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Coco Jane asked this question about The Turn of the Screw:
On a scale of 1 to 10, how scary is this book?
Logan Kedzie TV Tropes discusses the idea of 'fridge logic,' and the idea that some plots seem to make sense when you are watching the thing, but fall apart under …moreTV Tropes discusses the idea of 'fridge logic,' and the idea that some plots seem to make sense when you are watching the thing, but fall apart under more scrutiny. Paired with that is 'fridge horror,' where some plot seems innocuous at first blush, but thinking about it means that you uncover ways in which it is terrifying, or has terrifying implications.

There is like two, maybe three, outright scares in Turn, one of which gets explained almost immediately as something else. Even taken at its most supernatural, the frights and haunts are tepid, particularly in comparison to anything contemporary. So I'd give that a weak three. But what the book is good at doing is what is happening to the protagonist, an infection of your own sense of perception and understanding of what is going on.

I think that there are things that might have been more scary in its original serialized format. But it is not particularly scary in the usual sense of the word. It sends you its nightmares in a different sort of way. And in that, it excels. (less)
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The Turn of the Screw
by Henry James
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