Sunday Salon: Unsuitable Reads

A random discovery of Patrick Ness's Top Ten 'Unsuitable' Books for Teenagers got me thinking about books I read earlier than would be recommended by the average parent. First and foremost on the list is It by Stephen King. Honestly, it is not the terror of the book (er...giant spiders and sharp-toothed clowns), it is one particular scene that I can see people getting in a tizzy over. For those who haven't read it, I apologize for the plot spoiler to come, but as this book has been out for quite some time - published in 1986 peeps -  I think I'm pretty safe.

Towards the end of the novel the seven children are stuck in the sewers hunting the evil which preys on children. Petty squabbling and frustration cause them to lose their way, to become lost in the twisting and turning pipes. In an attempt to revive their friendship, the connection which gives them strength, the lone female of the group has the strange (and possibly brilliant idea) that the six boys should all have sex with her.

To complicate matters, Beverly (our sole female's name) in part gets the idea due to a rather graphic scene earlier in the novel. Her abusive father is convinced that she's been fooling around with boys and tries to physically verify her virginity. The entire section reads like a pedophilic rape scene; albeit one in which the victim does manage to escape.

I read this book in seventh grade and actually came upon the sex scene during our reading time in class. It is something of a shock reading a sex scene - a freaking train with 12 year olds nevertheless - while in the same room with your classmates and your teacher. After reading the scene twice, however, I didn't merely move on in embarrassed silence. Oh no, I passed that book around to every student in class who wanted to read it. Hey, I had to share with somebody and I certainly wasn't going to talk to my teacher about it!

Do I feel like I was unprepared for the scene? Probably. By seventh grade, I knew what sex was of course. But I knew in the way kids know, without a real understanding of the importance of the action, of anything outside the mechanics of the act - and even the mechanics of it hadn't yet been fully internalized so to speak. The act was alien to me, and I thought of it as something entirely outside the experience of those my age. So reading about sex - "deviant" sex - between people close to my age was something of a shock.

Do I feel like I was in any way damaged by reading the scene? Absolutely not. It may have been a shock, but I didn't suddenly go to either extreme. The scene didn't make me want to go out and gang-bang the football team, and it didn't make me some sort of purity freak either. I am not sure it affected me at all to tell you the truth.

Would I read it again at that age? Definitely. At the time, it was something of an experience. It made me feel knowledgeable and dirty and naughty and excited simultaneously. I am glad I read Stephen King's It too early, and I hope that children everywhere read at least one book that is a bit beyond their maturity level just for the fun of it.

So what book did you read too early and how did it affect you?