I was the youngest of four in a house with a cat and a dog, plus the occasional hamster, hermit crab, and a series of chameleons who would disappear and mysteriously wind up in the dryer. Despite this, my mother tried valiantly to keep tabs on me. At nine, when I was caught trying to read Sybil and Go Ask Alice, she repeatedly warned against inappropriate reading material.
Instead, I filched my sister’s copy of The Shining. I propped my social studies textbook on end and hid it inside, reading voraciously while Mrs. Denevan tended to the more flamboyant rulebreakers.
Bad Parenting 101 
I just blogged about the impact of reading Go Ask Alice and Helter Skelter on my life. 🙂 Definitely wasn’t interested in drugs or murder after that. Scared straight. Or rather, scared straighter, after all, I was in a small town in ND.
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How funny. I grew up in South Dakota! Can’t wait to read your take on Go Ask Alice;).
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I actually just worked up enough courage last year to read The Shining! Now I’m kicking myself for having waited so long to read such a great book. I’m currently working my way through everything Stephen King has written.
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Aren’t you glad you waited now, though? So you can just enjoy them…instead of being scarred for life!
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I think that is probably true. My son wasn’t so lucky…in regard to the movie (which I also finally watched once I finished the book). He was all of four when my husband decided there was nothing wrong with letting him play in the same room where he was watching the movie. That night he came running into our room screaming, “There’s blood everywhere! There’s blood everywhere!” He’s 21 now and still won’t watch a horror movie!
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