History FamilyUnfriendlyDeath / Literature

** In order to make sure no dragonets could fulfill the prophecy, ''all'' the dragonets born on the Brightest Night were killed.

** Scarlet snaps Dune's neck.

** At the end of ''The Dragonet Prophecy'', Scarlet decides that [[spoiler:Kestrel]] is [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness unneeded anymore]], slits her throat, and [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill then stabbed her in the heart with her poisonous tail]]. That didn't kill her so [[spoiler:Morrowseer]] nudged her off a cliff.

* ''Literature/WhereTheRedFernGrows'' is a popular book with fifth graders and early middle schoolers, some places even require you to read it. The book goes into graphic detail about hunting animals, a human character dying, and [[spoiler:later the two dogs dying]].

** Pretty much everything about [[AlwaysChaoticEvil dogs]] in the series. As mentioned above Swiftpaw is slaughtered by a pack of dogs, and Brightheart loses [[EyeScream an eye]] and half her face to the same dogs (she doesn't die, though). Later in the same book Tigerstar murders Brindleface in order to use her body as bait for the dogs. Then there are the dogs in ''Sunrise'', who killed (and presumably ate) ''at least'' six cats, and apparently ''tore one of them to pieces''.

* One surprisingly lighthearted CutSong from ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets'' details [[OurGhostsAreDifferent Nearly Headless Nick's]] botched execution with a blunt axe.

* Listing all of the gory and creepy deaths in ''Literature/{{Fablehaven}}'' would take all night, but the big standout is probably [[spoiler: Naverog's]] death. He gets [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe bitten in half.]] His lifeless torso stump slumps to the ground, right in front of one of the teenaged protagonists.

** ''The Hunge Games'' is ripe with this. Not surprising considering how many children have died in Panem for entertainment over the past 75 years. How about being caught in a net and speared by a trident courtesy of a ''fourteen year-old''? Or having an axe essentially boomeranged into your head? Or having a nest of vicious, highly venomous genetically engineered wasps dropped on you while you were sleeping? This happening with the whole world watching you doesn't make it better.

** Those [[AdaptationDisplacement more familiar with adaptations]] such as [[Film/TheWizardOfOz MGM film]] might be shocked by how violent the first book is. ''Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz'' contains a scene where the Tin Woodman cuts off the heads of various wolves and the Scarecrow breaks a bunch of crows necks, A bunch of bees also die, but they just die after breaking their stingers off of the Woodman's body.

* ''Real-Life Monsters'' in ''[[Creator/{[Disney}} Walt Disney's]]'' ''Fun to Learn Library'' has an illustration of an Albertosaurus biting and clawing the neck of a Brontosaurus. Worst of all, blood is shown, despite the target audience being young children.

* In the later ''Literature/LandOfOz'' books, [[NeverSayDie no one can die]]. This information comes ''after'' characters in the books have been chopped into pieces, beheaded, melted, and so forth and it's mentioned that you could be transformed into an inanimate object, turned into sand, and buried. Even so, [[BlessedWithSuck you'd still be alive and presumably conscious]] '''[[AndIMustScream forever]]'''. Note also the spell which caused this also prevented aging, and took effect on everyone in Oz at the same time; this means that any babies in Oz are ''eternally'' babies, and that anyone who was at the moment of death is permanently caught there, and so on... ''Oz'' suffers from a ghastly ContinuitySnarl, so it is possible that one book stated that the characters age until a certain age then stop, somewhere. But there were definitely books in which it was stated that babies would be babies forever.

* ''Literature/BattleRoyale'', in each of the versions. Notable examples include Kyoichi Motobuchi's arm getting torn off, Tatsumichi Oki falling face-first onto the blade of an axe, Toshinori Oda getting riddled with bullets in the groin, and Sho Tsukioka's head exploding.

** Despite being a kid's series, th series has had some very graphic and almost cringe-worthy deaths. Some of these include being stung to death by a Portugese man-o-war, being blown up in a helicopter by a flying snowmobile, being impaled by a set of underwater spikes, having their back broken by a large magnet because of all the metal in their body and then drowning because of the weight, being crushed in a giant bottle with FREAKING QUARTERS, getting sucked into the engine of Air Force One with the remains being described as a "cloud of red gas", being sent back to Earth from space after being hit with a giant fireball, being crushed by a falling hot air balloon platform, having a hole blown in their chest by a medallion made of caesium while showering, having the top half of their plane fall on them before it explodes, and the most out there death of them all, when Kaspar is suspended in zero gravity, helpless as he floats backwards into a zero-g floating knife which impales him through the back of his head. Anthony Horowitz is one sick individual.

** Man oh MAN. You have no idea how gruesome and dark Richard Adams can be in his books. Many consider Watership Down to be among his more tame stories.
* ''Literature/WhereTheRedFernGrows'' is a popular book with fifth graders and early middle schoolers, some places even require you to read it. The book goes into graphic detail about hunting animals, a character dying, and [[spoiler:later the two dogs dying]].
* Many of Creator/HansChristianAndersen's tales are less than child-friendly, as most of them feature heartbreaking things happening to likeable/tragic/etc. characters (or objects, as the case may be). "Literature/TheLittleMatchGirl", anyone? Or the original "Little Mermaid"? And then there's "Literature/TheSteadfastTinSoldier". The story "The Fir Tree", while marketed as a children's story in modern times, has one heck of a FamilyUnfriendlyAesop. A fir tree is disgruntled with its happy life in the woods, is jealous of the trees that get ''cut down'' as Christmas trees, until it eventually is cut down and decorated for a rich family. After the holidays the tree is promptly ''thrown into the attic'' to turn brown and die, is dragged out of the house and stripped of the ornaments, and is then ''chopped up'' and fed to the fire (complete with ''sound effects'' of the tree being chopped and burning up in a 1950s era recording of the story!). Hans Christian Andersen is the king of the ''insane'' DownerEnding.

* ''Literature/{{Dragons}}'':
** [[MauveShirt Minor character]] Hannah in ''Dark Fire'' gets torn apart in an ''incredibly'' vicious way due to being in the wrong place at the wrong time--she is [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice impaled through the chest]] on a dragon's talon, with ''visceral'' descriptions of her blood oozing down and her organs ''popping through her skin speared on the dragon's claws.'' [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids This series is targeted at the 8-12 age bracket, of course.]]
** Hell, Ms. Gee's death too, which occurs shortly after Hannah's. She has her flesh stripped away by being drenched in gallons of dragon urine [[spoiler:from the awakening Gawaine]], to the point where there's nothing left but her ''skeleton'' - which then ''disintegrates''.

* ''The Gashleycrumb Tinies''... that's all that needs to be said.

** The pods in ''Mockingjay'' crank this tope up to eleven.

* One chapter of ''Literature/{{Coraline}}'' has The Cat (who is a nameless cat) decapitating a rat. He hates rats, and the rats are involved with the BigBad, but it's still graphical.

* ''Literature/DearLittleAmerica'':

* The ''Literature/AlexRider'' series, despite being a kid's series, has had some very graphic and almost cringe-worthy deaths. Some of these include being stung to death by a Portugese man-o-war, being blown up in a helicopter by a flying snowmobile, being impaled by a set of underwater spikes, having their back broken by a large magnet because of all the metal in their body and then drowning because of the weight, being crushed in a giant bottle with FREAKING QUARTERS, getting sucked into the engine of Air Force One with the remains being described as a "cloud of red gas", being sent back to Earth from space after being hit with a giant fireball, being crushed by a falling hot air balloon platform, having a hole blown in their chest by a medallion made of caesium while showering, having the top half of their plane fall on them before it explodes, and the most out there death of them all, when Kaspar is suspended in zero gravity, helpless as he floats backwards into a zero-g floating knife which impales him through the back of his head. Anthony Horowitz is one sick individual.

** Need we mention the BigBad of ''Scorpia Rising'' melting in a pile of salt?

* Clare Bell doesn't shy away from brutality in her [[TheBookOfTheNamed Named]] series, but by far, the death that sticks in most readers' heads is Meoran's in ''Ratha's Creature''. The description of him being burned alive after Ratha hits him with the burning branch she's carrying in her mouth is nightmare inducing, especially if one's first exposure to the story was the later ''CBS Story Break'' adaptation, in which she merely scares him into leaving the clan.
* [[MauveShirt Minor character]] Hannah in ''[[Literature/{{Dragons}} Dark Fire]]'' gets torn apart in an ''incredibly'' vicious way due to being in the wrong place at the wrong time--she is [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice impaled through the chest]] on a dragon's talon, with ''visceral'' descriptions of her blood oozing down and her organs ''popping through her skin speared on the dragon's claws.'' [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids This series is targeted at the 8-12 age bracket, of course.]]

* In Dark Lord of Derkholm, Barnabas gets torn apart over the course of what feels like an eternity by a demon that burns like a powerful acid.
* They may be aimed at elementary school kids and early teenagers, but the ''Literature/DearAmerica'' series is chock full of FamilyUnfriendlyDeath accurate to the time period of each book. For example, the death of the protagonist's love interest in the ''Titanic'' diary, and, more traumatically, the multiple deaths that occur along the journey of a girl taking a wagon train out west (including one death from being swept away while crossing a river, and one brutal InfantImmortality aversion when the protagonist mistakes hemlock for an edible root and feeds a bit to another young girl while preparing dinner).

* The first book of the Demonata has the protagonist walking in on his dead family. Yes, we don't see them dying, but the results... His mother has been bisected into front and back, his sister is currently a [[DeadPersonPuppet meat puppet]] for a demon with insects for hair. You can't blame the kid for going temporarily insane. The series goes FromBadToWorse from there.
* Similar to ''{{Redwall}}'' but much, much worse: the ''Literature/DeptfordMice'' series. For example, the scene in ''Thomas'' where the mice and rats are trapped in the hold of a ship during a storm and several are crushed by the improperly secured cargo, then when they finally escape there aren't enough lifebelts for them all. The series also features rampant cannibalism, necromancy, a villain becoming powerful enough to wipe out the sun and turn his victims into ice-powered zombies, and a poison which dissolves its victims into puddles of tar.
** Any children's book where the first chapter of the second book details what happens to the first BigBad's corpse is...pushing it.

* ''HisDarkMaterials'' has a couple. In the first book, one [[TalkingAnimal armored bear]] defeats another in single combat by ripping his jaw off, then tearing his throat open, slicing his ribcage in half, pulling out his still-steaming heart and devouring it before shouting "BEARS! WHO IS YOUR KING?". It's pretty intense. ([[Film/TheGoldenCompass The film adaptation]] toned this down quite a bit, but it was ''still'' surprisingly gruesome for a kids' movie.) The same armored bear, later on, discovers the corpse of his (human) friend, and ''eats it'' as a sign of respect.
* ''Literature/TheHungerGames'' is ripe with this. Not surprising considering how many children have died in Panem for entertainment over the past 75 years. How about being caught in a net and speared by a trident courtesy of a ''fourteen year-old''? Or having an axe essentially boomeranged into your head? Or having a nest of vicious, highly venomous genetically engineered wasps dropped on you while you were sleeping? This happening with the whole world watching you doesn't make it better.

* In UptonSinclair's TheJungle, a worker falling into a rendering vat and being rendered into lard and fertilizer.
* In the later ''Literature/LandOfOz'' books, [[NeverSayDie no one can die]]. This information comes ''after'' characters in the books have been chopped into pieces, beheaded, melted, and so forth and it's mentioned that you could be transformed into an inanimate object, turned into sand, and buried. Even so, [[BlessedWithSuck you'd still be alive and presumably conscious]] '''[[AndIMustScream forever]]'''.
** Note also the spell which caused this also prevented aging, and took effect on everyone in Oz at the same time; this means that any babies in Oz are ''eternally'' babies, and that anyone who was at the moment of death is permanently caught there, and so on...
*** If I'm not mistaken; I believe it was said that everyone has an age that is "right for them". They age normally until they reach that point and stop.
*** Oz suffers from a ghastly ContinuitySnarl, so it is possible that was said, somewhere. But there were definitely books in which it was stated that babies would be babies forever.

* The MagicSchoolBus book where the class travels to the dinosaur times had a rather graphic illustration of a carnivorous dinosaur tearing apart another dinosaur ([[MoodWhiplash while]] the kids are watching this, their only reactions are to spout out {{incredibly lame pun}}s).
* ''Literature/MortalEngines'', SO MUCH. About a hundred named characters die over the course of the four books, and millions more in the background. Apart from several dozen shootings and stabbings, characters are also crushed underneath mobile cities, ripped apart by robotic birds, incinerated in burning airships... Basically, death tends to be extremely brutal, but mostly very quick.
** ''One poor ''mook'' got his head bashed in with a typewriter. By one of the [[DarkActionGirl protagonists.]]''.
* ''Out of the Dust'' is a story aimed towards elementary school kids about a girl growing up in the dustbowl. The first third is pretty tame, albeit a tad mellow. This changes, however, when the protagonist, who herself is about nine or ten, watches her mother burn herself on kerosene after confusing it with water for Dad's coffee. Not only that, but the mother is pregnant, the daughter's hands are mutilated, AND THE MOTHER STILL GIVES BIRTH TO A WRITHING, HORRIFICALLY BURNED CHILD!!! All of this is described in graphic, visceral detail. The two don't die from the burn injuries or smoke inhalation, but rather from infection over the course of several days/weeks. Oh, and this is during the Dust Bowl, so [[FridgeLogic it's very likely some of the dust swirling around them might have snuck its way underneath the mother and child's folds of charred, seared flesh!]]. The rest of the book focuses on [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone the protagonist's grief and guilt regarding the death,]] so the book never once lets you forget just how horrific that one moment of insanity was.
* ''Literature/ThePowerOfFive'': [[spoiler: Mrs. Deverill. Her skin is ''eaten away by acid'']].

* Many, ''many'' villains in the ''{{Redwall}}'' series. Deaths--shown "onscreen"--include being crushed under a giant bell, being pulled into a sinkhole and drowning, being devoured by a giant eagle, pierced through the heart by a huge crossbow bolt, and being slowly driven insane and [[DrivenToSuicide to suicide]] [[MoralDissonance by the heroes]]--and those are all in the first two books out of twenty-something!

* ''Literature/TheShapeshifter'' (a book series for young people) has Catherine Reader being incinerated while screaming "Not me! Not like this!"
** Let's not forget that she was incinerated by [[EmpathicHealer Mia]]. That's right, '''''Mia'''''.

* There is quite a lot of this in the ''Literature/WarriorCats'' series. To name a few, Swiftpaw was brutally mauled by a pack of dogs, [[BigBad Tigerstar]] is ripped open and bleeds to death ''[[CatsHaveNineLives nine times]]'', and [[TheStarscream Mudclaw]] is crushed by a tree.
** Whitethroat is run over by a car. [[{{Squick}} And he continues live for a few seconds afterwards]].
*** A few other cats have been killed by cars or other kinds of machinery, but so far Whitethroat is the only one to get flattened like a pancake.
** And let's not forget Hawkfrost getting [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice impaled with a wooden stake]] and [[BloodIsSquickerInWater filling a lake with]] [[HighPressureBlood his own blood]], Sharptooth being [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice impaled with a stalactite]], and generally every cat that got their throat torn open or broke their necks. Even worse, characters that die a slow, painful death tend to twitch when they die.
*** One noteworthy "throat-getting-torn-open" death would be Ashfur's, due to its use of BloodIsSquickerInWater, and just how creepy his lifeless body bobbing around in the water as if he was still alive is.

*** Another poisoning death. Honeyfern has a seizure as she dies.

*** More psychotic hallucinations: In ''Sunrise'', Hollyleaf imagines a mouse as Leafpool, and proceeds to ''tear her to shreds'' in a fit of rage, the remains being described as a "red pulp".

* ''WatershipDown''. Cute, wide-eyed rabbits getting savaged by a dog. The fate of the Sandleford Warren. Especially [[DerangedAnimation in the movie]].

** In the movie, there's Blackavar. He doesn't die in the book, but he tries to kill Woundwort himself and gets his throat ripped out absurdly quickly. The gagging noises he makes as Woundwort kills him doesn't help.
*** The blood coming from their mouths doesn't help.

* Many of Creator/HansChristianAndersen's tales are less than child-friendly, as most of them feature heartbreaking things happening to likeable/tragic/etc. characters (or objects, as the case may be). "Literature/TheLittleMatchGirl", anyone? Or the original "Little Mermaid"? And then there's "Literature/TheSteadfastTinSoldier". The story "The Fir Tree", while marketed as a children's story in modern times, has one heck of a FamilyUnfriendlyAesop. A fir tree is disgruntled with its happy life in the woods, is jealous of the trees that get ''cut down'' as Christmas trees, until it eventually is cut down and decorated for a rich family. After the holidays the tree is promptly ''thrown into the attic'' to turn brown and die, is dragged out of the house and stripped of the ornaments, and is then ''chopped up'' and fed to the fire (complete with ''sound effects'' of the tree being chopped and burning up in a 1950s era recording of the story!).
** Hans Christian Andersen, king of the ''insane'' DownerEnding.

* Darren Shan's writing, as well. The ''SagaOfDarrenShan'' isn't too bad, the most unfriendly death is probably Darren's second death. Committing suicide by impaling himself with a knife, and then spending the next 20,000 years screaming in a lake full of other dead souls.

* ''MortalEngines'', SO MUCH. About a hundred named characters die over the course of the four books, and millions more in the background. Apart from several dozen shootings and stabbings, characters are also crushed underneath mobile cities, ripped apart by robotic birds, incinerated in burning airships... Basically, death tends to be extremely brutal, but mostly very quick.

* Listing all of the gory and creepy deaths in ''{{Fablehaven}}'' would take all night, but the big standout is probably [[spoiler: Naverog's]] death. He gets [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe bitten in half.]] His lifeless torso stump slumps to the ground, right in front of one of the teenaged protagonists.

* ''HisDarkMaterials'' has a couple. In the first book, one [[TalkingAnimal armored bear]] defeats another in single combat by ripping his jaw off, then tearing his throat open, slicing his ribcage in half, pulling out his still-steaming heart and devouring it before shouting "BEARS! WHO IS YOUR KING?". It's pretty intense. ([[TheGoldenCompass The film adaptation]] toned this down quite a bit, but it was ''still'' surprisingly gruesome for a kids' movie.) The same armored bear, later on, discovers the corpse of his (human) friend, and ''eats it'' as a sign of respect.

* They may be aimed at elementary school kids and early teenagers, but the ''DearAmerica'' series is chock full of FamilyUnfriendlyDeath accurate to the time period of each book. For example, the death of the protagonist's love interest in the ''Titanic'' diary, and, more traumatically, the multiple deaths that occur along the journey of a girl taking a wagon train out west (including one death from being swept away while crossing a river, and one brutal InfantImmortality aversion when the protagonist mistakes hemlock for an edible root and feeds a bit to another young girl while preparing dinner).

* The ChooseYourOwnAdventure books were well known for the many grisly endings which depicted you getting shot or stabbed to death, disembowelled, eaten by monsters, or decapitated. These were lovingly illustrated for good measure and the corpse of your character was shown. The fact that in most of the CYOA books, you were playing a kid, not an adult, is worth mentioning. Were these books to be written today, it is certain that if these books were written today, the majority of these bad endings would either be toned down or simply not allowed. Indeed, they went out of vogue during TheNineties, for the most part. Also of note, the major CYOA imitators (such as ''Find Your Fate'') tended to avoided bad endings that resulted in death of your character. They preferred bad endings that were simply unsatisfying but left you alive.