Fridge Horror/Literature: Difference between revisions

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* [[The Berenstain Bears/Fridge|The Berenstain Bears]]

* [[Bridge to Terabithia/Fridge|Bridge to Terabithia]]

* [[The Book of Night ~~With~~ Moon ~~(Literature)~~/Fridge|The Book of Night With Moon]]

* [[The Book of Night with Moon/Fridge|The Book of Night With Moon]]

* [[The Chronicles of Narnia/Fridge|The Chronicles of Narnia]]

* [[The City of Ember/Fridge|The City of Ember]]

* [[Coraline (~~Animation~~)/Fridge|Coraline]]

* [[Coraline (animation)/Fridge|Coraline]]

* [[Dark Tower/Fridge|Dark Tower]]

* [[Discworld ~~(Literature)~~/Fridge|Discworld]]

* [[Discworld/Fridge|Discworld]]

* [[The Dresden Files ~~(Literature)~~/Fridge|The Dresden Files]]

* [[The Dresden Files/Fridge|The Dresden Files]]

* [[Drood (~~Theatre~~)/Fridge|Drood]]

* [[Drood (theatre)/Fridge|Drood]]

* [[Orphaned/Fridge/The Echo|The Echo]]

* [[Orphaned/Fridge/The Enemy|The Enemy]]

* [[Goosebumps/Fridge|Goosebumps]]

* [[Harry Potter (Franchise)/Fridge|Harry Potter]]

* [[The Hitchhiker's Guide to ~~The~~ Galaxy ~~(Franchise)~~/Fridge|The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy]]

* [[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy/Fridge|The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy]]

* [[How Not to Write A Novel/Fridge|How Not to Write A Novel]]

* [[Kitty Norville/Fridge|Kitty Norville]]

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* [[The Search for Wondla/Fridge|The Search for Wondla]]

* [[A Series of Unfortunate Events/Fridge|A Series of Unfortunate Events]]

* [[A Song of Ice and Fire ~~(Literature)~~/Fridge|A Song of Ice and Fire]]

* [[A Song of Ice and Fire/Fridge|A Song of Ice and Fire]]

* [[The Silmarillion ~~(Literature)~~/Fridge|The Silmarillion]]

* [[The Silmarillion/Fridge|The Silmarillion]]

* [[Orphaned/Fridge/Spellfall|Spellfall]]

* [[Tales of the Frog Princess ~~(Literature)~~/Fridge|Tales of the Frog Princess]]

* [[Tales of the Frog Princess/Fridge|Tales of the Frog Princess]]

* [[Discworld ~~(Literature)~~/Thud/Fridge|Fridge]]

* [[Discworld/Thud/Fridge|Fridge]]

* [[Thursday Next/Fridge|Thursday Next]]

* [[To Kill a Mockingbird/Fridge|To Kill a Mockingbird]]

* [[Twilight (~~Literature~~)/Fridge|Twilight]]

* [[Twilight (novel)/Fridge|Twilight]]

* [[Orphaned/Fridge/The Watertower|The Watertower]]

* [[The Wheel of Time ~~(Literature)~~/Fridge|The Wheel of Time]]

* [[The Wheel of Time/Fridge|The Wheel of Time]]

* [[The Wingfeather Saga/Fridge|The Wingfeather Saga]]

* [[Wuthering Heights (~~Literature~~)/Fridge|Wuthering Heights]]

* [[Wuthering Heights (novel)/Fridge|Wuthering Heights]]

* [[Young Wizards ~~(Literature)~~/Fridge|Young Wizards]]

* [[Young Wizards/Fridge|Young Wizards]]

== General ==

* [[Poetry/Fridge|Poetry]]

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* In-story in a German legend. A rider is on a journey through southern Germany / northern Switzerland, during a very cold winter. He's crossing a big, flat plain. He thinks nothing about it, he just wonders why there's absolutely no sign of human settlement. Finally, he reaches a village. There, he asks a woman how far [[wikipedia:Lake Constance|Lake Constance]] is. She's astonished and tells him that he came right from the lake's shore. Then it dawns him that he actually rode over the frozen lake and was damn close to a cold death... in fact, the shock immediately kills him.

* Anthony Horowitz (author of the [[~~Alex Rider (Literature)|~~Alex Rider]] series) wrote two collections of short stories entitled ''Horowitz Horror''. Re-reading these after several years, they didn't seem as scary... except one. ''Bath Night''. In this story, the main character's parents buy a new bath which, it turns out, is haunted by the ghost of a serial killer who used to butcher his victims in it. This, coupled with the fact that the story ends with the girl being assumed crazy and taken away, and her father lying in the bath thinking about how he could get rid of annoying people, is all horrifying enough as a child. An older reader will pick up on two things. Number one; someone who kidnaps and murders women is not unlikely to have done something else to them as well, and leading on from that, number two; the ghost only terrorises the main character. Who is a twelve year old girl. While she is in the bath. I wish I hadn't re-read that one.

* Anthony Horowitz (author of the [[Alex Rider]] series) wrote two collections of short stories entitled ''Horowitz Horror''. Re-reading these after several years, they didn't seem as scary... except one. ''Bath Night''. In this story, the main character's parents buy a new bath which, it turns out, is haunted by the ghost of a serial killer who used to butcher his victims in it. This, coupled with the fact that the story ends with the girl being assumed crazy and taken away, and her father lying in the bath thinking about how he could get rid of annoying people, is all horrifying enough as a child. An older reader will pick up on two things. Number one; someone who kidnaps and murders women is not unlikely to have done something else to them as well, and leading on from that, number two; the ghost only terrorises the main character. Who is a twelve year old girl. While she is in the bath. I wish I hadn't re-read that one.

** [[It Got Worse|Not unlikely?]] The novel ''explicitly'' mentions Jach the Ripper, who killed prostitutes. It is also strongly implied that the women were killed while taking a bath. A child thinks nothing of it, but what kind of woman would take a bath in a man's house during that time period? This gives the series of murder a whole different meaning: he ''didn't'' kidnap random women from the street, drag them to the bathtub and kill them there - he invited them [[Death By Sex|for sex]] and he killed them when they took a bath (probably by his suggestion). This makes his interaction with the heroine (and the fact that he doesn't terrorize her mother, for example) all the more disturbing.

** [[It Got Worse|Not unlikely?]] The novel ''explicitly'' mentions Jach the Ripper, who killed prostitutes. It is also strongly implied that the women were killed while taking a bath. A child thinks nothing of it, but what kind of woman would take a bath in a man's house during that time period? This gives the series of murder a whole different meaning: he ''didn't'' kidnap random women from the street, drag them to the bathtub and kill them there - he invited them [[Death by Sex|for sex]] and he killed them when they took a bath (probably by his suggestion). This makes his interaction with the heroine (and the fact that he doesn't terrorize her mother, for example) all the more disturbing.

** Oh, the ending isn't ''just'' about the father considering how to get rid of annoying people. He's explicitly thinking about his wife and daughter, who he thinks are unnecessarily causing stress in his life and are making him look bad. Now, tie that in to the implications up above, about who the previous victims likely would have been, and what was done to them. Now, consider the ''father'' doing that to his ''wife and daughter''. Fun!

*** He's ALSO thinking about annoying students at the all-boys school where he teaches. Tie that in with the heroine's earlier jibe about homosexuality at boys' schools ... Oh dear.

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* ''[[The Clique]]'': The horrible realization about the characters in these books. (Alicia being implied to have breast implants, Dylan having a budding eating disorder, Massie being a sociopath, Claire living a lie, etc.)

* Jaquleline Wilson books have this, if you've read them as a child and then look back on them. For example, {{spoiler|Tracy Beaker's mum was a porn star}}.

* In Guus Kuiper's ''Polleke'' series, the titular heroine, a (then) 12 years old girl, is approached by a driver on her way home. The driver says her father had a terrible accident and that he can drive herto the place. Polleke gets in, and only then does she remember that her father is in Nepal at the moment and (an [[In Universe]] example) realises the man is a child molester. When the car gets stuck in traffic, she makes a run for it and escapes. This by itself is devastating to her and horrifying to the reader. But then you remember that just about six months ago, her father was a homeless drug addict, living in the same city with her. Had the man approached her then, she probably wouldn't realise it's a trap until way too late.

* In Guus Kuiper's ''Polleke'' series, the titular heroine, a (then) 12 years old girl, is approached by a driver on her way home. The driver says her father had a terrible accident and that he can drive herto the place. Polleke gets in, and only then does she remember that her father is in Nepal at the moment and (an [[In-Universe]] example) realises the man is a child molester. When the car gets stuck in traffic, she makes a run for it and escapes. This by itself is devastating to her and horrifying to the reader. But then you remember that just about six months ago, her father was a homeless drug addict, living in the same city with her. Had the man approached her then, she probably wouldn't realise it's a trap until way too late.

* ''Come Back, Lucy'' by Pamela Sykes is a story about a girl discovering that she can travel back in time to be with her friend, the ghost of a Victorian girl who lived in the house a hundred years previously. She cannot control her time travel and has to make excuses to her adoptive family to cover her absence. A child reader would not realize at first glance that her guardians might have been worried about more than ghosts when a ten-year-old girl is disappearing at night.

* A ''[[Safety Town]]'' book called ''Poisons Make You Sick'' follows the story of a young girl named Tammy who got sick after eating nearly half a bottle of asprins. No, Tammy, poisons don't just make you sick; they can ''KILL'' you. In fact, in the book, she's just in bed like she had a cold. In real life, if she weren't dead, she would be in the hospital getting her stomach pumped. Of course, as a child, you're not aware of this horrific implication until years later when you read about people who die of drug overdose either accidentally or intentionally.