Happy April! I wracked my brain for an appropriately silly list for this month of foolishness.
Then I decided to share some of my favorite terrifying children's stories instead.
Don't worry, this'll be fun too!
As a YA Horror author, I often have to listen to people complain about how dark and violent teen literature is today. Okay, I guess everyone has to listen to the complaints that "children grow up so fast these days!" as if there were an abundance of times and places more conducive with a tolerable and leisurely process of growing up than the modern first world.
Then I decided to share some of my favorite terrifying children's stories instead.
Don't worry, this'll be fun too!
As a YA Horror author, I often have to listen to people complain about how dark and violent teen literature is today. Okay, I guess everyone has to listen to the complaints that "children grow up so fast these days!" as if there were an abundance of times and places more conducive with a tolerable and leisurely process of growing up than the modern first world.
However, I also have the joy of having to defend my genre to people, many of whom will never understand it.
I'm a passionate believer in the value of horror, the freedom of art, and the competence of most young people to judge what kinds of stories they can handle, all subjects I've written on before and no doubt will again, but in the spirit of the month, I'm going to skip the rest of the heavy and get right to the fun, to a celebration of the monsters under all our beds, the ones we fought and beat before the first pangs of puberty but can still look back on with a satisfying chill.
It's not possible to tackle this topic without a nod to the horrifying European children's folktales as compiled by The Brothers Grimm, but these bite-sized terrors have already been well analyzed by more specialized scholars than myself, and I couldn't pick just one, so let's just kick off the new month with a highlights reel of my favorite horrible moments sitting in plain sight in the most popular Grimm’s stories!
Skipping the parts that seem to be disturbing without knowledge of the original tellers,
I'm a passionate believer in the value of horror, the freedom of art, and the competence of most young people to judge what kinds of stories they can handle, all subjects I've written on before and no doubt will again, but in the spirit of the month, I'm going to skip the rest of the heavy and get right to the fun, to a celebration of the monsters under all our beds, the ones we fought and beat before the first pangs of puberty but can still look back on with a satisfying chill.
It's not possible to tackle this topic without a nod to the horrifying European children's folktales as compiled by The Brothers Grimm, but these bite-sized terrors have already been well analyzed by more specialized scholars than myself, and I couldn't pick just one, so let's just kick off the new month with a highlights reel of my favorite horrible moments sitting in plain sight in the most popular Grimm’s stories!
Skipping the parts that seem to be disturbing without knowledge of the original tellers,
Like this part of the original Sleeping Beauty
We've got such intentional horror as:
Rapunzel's prince getting pushed out of the tower and having his eyes gouged out on the thorn bushes below.
Rapunzel's prince getting pushed out of the tower and having his eyes gouged out on the thorn bushes below.
Self-administered foot mutilation in Cinderella.
That part in Snow White where the queen’s goon is supposed to kill her and bring back her internal organs as proof.
An alarming number of stories (Snow White again, Hansel and Gretel) about people taking children out into the woods to murder them.
The whole damn story of Bluebeard, about a woman who discovers the room where her new husband keeps the dismembered corpses of his past wives.
Oh, and the fact that Rumplestiltskin is about a young woman who is forced to spin straw into gold or be executed, and her only hope for survival is to make a deal with a villain who demands her future baby as payment.
Yes, we all knew that one. Just soak it in.
Yes, we all knew that one. Just soak it in.
Sorry, kids, sometimes your life just sucks.
Plenty of modern YA could take some creepiness cues off these childhood classics. In fact, I might be getting inspired here...
Next week, we'll get to some meatier and more neglected children's terrors!
Agree? Disagree? Comments are always welcome! Or keep up with my fictional musings by joining me on Facebook, on Twitter, or by signing up for email updates in the panel on the right!
Next week, we'll get to some meatier and more neglected children's terrors!
Agree? Disagree? Comments are always welcome! Or keep up with my fictional musings by joining me on Facebook, on Twitter, or by signing up for email updates in the panel on the right!
