The mere mention of Canadian author MARGARET ATWOOD will always make me wince because of a painful two months spent studying THE HANDMAID’S TALE in 8th grade.
Yesterday at a news conference in the northern Spain Atwood told reporters that it was never her mission to highlight social problems in her work; she just thought that readers would be bored if presented with a fairy-tale version of life.
For a 13-year-old your creepy, totalitarian theocracy where women are forced into sexual slavery wasn’t exciting; it was traumatizing. And even at that age, I knew that you had a bigger agenda than tearing me away from my Super Nintendo with your dystopian novel — and the six award-winning books that followed it.
After the jump, a list of five other more age-appropriate but less edifying reads that scared the beejezus out of me in middle school; feel free to add the sources of your own torment in the comments section.
SIX MONTHS TO LIVE by LURLENE MCDANIEL
FLOWERS IN THE ATTIC by V.C. ANDREWS