History Main / DeadlyBook

* The eponymous notebook in ''Franchise/DeathNote''. It does not kill the reader, but anyone whose name is ''written'' into it will die, so long as the writer is thinking of their face while writing.

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* In ''WesternAnimation/TheCareBearsMovie'', there's an evil book who wants to trick Nicolas, a young apprentice of a magician, into using it to turn everyone in the world into jerks.

* ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong64'' has book enemies within the library section of [[HauntedCastle Creepy Castle.]] In true ''Creator/Rare'' fashion, they have large, cartoony eyes peeking out of the tops of their spines. They flutter about across a hallway and impede DK's path unless he can find the nearby [[InvincibilityPowerUp Strong Kong]] barrel. Humorously, they appear to have 'DK 64 PLAYERS GUIDE' written on their covers.

Compare TomeOfEldritchLore, which is when a book contains dark prophecies or spells, but is otherwise not actively harmful to its reader. Also compare BooksThatBite, which is when an object (which [[Administrivia/TropesAreFlexible may or may not]] be a book) actively attempts to bite at anything around it, and ThrowTheBookAtThem, which is when books are being used as physical weapons.

* In ''Film/TheBabadook'', reading the eponymous children's book invites the monster of the title of into your home, which will end very badly for all involved [[spoiler:(assuming that any of the events involving the Babadook take place anywhere [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness outside the mind of the protagonist, that is)]].

* ''Literature/TheNameOfTheRose'' revolves around a book that apparently contains ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow; anybody who reads it dies horribly shortly afterward. [[spoiler:It turns out that there's nothing mystical about the book itself, but someone has treated its pages with poison to kill off anyone who reads it and prevent its contents getting about.]]
* ''Literature/FatherBrown'': "The Blast Of The Book" revolves around a book that is reported to drive anyone who reads even a few words of it to self-destruction.
* ''Literature/HouseOfLeaves'' contains an odd example, in that [[spoiler:a large portion of the book itself is the example]]. The effects of reading it don't seem to hit people universally, but when they do the results are progressive insanity followed by death. In-universe, it's hard to figure out just how dangerous it actually is, [[spoiler:because the only person to suffer ill effects (with the possible exception of its author) is already psychologically unstable]].

* The old [=DOS=] game ''Wizard's Castle'' has 24 books scattered about its eight-level dungeon. Most are harmless: "It's an old copy of Playelf," or "Another volume of Zot's awful poetry." Some can grant a strength boost or enable spell-casting. However, there are books that blind the player character. Stumbling sightless around a dungeon of esurient monsters tends to end badly. A few books will adhere to the player character's hands, rendering it impossible to use a weapon.

** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-241 SCP-241 ("Good Home Cooking")]] is a cookbook that displays appetizing dishes containing one or more ingredients that the reader is allergic to. If the reader prepares one of said dishes and eats it, they will always die of anaphylactic shock. In addition, it will amplify the reader's existing allergies or induce new ones every time that it is closed and reopened.

** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1025 SCP-1025 (Encyclopedia of Diseases)]] is a book containing details of various diseases that gives the reader whatever disease they read about. [[spoiler: In reality, it only makes the reader ''think'' that they have said disease.]]

* The ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "Extremis" revolves around a book called The Veritas; the only known copy is kept in a secret library filled with works the Vatican has deemed too heretical for mass-publication, and everyone who is known to have read it has been DrivenToSuicide by it contents. [[spoiler:The Veritas contains undeniable proof that the reader, the world and everyone in it are computer simulations, being run by an alien race in preparation for an invasion of Earth, and it encourages suicide in order to disrupt the simulation, for the sake of the reader's counterpart in the real world.]]

* The ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "Extremis" revolves around The Veritas, a book which is sealed away in a secret library within the Vatican filled with books that the Catholic Church has deemed heretical, and which drives everyone who reads it to commit suicide. [[spoiler:The Veritas contains undeniable proof that the reader, the world and everyone in it are computer simulations, being run by an alien race in preparation for an invasion of Earth.]]

* The eponymous notebook in ''Franchise/DeathNote'' which kills any person whose name is written in (so long as the writer is thinking of their face while writing).

* The first few of the ''Grimtooth's Traps'' books (collections of traps for tabletop [=RPGs=]) had a joke "101st Trap" at the end. Supposedly, Grimtooth had boobytrapped the book somehow to kill the reader.

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* The eponymous notebook in ''Manga/DeathNote'' which kills any person whose name is written in (so long as the writer is thinking of their face while writing).

* The aforementioned notebook in ''Manga/DeathNote'', in which you can kill a person only by writing its name on these pages. If well the only way to kill the user is to write its own name in the notebook, in wrong hands converts the user into a psychopath, seen mostly in [[VillainProtagonist Light Yagami]] (already a sociopath ended as AGodAmI) and [[MoralPragmatist Teru Mikami]] (his desire of "justice" makes him even more of a serial killer than Light).

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Indices: BookishTropes, HorrorTropes, ThisIndexIsCursed