I think I was a senior when I read it. I'm not sure how badly I would have reacted to it, if things weren't on such a downward spiral in my own life... I had three deaths in six months, and at the time it just seemed so much easiser to blame the book for my breakdown. It really did scare me, so I would use that word... and it wasn't like I thought I was going to be raped. It was just such an ... unsettling thing to read.