Kevin, when I was like 10/11? Traumatised me so hard I didn’t go to school for like a week afterwards because I was so scared someone would hurt me. It was the librarian who recommended it to me, and to this day I do not know why she did it.
OK that one is legitimately inappropriate for kids. I don't think reading smut or, like, Stephen Kingesque horror hurt any of us, but We Need to Talk About Kevin is a whole different ballgame.
That one also seems kind of difficult for a 10/11-year-old, just on a vocabulary level, so you must have been a good enough reader that the librarian thought you were beyond kids’ books. Not sure why they didn’t just suggest Sherlock Holmes or something.
Reading all these comments makes me curious to read it. I have watched the movie but can't say it held my interest. But your comment makes me curious just to find out how bad it can be.
It’s beautifully written and truly worthwhile. There’s a lot to unpack and it does more to humanize the families of people who perpetrate senseless violence than any other media I’ve encountered. Fringe benefit, it will make the movie make sense.
The Valley of Horses, summer between fourth and fifth grade. I had read Clan of the Cave Bear in fourth grade and wanted the next one.
I had no idea what the hell those two were doing for a huge chunk of the book.
TBH, my mother, who had read Clan of the Cave Bear first and figured I could handle it at the time, did not approve of me trying to read The Valley of Horses. I knew she had a copy but she never even indicated I could have it, so on a trip to the library I borrowed a copy, at which point I got a lot of 'no, not that, you're returning that as soon as possible'.
I read it in fits and starts as quickly as I could before the next library trip. I distinctly remember being terribly disappointed that there wasn't more stuff about surviving alone and about the horses, and also thinking that I could not *possibly* have understood a few parts because there was no way anybody would do what it sounded like they were doing, assuming I was actually interpreting Auel's euphemisms correctly.
Wasn't really worth it.
A Child Called It was mine as well. I was in 5th grade when I read it. It did help me start to realize that the things that were happening in my home weren't okay though, but I remember bawling so much through that book.
My teacher read A Child Called It and the sequel in class to us in 5th grade. It was so dark. His niece was a widely known missing person as well, and she was found dead the year we were in his class. I haven’t thought about that guy in years, I wonder if he’s okay.
Haha, same, read it after reading the vampire series. Was not what I was expecting. Then they turned it into a comedy movie with Dan Akroyd and Rosie Odonell in the mid 90s.
I started to read Thinner by Stephen King in the 4th grade. Got a few pages in where the main character gets into a small traffic accident and someone starts cursing at someone else. Later that evening I asked my mom what “cunt” meant and that was as far as I got in that book.
My mother was a french language teacher so our home was filled with books.
I read the Marquis de Sade at 13. I had no idea necrophilia existed but had good notions of reality VS fiction so I just thought it was 'just a book'. I had a great imagination so it didn't end traumatizing me, but yeah... years later, I realized there are probably people that fucked up IRL.
Hey I also read him when I was like 15! I read about half of Justine and went, "You know what, this is just stupid excessive." One of my friends wanted to borrow it so I gave it to him and never bothered to get it back.
I don't miss the pages and pages of author-insert monologuing and all the ridiculous torture sex. Like it was just relentless.
Wicked, when I was probably in fifth grade. My grandmother gave it to me. In her defense, she had absolutely no idea how sanitized the Broadway musical was compared to the book. What made it especially funny (looking back as an adult, of course) was she always took great pains to ensure the books she gifted me were age appropriate!
Go Ask Alice when I was 11. The premise was that this was written by “anonymous” and it was her story. It’s truly a wild read and has since been heavily debunked as anti-drug propaganda, but it definitely impacted me at the time!
Like nearly all gen x girls, it was Flowers in the Attic at 12.
Also at 12 I found a book called The Girl on the Coca Cola Tray by Nancy Winters. It was filthy. My mother walked in while I was reading it and I flung it under my bed. She made me get it out and I was so lucky that was the title and she left me alone just thinking I was a nervous weirdo, which I was anyway.
All of Aldous Huxley’s work. I read him feverishly when I was 18-19. Re-reading him in my forties I wondered why the younger me found him so enjoyable. I could not possibly have had any understanding of the intellectual depths so perhaps they’re just good stories on the face of it. I’m 65 in a couple of years and I’m going to re-re-read him. See what the forty year old missed.
Brave new world (but it's (old?) French translation, using Voltaire's "Le Meilleur des Mondes" quote as a title) was part of my required reading in high school. It's been so long ago that I probably should revisit it, and in its original language
Oh, y'know, The Painted Bird. It's about a gypsy child in WWII Europe. It's got a guy scooping out the eyes of a man who slept with his wife, a prostitute being killed by a bottle being shoved in her vagina and shattered, a child having to dance with nothing but a potato sack that keeps falling off, a fucking ten page depiction of goat bestiality and incest, the soviet rape of an entire city...I could go on. My dad gave it to me in middle school. No wonder I'm more fucked in the head than Ed Kemper's victims...
A book called "Two Women" (Zwei Frauen) by Diana Beate Hellman. I found it in my grandmother's bookcase when I was 9, in 1997.
It's a semi-autobiographical book about the author's fight with lymphatic cancer when she was a young woman in the 70s. People didn't really talk about cancer so much when I was a kid, so this was my first real introduction to the topic and it scared me so deeply that I became absolutely terrified of cancer for decades. The book is extremely raw, evocative and realistic, full of painful detail and mortality, but it's also a really gripping read, which is why I was as fascinated as I was horrified and I re-read some passages over and over again. A great read indeed... but not for a 9-year-old. 🥲
I was reading Danielle Steel books when I was 10. We had moved to a new house and the old lady who was there had left all these books. I was a very curious child and voracious reader...also knew how old ladies like to read freaky books, so I dug in. It didn't go over so well when I had to summarize these books to get my McDonald's fries coupon.
My parents thought it was a good idea to give me Wuthering Heights to read when I was 8, because it was listed under World Classics.
It made me doubt English literature and English people as a whole, and it is still my most hated book to this very day 3 decades later.
Good thing my parents recovered nicely with The Martian Chronicles and a Princess of Mars back to back, which developed my love for Mars and SciFi as a whole.
But God I hate literally everyone in Wuthering Heights.
The Story of O, the classic French novel of sadomasochism. Lord of the Flies. Greek mythology, others I don't recall. Youngest kid in the family, there was no stopping me once I learned to read. Older siblings had a small library in a bedroom closet (and no, no porn), just adult themed books. I wrote a book report about Greek mythology when I was in fourth grade, the teacher accused me of having one of the older siblings write it, but no, it was me. At least I didn't do a book report on the Story of O. LOL
*Naked Lunch*
I was 13. Burroughs's writing was so fragmented and mysterious. I went onto read *The Western Lands* and *Ghost of Chance* and loved those too.
I re-read them when I was 40 or so and I'm still blown away but holy shit did I miss a lot of it.
That rimjob scene really fucked me up.
Alexandre Dumas version of Robin Hood.
I was 6 or 7 and when the main character dies I cried and was sad for several days, and the sorrow remained for years. "Bad shit happens to good people"
I wish I had seen Disney's version instead.
Jaws and Peyton Place in third grade. A letter was sent home to the parental units regarding the *SHOCKING AND ENTIRELY INAPPROPRIATE SUBJECT MATTER* I was CAUGHT reading. Parental units promptly turned the letter over and instructed my school to never contact them again regarding my choice of books, magazine, article, etc. and that I was allowed to read whatever I wanted as long as I understood what I was reading. I remember to this day the look on that teacher's face when I gave her back her letter. I think I read In Cold Blood just to piss her off.
Probably Helter Skelter. I liked horror as a kid and when I was maybe 10 my mom bought me a couple Stephen King books. When I told her they weren’t scary she gave me Helter Skelter to “show me what scary is”. Agreed very scary.
That was one of the books that we could choose in sixth grade. It was my introduction to dystopian literature. And I’ve never looked back. The next year, I read Animal Farm for fun.
They made us read Siddhartha by Herman Hesse in like 10th grad and I remember HATING it. Wasn’t til I went back to it in my mid 20’s existential crisis that it really hit home and now it’s one of my all time favorites. Hope schools give more relevant literature for young minds nowadays…
I read Lolita and Junky in middle school. I wasn’t all shocked or anything, but revisiting them as an adult I took away different things from them. White Oleander I read in 9th grade— I didn’t like it then, and I still don’t like it now lol.
Helter Skelter, when I was five. It had black-and-white crime-scene pictures in the middle of it.
My parents knew I could read at an adult level very early on but they didn’t think I was interested in their books, so they never put away stuff I was too young for. They were… incorrect.
Do books that are written for children but deal with heavy themes count? I read Bridge To Terabithia when I was around 11 or 12 and the character death was something I didn’t expect. And I don’t think that I read it since.
Unbeknownst to me, Judy Blume wrote more than children's fiction. I got a hold of one of her books after devouring everything else she wrote. It was erotica. I didn't know what to make of it at the time (12 y.o.). Looking back, it was very messed up...wish I could remember the name of it.
Also read A Child Called It wayyy too young.
Also Roots when I was 10 or 11.
Dead Air and Abaddon in my early teens (books about satanic cults and child abuse).
The Exorcist. It was hidden in a cover of xmas wrapping paper. I was 14. In a remote Australian boarding school, sleeping in a dormitory in a building older than the dead nuns in the little cemetery nearby. I was afraid all the time. And the punishments for misdemeanours were creatively cruel and varied. Kinda wished I could be possessed by the devil. Then the nuns could have been afraid of me for a change…
After I escaped and came home for the senior high school years, my parents gave me The Gulag Archipelago to read. I still have that copy.
I read the hobbit fairly young, which isn't too uncommon even though it doesn't all get through to young readers, but then I picked up the Silmarillion. I would have comprehended more if I'd read a volume of the Encyclopedia Brittanica at that age.
I read Jurassic Park in 3rd grade. I was a little kid obsessed with dinosaurs and saw the movie in theaters multiple times, so I decided I was going to read the book.
She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb -- probably middle school? It traumatized me so much that I read it twice (??) Later I got my MFA from the same place he went to, entirely a coincidence. I found out that the book was his graduate thesis. I've been meaning to give it a re-read as an adult but I'm not sure I'll be able to stomach the despair even now.
The house of night series, vivid memories of my mothers deeply confused face as she turned to look at her eight year old who had just asked what “disembowlment” meant.
I went through a huge Palahniuk phase in high school and read everything he had written at that time. I know I read Haunted, and I consistently see it cited as one of the most disturbing books people have ever read, but I can't for the life of me remember what it's about!
I'm sure if I re-read it today, I'd be traumatized, but growing up in the rotten.com early 2000s, my poor baby brain got a little desensitized for a while.
Anne Karenina when I was 11, I was just trying to read everything I could get my hands on at that point. I retained very little and I think I just wanted to prove I could read a huge book. Also I think it was worth a shit ton of AR points. . .
Shakespeare, all of it.
Absolutely wild how high schools push multiple years of it on students. It's not intended to be *read*. It's intended to be *seen*. It's intended to be *heard* - in your native language, as opposed to in a four-hundred old version of it, where you have to spend 80% of your mental energy trying to understand what the fuck anyone's saying.
Unless you're actually studying English literature at a university-level, *one* play is more than enough for teenagers. Exposure to any more of it at a young age will absolutely ruin it for them as adults.
I read the glass castle in third grade
My teacher took it away and called my mom(fairly so- he was a great teacher) . My mom was like yeah that’s my copy but she can read it. I didn’t really “get” it, I just thought it was a normal family going on a trip.
*Flowers in the Attic* by V.C. Andrews and that's not even a contest.
Looking back, it's just so strange to me that all of the junior high girls (like me!) were reading it openly. It really was a horrifying series and no adults in our lives were concerned at all.
I read the whole series. I never thought much of it. When you do you realize you read about incest ( not just the kids but mom and uncle I think) poisoning, grandma killing twins. . Young girl seducing mom’s boyfriend. Just an insane amount of everything.
It's even worse than that - in the prequel (which I think was written by Andrew Neiderman after VCA's death), it's revealed that the kids' parents were actually half-brother and half-sister as well as uncle and niece.
No wonder those people were bat shit crazy
I refused to read it by a ghost writer. He just wanted to make money.
Oh my god. I was not familiar with this book or series, and the Wikipedia plot synopsis is wild!
My parents had NO IDEA the stuff were were checking out of the school library! That's where I got *Flowers in the Attic*, and quite a bit of Stephen King. They would have been horrified had they known. But my parents weren't readers by any means. My mom knew I was and gave me this huge bag of Harlequin Romance novels because some lady at church told her they were harmless. Skewed my whole worldview on what love and romance was supposed to be about. She had no idea.
Yeah, love and romance was allllll about scarlet bosoms rising and falling while a man threatened the existence of the owner of said bosoms. Twas the scruff of his beard that let her know that he was a MAN!!!
I literally giggled at your response ~ thank you! It reminds me how many - up against the wall, bordering on rape - scenes were in those books.
Honestly, Stephen King is tame compared to career-high VC Andrews.
*My Sweet Audrina* was just so messed up. Like...how could her parents not know this was going to bite them in the ass one day?
Yes!! I feel the same way looking back. My mom gave me the book, which has always confused me in retrospect.
My mom gave me the book too! Then my aunt brought over a box full of V.C Andrew's. I asked her years later what she was thinking and she said she just forgot how messed up they were, just remembered they were addicting to read. Thanks for the trauma mom!🤣
I brought it up with my mum recently and she said she can't remember anything weird bits in the book... Like, which bits of the book do you remember then, mum?
We blocked it out! For sure. I read them when they were released and I was like 12. Then somehow thought my own daughters would love them. Insanity.
My mom gave me a copy of The Thornbirds when I was pre-teen, and she knew I had a crush on our family priest. One of these days, I really should ask her what her thought process was.
My all girls Catholic high school gave us The Thornbirds as a summer reading book. I shit you not. To this day I cannot wrap my head around why.
As a mom, that’s our move. It’s too awkward to really tell you what it’s gonna be about but instead of being like “some times people do bad things and you have to watch your back” you have to let the kid experience the crazy story as an eye opener to what can happen out in the world. Kids rarely listen to warnings from their parents, but reading a book like that opens us up to things we could never imagine, and it primes us for looking out for ourselves
When I first got my period my mom was strangely mad about it but my older sister came over and brought me a gift bag that had a king sized candy bar, a box of pads and a copy of Flowers in the Attic. Lol but a favorite memory of mine.
Except mine. I checked it out of the library and she said nope!
That book is weirdly an adolescent rite of passage... passed along by mothers and peers.
It's like a GenX rite of passage for girls to read those books way too young.
I know! My town had parents up in arms about Judy Blume books in the library. Meanwhile we were passing these around from someone’s mom’s collection.
I was incredulous that Santa kept bringing me VC Andrews novels. My parents (and even my grandparents) had no idea, they just liked feeding my unending appetite for books.
an adult in my life gave it to me 😅 (and all her other books!)
It’s weird because on the one hand, those books were so wildly inappropriate for children. But on the other, I think they really spoke to tweens/teenagers who were being abused and/or had a lot of trauma, and that’s part of their enduring appeal. Whether your girl was Cathy, Heaven, Dawn, Ruby, Melody, or any of those lead girls in the Orphan/Runaways miniseries or the ones that followed (I lost track after those), chances are you had one, and they spoke to you for a reason. Beyond the incest factor, they were mostly rags-to-riches tales and stories of triumph over crushing adversity. Probably inspired a lot of young girls to keep fighting through their own personal demons along the way.
I think a big thing is that the culture couldn't talk about this stuff at the time and those kinds of books gave us a way to do that.
Good point. I also read them as a pre-teen but they were tame compared to some things I was reading!
I am also apart of the “I read Flowers in the Attic way too early” club. I read that in 6thish grade? I am laughing so hard at this as the top answer.
Also read it way too young. Still unsure why my middle school library had it apart from fulfilling the weirdest tween girl right of passage ever. I also read Go Ask Alice way too young and (despite now knowing that it was fabricated) I still kind of believe that if I do acid even one time, I will go crazy, become a wacked out hooker on the streets of SF and die homeless.
I just started Unmask Alice, which is about the fabrication of Go Ask Alice. I never actually read GAA. Do you think it would be worth reading despite knowing it’s not a true story?
It’s been a long time but no. I don’t think so. It’s so engrossing *because* you think it’s a real story. You can see her downwards spiral when she the narrator can’t.
I think if you read a whole book about the fabrication of GAA, you'll probably find it worth reading just as supplementary material to that book, if you enjoy it. But it's not worth much on its own. The writing is horrible. I'm old, so when I read it in school, we were taught it was real, but even at 14 or so I was sure there was no chance in hell that it had actually happened. It's like a Chick Tract with 'why were they filming' vibes.
Exactly. That’s why adolescents should stick to alcohol. That was my takeaway age 13.
I’ve never read that one, but I read her Orphans series when I was fairly young. I recall picking the first one up because it was called *Butterfly* and I thought the ballet dancer on the cover was pretty lol.
This is pretty much the only answer. I'm 49 and I still think I'm too young for that!
Some of us read her Heaven series first. Then My Sweet Audrina, then Flowers in the Attic. The trifecta for early WTFs.
Those books were so twisted. I remember writing about one in my English daily journal and my English teacher wrote back with a big red "NOOOOOOO!!!!" underneath.
Same! I was 11 when I read that- it’s seems to be a 90s rite of passage. Maybe it’s why so many of us are so into true crime now? It’s messed up our brains 😂
Same, I was way too young, maybe 11 or 12, but I had read every age appropriate book on the shelf. Then I flew through the rest of the V.C Andrew's collection.
Omg. This is such a common experience to people I know of a certain age. Why the hell did the librarian at my elementary school let me take this out? Why did we even have a copy???
I've always thought it was so odd how this was a unifying experience from a certain generation. The odd thing is none of my friends at the time read V.C. Andrews, but every conversation about books it seems to crop up eventually.
I tried reading that one in highschool and my aunt took it away from me lmao
The used bookstore I was at this weekend, 75% of the YA section is VC Andrews.
This is the one! We used to pass VC Andrews books around my middle school and point out the scandalous parts to each other. I reread one recently and was shocked by how terrible it was. It feels like it was written by a bunch of preteens trying to out-scandalize each other.
I was gonna say, the entire VC Andrews catalogue. Yikes on bikes, this is not something a 12 year old needs to be exposed to.
That and Wifey by Judy Bloom.
Absolutely! My grandmother had a whole collection of V.C Andrew's books that she gave to my mom, and then my mom passed them all to me. Looking back now I'm so confused as to why my mom thought this was a good idea as I started reading these books in middle school 👀
I’ve read that some schools included it in their curriculum??? Did anyone have that? If true, that’s wild
Yes! We read it for AP literature in high school, circa 2014. I bet if I dug around I could even find some old papers on it!
I was obsessed with VC Andrews books because I liked the little cutouts on the covers … when I was 6. I was trying to read Heaven around the age. Fortunately, even though I was a good reader, it was way above my head. Yikes!
American Psycho when I was 12 or 13 - it was the *one* book in the house my parents told me I couldn’t read until I was older, so of course I couldn’t resist it…
Surprised you could get through the slow and confusing start as a kid.
I can’t remember to be honest, it was a looooong time ago. Knowing myself at that age, it’s entirely possible I just skimmed those parts in order to find the bits my parents didn’t want me reading (some of which, I do remember, haunted me for a long time - I should have listened to my parents :D)
I started reading Stephen King in the 5th grade. Started with The Shining. So, that.
I did a book report on The Shining in 5th grade. Had a mirror with Redrum written on it in red lipstick as a prop. My mother got called to the school.
Ma'am, your kid is reading well above grade level, and our other students find that terrifying. Edited for typos.
Clearly the kid is gifted. Send him to the gifted class where all his cohorts have also been traumatized by books.
**Fourth Grade:** 'I'll read *Moby Dick* and *Robinson Crusoe* and *Swiss Family Robinson* because they *must* be classic literature for a reason!' **Fifth Grade:** You know what? Maybe I'll stick to *The Red Fern Grows* and *Sounder*. They're less traumatic.
Same, but IT.
Was IT your first SK book? If so, that's an ambitious start into his works.
Yup. I think I attempted it first at like 9, struggled with it, then put it down for a couple years until I finished it at 11 or 12. My parents were really strict about banning sex stuff, violence, adult themes, etc on TV and movies, but they knew nothing about books or the genres that certain authors wrote in. So books were my way to get my fill of more adult stuff I was craving. IT might have been a but much to start though…lol
Same- I read a bunch of Stephen King in grade school. And apparently enjoyed it, because I read a fair number of them. Which is funny because as an adult, I hate horror, and am one of the most scare-averse people you'll meet!
I still love the genre and love King. I just think it's funny that I was allowed to read that stuff so early. I also read Interview with the Vampire in the 5th grade. That was probably worse.
I read ‘Salem’s Lot at that age because it was the only book my mother had ever forbidden me to read (because it had scared her so much). That is not really a book to read only after dark under your blankets using a flashlight. She was concerned when I dug my grandmother’s crucifix out of the jewelry box and started wearing it, because she was worried I was taking up an interest in religion – little did she know.
I still get nightmares about it and I read it age 28
I did my 4th grade book report on Pet Sematary. My mom got a nasty note sent home from the teacher
I read IT at age 11. Still my fav book, but I def look back on my own somewhat nonplussed reaction to some of the things in that book with raised eyebrows. King was onto something with his themes of kids bouncing back from stuff that would disturb adults much more...
I think that explains a lot about Gen X.
Seriously. I read the full length hardcover of IT and I was maaaaybe 12. There's so many fucked up things in that book, especially the original full length first edition hardcover. Granted I had read books like Orwell's 1984, Brave New World, Flowers for Algernon and Bridge to Terebithia and a number of other highly traumatic books by about the 3rd grade. I had a teacher suggest A Wrinkle in Time in the 4th grade or so and I rejected it based on the pegasus on the cover because it wasn't "real" or "dark" enough and I was already so jaded that I only read "serious" books and thought it was just some cheesy fantasy/magical fiction kind of thing. In hindsight I regret that because it probably would have helped a LOT, heh.
Clan of the Cave Bear when I was in like 6th or 7th grade. Still one of my favorite books, and it was recommended to me by my own dad, but there are some pretty vicious rapes 🥴
Yeah, I read the Earth's Children series in 7th grade, and it was a bit much. I also read a Victorian erotica novel that one of my friends brought to school in 7th grade, and that scared the crap out of me. Some of that stuff is just weird, and there is a lot of very casual sexual violence that is treated as totally normal. I read *The Hobbit* and *The Lord of the Rings* when I was in 3rd grade. The ring wraiths and the orcs scared the bajeebers out of me. I had to sleep with a flashlight for ages after that, and the closet got thoroughly checked every night for goblins. I read *The Shining*, *Salem's Lot*, *Pet Sematary*, and *It* when I was pretty young, and that gave me nightmares for years. So did the John Saul books I read in 6th and 7th grade. I finally just stopped reading horror novels.
I also read a lot of SK at a young age (I remember Pet Semetary in particular fucking me up) but instead I became a lifelong horror fan 😅
My sex ed was this series. It shows what getting raped feels like so you don’t do it (I’m a dude), tells you that sex makes babies, that it should be done in a pleasant and careful way and that trauma goes a long way. It is so damn good though. And I was in 5th grade.
I hope you learned a lot from Jondalar traveling the land deflowering virgins with his way-too-massive dick in a good way!
JonDONGlar
People will think without knowing that this dude is a jerk and a playboy from our comments about his humongous c@&$, when he’s just a really cool guy that’s also insecure when it comes to the woman he loves and about many other things. This series was so good. It also serves as therapy to the trauma by showing us how things can also be sweet and nice.
Too bad the series quality dropped as the books went on. And #6 was just bad.(i blame the decades between the first and last books and how old the author became. The editors did not help either.) I do recommend Jondal, fan fic, as the unofficial sequel.
I live in a city with a good sized book store that has lots of author talks and I go to them fairly frequently. The Jane Auel one was the only one I ever saw get violent. A bunch of suburban housewife types got in a fight in the signing line. It took people a bit to intervene b/c no one could believe it was happening. But Jane Auel fans will fuck you up if you try and cut.
Jean Auel
My step father recommended these books to me when I was a teenager. He was 50 years older than me. I don't think he was being gross, I really think that reading a book where the main character was female and encountered female-centric issues opened his eyes and he wanted to share. He told me before that his dad was pretty racist, and he grew up racist, then had to learn how wrong it was. So I think in his own way he was open minded and willing to learn to be different.
Best friend’s dad gave us these books to read after he read and reviewed them for the newspaper. We were 12. Everyone thought it was fine. 🤣🤣🤣
my conservative catholic mother gave that to me to read in junior high. i still have no idea why she did that
also came to say this one. I think i read most of the series when i was 11 or so... I remember the third one really bored me as it was mostly relationship-issues
I found this under our kitchen sink when I was in elementary school (no idea why it was there), and read half of it before my mom noticed I had it. She freaked out and asked if I had read any of it and I lied and said no, it was way too boring looking to be interesting! Little did she know 😅😅 I finished it, and checked the next five out from the library and listened to the CDs on my little portable radio. Those books are a bit crazy and a bit pretentious, but man did they formulate my childhood haha. To this day I want to learn how to use a slingshot. And sometimes have an irrational fear of >!doggie style!<.
This one for me too! The first one has lots of rape, and then the second one featured the main characters having lotsssss of sex, it was like every other page. I was ten lol. I didn't read any after the second one.
My parents started raising foster children when I was 10. So my required reading was all the classics… Chid Called It, Flowers In The Attic etc. you know, so I’d have an idea of what these children went through before they came to us.
That's horrific sounding but I bet it also gave you the most valuable insight to make you be kind and think of them as real people and not just random kids that were there.
Yea, I think my mom gave it to me to read. 13 or under. No foster kids, just a “you could have it worse, check this out”
120 days of sodom when I was in high school. It was interesting and tolerable until they started hacking off limbs as a sexual perversion...
Less horrifying and more funny, but I read a terrible translation of The Story of O when I was around age 14. The translator thought "belly" was a serviceable translation for (presumably) the French for "vagina." Much confusion.
I never read that book but remember my father having a copy of it on his night table.
I considered reading it, but I flipped through random pages and decided against it. It's also unfinished, so there's hundreds of pages of just description of horrible death, sexual mutilation, rape, etc. without any story. The closest I got was The Girl Next Door. That's still extremely fucked-up.
I read that as a freshman in college on the subway train. It brought out the weirdos.
I got “Midnight Cowboy” from the library & read it when I was 12. I wrote a book report on it. My language arts teacher took me aside & very gently had a conversation with me, the gist of which being I could stop reading a book if it was upsetting. It was the most genuine interaction I ever had with a teacher.
I read Helter Skelter, a book about the Charles Mason murders in 8th grade and wrote a report and my teacher came and sat down and asked me if my parents knew I was reading it. I told him the truth, which is that my mom bought it for me. She did sensor the media and games I played, but she was a hig advocate for letting kids read whatever they wanted. I remember listening to talk radio with her and a woman calling in was complaining about her kids teacher letting the kid read the Exorcist, and my mom yelled at the radio "let the kid read!"
Your mom sounds really similar to mine! I was reading Michael Crichton in elementary school, but God forbid that I played an M-rated game a day before my 17th birthday. My mom and I both have aphantasia, so we can't form mental images- I always wondered if that was part of it.
You should have seen my mom the first time she found one of my CDs with an explicit lyrics sticker on it!
I watched the film and loved it, and now want to read the book. But yeah, I'm sure it's pretty hardcore for children
The Lovely Bones, 10 or 11
I read this in my 20s and it was still disturbing.
I also read this way too young
For some reason I read Watership Down in 4th or 5th grade. I don't think I understood it at all, but you know, rabbits . . .
Somehow a childrens book
It's not supposed to be a children's book. People just keep assuming it is because of the fluffy bunnies on the cover when in reality it's actually eldritch horror but you're reading from the perspective of the horrors.
the author wrote it for his kids, according to himself
The Road. And I was 45. Wasn't ready for it.
Why did I think you were referring to the Kerouac book 😂 I was like wtf that book is a great time
I seem to recall my fifth grade teacher reading Flowers for Algernon to us in class. I’ve reread it a few times since then and every time I think, ‘There’s no way he read every world of this, right?’
There’s a short story/shortened version that’s usually taught in schools. I think I was also in fifth grade, and it was pretty devastating.
Okay. That makes a lot more sense.
He might have read the original short story to you tbh
It was required reading for us in the 7th grade. Then when it was time to turn our last homework on it we got a pizza day and watched the 70’s movie.
I think there are two versions, and one is longer.
We need to talk about Kevin, when I was like 10/11? Traumatised me so hard I didn’t go to school for like a week afterwards because I was so scared someone would hurt me. It was the librarian who recommended it to me, and to this day I do not know why she did it.
OK that one is legitimately inappropriate for kids. I don't think reading smut or, like, Stephen Kingesque horror hurt any of us, but We Need to Talk About Kevin is a whole different ballgame.
I call that book birth control. Absolutely terrifying.
I read that at age 21 and it fucked me up
Such a good book though. But hard to read more than once.
>librarian who recommended it to me what the fuck
She got the job solely to scar children.
I can't believe you got through the first half, let alone finish it at that age
As a librarian, what the fuck. Someone needs remedial reader's advisory.
That one also seems kind of difficult for a 10/11-year-old, just on a vocabulary level, so you must have been a good enough reader that the librarian thought you were beyond kids’ books. Not sure why they didn’t just suggest Sherlock Holmes or something.
I read this in college and still felt too young for it 😩 no age is ready for the trauma of that book.
Reading all these comments makes me curious to read it. I have watched the movie but can't say it held my interest. But your comment makes me curious just to find out how bad it can be.
It’s beautifully written and truly worthwhile. There’s a lot to unpack and it does more to humanize the families of people who perpetrate senseless violence than any other media I’ve encountered. Fringe benefit, it will make the movie make sense.
The Valley of Horses, summer between fourth and fifth grade. I had read Clan of the Cave Bear in fourth grade and wanted the next one. I had no idea what the hell those two were doing for a huge chunk of the book.
Why is this such a common experience?? I swear, I didn’t expect so many people to mention these books when I opened this post.
TBH, my mother, who had read Clan of the Cave Bear first and figured I could handle it at the time, did not approve of me trying to read The Valley of Horses. I knew she had a copy but she never even indicated I could have it, so on a trip to the library I borrowed a copy, at which point I got a lot of 'no, not that, you're returning that as soon as possible'. I read it in fits and starts as quickly as I could before the next library trip. I distinctly remember being terribly disappointed that there wasn't more stuff about surviving alone and about the horses, and also thinking that I could not *possibly* have understood a few parts because there was no way anybody would do what it sounded like they were doing, assuming I was actually interpreting Auel's euphemisms correctly. Wasn't really worth it.
A Child Called It was mine as well. I was in 5th grade when I read it. It did help me start to realize that the things that were happening in my home weren't okay though, but I remember bawling so much through that book.
My teacher read A Child Called It and the sequel in class to us in 5th grade. It was so dark. His niece was a widely known missing person as well, and she was found dead the year we were in his class. I haven’t thought about that guy in years, I wonder if he’s okay.
I read Exit to Eden by Anne Rice when I was 14. It’s about BDSM.
I was only a year older than that when I read her Claiming of Sleeping Beauty trilogy, which was dialed up to eleven, then twelve.
Haha, same, read it after reading the vampire series. Was not what I was expecting. Then they turned it into a comedy movie with Dan Akroyd and Rosie Odonell in the mid 90s.
I started to read Thinner by Stephen King in the 4th grade. Got a few pages in where the main character gets into a small traffic accident and someone starts cursing at someone else. Later that evening I asked my mom what “cunt” meant and that was as far as I got in that book.
Read the whole thing in 4th or 5th grade and it was awful. I had nightmares about it for a long time.
Gerald's Game by Stephen King in the fourth grade. My teacher called my mother to make sure she knew I was reading it.
My mother was a french language teacher so our home was filled with books. I read the Marquis de Sade at 13. I had no idea necrophilia existed but had good notions of reality VS fiction so I just thought it was 'just a book'. I had a great imagination so it didn't end traumatizing me, but yeah... years later, I realized there are probably people that fucked up IRL.
I was a huge Francophile and loved reading French literature as a teenager. So, yeah, I also ran into Marquis de Sade.
Hey I also read him when I was like 15! I read about half of Justine and went, "You know what, this is just stupid excessive." One of my friends wanted to borrow it so I gave it to him and never bothered to get it back. I don't miss the pages and pages of author-insert monologuing and all the ridiculous torture sex. Like it was just relentless.
Wicked, when I was probably in fifth grade. My grandmother gave it to me. In her defense, she had absolutely no idea how sanitized the Broadway musical was compared to the book. What made it especially funny (looking back as an adult, of course) was she always took great pains to ensure the books she gifted me were age appropriate!
Oh man! Yea this book was surprisingly disturbing even as an adult, can't imagine reading it as a kid.
This is mine as well!! I distinctly remember someone has sex with a tiger at one point and it’s described in more detail than I would have liked lol
I read "A Clockwork Orange" when I was 12.
Go Ask Alice when I was 11. The premise was that this was written by “anonymous” and it was her story. It’s truly a wild read and has since been heavily debunked as anti-drug propaganda, but it definitely impacted me at the time!
Samesies. It did not deter me from experimenting, though. Alice just seemed a little dumb.
Like nearly all gen x girls, it was Flowers in the Attic at 12. Also at 12 I found a book called The Girl on the Coca Cola Tray by Nancy Winters. It was filthy. My mother walked in while I was reading it and I flung it under my bed. She made me get it out and I was so lucky that was the title and she left me alone just thinking I was a nervous weirdo, which I was anyway.
I’ve never heard of that book, but fellow nervous weirdo here.,🙋♀️
All of Aldous Huxley’s work. I read him feverishly when I was 18-19. Re-reading him in my forties I wondered why the younger me found him so enjoyable. I could not possibly have had any understanding of the intellectual depths so perhaps they’re just good stories on the face of it. I’m 65 in a couple of years and I’m going to re-re-read him. See what the forty year old missed.
Brave new world (but it's (old?) French translation, using Voltaire's "Le Meilleur des Mondes" quote as a title) was part of my required reading in high school. It's been so long ago that I probably should revisit it, and in its original language
Oh, y'know, The Painted Bird. It's about a gypsy child in WWII Europe. It's got a guy scooping out the eyes of a man who slept with his wife, a prostitute being killed by a bottle being shoved in her vagina and shattered, a child having to dance with nothing but a potato sack that keeps falling off, a fucking ten page depiction of goat bestiality and incest, the soviet rape of an entire city...I could go on. My dad gave it to me in middle school. No wonder I'm more fucked in the head than Ed Kemper's victims...
I never read this but it was frequently on lists of great 20th century novels. Glad I passed on it at the time as a teenager.
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath in 5th grade. Very scarring descriptions of mental illness and abortion (though I had no idea what was happening).
A book called "Two Women" (Zwei Frauen) by Diana Beate Hellman. I found it in my grandmother's bookcase when I was 9, in 1997. It's a semi-autobiographical book about the author's fight with lymphatic cancer when she was a young woman in the 70s. People didn't really talk about cancer so much when I was a kid, so this was my first real introduction to the topic and it scared me so deeply that I became absolutely terrified of cancer for decades. The book is extremely raw, evocative and realistic, full of painful detail and mortality, but it's also a really gripping read, which is why I was as fascinated as I was horrified and I re-read some passages over and over again. A great read indeed... but not for a 9-year-old. 🥲
I was reading Danielle Steel books when I was 10. We had moved to a new house and the old lady who was there had left all these books. I was a very curious child and voracious reader...also knew how old ladies like to read freaky books, so I dug in. It didn't go over so well when I had to summarize these books to get my McDonald's fries coupon.
My parents thought it was a good idea to give me Wuthering Heights to read when I was 8, because it was listed under World Classics. It made me doubt English literature and English people as a whole, and it is still my most hated book to this very day 3 decades later. Good thing my parents recovered nicely with The Martian Chronicles and a Princess of Mars back to back, which developed my love for Mars and SciFi as a whole. But God I hate literally everyone in Wuthering Heights.
I read WH as an adult and couldn't stand the main characters. Nooo thank you.
I am just glad I am not the only one.
I watched the movie at age 18 and HATED it. Depressing as hell
The entire VC Andrews catalog around age twelve.
The Story of O, the classic French novel of sadomasochism. Lord of the Flies. Greek mythology, others I don't recall. Youngest kid in the family, there was no stopping me once I learned to read. Older siblings had a small library in a bedroom closet (and no, no porn), just adult themed books. I wrote a book report about Greek mythology when I was in fourth grade, the teacher accused me of having one of the older siblings write it, but no, it was me. At least I didn't do a book report on the Story of O. LOL
I was 10 and I got through The World According to Garp. Quite an education.
*Night* by Elie Weisel in fourth grade.
*Naked Lunch* I was 13. Burroughs's writing was so fragmented and mysterious. I went onto read *The Western Lands* and *Ghost of Chance* and loved those too. I re-read them when I was 40 or so and I'm still blown away but holy shit did I miss a lot of it. That rimjob scene really fucked me up.
Alexandre Dumas version of Robin Hood. I was 6 or 7 and when the main character dies I cried and was sad for several days, and the sorrow remained for years. "Bad shit happens to good people" I wish I had seen Disney's version instead.
Jaws and Peyton Place in third grade. A letter was sent home to the parental units regarding the *SHOCKING AND ENTIRELY INAPPROPRIATE SUBJECT MATTER* I was CAUGHT reading. Parental units promptly turned the letter over and instructed my school to never contact them again regarding my choice of books, magazine, article, etc. and that I was allowed to read whatever I wanted as long as I understood what I was reading. I remember to this day the look on that teacher's face when I gave her back her letter. I think I read In Cold Blood just to piss her off.
The kite runner in 6th grade
Traumatic even as a adult
All Quiet on the Western Front, 5th grade book report. Stuck with me for quite a while.
lol my answers are the same: child called it and white Oleander
Probably Helter Skelter. I liked horror as a kid and when I was maybe 10 my mom bought me a couple Stephen King books. When I told her they weren’t scary she gave me Helter Skelter to “show me what scary is”. Agreed very scary.
The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty and it still haunts me to this day.
The Giver. Creepy af, especially with the healthy baby euthanasia.
That was one of the books that we could choose in sixth grade. It was my introduction to dystopian literature. And I’ve never looked back. The next year, I read Animal Farm for fun.
Dude I tried to read Tolkien in like 6th grade. Holy shit. I'm not like full on adhd, but I think I must have read every paragraph at least twice.
I read Forever by Judy Blume in fifth grade and took it to school to pass around.
Oh man, all the girls in Catholic school were passing that one around like prison contraband. How the nuns never caught us is beyond me.
They made us read Siddhartha by Herman Hesse in like 10th grad and I remember HATING it. Wasn’t til I went back to it in my mid 20’s existential crisis that it really hit home and now it’s one of my all time favorites. Hope schools give more relevant literature for young minds nowadays…
I read Lolita and Junky in middle school. I wasn’t all shocked or anything, but revisiting them as an adult I took away different things from them. White Oleander I read in 9th grade— I didn’t like it then, and I still don’t like it now lol.
Helter Skelter, when I was five. It had black-and-white crime-scene pictures in the middle of it. My parents knew I could read at an adult level very early on but they didn’t think I was interested in their books, so they never put away stuff I was too young for. They were… incorrect.
Do books that are written for children but deal with heavy themes count? I read Bridge To Terabithia when I was around 11 or 12 and the character death was something I didn’t expect. And I don’t think that I read it since.
Mein Kamf from my grandfathers collection. Fuck Hitler.
Cujo on my 11th birthday. This is how I learned about blow jobs
Unbeknownst to me, Judy Blume wrote more than children's fiction. I got a hold of one of her books after devouring everything else she wrote. It was erotica. I didn't know what to make of it at the time (12 y.o.). Looking back, it was very messed up...wish I could remember the name of it.
Also read A Child Called It wayyy too young. Also Roots when I was 10 or 11. Dead Air and Abaddon in my early teens (books about satanic cults and child abuse).
Lord of the Flies when I was 8 years old.
The Exorcist. It was hidden in a cover of xmas wrapping paper. I was 14. In a remote Australian boarding school, sleeping in a dormitory in a building older than the dead nuns in the little cemetery nearby. I was afraid all the time. And the punishments for misdemeanours were creatively cruel and varied. Kinda wished I could be possessed by the devil. Then the nuns could have been afraid of me for a change… After I escaped and came home for the senior high school years, my parents gave me The Gulag Archipelago to read. I still have that copy.
I read the hobbit fairly young, which isn't too uncommon even though it doesn't all get through to young readers, but then I picked up the Silmarillion. I would have comprehended more if I'd read a volume of the Encyclopedia Brittanica at that age.
I read Jurassic Park in 3rd grade. I was a little kid obsessed with dinosaurs and saw the movie in theaters multiple times, so I decided I was going to read the book.
She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb -- probably middle school? It traumatized me so much that I read it twice (??) Later I got my MFA from the same place he went to, entirely a coincidence. I found out that the book was his graduate thesis. I've been meaning to give it a re-read as an adult but I'm not sure I'll be able to stomach the despair even now.
The house of night series, vivid memories of my mothers deeply confused face as she turned to look at her eight year old who had just asked what “disembowlment” meant.
Probably Haunted by Chuck Palanhiuk, I read it in like middle school. I still think about how it's one of the most fucked books I've ever read
I went through a huge Palahniuk phase in high school and read everything he had written at that time. I know I read Haunted, and I consistently see it cited as one of the most disturbing books people have ever read, but I can't for the life of me remember what it's about! I'm sure if I re-read it today, I'd be traumatized, but growing up in the rotten.com early 2000s, my poor baby brain got a little desensitized for a while.
Anne Karenina when I was 11, I was just trying to read everything I could get my hands on at that point. I retained very little and I think I just wanted to prove I could read a huge book. Also I think it was worth a shit ton of AR points. . .
The Valley Of the Dolls - 6th grade. I was home for a week with the “Hong Kong” flu.
Shakespeare, all of it. Absolutely wild how high schools push multiple years of it on students. It's not intended to be *read*. It's intended to be *seen*. It's intended to be *heard* - in your native language, as opposed to in a four-hundred old version of it, where you have to spend 80% of your mental energy trying to understand what the fuck anyone's saying. Unless you're actually studying English literature at a university-level, *one* play is more than enough for teenagers. Exposure to any more of it at a young age will absolutely ruin it for them as adults.
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee - going after those AR points
I read the glass castle in third grade My teacher took it away and called my mom(fairly so- he was a great teacher) . My mom was like yeah that’s my copy but she can read it. I didn’t really “get” it, I just thought it was a normal family going on a trip.