I honestly don’t remember a book ever traumatizing me. I was reading adult SF around 8-10 supplemented with scholastic books. lol. contrast eh?
I remember books grossing me out. Some earlyish Steven King. Obsidian Butterfly (Anita Blake series). But that’s different than trauma.
This goes alone with me wondering when and why that change happened in society, that things changed such that clowns were scary, not funny (and yes, I know early clowns look somewhat dumb compared to todays makeup and effects), when the object of a work horror of fiction became less the telling of a story and more an act of how gross or scary it can be. Yes, I know many myths and cryptids existed to scare children especially into not doing things they should not, but that is still different.
I’m sure someone, somewhere has at least attempted a doctorate in sociology thesis on something similar. but i have never come across it.
Watching the news one night. I was maybe 2nd or 3rd grade and they showed a sink hole that developed in someone’s back yard. OMG, I was terrified and on high alert for years! God forbid a sink hole develop within my radius.
Much like @Cerridwyn, i can’t say i was ever traumatized by a book, and i was reading stuff like Stephen King in grade school. The only time i remember any book coming close was reading 'Salem’s Lot in the family camper alone, surrounded by pitch-black woods, with all the windows open. During the window-scratching scene (IYKYK), I got creeped out enough to get up & close all the curtains.
I still find it hard to believe, as I was also a scary movie fan & started young. I saw the original release of The Amityville Horror in the theater, so i must have been about 10, and the only effect it had that i remember was when it was time for a sleepover at my aunt’s house, which happened to be a gambrel.
🫣 It gave me a little pause, but not to the level of trauma or anything. The same thing with Jaws, i must have been 6 with that one. We tended to swim at lakes more than the ocean, so it wasn’t too much of a problem, but i never liked anything brushing against my legs under the water where i couldn’t see what it was anyway, which i think is perfectly reasonable.
@ircon96
Last summer I was standing at the sandbar in the lake and I felt something on my leg so I kick and I kicked a huge pan fish out of the water. I grew up on a lake and never would be the first person in the water bc of the fish. That at 41, kinda traumatized me a little even more not to go swimming unless other people already are lol
@edsa I remember being engrossed but not shocked by the book.
But the performances by the cast and direction by Kubrick of the movie were amazingly creepy and affecting.
@macromeh My parents didn’t want me to read the shining, therefore I read it. And it didn’t even scare me. I guess my sense of fear got more tough as I grew up. I was reading Goosebumps books in the first grade.
(Also, that was the series that introduced me to reading.)
Our family was pretty distant with each other growing up and that subject was certainly taboo. I was an adolescent when I found a book in my parent’s bedroom that must have been some sort of primer on giving kids “the talk”. (BTW, they never did.)
Anyway, I just remember one of the Q&A examples where the answer was something like, “Remember that special joining I told you about…” Huh? I looked through the book and could find no previous mention of “that special joining” to confirm that it meant what I slowly realized it probably meant. I was aghast at the thought. I couldn’t imagine why anyone would ever want to in such close physical proximity to anyone else, but …that. It was incomprehensible.
In the ensuing years, close physical proximity revealed its allure, but at that earlier age, I really couldn’t figure out why people would want to do that.
@tharri1 I learned about it from a friend at about age 9 and walked around looking at adults in horror for a while, thinking, “Euw, they have 3 kids so they did that 3 times?!?”
I used to love reading horror books like Steven King, James Herbert, etc, when I was in primary school. Can’t remember any actually scaring me… Same with horror movies. I loved them because I found them amusing rather than scary.
@sammydog01 There is something about audiobooks. I think it’s related to not controlling the speed making uncomfortable parts feel like they last forever.
I remember driving listening to The Ruins on audiobook after watching the movie. It was pretty intense.
My grandfather’s anatomy and physiology books because I struggled with severe constipation as a kid and in that book, I learned about mega colon. Was always worried I had that…definitely traumatizing.
@pakopako I don’t think I was exposed to that book until I was an adult. (So it technically didn’t traumatize me as a child.) I found it rather weird and/or confusing. “What’s it trying to say? It’s okay always take? It’s glorious to destroy yourself in giving? Huh?”
In much later adult years I’ve seen other people online tear into it rather strongly. That validated my earlier confusion, but also made me feel bad I hadn’t reacted more strongly before.
I think it’d be a lot more okay if it had been clearer on what its moral is. If it has one, and it isn’t the wrong one. But failing that, I have to treat it as teaching/reinforcing unhealthy behavior.
The closest a book ever came to traumatizing me as a child was when I read Charlotte’s Web and Charlotte died near the end. It was so unfair! A few years ago, I read it after 60 years with my Italian ESL student and I understood it: using a fantasy life to show real life to children.
@ItalianScallion reading that, the Trumpet of the Swan, and the comic book version of a Charlie Brown Christmas in succession gave me childhood depression.
It wasn’t a book, but the educational fire safety film that they showed us in second grade. It caused a number of anxious nights over the next month that our house would burn down. Mum tried to reassure me a couple of times, and although my parents cultivated the bluff that they knew everything to help enforce obedience, I knew at 7 that life was unpredictable and a house fire could be beyond of their control.
@tharri1 I remember those films too and being petrified of my house catching fire. Families were encouraged to do home fire drills, the mere thought of which made me even more anxious. I don’t how that feeling ever passed.
Not a book, but the 2002 Game Boy Advance game Metroid Fusion, when it was new. I was 14. The cutscenes with the SA-X enemy/boss, and having to sneak past it on a few occasions…and the resultant chase if it saw you! The atmospheric music/soundtrack really added to it, too.
Fusion has since become one of my favorite video games, probably my most favorite GBA title, and I replay through it all the time.
@Wollyhop Dread has a difficulty level and learning curve much steeper than just about any other Metroid game. Other than the NES original, it’s the only Metroid I haven’t completed…I can play 99% of the way through Dread mostly fine, but the final boss is just brutally unfair and I have never been able to surmount it. Every so often I go back and try again but I got the game when it came out and still haven’t succeeded.
I honestly believe Nintendo mis-stepped with the difficulty on Dread. They introduced a ‘Rookie Mode’ a bit after launch, but this did nothing for the boss fights, at all.
For whatever reason, books never got to me no matter how graphic. However, the movie Salem’s Lot scared the bejeezus out of my for years and I would not go into our crawl space without someone else going in before me and exiting after me!
I honestly don’t remember a book ever traumatizing me. I was reading adult SF around 8-10 supplemented with scholastic books. lol. contrast eh?
I remember books grossing me out. Some earlyish Steven King. Obsidian Butterfly (Anita Blake series). But that’s different than trauma.
This goes alone with me wondering when and why that change happened in society, that things changed such that clowns were scary, not funny (and yes, I know early clowns look somewhat dumb compared to todays makeup and effects), when the object of a work horror of fiction became less the telling of a story and more an act of how gross or scary it can be. Yes, I know many myths and cryptids existed to scare children especially into not doing things they should not, but that is still different.
I’m sure someone, somewhere has at least attempted a doctorate in sociology thesis on something similar. but i have never come across it.
PS, my daughters first movie was Alien.
Watching the news one night. I was maybe 2nd or 3rd grade and they showed a sink hole that developed in someone’s back yard. OMG, I was terrified and on high alert for years! God forbid a sink hole develop within my radius.
@tinamarie1974
/showme Tina Marie saved from a sinkhole by Charlie Doggo wearing a cape and flying while eating a peanut butter treat
@tinamarie1974 not sure why you’re eating the peanut butter treat, but otherwise looks pretty heroic!
@ybmuG I do like peanut butter, and I didnt know Charlie was so heroic
Much like @Cerridwyn, i can’t say i was ever traumatized by a book, and i was reading stuff like Stephen King in grade school. The only time i remember any book coming close was reading 'Salem’s Lot in the family camper alone, surrounded by pitch-black woods, with all the windows open. During the window-scratching scene (IYKYK), I got creeped out enough to get up & close all the curtains.
I still find it hard to believe, as I was also a scary movie fan & started young. I saw the original release of The Amityville Horror in the theater, so i must have been about 10, and the only effect it had that i remember was when it was time for a sleepover at my aunt’s house, which happened to be a gambrel.
🫣 It gave me a little pause, but not to the level of trauma or anything. The same thing with Jaws, i must have been 6 with that one. We tended to swim at lakes more than the ocean, so it wasn’t too much of a problem, but i never liked anything brushing against my legs under the water where i couldn’t see what it was anyway, which i think is perfectly reasonable.
@ircon96
Last summer I was standing at the sandbar in the lake and I felt something on my leg so I kick and I kicked a huge pan fish out of the water. I grew up on a lake and never would be the first person in the water bc of the fish. That at 41, kinda traumatized me a little even more not to go swimming unless other people already are lol
@Star2236 YOU KICKED A FISH?!?!
@Wollyhop
Yeah! The other people who sitting in chairs in the water put their feet up.
@Star2236 lol
Remember being actually scared reading for the first time with The Shining.
@edsa I remember being engrossed but not shocked by the book.
But the performances by the cast and direction by Kubrick of the movie were amazingly creepy and affecting.
@macromeh My parents didn’t want me to read the shining, therefore I read it. And it didn’t even scare me. I guess my sense of fear got more tough as I grew up. I was reading Goosebumps books in the first grade.
(Also, that was the series that introduced me to reading.)
I found this stashed in my parents’ bedroom…
Our family was pretty distant with each other growing up and that subject was certainly taboo. I was an adolescent when I found a book in my parent’s bedroom that must have been some sort of primer on giving kids “the talk”. (BTW, they never did.)
Anyway, I just remember one of the Q&A examples where the answer was something like, “Remember that special joining I told you about…” Huh? I looked through the book and could find no previous mention of “that special joining” to confirm that it meant what I slowly realized it probably meant. I was aghast at the thought. I couldn’t imagine why anyone would ever want to in such close physical proximity to anyone else, but …that. It was incomprehensible.
In the ensuing years, close physical proximity revealed its allure, but at that earlier age, I really couldn’t figure out why people would want to do that.
@tharri1 I learned about it from a friend at about age 9 and walked around looking at adults in horror for a while, thinking, “Euw, they have 3 kids so they did that 3 times?!?”
I used to love reading horror books like Steven King, James Herbert, etc, when I was in primary school. Can’t remember any actually scaring me… Same with horror movies. I loved them because I found them amusing rather than scary.
The sillier the horror the better.
There’s a children’s book that traumatized me as an adult- Unwind by Neal Shusterman. I may have listened to the audiobook which made it worse.
@sammydog01 There is something about audiobooks. I think it’s related to not controlling the speed making uncomfortable parts feel like they last forever.
I remember driving listening to The Ruins on audiobook after watching the movie. It was pretty intense.
My grandfather’s anatomy and physiology books because I struggled with severe constipation as a kid and in that book, I learned about mega colon.
Was always worried I had that…definitely traumatizing. 
The Giving Tree
Life is filled with people who only take, enabled by people who only give.
@pakopako I don’t think I was exposed to that book until I was an adult. (So it technically didn’t traumatize me as a child.) I found it rather weird and/or confusing. “What’s it trying to say? It’s okay always take? It’s glorious to destroy yourself in giving? Huh?”
In much later adult years I’ve seen other people online tear into it rather strongly. That validated my earlier confusion, but also made me feel bad I hadn’t reacted more strongly before.
I think it’d be a lot more okay if it had been clearer on what its moral is. If it has one, and it isn’t the wrong one. But failing that, I have to treat it as teaching/reinforcing unhealthy behavior.
The closest a book ever came to traumatizing me as a child was when I read Charlotte’s Web and Charlotte died near the end. It was so unfair! A few years ago, I read it after 60 years with my Italian ESL student and I understood it: using a fantasy life to show real life to children.
@ItalianScallion reading that, the Trumpet of the Swan, and the comic book version of a Charlie Brown Christmas in succession gave me childhood depression.
It wasn’t a book, but the educational fire safety film that they showed us in second grade. It caused a number of anxious nights over the next month that our house would burn down. Mum tried to reassure me a couple of times, and although my parents cultivated the bluff that they knew everything to help enforce obedience, I knew at 7 that life was unpredictable and a house fire could be beyond of their control.
@tharri1 I remember those films too and being petrified of my house catching fire. Families were encouraged to do home fire drills, the mere thought of which made me even more anxious. I don’t how that feeling ever passed.
Watership Down. Those poor bunnies.
@llangley probably most logical choice. I didn’t like it reading it as an adult for those reasons.
@llangley I’m currently reading this with my 9YO daughter. We’re 3/4 the way through and she is finding it fairly exciting.
@fibrs86 oh, that’s so nice! I’m sure reading with you helps a lot. I was a voracious reader when young but I always read alone
Not a book, but the 2002 Game Boy Advance game Metroid Fusion, when it was new. I was 14. The cutscenes with the SA-X enemy/boss, and having to sneak past it on a few occasions…and the resultant chase if it saw you!
The atmospheric music/soundtrack really added to it, too.
Fusion has since become one of my favorite video games, probably my most favorite GBA title, and I replay through it all the time.
possible spoilers, probably not
@PooltoyWolf Tried to play Metroid Dread, ended up rage quitting about 5 minutes in.
@Wollyhop Dread has a difficulty level and learning curve much steeper than just about any other Metroid game. Other than the NES original, it’s the only Metroid I haven’t completed…I can play 99% of the way through Dread mostly fine, but the final boss is just brutally unfair and I have never been able to surmount it. Every so often I go back and try again but I got the game when it came out and still haven’t succeeded.
I honestly believe Nintendo mis-stepped with the difficulty on Dread. They introduced a ‘Rookie Mode’ a bit after launch, but this did nothing for the boss fights, at all.
@PooltoyWolf Maybe I will try again.
Speaking of difficulty, ever try a deathless pikmin run?
I did.
It shaved years off my life.
@Wollyhop Pikmin is one of the few Nintendo games I have yet to play.
@PooltoyWolf Try Pikmin 4. Perfect for beginners, not too easy, (Like 3.) and not too hard, (Like 1 and 2.). It’s fun.
@Wollyhop I own the GCN original, I just haven’t popped it in yet!
@PooltoyWolf DO IT :}
(P.S.-If you need any help, just go to the Pikmin Wiki on Fandom. They got some answers. Also I’m a staff member.)
Not traumatized per se, but I found the realities of most Holy Books to be more horrifying than uplifting.
@werehatrack imagine having a father like that
@pakopako I saw it often enough
Thinking about Watership Down made me remember The Plague Dogs
.
I started it but just couldn’t…
I mean, I probably shouldn’t have been reading Catch-22 at age 10 (well, almost 11).
@mossygreen Hmm, I think I saw the movie at 13
@mossygreen yes you should
For whatever reason, books never got to me no matter how graphic. However, the movie Salem’s Lot scared the bejeezus out of my for years and I would not go into our crawl space without someone else going in before me and exiting after me!
Dick and Jane!
Oh, THE HORROR!! 
/image Dick and Jane book
/image Harlan Ellison Deathbird Stories
Includes a caveat lector that absolutely should be heeded