Abebooks’ ‘Bad to the Bone: The Worst Children in Literature’

Today, Abebooks, a very valuable book site for the old books I collect – old Wisdens most especially – have asked its readers to compile a list of the “worst children in literature”. I know about these thoughts of stories more as allegory than reading, but with a little if by no means much of the wider context needed, I will give basic look. The list is divided into a top ten and “dishonorable” mentions, like the Intercollegiate Studies Institute’s 50 Worst Books list.

The Top Ten:

1. Flashman from Tom Brown’s School Days by Thomas Hughes
• Flashman, the notorious bully of Rugby School is Tom Brown's nemesis. He also got a redressing care of George MacDonald Fraser.
2. Missie from The Innocents by Nette Hiltons
• Three words: “psychopathic child killer”.
3. Pandora and Marmaduke from Who Was Oswald Fish? by A.N. Wilson
• A pair of nine-year-olds blackmail their elders to the point of causing their suicide.
4. Mary Tilford from The Children’s Hour by Lillian Hellman
• She may not murder but is “quite a piece of work”.
5. Frank from The Boy who Followed Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
• He murders his father then seeks out career criminal Tom Ripley.
6. Noboru from The Sailor who Fell from Grace With The Sea by Yukio Mishima
• The son of Ryuji, who belongs to a savage gang of boys who believe in “objectivity”
7. Angelo Saint from Wicked Angel by Taylor Caldwell 
• Cherub-faced youngster with no moral compass or remorse
8. Josephine Leonides from Crooked House by Agatha Christie
• Manipulates her family by saying she knows who killed the family patriarch.
9. The Girls of St. Trinians in Hurrah for St Trinians by Ronald Searle
• The girls of this boarding school would make Angela Brazil faint in horror.
10. Cathy Ames from East of Eden by John Steinbeck
• She ages through the book, but this is a terrible child who becomes a worse adult

Other Children Gone Wrong:

• Veda from Mildred Pierce by James M. Cain
• This daughter is the queen of blackmail and deceit.
• Frank from The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
• It’s hard to describe Frank and his rituals – he’s very, very twisted.
• The Baby in Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin
• This infamous child is every parent’s worst nightmare.
• Rosalind from In the Woods by Tana French
• As the older sister of a murder victim, Rosalind becomes entwined in the investigation.
• Vernon Little from Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre
• While not evil like some on the list, this foul-mouthed reprobate has few virtues.
• Regan MacNeil from The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty
• It wasn’t Regan’s fault that a demonic spirit possessed her.
• Rhoda from The Bad Seed by William March
• It’s nearly impossible for a parent to see that their child was born bad.
• Pinkie Brown from Brighton Rock by Graham Greene
• The seventeen-year-old Pinkie is a merciless thug in this classic.
• Rynn Jacobs from The Little Girl who Lives down the Lane by Laird König
• Rynn is a mysterious child with an absent poet of a father and a nose for trouble.
• Christine Hargensen from Carrie by Stephen King
• “Chris” is the mean-spirited snobbish teenage girl who leads the torment of Carrie.
• Leading William from ‘All Summer in a Day’ by Ray Bradbury (found in The Stories of Ray Bradbury)
  • He enacts terrible psychological punishment on classmate Margot.
• Matilda from The Monk by Matthew Gregory Lewis
• Samuel Taylor Coleridge said Matilda was “superior in wickedness to the most wicked of men.”
• One of the “Twins” in The Other by Tom Tryon
• A boy whose twin brother is intertwined with a series of deaths in a rural community.
• Ben from The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing
• This grotesque, violent and hateful child is tearing a family apart.
• Kevin from We Need to Talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver
• Kevin is a sociopath who murders several classmates in a school massacre.
• Jack from Lord of the Flies by William Golding
• He epitomises the worst aspects of human nature in this must-read.
• Damien from The Omen by David Seltzer
• This child from hell turns out to be the Antichrist.
• Regina Afton from Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers
• After terrorising others she is cast out of her clique to become the victim of her own bullying.
• Gage Creed from Pet Sematary by Stephen King
• Another example of demonic possession ruining a childhood.
• Nick from Hate List by Jennifer Brown
• In order to impress his high school sweetheart, Nick goes off the rails.
• Jacob from Before and After by Rosellen Brown
• A family struggles after their teenage son murders his girlfriend.
• The boys from Boy A by Jonathan Trigell
• “Boy A” and “Boy B” were both convicted of murdering a young girl.
• The Children in Let’s Go Play at The Adams by Mendal W. Johnson
• A group of children are left alone and run amok in ways you would never imagine.
• Mary Katherine “Merricat” Blackwood from We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
• She cares for her sister Constance but something is not right with this 18-year-old.

I do know vaguely about The Exorcist – the 1973 movie based upon the book was the source for the title of Pantera’s 1992 breakthrough album Vulgar Display of Power – one seminal album for that generation coming of age in today’s Enriched World. Rosemary’s Baby was during the same period turned into a film of a similar genre, aiming to show to adults of the era the wickedness of children. I do know about several authors here, such as Steinbeck, A.N. Wilson, Highsmith, Christie, Greene, Lessing and Golding, but have never read any books here.