History FridgeHorror / Literature

* Anthony Horowitz (author of the Literature/AlexRider 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.

* There are several disturbing aspects to stories where characters are able to transport themselves into the universes that are, from their point of view, works of fiction -- sometimes ones they wrote themselves. There's the "World as a Myth" novels of Creator/RobertAHeinlein, Greer Gilman's ''Moonwise'', and the Literature/HaroldShea stories of L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt, just to give a few examples. Heinlein managed to catch one of these disturbing aspects, namely that if fictional universes are real, [[RageAgainstTheAuthor the author is an awful person for writing a story that isn't set in a utopia.]] One other extremely disturbing implication, however, is that there have been a sizable amount of authors who hold racist beliefs, and let this influence their work. That means that if all works of fiction exist in some parallel universe somewhere, ''there must be thousands, if not millions of universes, where racist beliefs are empirically correct.'' There are universes where ''Film/TheBirthOfANation'' is a documentary. The same goes for all sorts of other bigoted, intolerant beliefs. If anyone who held those beliefs ever wrote a story, that means that somewhere out there is a parallel universe where ''all their hateful beliefs are right.''

* In ''Literature/DragonBones'' Ward experiences a brief moment of FridgeHorror when he puts together the information that Oreg is an immortal slave whose material body is that of a pretty boy, and the fact that many of Ward's ancestors, and previous "owners" of Oreg were ... unsavoury characters. Oreg explains that he must do (as in, is magically compelled to do) whatever Ward orders him to do, and if Ward orders him to sit down and not move, he must do that until Ward orders him to do something different. Seems harmless, if you're an innocent child and can't imagine anything worse. If you can, on the other hand ...

** 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 [[DeathBySex 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.

* Fridge/{{Twilight}}

* Fridge/TheEnemy

* Fridge/{{Relentless}}

* Fridge/{{Poetry}}

* There exists a book intended for kids around 9-10 years old, "The Final Journey" (in English) about a little Jewish girl living in Germany in WWII. She and her family are sent to a concentration camp, and the book is mainly about their time in the cattle cars. At the end of the story, they reach their destination, and the girl is sent with her mother and other women and children to the showers. She is completely overjoyed to have a chance to get clean again, and the book ends with her raising her hands in anticipation, waiting for the shower to start. This in itself is pretty grim, until you realize that the protagonist is a very young girl, her mother is described as very frail, and they're surrounded by children. [[TearJerker Just... think about that for a minute.]]
** The German title is "Reise im August", Journey in August, by Gudrun Pausewang, the German queen of HONF.

* In one science fiction anthology, there was a story about reptilian aliens who had taken over the world and controlled humanity through a mass hypnosis that made humans see the aliens as other humans. Now, the main character somehow wakes up from this hypnosis and, after being effectively sentenced to death, decides to go on a rampage and overthrow the alien overlords. Okay. But, some of his victims are very young aliens. Remember, ''the hypnotised humans see the aliens as other humans''. Connect the dots.
** The anthology is ''The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction 8'', the story is Ray Nelson's "Eight O'Clock in the Morning", and the hero is George Nada. His girlfriend is horrified to see him kill a "neighbor" she still sees as human even after it's dead. Going to the neighbor's apartment, George finds half-eaten (actual) human bodies, then sees floating slugs in a tank, realizes they're children and kills them all. He's alone when he does this, though.

* I got a dose of this in my adult rereading of, of all things, ''FreakyFriday''. Early in the book thirteen-year-old Annabel, in her mother's body and with everyone else ''thinking'' she's her mother, makes plans to go with her ''father'' to see a "pretty dirty" movie. Fortunately for ALL concerned, Annabel's mother re-inhabits the body before this takes place. Annabel was naively only imagining this as a chance to see a movie she'd never otherwise have a chance to see, but imagine her father coming home from seeing a sexually explicit film with ''the woman he thinks is his wife''.
** The Japanese film ''Himitsu'' (remade as ''The Secret'' in 2007) is all about this.
* ''Literature/TheClique'': 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.)

* Reading ''The Spider and the Fly'' as an adult is horrifying. The spider ''murders'' the fly, '''eats her''', and gets away with it. Both are fully anthropomorphic. My copy has dim, black-and-white illustrations, emphasizing the gloom.

* There are several disturbing aspects to stories where characters are able to transport themselves into the universes that are, from their point of view, works of fiction -- sometimes ones they wrote themselves. There's the "World as a Myth" novels of Creator/RobertAHeinlein, Greer Gilman's ''Moonwise'', and the Literature/HaroldShea stories of L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt, just to give a few examples. Heinlein managed to catch one of these disturbing aspects, namely that if fictional universes are real, [[RageAgainstTheAuthor the author is an awful person for writing a story that isn't set in a utopia.]] One other extremely disturbing implication, however, is that there have been a sizable amount of authors who hold racist beliefs, and let this influence their work. That means that if all works of fiction exist in some parallel universe somewhere, ''there must be thousands, if not millions of universes, where racist beliefs are empirically correct.'' There are universes where ''Film/TheBirthOfANation1916'' is a documentary. The same goes for all sorts of other bigoted, intolerant beliefs. If anyone who held those beliefs ever wrote a story, that means that somewhere out there is a parallel universe where ''all their hateful beliefs are right.''

*** What if you erased something? Also, there's ComesGreatResponsibility in the mix. Zilpha Keatley Snyder's ''The Bronze Pen'' illustrates this pretty well.

* Fridge/BloodLine

* Fridge/TheSilmarillion

*{{Literature/The Call Of Cthulhu}}'s ending could easily count as this. To quote someone who said this better, "The final lines of the story involve Thurston realizing that [[spoiler:he knows too much, and that it is very likely that he will meet his end by cultists.]] Then suddenly you realize[[spoiler:you now know too much.]] "

* Fridge/DarkTower

* Fridge/HeroesOfOlympus

* One that leans more toward Fridge Sadness: In ''The Penderwicks,'' the Penderwick sisters' mother died of cancer two weeks after giving birth to her youngest daughter, Batty. Younger readers won't pick up on it, but it's all but stated that Mrs. Penderwick found out she had cancer during her pregnancy, and chose to forgo treatment in order to have Batty.

** Violet's brother Will from ''Midnight'' is clearly a sociopath.