My Infatuation with 'Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark'

collage by Zoe Gigis

I grew up reading the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark books by Alvin Schwartz, falling in love with the illustrations and short stories. When the movie adaptation came out a few summers ago, it rekindled my passion for the series. Looking back at my childhood, I wonder why I was so attached to stories that were meant to scare me. 

Despite the books claiming to be for ages 9 and up, the illustrations would tell you a different story. Stephen Gammell’s dark and often twisted drawings captivated me from a young age. Some of my favorites were Harold, The Wolf Girl, The Red Spot, and the Pale Lady from The Dream. Seeing some of these drawings come to life on-screen was like a dream come true. I’m not sure what it says about me as a person, but when I tell you these books raised me, I mean it. 

My childhood wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, but many of my fondest memories involved books or the library. Each year, my mom would bring me to the local library book sale, which was where I was first introduced to the Scary Stories trilogy and my love for reading. I soon learned about the magic of escapism, how easy it was for me to bury my head in a book and forget about the anxieties that plagued everyday life, such as my mother’s constant worrying and overthinking that rubbed off on me. I didn’t want to face reality and deal with the terror of growing up, as immigrant children tend to do so prematurely. So, it was natural for me to shift my fears regarding the real world to something that scared me less, ghost stories and the paranormal. 

At the start of each book in the series, Schwartz writes a short prologue for the readers. As a child, I was more interested in the actual contents of the books, so I paid little attention to this part. Now that I’m older, I see why I felt so connected to these stories. In Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones, he wrote, “there are all sorts of things that scare us. The dead scare us, for one day we will be dead like they are. The dark scares us, for we don’t know what is waiting in the dark.” People fear two kinds of things: the inevitable, and the unknown. Over the years, I think a part of me has learned to find comfort in the two. 

The thing is most people like being scared every once in a while. It’s the reason why people willingly go on rollercoasters, watch horror movies, or enter a haunted house. All of these activities are harmless, unlike real life where there are consequences. Eventually, though, you need to learn to face reality, I can’t just hide in books anymore. As a high schooler in the second semester of her junior year, with the SATs and college applications right around the corner, I dread having to think about my future. The thing about ghost stories is that you never really find out what happens in the end, it remains a mystery. We never get an explanation for the footsteps heard in the middle of the night or the strange figure in the window, it would ruin the fun in them. 

I believe the same applies to life. If you knew where you were going to be in ten or thirty years, it takes away the fun and unpredictability that constitutes such a big part of living. I never could have imagined the best moments and experiences that have happened to me. In ghost stories, they either end with someone screaming or there is a plot twist, but you need to use your imagination for the rest. As a child, this rather annoyed me, as I always wanted to know the full story. But I can’t even see past this chapter of my own life right now — it’s just an open-book from here. So, even if I find myself worrying about where I’m going to college or what career path I’ll go down, I’ll remember what Alvin Schwartz taught me: there are two kinds of people in this world — the ones that get left behind, and the ones that live long enough to tell the story.