Giveaway: There Once Lived a Woman…Scary Fairy Tales

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I don’t know about you, but I’m scared. Why? This is what they say about Petrushevskaya’s writing: The New York Times: “Again and again, in surprisingly few words, her witchy magic foments an unsettling brew of conscience and consequences.” The Nation: “Many of [the stories] translated into English for the first time, cover the familiar domain of domestic conflict and urban despair, but the situations are infused with a strong dose of the supernatural that lends them extreme, often ghastly, consequences.”

Elle magazine simply states: “There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor’s Baby gave me nightmares.”

Want to know more? Ludmilla Petrushevskaya is the award-winning author of more than fifteen collections of prose. The progenitor of the “women’s fiction” movement in Russian letters, she is also a playwright whose work has been staged by leading theater companies all over the world. The tales that are told in There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor’s Baby explore fate and the supernatural, as well as grief, madness, and all kinds of unpleasant whatnot.

If you’re up for it, we at Wonders & Marvels are giving away three copies of these Scary Fairy Tales. To enter, just comment by 11:59 p.m. Eastern time December 21, 2009 in response to this question: What seemingly benign childhood encounter instead scared you silly? (For this Giveaways Editor, it was my godfather’s German Santa costume.) If you don’t have such a memory, feel free to comment that you were fearless. Good luck! (Sorry, at this time we can only ship to U.S. addresses.)

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The Mistress of Nothing

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sung

I was scared of lot of things when I was growing up, but none of them seem to fit into the conventions of what scary things are supposed to be.

For example, I was really scared of early spacesuits. Something about them really freaked me out for some reason, very weird considering that I loved everything space in general. Spaceships, galaxies, moonlander, and etc.

I also remember being scared of Korean 10,000 won bills one time…
http://thetruebookaddict.blogspot.com/ Michelle Miller/the true book addict

I wouldn’t say it was a benign encounter, but I found (and still do) clowns very creepy!
Pamela Toler

As a child I was allowed to read books that were often beyond my emotional scope, if not my vocabulary. I vividly remember being so terrified by a scene in The House of Seven Gables when I seven that I went inside to find my mother.
http://www.deerme.net/ Sheryl

The first encounter was not necessarily benign, but led to an irrational fear. A squirrel (yes, a tiny fuzzball with a fluffy tail) came at me in an extremely aggressive manner. My father tried to chase it away and it continued acting aggressively; we assume that it was probably rabid. I do not remember how he eventually drove it away.

After that, I had an irrational fear of the cute little rodents. Even to the point that I once was hanging out in our backyard tree one afternoon, a squirrel came zipping by (a squirrel in a tree, imagine that), and I freaked. I scrambled so quickly to get out of the tree that I succeeded in a fast exit… by falling out of the tree and chin-first onto our car below. I skinned my chin badly, chipped two of my front teeth, and then got pushed off of our narrow patio into the rose bushes by my older brother while he tried to help me get inside.

It took me a long time to get over squirrels.
Maura

I was utterly terrified of Sharp Tooth in the Land Before Time, while he is meant to be a bit scary, my levels of fear went beyond what is reasonable for a movie about singing dinosaurs.
http://winabook.westofmars.com Susan Helene Gottfried

I’m not fessing up to this one!

No need to enter me, however. I’m dropping in to say thanks for the e-mail. I’ve got this posted at Win a Book for you.
Susan M.

We had a paper mache bulldog that my parents got in France. It was terrifying, with bloodshot glass eyes and a chain in its neck that, when pulled, caused the jaw to drop and the dog to growl. It was supposed to be a child’s toy, but eesh!
Anne

My grandparents had this weird old coconut that someone had carved & painted into a tribal-looking face…it hung behind some old dresses at the back of a little-used closet, and when I’d go in there every once in awhile and forget the face was there, well, it would quite give me bad dreams for a week….
Rachel W.

I slept with the light on until I was about 9. I was just cool like that.

Thanks for the giveaway!
Kriti

For some reason, I was terrified of ships when I was a kid, and I lived in a city with a huge harbour. I’d have nightmares about ships being able to make it onto land.
http://cleerysalley.blogspot.com/ Donell C.

I went to Sunday school and they showed a movie about a disobedient elf who ate a red poisonous mushroom and had to repent in some way to be healed. This really upset me, and for awhile I was afraid of the color red. I also didn’t go back to church until I grew up.
elizabeth

When I was a kid for some reason I found other people stuffed animal teddy bears really frightening, not mine…just theres,yep…i was a delight.
http://giveawayroundup.blogspot.com/ Sheila

Walking over a grating with water running under it scared me. I was sure the grate would give way, I would fall in, and be swept away to drown.
http://moziesme.blogspot.com Mozi Esme

Hearing fire truck sirens freaked me out every time. I had visions of blackened houses and didn’t relax until I’d seen my house and made sure it was okay..

janemaritz at yahoo dot com
Callie

When I was six years old, a relative who I didn’t speak to much gave me a porcelain doll. It sat silently perched on my dresser, which was in full view from where I lay on my bed.
When you are a child (sometimes it carries on into your adulthood), bedtime always seems to be the hour when strange, unexplainable things happen. One night as I was trying to slumber, the doll was bothering me. I couldn’t shut my eyes, for in fear of when I closed them, she would move from her post on my dresser to visit me in my bed. I was terrified and quite believed that the doll was alive with evil intentions.
When I look back on this time as an adult, I see how silly I was to be afraid of a inanimate toy. Yet, still to this day, I get very uncomfortable around porcelain dolls.
http://www.wondersandmarvels.com Editor

I’m scared just reading these comments Sinister elves, porcelain dolls, and squirrels that are a distinct dental hazard… those and more, all great answers. Keep them coming!
Alex Cigale

As a small child I was fearful, to the point of phobia, of old men on crutches. They, or rather he, because it seemed to have been a particular man, haunted me even in my dreams. Given the context of my Soviet childhood in 60s Leningrad, only a generation removed from the one million men, women, and children who starved and were killed there during the 900-day siege, the association I was later able to establish was to a crippled soldier, a war veteran, specifically my mother’s father who had raised me as well without ever mentioning that he had lost both his parents and six brothers and sisters with their entire families. The subject was forbotten. He himself only survived by being wounded and evacuated and I was always curious to discover where this scar was. When I found out it was what I had always taken to be the result of a shaving accident, I was confused and disappointed; what remains unspoken is forever more terrifying.

The old hag who steals
your scars when you’re dead
If you haven’t any scars
she will steal your eyes
We need scars to see
http://www.goblinfruitstudio.wordpress.com carisa

The mall near my home which my mom frequented, brought out their animatronic, singing Christmas tree each year –a hunter green behemoth which would open its eyes and burst into song whenever someone stood near it. Mind you, this was not some 2 foot high decoration one sees in Rite Aid. The tree was at least six feet tall (though at the time I swear it was well over ten), and crowned with a ratty Santa Claus hat. Seeing it for the first time as a 5 year old, I remember walking up to the tree to admire it, when it suddenly flicked its eyes open (staring into my soul, I imagined) and started screaming “ho, ho, ho”! I think I screamed and ran off, much to my parent’s dismay. From then on, I’ve had a fear of singing “inanimate” objects. And talking trees. Let’s not even discuss the Ents in LoTR.
jacque

I would say clowns and midgets. I have seen lots of clowns at parades when i was little and they always scared me. Don’t know why. I do not know why when i was little midgets scared me,too. I seen some at a bus station and ran. I am not afraid of them now.
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http://fairytalenewsblog.blogspot.com/ Gypsy Thornton

Dealing with fears is one big reason I was drawn to fairy tales as a child. It took me forever to get over my fear of the dark, whatever was under my bed, etc but one thing I was terrified of was being sucked down the drain once the bath plug was pulled out. Apparently I used to love baths so much my parents had trouble getting me out. Then my Dad told me about the Gurgly Goop that lived down the drain, sucking all the water (and anything else it could manage) down its throat and into its giant belly… That did the trick. It turned me into a shower person and I still can’t sit in a bath for longer than five minutes without getting twitchy (though that’s now more about marinating in dirty water than the Gurgly Goop. Really. ).

Oh and one more thing: pit toilets. I spent much of my early childhood in areas with no proper plumbing and frequently had to ‘walk the plank’ over a trench for, well, you know. I was so terrified of falling off the plank into the pit of ‘you-know-what’ my legs would barely hold me up. I still haven’t found a story that properly deals with that one!

Neither of these beats talking trees, I’m sure, but they sure made day-to-day life difficult as a kid.
http://litscribbles.wordpress.com Dae

I was absolutely terrified of glass staircases, or stairwells with lots of windows, because whenever I went up them, I’d have the sensation that I wasn’t being supported by anything and would fall from the sky at any second.

To this day, I prefer back staircases. Even though the scenery is always soooo much worse.
http://www.wondersandmarvels.com Editor

Hmmm…between the disobedient elf, the German Santa and the singing Christmas tree that stares right into people’s souls, I am beginning to think the holiday season is the Most Scariest Time of the Year.
Urbano

I was terrified to go down the stairs into my grandparents’ basement. The basement was dank and lit by a 20 watt bulb that cast eerie shadows on to the walls. Worse than that, the stairs had no boards on the back…I just knew there was a witch hiding underneath them waiting to reach through and grab my ankles. This fear lingered well into my late teens.
Lindsey

When I was a kid, I did a commercial for the Ronald McDonald House. I did the commercial and was fine until it was time for me to meet Ronald. My parents said I wouldn’t stop screaming for anything. I thought he was the scariest thing ever!
http://www.wondersandmarvels.com Editor

Alex,

Very moving, haunting comment. Thank you for sharing.
Rene’ Nilsson

When I was in elementary school, I learned from the Superfriends show that you should always let a strange dog sniff your hand before you pet it. Perhaps not entirely wise advice…

While out riding my bike, I saw a strange dog, and stupid child that I was, went over to let it sniff my hand. It either then assumed I wanted to play, (or as I believed at the time, wanted to kill me), and began to chase me… I rode my bike all the way around the block, screaming, with the thing running after me. Finally, as I reached home again, a neighbor penned it in our backyard.

I’m still not very fond of dogs.
http://startingfresh-gaby317.blogspot.com/ Gaby @ Starting Fresh

We had just moved to Boston and I was 2 years old. My mother heard about a special free event with clowns, so she took me on the subway and carried me over to the event. Once we got there, I was so scared – I freaked out and started crying. We had to leave almost immediately!

To this day, I’m not fond of clowns and I thank my mother for carrying me and taking me to all these events.

gaby317nyc at gmail dot com
http://www.tarotbyarwen.com Arwen

What seemingly benign childhood encounter instead scared me silly?

Oh dear. I’m embarrassed to say this but it was a visit from the new Episcopal priest. He asked me if I was a little Christian and my mother tells me I shouted, “NO! I’m Irish.”

I then burst into tears and fled the room.

Apparently the priest nodded then said mildly, “I think maybe she needs to be in Sunday School.”

LOL
dylkit

I’d seen a TV show on which someone in a leotard squeezed themselves into a glass box and forever after was afraid of contortionists. I reckoned they could hide ANYWHERE and I used to make my mother check all the kitchen cupboards whenever we came home.
Laura

I was REALLY scared about losing my first tooth.
Breiab

I had a tree outside my bedroom window and when the wind blew the branches would tap my window. I was scared by this several nights until the night I actually saw a shadow on the wall from the tree. It looked like a witch! I put up such a stink that my mom/dad traded rooms with me.
Lisa H

I was scared of Ronald McDonald. My parents couldn’t take me past the statue outside without getting a screaming fit.
http://jennylovestoread.blogspot.com jennygirl

When I was young my parents took me to Disney World. This was the late 70′s and I was 5 years old. We are coming out of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and there is Capt. Hook. I go to stand and take my picture with him and he keeps putting his hook across my face. My Dad tells him several times to stop doing that, he wants his kid’s face in the picture. At first I though Capt. Hook was going to take me from my parents. Than as my dad got really angry, I thought Dad was going to beat up Capt. Hook. The captain finally got the message, because my Dad started to walk towards him to let him know what he meant.
I could never watch Peter Pan without being really scared when the Captain came on the screen.

Ironically, years later after I was married, my husband and I went to Disney. Saw the Captain again, stood for a picture, and this time he grabbed my butt. He made it seem like it was an accident, but then it happened again. After my husband took the picture and was putting the camera away, I calmly stomped on the Captain’s foot as I walked away. I turned around and said, “My bad. ” and that was that. Demon vanquished
David

I don’t recall a particular incident that triggered it, but I’ve always been a bit uneasy about mushrooms. They’ve creeped me out since I was a kid.
Aaron

after seing an ernest movie i always thought that a troll was under my bed that could ues anybodies voice i knew so that when i went to it it would touch me and tun me into an action figure.
oh and i alwys stay at home during holloween because little peolpl in costumes creap me out.

i also thought that a electro magnetic monster was in my television (to much Scooby-Doo perhaps?)