Conceal glamours

False Vision. If I'd had that before I would never have bothered with those silly cakes

You don't think that finding out everything the protagonist has done so far in the book is suddenly undone in the last chapter, or that the evil monster actually comes back to haunt the hero at the end, is sad and traumatic for a little kid?

At least in 'Are you afraid of the dark?' the bad guys stayed dead.

No, I'd call it sadistic.

Roses.

...I won't say more, but I'm so ridiculously giddy right now, and so is Amarysse!

Wow. What a depressing outlook. I thought those endings were terrible (it was like a really obnoxious cliffhanger) but I never thought of them as sad per se...maybe I just wasn't affected enough, heh.

I think I read maybe two of them. One was about a ghost or something and it involved a cave. I don't remember that one.

There was another one about the mirror that made you invisible, and at the end the little brother was replaced by a mirror version, but by the time they'd realized it the mirror was already broken. That one seemed fairly poignant to my 10 year old sensibilities.

Of course, books like Half Magic or Archer's Goon were much better, even back then.

ooh goosebumps, I recently got to make a game for RL Stine's website, never read those books though. I just read Xanth and Pratchet and Slater.

IllusorySelf glamour = awesomeness.
Not sipping at your normal rate thinking that you still have IllusorySelf up when it's actually gone and then nearly dying = not awesomeness.

Now I just need an infinite supply of power and 5 more con and then I'll be Unstoppable!

See, I've always liked stories like that. Ones that didn't necessarily have a happy ending or even ended badly for the 'good guys.' Happy endings are easy, and I like happy endings too of course, the good guy winning always feels good. But stories where the ending is messy and painful, or like a mixed blessing sort of thing, I love those too. Cause they always leave an impression or reaction. I mean, just look at this story Requiem is talking about. He read it when he was 10... and it left such an impression with him because the kid got stuck in the mirror that he's recalling how it made him feel years later. That's awesome.

Whats the big deal that he remembers a book he read last year?

You're teasing!

Right?

Requiem, you're not like 11 years old are you? Cause, if you are, wow, you totally seem older!

Truth!

Even fairy tales, warped as they've been by Disney into something more marketable to children, often have bittersweet or utterly tragic endings. There's something very potent, very memorable about stories in which the white knight doesn't win the day against the mighty dragon, or the beautiful princess isn't really a beautiful princess at all. They're echoes of older stories, myths from Ancient Greece and Gaul and even more far-flung locales and they resonate with us on a subconscious level. They aren't as idealized as the coloring-book versions, and (most importantly) we recognize something real in them, something substantial that's lacking in the "easy" way out. We start thinking about the choices we'd make in those situations, we empathize with the hero (or heroine), and even a little bit with the villain.

It's heady stuff.

I love stories where you emphathise as much with the villian as the hero, or even more so. Like if only things were different, you could totally be rooting for them, but it's not, so you have to root against them but you feel bad about it. Complexity rocks.

This reminds me of a conversation me and my dad had about Harry Potter and how I'm convinced that Harry will have to die in the end to defeat Voldemort and my dad got mad because it would be too tragic if Harry went through all he has only to die in the end. And I told him that's why it would be the perfect ending. Everytime the new book or movie comes up he's all like "You better not be right about the way it'll all end!"

ETA: One of my most favorite books when I was a kid was Stephen King's Cujo. The movie was pretty dumb, but the book was awesome. Because Stephen King was really good about reminding the reader in various ways that the dog had been a Good Dog before it had been infected with rabies and so you felt as bad for poor Cujo as you did for that mom and kid stuck in that car, and I cried at the end when the kid who'd owned Cujo asked his mom first thing if the new puppy he'd been given had had its shots. It was all so sad and wonderfully horrific cause it was so unnecessary. If Cujo had had his shots, he'd have stayed a Good Dog. I read that when I was 12 years old... and it's always been one of my favorites.

Xinemus rocks.

Verily.

No kidding. The original Little Mermaid is one of the most bitter, sad things I've read. The Little Matchgirl, by the same author, is a wonderful "little girl freezes to death on Christmas Eve while peering inside windows of warm, happy homes" tale. Warms the cockles of one's heart.

Hmm, raves... It's really pretty to be on the receiving end of Glamours, and the room message for Maelstrom is great.

Don't forget the original Little Red Riding Hood!

The original Cinderella was quite...well, grim (no pun intended...mostly). The stepsisters both cut parts of their feet off to try and fit in the shoe...bloody story...blech.

The Last Unicorn.