Anybody else here remember reading a book in their childhood that they were too young to be reading?
I remember it was the late 70s and I had just turned 13. My mother had a copy of The Amityville Horror laying around, so I picked it up one day and read it.
Big mistake, scared the SHIT out of me for MONTHS afterwards.
I should have waited a few more years before reading that book!
I raise you My Sweet Audrina.
Forever by Judy Blume has entered the chat.
I’ve written about this on Reddit before, but I read Forever when I was ~11, and there’s a part where they’re making out on the beach, and it says “I felt something hard press against my leg, and I knew it wasn’t his keys.”
And I remember that I kept reading, and thinking “Um, ok? Are you seriously not going to tell us what it was if it wasn’t his keys??!?”
It was “Ralph”!
I remember being in junior high n my friends n I would know which pages had all the good stuff!
I started with Forever and then moved on to Judy Blume’s (raunchier) adult book Wifey, all by age 12.
Uggggh. That one hit.
I was shook when the big revelation came. And I read a lot of crazy stuff!
Thank you! No one ever mentions this one. That book omg. I can’t count how many times I read that.
It is SUCH a head trip--and talk about an unreliable narrator.
That is my absolute favorite V.C Andrews book
Omg I just had about 89 flashbacks. I recalled passing these books around amongst friends because I wasn't allowed to buy them even with my own money because they were sooo taboo I wonder if they'd hold up?
All of those books kind of followed the same outline and they were all fkd up.
My boyfriend’s mom gave me that for my birthday present when I was in the eighth grade. She had no idea.
That book was so notorious when we were young teens.
I remember I read this over one spring break and my dad happened to have a heart attack and needed surgery. I was bringing this book with me to the hospital when I would visit. One of the nurses was like - you’re reading that!?! 😂😂😂😂
The entire fucking series.
Twice.
Good LORD.
I read this in 5th grade. Mom got called into school. School said I shouldn't be reading books like that. Mom got mad at school. Said they should be happy I am reading such an advanced book. Mom was the best.
We read that in 5th and 6th grade. Someone had a paperback copy that got passed around.
Sloppy 73rds.
Cool book cover art for that series, though.
I’m a retired bookstore owner and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tried to explain to the parents of “advanced readers” it’s not the difficulty of the words but being mature enough to process the concept. I was definitely not old enough to grasp Flowers in the Attic. But I was reading it on the DL so no shade to the folks.
Came here to say this! Still traumatized by it 🤮🤮🤮
Came here to say this and ta-da! it’s at the top lol. I read the entire series over the course of a year when I was 14 a freshman in HS lol
First one I thought of!
I read The Shining at 11 (followed by many Stephen King books), but that one wasn't nearly as inappropriate as The World According to Garp and Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, both of which I read in middle school. My father was fully aware of what was in those books since they were his, and was fully aware that I was reading them.
My SK book was The Stand. The summer of 1979 before 7th grade. I was all of 12.
Christine in 8th grade for me.
Mine was Night Shift when I was 11 😬
This is mine as well
My SK was Carrie when I was 10 because no one would take me to see the movie on 78. Movie would have been a lot, the prom scene want as graphic as my imagination LOL
The Joy of Sex.
The hedges were thick in that one!
Or, in the words of Detective Frank Drebin, "Nice beaver!"
Thanks I just had it stuffed
I came here to say this. I remember sneaking my parents copy behind the shed. I liked it but didn't know why... Lol
"Helter Skelter"
My parents were very strict about what I was allowed to watch on tv, but never paid any attention to my books. I was an avid reader and picked up Helter Skelter from the thrift store, I was about 11. It was terrifying and I couldn’t put it down! I credit it, along with Stephen king books at the same age, for my love of horror and true crime.
This. I read it 34 years ago and am still creeped out by it.
Lol
Some time back in the early 90s I had a t-shirt with manson’s face and the caption “Is it hot in here or am I crazy?”
I cannot believe my conservative Christian mother let me check this out if the library when I was like, 12.
I still think that might be the most graphic book I’ve ever read. Reading that so young probably fueled my interest in Profiler, Millennium, and Criminal Minds later in life.
I read it when I was 6 and I had to ask my mom what a “pen-iss” was because I didn’t know and someone had gotten theirs cut off in the book. “How do you know THAT word?” (Even though I said it wrong)
I read that when I was a junior and spent the whole night awake thinking someone was doing creepy crawlies in my house.
Clan of the Cave Bear around age 13
Yes this whole series when I was 13.
I think there are 7 books total. The first 3 I read as a box set in 6th grade….book report day comes and Mrs Dupoy asked what my book was. I told her, Plains of Passage by Jean Auel. She said, Snortyclaus, “that book has some parts that aren’t appropriate”, and I said, “I won’t talk about those because I always skip past that stupid love stuff.” I was a bit of a late-bloomer. Read them again and the newer releases in my mid 20’s and actually read the porny parts for the first time and realized that my entire life I had access to a literal clitoris roadmap and it blew my mind. My wife should thank Jean Auel
Memory unlocked.
Forever by Judy Blume. My mom bought it for me thinking it was just another Judy Blume book :)
Wifey by Judy Blume was the loss of my innocence.
I came here to say that. Forever. My mom and step mom were both deeply concerned. We got it anyway,
Our hero
Same! lol I dog eared a lot of pages in that book! And to this day I cannot look a man named Ralph in the eyes lol
Parents bought me the entire Grimm’s fairy tales compilation; I was 6. Read it until the covers fell off because I was a creepy little kid and not much has changed.
I read Grimm’s to my own children. It resulted in a call from the teacher during the first week of school because my daughter told everyone after hearing a sanitized version (Cinderella, maybe?) that’s not how it really ends. Zero regrets.
Truly Tasteless Jokes
Even at 9, I knew not to repeat them in front of my parents.
I actually read the Bible in grade school and thought WTF? Has anybody else at church read this thing?
I grew up in a very religious family and we had bible study and prayer every night. I think they skipped some parts because I remember waiting for my grandparents after church was over but they wouldn't stop talking. I went out to the car and I was so bored I started reading the bible. I just happened to open to the chapter where Lot's daughters get him drunk and rape him. It was a lot for a 9 year old to read.
8th grade we were passing around “looking for mr. goodbar.”
I remember that one--what an odd, depressing book.
we just had the sex scenes dog eared.
The Stand - terrifying.
I read it when I was 22 and it still freaked me out enough that I had to put it in another room to go to sleep.
This reminds me of that episode of Friends where Joey had to put The Shining in the freezer when it got too scary lol
Hell, "Rage" by Stephen King isn't even in print anymore. That had to be the most inappropriate book for me to read as a teenager, I imagine.
Really??? I still have my copy of Different Seasons and reread it every so often.
Rage is a book he wrote as Richard Bachman, about a school shooting. You may be thinking of Apt Pupil, which is in Different Seasons, and has a mass shooting at the end.
It. It was the summer I turned 10 and I was staying with my grandparents for the summer. Scared the crap out of me. I fell in love with King after that.
Go Ask Alice. So many bad decisions that sounded intriguing to me!
This! I was both horrified by her life and totally intrigued at the same time.
My mother had a copy of Our Bodies Ourselves. Lots of good info, but the photo of the woman who died on her knees in a motel room during/after a diy abortion burned into my brain. (And now, here the fuck we are again). Adding: I was 8.
Oh my goodness, I saw that photo as an adult about 5 years ago. Horrible.
I read Gone With The Wind at 11. Lots of death.
I read Cujo at 7. Really. I'd been attacked by a dog as a toddler so I guess it kind of resonated with me.
Do Playboys count? I found my dad's stash at a... very young age.
Also read several Stephen King books much younger than I should have, like many of us.
I think they count. My dad’s were on the bottom shelf of the bookcase in the lounge room, next to Stranger in a Strange Land, Time Enough for Love, The Pajama Game, and The Harrod Experiment. All of which I read the summer I was 10. The Shining, Carrie, and Brave New World were also on that bookcase and I read them that same year.
Honestly the playboys might have seemed to be the most obviously unsuitable in my youthful opinion, but they were the least disturbing.
I read Heinlein’s I Will Fear No Evil at age 12.
I’d forgotten that one! To be honest it was mostly just confusing to me, and I spent a rather large part of the book trying to decide if Eunice (??) was dead or not. Everything else just slid right on by.
I read everything by Heinlein that I could get my hands on over the next few years because if nothing else they were most definitely exciting adventures.
And at least by the time number of the beast and to sail beyond the sunset came out, I was not quite so impressionably young.
Who else read The Thorn Birds too young? I read this and Flowers in the Attic when I was 10 or 11.
Didn't read Thorn Birds, but saw the miniseries, like everyone else in America. It was the biggest thing. Can't imagine that being made today - a priest grooming a young girl then sleeping with her, ick
That part about seeing Jody's, the invisible imaginary pig, eyes looking in the 2nd story window was what creeped me out the most.
It was just like that little Glick boy floating outside the window in Salem's Lot
I read The Exorcist when I was around 12... perhaps I should have held off on that one for a few years.
SAAMEEE! I am very grateful for all the adult books I read as a child, but that one gave me nightmares for a year. When you're the same age as the kid...big nope.
The Joy of Sex. An aunt had that title on her shelf so I went through it repeatedly when I was under 10 years old. I could read way above my age level so I tackled other books my family had on their shelves: Helter Skelter, Serpico, The Godfather, and The Rise and Fall of The Third Reich. Not normal reading for kids I suppose.
Anais Nin, Delta of Venus
Everything by VC Andrews. But maybe there's no right age to read that trash.
You take that back!
Heheh. I devoured all of her books. Heaven really messed me up for a while. So much trauma. Just when you think things might go all right for her…nope. Poor girl. Lol
Oh, i devoured them too, but I think I knew even then that they were trash. i just read them anyway.
And I developed a weird fascination with the whole Appalachian poverty thing in Heaven, lol.
Guinness Book of World Records. I cannot unsee the fat biker twins.
Those bikes were barely holding those two overalled behemoths up.
Anne Rice wrote a series under an alias, that is the most raunchy retelling of sleeping beauty, that puts fifty shades to shame, that I read in high-school (took it from my mom's bedroom) called '" the Sleeping Beauty trilogy", under the name A. N. Roquelaure
Yeah! I read those when I was in 6th grade. I also convinced a teacher to let me write a book report about one of them, rather than the assigned reading (turned out she was a fan of Marquis de Sade so…)
The only thing I was surprised about , is that I found them, in my mother's bedroom, on her headboard, right next to all of her JW literature, from her church 🤣
Damn! That’s a powerful discovery. Gives you some insight there 😂
I remember reading her series on witches in high school. Jesus!
Christine.
Me too! All the Stephen King books I could get my grubby hands on.
My parents created this monster by teaching me to read when I was just a little shy of age 4. Nothing appropriate for my age was engaging because it was all very simple.
So one night I'm in the bedroom at the front of my house reading Christine way after bedtime (I was 7 or 8) with the parents asleep. I'll never forget that a car pulled up in the driveway to turn around. As those headlights crept toward my window I started screaming like a banshee.
Good times.
Fear of Flying. It was on my mom’s bookshelf, so I snuck it into my room and read it when I was 10 lol
I read this and my aunt’s copy of Scruples by Judith Krantz before high school.
Clan of the Cave Bear. I was ten. I was an advanced reader, but I had no business reading that book so early.
Logan's Run. I was about 12, and made the mistake of asking my mother what one of the words in the book meant. She took the book away.
That word was "orgasm".
Literally all of those 70s “bodice ripper” historical romance novels.
My very religious grandma had a bunch hidden in her spare room. . I would read them about ages 11-12 when I spent the night. I have never told anyone. She's gone now.
I was obsessed with VC Andrews, who’s books always included incest.
I also LOVED Stephen King. I think I read Pet Sematery at the age of 11. More to follow and still love his work.
This is TAME, but I also enjoyed Christopher Pike. I recall his books touching on sexual relationships and I LIVED for it.
I loved Christopher Pike! Funny thing is I had already read Stephen King and all of VC Andrews, as well as my mom’s Danielle Steel collection, but I read Pike and got hooked. His books were relatable for my age, I guess. Even though I had read the adult authors, and understood them, his books just made me lose myself.
Sydney Sheldon sat near the family bible quite often.
Awww, I love I Dream of Jeannie. 😉
"Jaws"
Carrie at 11. Valley of the dolls also 11.
I can see YOUR DIRTY PILLOWS!!!
I loved that book. So messed up.
Anything by VC Andrews…Flowers in the attic, My Sweet Audrina, Heaven.
Richard Adams, “Maia.”
The Mists of Avalon. Hello Druid sex! I read that when I was 10. Too early.
My dad was a CRAZY reader so I would pick up everything he put down .. I remember reading Salems Lot on vacation I was maybe in 5th grade I threw the book against the wall I was so scared. I read Helter Skelter in 4th grade and slept on the floor of my room because the way I looked at it I thought they looked in your window and if you had a bed they would kill you !! Hahah
I wrapped IT in a wool blanket at that part and shoved it under my bed. That was not good enough. Then I put it in our basement freezer. When Friends (the tv show) came out years later, my sister was watching, and was yelling, "Joey put Little Women in the Freezer!!!" Apparently I am not the only one who believes in the magical powers of the freezer.
I love that episode! Joey puts The Shining in the freezer when it gets scary and then does it to the copy of Little Women he borrowed from Rachel lol And when he asks how y the women are, are they like, scary little? lol
Then again maybe I won't.
Are you there God its me Margaret.
By Judy Blume.
9 years old and male.
Never read Flowers in the Attic, wasn’t my jam-they just never sounded interesting. I was reading bodice rippers at 11-12, because I would borrow them from my cousins who were 4-8 years older than me. Also, all the Stephen King books.
Yep: GenX read King, Andrews, Bodice-rippers, and Cosmopolitan magazines Wa-a-y too young. Of course, our parents were just glad they're reading.
Coma. I read it when I was 10 and I still hate hospitals.
Ha I never read it but I can see the cover art.
Just on your headline I was planning to post my reply... Amityville Horror! LOL!
1979, my stepmother (wicked more from being a moron than on purpose) handed to me thinking it would a fun read. The rest is same as your experience.
That book seriously messed with me for quite some time. There was a house handy to where I lived that had similarly shaped windows. After dark the windows would be lit up. Gave me shivers every time I saw it!
Helter Skelter in 5th grade. 💀
Go Ask Alice. I was 12 and it haunted me for a while.
No, I didn’t want to sleep tonight. Thanks.
The Story of O and the Happy Hooker I found at a garage sale. I had zero business reading them as a high schooler.
Clan of the Cave Bear is not for 4th graders
Carrie by Stephen King
Wifey by Judy Blume. I don’t know if I ever read Forever. Just jumped in with both feet.
Anything by V. C. Andrews
The Bible, with specific mentions for The Book of Job at age 6 and Revelation when I was 11. What the fucking fuck.
The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty.
The novelization of the TV movie, Born Innocent, also starring Linda Blair. I borrowed it from a friend and took it to my grandma’s house for the weekend and she hid it from me but I found it.
So many more.
The Shining. Dayum, that book scared the crap out of me. I also read Lord of the Flies at 8 years old, but that wasn't quite as bad because I was waaaay too young and most of it went over my head.
Less than zero.
Even though I 18 at the time, add American Pyscho as well.
Yeap, The Amityville Horror was the only book that freaked me out. I got to the end of the book just when my parents took me with them to see the movie. That night, I snuck into their bedroom to sleep on the floor because I was so freaked out.
Then comes the follow up… the OG family had moved to my same town as us in CA (We also had lived not too far away from Amityville, LI, too). One night, a few months later, the family were sitting at the table next to my dad and I, at a local Italian restaurant. They were too close to communicate to my dad to let him know what was going down. The whole familiarities to this creeped me out back then.
Oh yes. Let's talk about VC Andrews books. A young teenage me devoured them. Very not appropriate at that age. Such heavy topics. Loved them all though. A certified bookworm, the stuff for my age group seemed too young and immature.
Less Than Zero
I was 13/14, and I was reading my mom’s bodice rippers. Rosemary Rogers, anyone? Lots of underage, non-consensual activities. Why were all the men 30+ and the women (girls, really) 16?
All the VC Andrews. Flowers in the Attic and My Sweet Audrina, wayyyy too young.
A Taste of Blackberries, author forgotten. I checked it out of the school library in 4th grade and burned into my brain is "Jamie is dead, darling." After the protagonists best friend dies from an allergy to bee stings.
It was a book to help young kids deal with grief when they're too young to understand, like me, for example. But I think it was meant for older kids. My best friend just died almost 2 months ago and dammit, 'Tom is dead, darling." Has been rattling around my brain like it's lived there my whole life.
I guess it kinda has.
Flowers for Algernon, Watership Down, The Rats of Nihm.
These books are NOT ok for under 12s.
I'm 50 and my heart is still broken.
1984 & Brave New World at age 12 or 13
Edited to add Lord of the Flies at 11 or 12…no wonder I don’t trust people
1984 at around 12 for me as well. Been naturally suspicious of pretty much everything since that day.
I'm almost positive we read 1984 as assigned reading in like 6th grade. I could be off by a year or two, but would still be right around the same age as you. Fairly sure we read Crime and Punishment in the same class too.
Oh gods 1984. I read it in 1983 and freaked myself the fuck out. Spent the whole next year waiting for bad stuff to happen.
Also A Clockwork Orange. Now that was a mindfuck for a 12 year old.
Also read 1984 when I was 13.
Christine
When i was in elementary school the librarian refused me a book that was a few grades above my reading level. My silent generation mother marched down to the school and made sure she never made THAT mistake again. But specifically, I read John Jakes' 'The Bastard' when I was 11- had some sex in it, but taught me a ton about the Revolutionary War.
The Happy Hooker. Must have been 11 or so. Whoopsie!
A Clockwork Orange around 14. My cousin had a copy. It took me a bit to figure out the language but once I got the hang of it, holy hell.
Lace. I’ll just leave this here…
Satan: His Psychoanalysis and Subsequent Cure by the Unfortunate Dr. J Kassler J.S.P.S., by Jeremy Levin. I was 13. Lotsa graphics sex and irreverence. I think my Mom read a couple pages out of curiosity then it suddenly went missing (“mom have you seen my book?” “No I haven’t…”)
Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure.
It wasn’t terrifying, but it was… a lot.
To kill a mockingbird. We studied it for our mock exams and the class was in shock the day one of the more attentive kids pointed out that it was about child abuse and rape. Weird day.
The Gor series. My aunt sent her son’s entire book collection to us because she knew I liked to read. I was a 12-yr-old girl at the time. No one, except my much older cousin who had no idea his mom was unloading stuff that had been in the basement for 20 years, had any idea what the books were about.
That was a weird summer.
It. Basically anything by Stephen King.
The summer before 7th grade, a neighbor gave us a box of paperbacks she was getting rid of. I grabbed a Judy Blume book from the pile, and the next day, I got in trouble at my stupid day camp for reading Wifey on the bus.
Oh my gosh, as soon as I saw your title without even reading what you wrote, I immediately thought of the Amityville horror hahaha! The lights in those windows, the red eyes, all the other crap… that book still scares the shit out of me, I will never reread it. I get bad vibes just thinking about it.
I read Thomas Harris' Red Dragon during the summer between 6th & 7th grade.
Helter Skelter
Night Shift by Stephen King. Jesus Christ. I still have nightmares about that boogeyman story.
The Stand. 13 years old, 1985. I’ve read it every year since then in October.
I read IT when I was 9. I should not have had access to this book.
Wifey
Danielle Steele, VC Andrews and Stephen King! I enjoyed the books though. I remember reading my mom’s magazine, I think it was called True Story or something. Definitely things I shouldn’t have been reading. 😂
I also remember watching Porky’s and the Nightmare on Elm Street movies way too young.
The funny thing is my parents were pretty strict in most aspects but not with tv and reading material.
I too have Amityville Horror trauma. It still lives rent-free in my head, I read it when I was 7.
By fourth grade, I read Valley of the Dolls, Flowers in the Attic, Salem’s Lot, Firestarter and Sybil. My mom was a voracious reader and I would snag them when she was done.
Salem’s Lot. Read it before the mini series came out. Both scared the crap out of me. I was 11.
I read way too many horror and satan books. The 70’s and 80’s was a big time for books about being raised in satanic cults, baby fat candles and black magic. My mom let me hang out at the Library and I read everything with no supervision. Many nightmares!!!
Tiger Eyes
Alllll the Stephen King books
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. Dude raped a girl in a fantasy land because he thought he was dreaming.
Also he has leprosy.
He’s “the chosen one” so he gets a pass for all the shit he does. But he’s still always guilty, always depressed.
It made me uncomfortable at the time. Kept reading it though. I needed a payoff to all the fucked up shit, but it never came.
There were Sidney Sheldon and Jackie Collins books when I was visiting family one summer and read them all over a rainy weekend. To this day I’m still deprogramming 🤦♀️
This is crazy but I read one of my older brother’s school books. He was in catholic school, like with nuns hitting them with rulers catholic school. This book had a series of stories that were mostly thinly veiled morality lessons. I was an advanced reader so I was only about 6 or 7 when I read one of the stories that wasn’t trying to teach a lesson. It was about a boy who had been hit by a car. He was badly hurt and in pain and the nurse that was checking on him before he fell asleep told him that if he was ready to go to heaven he just had to raise his hand up while he slept. She gave him an extra pillow because he couldn’t hold his arm up. I don’t know if he went to heaven or didn’t raise his hand and stayed alive. I think I blocked that part out.
That story had me freaked out for years. I was so afraid I would accidentally fall asleep with my hand up that I’d make sure my arms were under my blanket
This one isn't that crazy (& probably mostly women will know), but we were young enough to be giggling over it & read it in "innocent awe": "Are you there God? It's me, Margaret."
"We must! We must! We must increase our bust!" lmao
Where the red fern grows. Those poor sweet dogs broke my heart.
Danielle Steel novels starting around age 10.
I don't remember which specific book it was, but the wife was constantly consenting to sex she didn't want because he was her husband and it was her duty... Like, she could not say no even though it hurt.
A different book was about a teenager getting SAd who got pregnant, was labeled a whore, and had to marry the abuser because you can't be an unwed mother.
There were others that were also fucked up too but no need to recap them all.
These fucked me up for a long time. I had the most fucked up view of sex and relationships and marriage.
Some pre war book with parts of works by Copernicus.
From same source I read a number of pre WW2 printed books about spiritualism. That led me to seek left hand path.
I was about 13-14.
I got through 10 pages of Hogg by Chip Delany before I freaked out (age 13). They had it at our library. I was a big sci-fi fan and had just read his novella The Jewels of Aptor. Hogg was NOT sci-fi.
I read Christine in 8th grade. Lost some sleep for it.
I am certain I read Cujo, and other Stephen King books in middle school.
I was 10 when I started reading Stephen king novels and watch his movies. A lot of our pre teen/teen novels were also a bit more grown up than for younger kids. I read a few to many inappropriate novels but still loved them.
The Clan of the Cave Bear.
Mid 80’s read pretty much anything my older sister did. About 11 years old. When I read The Wolfen by Whitley Streiber. I still get the creeps in the woods at night.
Silence of the Lambs. Tried to read all the movies I was too young to watch lol.
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark was enough for me! I was eleven and easily scared.
The ghost calling, Whooose got my coins? lived in my head for a long time.
Not read personally, but in 5th grade (so 10-11 years old) my teacher was pants on head insane. She read to the entire class The Amityville Horror as our English curriculum.
I'm pretty sure she just wanted to read it during school.
Oh my Lord. So many. Too many.
I read a book called "13 is Too Young to Die" when I was 13.
Fear of Flying, Erica Jong at…12? ‘The zipless fuck’ was central to the story as I recall. :)
The Clan of the Cave Bear and after I finished that one, went on to read The Valley of the Horses, The Mammoth Hunters and The Plains of Passage.
I was between the ages of 10-12 when I read those.
My state is on a book banning kick but so far, I haven’t seen The Earth’s Children series pop up.
We read 1984 in school in 1984 and we were not old enough for that.
Depraved
Cujo
My Secret Garden by Nancy Friday made the rounds amongst the girls in 8th grade. Sexual fantasies ahoy!
Almost all of them. I got my adult library card when I was 8 (I had read all the children’s books). My mom told them to let me check out whatever I wanted. I was lucky. That changed my every other day trip to the library into a twice a week trip. 😀
Go ask Alice - 4th grade
Flowers In the Attic