The Sword and Laser discussion

What book scarred you the most, or just cut the deepest groove in your brain?

I was thinking of The Painted Bird when I started this post. It's about a kid who gets abandoned by his parents during world war II. I read it before 6th grade and I definitely wasn't ready for it.

Even though that's the book I was thinking of as I started to write, I remembered these doozies: http://tinyurl.com/3dn3aug

That's right Mac and Tab. Seems pretty tame right? Well in one of the books that son of a b*** Tab gets pissed or hungry and eats Mac. Thanks alot kindergarten teacher. As I recall Tab feels bad and goes to the vet, and gets Mac out. Mac is still alive at the end but that didn't fly with me.

It by Stephen King. All about a shapechanging monster who kills adolescents during rainstorms, which i cleverly read as an adolescent during a severe rainstorm. For about a week i couldn't sleep when i was 12, but i had never read storyteller like King so I couldnt't stop thinking bout it, and since i was up anyway i just read a little more and well you know...

The Love Machine by Jacqueline Susann. Don't ask.

Island by Richard Laymon. The ending is a brutal cherry on top of a brutal book. It really shows where evil lives.

Can't remember the last I was scared by a book or movie. Maybe Poltergeist when I was 7yrs old. I'be been creepied out by a scene or two, grossed out, disgusted, held in suspence, thrilled by well written action, shivered at mention of a personal phobia, but never truely scared. No matter how lost in the story I get, I always know it's fake and that waters any reaction down.
Even true life stories feel fake, I can sympathize and empathize, be glad it didn't happen to me, but not scared.

The Exorcist movie, definitely. I wonder what would have happened if I read the book. The author has a new book btw,
.

Are we talking scarred or scared?

Scarred like a teenage fry cook's face!! Not scared like a teenage fry cook on a date.

That's how I read it. I stand by my answer.

The History of Rasselas: Prince of Abissinia Yep. But they are more Hate scars, because i hated that book to a significant degree.

The Innocent by Ian McEwan. The author so effectively sucked me into identifying with the protagonist that, years after reading it, recalling the scene with Maria's ex and the bathtub gives me anxiety attacks. Jeez, this is a terrible thread. Let's go back to spoilers.

I don't think I've ever been scarred by a book.

I must lead a sheltered reading life.

Yeah, I'm with Ala. Either we're sheltered or we have highly evolved defense mechanisms.

Go Team!

I blame the internet. It's made it harder to scar me.

I think reading Flowers in the Attic when I was 10 probably warped me some.

Ala wrote: "I blame the internet. It's made it harder to scar me."

I blame Roald Dahl. I read just about everything he wrote when I was in grades 2-4, and let me tell you - a lot of it is pretty twisted. His work is a good way for a child to build a healthy sheath of callus around his/her mind at a young age.

Del-Del byVictor Kelleher. I wasn't able to sleep with my closet door open for years.

Holy Bible - King James Version

The Last Sherlock Holmes Story by Michael Dibdin. If you have even the faintest liking of Sherlock Holmes in any incarnation, don't read this! You will never be able to look at Sherlock Holmes the same way again. I won't spoil why, but not only did the story make sense, but the added trauma of the character's motivations being so plausible really hit me in the gut.

A short read, and I got my copy from Audible, but boy did that book leave a lasting impression on me.

I once got a wicked paper cut from the jacket of Maps in a Mirror.