Bridge to Terabethia was pretty traumatic.
This money, it is too much. You should have some small refund.
Niska ,'War Stories'
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
Dana - Jan 16, 2014 4:11:17 am PST #21971 of 28359
I'm terrifically busy with my ennui.
Polgara - Jan 16, 2014 7:09:04 am PST #21972 of 28359
Karma is a cat, sleeping in my lap cuz it loves me. ~TS
I'd never even heard of Bridge to Terabethia the book, so when I saw the movie (in my late 30s!), I was traumatized. And then stunned that it was a YA book.
EpicTangent - Jan 16, 2014 8:28:33 am PST #21973 of 28359
Why isn't everyone pelting me with JOY, dammit? - Zenkitty
Bridge to Terabithia and A Taste of Blackberries both stunned me as a kid. "What do you mean Leslie's/Jamie's dead? Like DEAD dead? No way!" I'm not sure if they were accomplishing what they were supposed to - introducing the concept of death and how to deal, or if they just helped to set me on my current path of avoiding stuff with sad endings like my life depended on it. (Never read Where the Red Fern Grows, Sounder, The Yearling, etc. - forewarned was/is forearmed, yo).
P.M. Marc - Jan 16, 2014 11:22:17 am PST #21974 of 28359
So come, my friends, be not afraid/We are so lightly here/It is in love that we are made; In love we disappear
"Where The Red Fern Grows" was THE most upsetting book I read before age 12, and I was reading all KINDS of crazy stuff with sex, violence, death and monsters.
OMG, NO KIDDING.
BUCKETS. BUCKETS OF WEEPING TEARS.
Our grade 3 teacher read it aloud to the class. The class pretty much excused themselves en masse to go weep uncontrollably in the bathroom.
Connie Neil - Jan 16, 2014 11:23:52 am PST #21975 of 28359
brillig
Was My Friend Flicka traumatic? I seem to remember something upsetting. I never read Red Fern or Tarabathia or the others. We got oodles of Beverly Cleary books.
Frankenbuddha - Jan 16, 2014 6:41:15 pm PST #21976 of 28359
"We are the Goon Squad and we're coming to town...Beep! Beep!" - David Bowie, "Fashion"
I'm not sure I'd count it as traumatizing, but in grade school I checked out a record from the public library of Basil Rathbone reading stories and poems of Edgar Allen Poe. One was the Tell-Tale Heart in it's entirety (there was also an abridged Fall of the House of Usher - the rest were poems, I believe, but BR reading The Bells was impressive). That definitely made an impression, which I followed up by reading a lot more Poe. Nothing quite matches the first time I read The Black Cat. That one disturbed the hell out of me - even more than Tell-Tale or The Cask...
I was reading Stephen King not long after that, partly because there was a family-friend connection and also because I was a horror fan. Nothing much squicks me reading-wise after all that, I must say. The Shining scared the shit out of me but i still consider it one my favorite novels, which is probably why I have resisted reading Dr. Sleep up to this point. Don't want to taint something I have fond memories of.
Ginger - Jan 16, 2014 6:44:20 pm PST #21977 of 28359
"It didn't taste good. It tasted soooo horrible. It tasted like....a vodka martini." - Matilda
I haven't recovered from "The Little Matchgirl" yet.
Typo Boy - Jan 16, 2014 6:47:04 pm PST #21978 of 28359
Calli: My people have a saying. A man who trusts can never be betrayed, only mistaken.Avon: Life expectancy among your people must be extremely short.
The Yellow Wallpaper gave me nightmares.
Amy - Jan 16, 2014 7:07:48 pm PST #21979 of 28359
Because books.
Don't want to taint something I have fond memories of.
Right? I'm not sure I'm ready for how grim Danny might be now, either.
WindSparrow - Jan 16, 2014 7:38:14 pm PST #21980 of 28359
Love is stronger than death and harder than sorrow. Those who practice it are fierce like the light of stars traveling eons to pierce the night.
That definitely made an impression, which I followed up by reading a lot more Poe. Nothing quite matches the first time I read The Black Cat. That one disturbed the hell out of me - even more than Tell-Tale or The Cask...
Ever been to the Edgar Allen Poe house in Philadelphia? When I was there some twenty-some-odd years ago, the tour guide talked about how Poe found inspiration all around him. Then took us into the basement and showed us a niche of some kind in the wall that could easily be bricked up...