An eerie, eerie night

Red Riding Hood illustrated by JW Smith

Some stories are introduced as ‘horror stories,' offering a fair bit of warning about their nature. However, there are also stories that don't intend to be scary but end up unsettling their readers. In a podcast, released this month as part of the royal initiative The Queen's Reading Room, Queen Camilla admitted that she was "rather put off by Alice going down the rabbit hole" while reading Lewis Carroll's classic. Some of the characters frightened her, "The Mad Hatter, the Red Queen…," she recollected. Here's a list of stories that our readers found bizarrely terrifying as children:

Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, despite not being explicitly scary, left me with chills due to its Gothic plotline. I read it when I was 12, and the vivid descriptions of a wrecked Victorian mansion surrounded by wilderness, coupled with themes of physical and emotional abuse were eerie. The novel's portrayal of desolation and dysfunctional relationships also kept me on edge at all times. Even years and multiple rereads later, the first memory of this book lingers, and it takes me on a rollercoaster of emotions.
Mariya Kapasi, 32, engineer

Rumpelstiltskin

Rumpelstiltskin illustrated by Anne Anderson. Pics Courtesy/Wikimedia Commons

"When I was seven, my uncle had gifted me the early version of the Brothers Grimm fairy tales. Rumpelstiltskin really stood out for me. It was unnerving to read about a man who would help the helpless, but would ask for something so unimaginable in return - someone's first born child. Even back then I felt that was wrong; there was no rational explanation for why someone would be like that.

Around the same time, I'd also read the story of Tashi where scary things used to happen, but Tashi was the force of goodness. I felt really good as a child reading it. So, I used to be conflicted about Tashi and Rumpelstiltskin existing in the same universe; my universe of stories."
Parth Rahatekar, 25, writer

Little Red Riding Hood

When I was young, my mum would surround me with story books. I remember enacting a lot of them, too. I had a red raincoat and a little umbrella and a basket like Red Riding Hood. The story felt real to me, and for a long time, I believed that if I spoke to strangers, I'd be eaten up by a wolf. The wolf disguised as the grandma was so scary, I believed that he could talk and manipulate me. So, until the age of 10 or 12, I didn't speak to strangers, and even after that, when I did, I would speak with a lot of hesitation.
Priyanka Patel, 41, arts and culture practitioner

The Magic Faraway Tree

The Magic Faraway Tree illustrated by Dorothy M Wheeler

I read Enid Blyton's Faraway Tree series as a child. While the magic and friendship enthralled me, I was spooked by a description of the woods - the wind whistling through the trees made it seem as if they were whispering deep dark secrets.

I slept alone in a room too large for me, and at night, faint light from the street would filter in through the window, casting dancing shadows of the trees outside. For weeks, my overactive imagination convinced me that the trees were out to get me, and that one night, they would finally come marching into my room.
Amrita Brahmo, 30, project editor, social sciences

Tintin: Explorers On The Moon

The Adventures of Tintin Explorers On The Moon by Herge

I used to be a big fan of Tintin; I still am, but when I was nine, I read Explorers on the Moon. As the title suggests, the characters go to the Moon, but there is a moment there when they are disconnected from the space shuttle. When I read that, I had nightmares about being in a similar situation.

There was always an irrational fear that when I'd come back, the space shuttle would be gone, and I'd forever be stuck in the loneliness of space, all by myself, knowing that I have limited oxygen and that I'll never see anyone again. The reality of the vastness of space hit me at that age, and turned out to be an unexpected horror.
Shantanu Anand, 31, curator and writer

The Guide Recommends

1. Coraline by Neil Gaiman
2. Heckedy Peg by Audrey Wood
3. Matilda by Roald Dahl
4. A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket
5. Outside Over There by Maurice Sendak
6. Bony Legs by Joanna Cole
7. Wizard of Oz & Ozma of Oz by L Frank Baum
8. Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen
9. The Hundred and One Dalmations by Dodie Smith
10. The Story of a Mother by Hans Christian Andersen