Research Catalog

Title

Be afraid, be very afraid : the book of scary urban legends / [collected by] Jan Harold Brunvand.

Publication

New York : W.W. Norton, c2004.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Brunvand, Jan Harold

Description

256 p.; 21 cm.

Summary

A collection of over ninety frightening urban legends, arranged by theme.

Subjects

• Urban legends
• Young adult nonfiction
• Legends > United States
• Urban folklore > United States

Genre/Form

• Urban legends
• Young adult nonfiction.
• Legends

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

• A note on the texts -- Introduction : gore galore on the bedroom floor -- 1. Precursors: "Frightful stories"-- "The rat-dog"-- "The ghost in search of (spiritual) help" -- "The ghost in search of (medical) help" -- "The vanishing lady" -- "The foreign hotel" -- "The corpse in the car" -- "The graveyard wager" -- "Room for one more" -- "The poisoned dress" -- "Embalmed alive" -- "A pretty girl in the road" -- "The vanishing hitchhiker" -- "Girl at the underpass" -- 2. Chills up your spine: "Bloody Mary" -- "The babysitter and the man upstairs" -- "The hook" -- "Severed fingers" -- "The boyfriend's death" -- "The killer in the backseat" -- "The hairy-armed hitchhiker" -- "The slasher under the car" -- "Dangerous pranks and fatal initiations" -- "The fatal fraternity initiation" -- "The mock execution" -- "The cadaver's hand" -- "The pickled arm" -- "Joke turns into horror story" -- "The roommate's death" -- "The curse of 9/11" -- 3. If a body meets a body: "The creepy passenger" -- "Origin of Packenham's rum" -- "A mix-up in the mail" -- "The face is familiar" -- "The lost wreck" -- "The death car" -- "The body on the car" -- "Off with their heads!" -- "The body in the bed" -- "The stuffed baby" -- "The white dress" -- Along came a spider ... or a snake, or a rat: "The spider in the hairdo" -- "The spider bite" -- "Quit bugging me!" -- "Spiders in cacti" -- "Snakes alive!" -- "Snakes in dry goods" -- "The creeping comforter" -- "The snake in the strawberry patch" -- "Der rattenhund" = ("The rat-dog") -- 5. Poor baby!: "Harried babysitters" -- "The baby-roast" -- "Baby's stuck at home alone" -- "Inept mothers" -- "Attempted abductions" -- "Mutilated little boys" -- "The hammered child" -- "Pencils as deadly weapons"--
• 6. Accidents: "Caught in the couplers" -- "The crushed soldier" -- "Welded contact lenses" -- "Exploding butane lighters" -- "Lawn-mower accidents" -- "Up a tree" -- "Boil on troubled waters" -- 7. Criminal intent: "The choking Doberman" -- "The robber who was hurt" -- "Cut-off fingers and hands" -- "Campus murder scares" : the 1988 outbreak : the 1991 outbreak -- "Lights out!" -- "Indecent exposures" -- "Gag me with a siphon" -- "Urban pancake" -- "Dangerous ATM's" -- 8. Thoroughly modern horrors: "Drug horror stories" -- "Bufo abuse" -- "Curses! Broiled again! (and again, and again)" -- "AIDs Mary" -- "Kidney heists" -- "The gay roommate" -- "Fast-food horrors" -- "The Kentucky fried rat" -- "Kentucky fried rat in South Africa" -- "Rats in the pizza" -- "Hold the mozzarella!" -- "Hold the mayo!" -- "Hold everything!" -- "Ghostly videotape" -- 9. Chiller e-mails and other scary netlore: "Killers in cars" -- "Needle attacks" -- "Perfume attacks" -- "More dangers at malls" -- "Icky envelopes" -- "Mutant chickens" -- "Spunkball" -- "Saved by a cell phone" -- "A cry for help."

ISBN

0393326136 (pbk.)

LCCN

^^2004011798

OCLC

• 55488071
• SCSB-11587411

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library