When you find yourself trying to remember a show (or any works) that's on the tip of your tongue but just out of reach, come here - the collective brain of the TVTropes community can probably help. Post all the details you can remember (examples help). If you're looking for a trope, head over to Trope Finder. Have general questions about tropes? Visit Ask The Tropers!
Find a Show:
openWeirdly dark steampunk YA book Literature
The protagonist is a mid-teens girl, but her older brother, who takes care of her after their parents died, has disappeared. She eventually finds this other boy, gets taken to a castle/mansion place, gets attacked by some kind of monster, but it turns out her brother isn’t dead after all. I remember really vividly the first scene where she and her girlfriends are watching a criminal get publically “castigated” with a machine that scalds his hands, and it makes her throw up. Also she has a scar on her neck, I think from where her mother tried to kill her... As I said, it’s really steampunk. They end with the girl and the boy taking an air balloon/blimp thing to I think some other plane of existence...
openA man kills other people who are qualified for a job he wants so that he'll get it Literature
I'm pretty sure it's a short story, not a full novel. There's a man who needs a job. It's a specialized position with only 3-4 other people who are qualified in his region, so he kills them so that he will be the only candidate. I believe he had previously met them at a convention for whatever industry he works in. I also can't remember if we know all along if he's the one doing the killing, or if he just hears about the deaths throughout the story and then it's revealed at the end that he was the one doing it.
openChildren's Book Featuring a Moose Literature
"Which Restroom?" Dilemma has this example: "A book for little children about a talking moose attending school has the moose wondering which restroom to use."
The example stirred up a memory of me reading a similar picture book, but I can't think of its name. Anyone know it?
Edited by Pichu-kunopenVaguely recounted book Literature
Trying to find a book I read as a kid...not sure how effective it'll be. I remember that the protagonist was a guy from a family that had a history of being struck by lightning. His dad had made sure to be super careful not to let that happen to his son for most of his life. He took a risk went away from home for school, where (I think) he was really into cooking—I think there was something about him figuring out how to creatively use rat meat in a dish?? Anyways, he fought this girl who was a southpaw (I think her name might've been Violet but I can't remember) and ended up sorta befriending her by the end. He also acquired a pet pig somehow. The book culminated in a wilderness survival trip in which he took his pig along to find truffles. He WAS struck by lightning, but survived because the pig absorbed some of the shock. I think he visited his spiteful grandmother or great grandmother who was fuelled by spite (and later died) too.
openA book about a virtual pet that was real. Literature
I don't remember the details, it's been forever since I read it, but what I remember is that some kid signed up for what was more or less a virtual pet site. Except since his ID was unique (read: it was a long string consisting of one number only), it was there in the real world, and everything he bought for it. I thinkkk it was a dragon? Also spoilers he had to give the pet away by the end and since new owner's ID was more normal, it disappeared more or less for good
openMind Swap with Gorilla Alien Literature
This was mentioned in passing in a book (which I can't relocate) about the history of science fiction. It was a short story from the early twentieth century (I think) where someone suffered a head injury while playing croquet and temporarily switched minds with a gorilla-like being on a distant planet.
openScarecrow Wants Clothes Back Literature
I remember being spooked when I was little by a story where someone steals the clothes off a scarecrow, and a voice in the night (implied but never confirmed to be the scarecrow) demands that they return them. This was from a book of children's stories that was read to me back in the Eighties. I think they were all about anthropomorphic mice, but I could be mixing things up.
openBook about a half elf with a bison? pet Literature
I remember flashes of a book where the protagonist was a half-elf (or maybe a full elf).
- Protag had dark hair and dark eyes. He also had a bison-style fantasy animal pet that he rode.
- There was also a plot with a princess where her uncle and/or a chancellor was trying to kill her and he accidentally gave himself away by mentioning details about the attack he wasn't told.
- The protag was on a raft at some point.
openA small book about a wolf who befriends a boy Literature
I'm trying to find this book i read once about a blue wolf. He was taken from his family and put in a zoo, where he bonds with an adopted boy named Africa who comes to see him. Both the wolf and the boy have eye injuries. Does anyone know this book?
Edited by DaggerQuillopenObscure Shakespeare character Literature
There's this Shakespeare play I read a while back, where there's this guy who's sentenced to be executed but he won't come out and get it done; he'd rather sleep in. The prison warden tries to coax him, saying something like "Come now, you can get executed now and you can go back to sleep then, all right?" Neither he nor the warden are main characters.
Anyone remember which play this is?
resolved Children's Halloween book Literature
I'm trying to remember the name of a book I read around 2006. It was a picture book taking place on Halloween. It had three kids going trick or treating. All of them were unhappy about something (the kid dressed as a pirate had to bring his younger sister, the kid dressed as a scientist had his lab coat turn pink in the wash, and the girl had to wear a fairy costume). They were also being followed by a mean girl who made fun of them. Each time, one of them would find a way to escape her by doing something themed to their costume (I remember the one dressed as a scientist created an invisibility potion). It ended with the girl dressed as a fairy turning the mean girl into a toad.
openBook about stargazing camp? Literature
I remember reading this book in sixth grade. It was a book about a stargazing camp or something. There were multiple narrators, with one of them being a snobby popular girl, and another being a boy who believed that he could fly. They both went to the aforementioned camp. What is it?
open1990s Educational Textbook About Writing Literature
Does anyone know this book? I knew someone who owned a copy circa 1998-2003.
From what I recall it was a hand-sized, thick (150+ page) black book used in American schools. I don't think it was an official textbook but it was something used to learn. It was probably from the 1990s and I remember it having a lot of colorful illustrations of people in it. It taught either high school/college-level grammar or high school/college level writing.
openBoy must stop his death Literature
A boy dies and is given a few chances to go back and prevent what happened, which involved him getting into an argument with his parents, running out of the house and getting hit by a car. The kid was an artist and had a bit of an ego as he was later called out by his friend. In art class he is given the choice between making a marionette or a flip book, and I remember that he cares a lot more about the marionette but on at least one occasion he chooses the flip book instead, to the art teacher's disappointment, and is miserable making a boring animation of a guy throwing a football.
I can't remember if this is a Choose Your Own Adventure type book or not.
resolved Short story about a growing, plantlike ink creature Literature
There was this short story I read in some anthology book a few years ago. However, I'm pretty sure the story itself was written much earlier than that, possibly in the 60's or 70's.
The story starts out with a rich man who is annoyed to find a little spot of ink on his tablecloth. A tiny dot is actually shown below the paragraph. The man calls his butler to clean the tablecloth, but he can't get the stain out. And whenever they turn their backs on the dot, it seems to grow (the dot is frequently illustrated below each paragraph where it's said to be growing, and each time, it is drawn slightly bigger.)
Then they notice that the dot also seems to be sprouting some sort of tendrils, and another man enters (I think he's a policeman or something) who the rich man asks for help. The rich man and the new man go to another room, leaving the butler alone with the ink blot, and when they return, the butler is gone, and the ink blot has grown even more.
The rich man and the other man somehow find out that this is some sort of Botanical Abomination from another dimension, and it will keep growing and consuming everything. The story ends with one last picture of the creature, still a solid black ink blot, but with leaves and other growths, and so big that it takes up the whole page.
To make things worse, this story's "title" was something incomprehensible, I think it was just a few smears of ink. If I could just remember who wrote it...
openNo Title Literature
YA book/21st century a girl lives near detroit. she's a piano prodigy. she starts taking lessons in detroit and discovers jazz. she meets some friends who go to Wayne State.
openChildren's Book from the 2010s Literature
When I was little, I used to love reading this book (early-mid 2010s). There was a Canadian family and there was a jumble sale involved. One of them says "Bags eye the cap!" at one point. The book had pictures and the cover of the book was mostly white, I think. They might have had a long-haired dog and I think it was in a series of books.
I've been looking for this book for ages, and I know that it does exist. I would love to know the title.
Edited by realDerpyQuarkopenNo Idea Literature
Possibly Young Adult Fiction, Children experimented on by benevolent scientist resulting in them becoming Psychic, and foiling the plans of a dangerous criminal whilst working for government agency possibly, then their deaths are faked and they are declared legally dead and aren't able to contact anyone they care about otherwise they'll be put in danger, also one of the teens is a girl named Dylan, (I think) they are held hostage by criminals posing as agents working for the head of said government agency, and are forced to steal diamonds from some rich guy, can't remember the series name, and it's been bugging me recently.
openBook about a boy and his dragon Literature
A friend of mine's looking for this kids' book: "I don't remember much, but I think it was set on another planet. A boy working in a mine got a dragon's egg, and the dragon had a name that was based on the boy's name. The shorter the name was, the stronger the bond between the dragon and the 'owner' was. At the end of it, the boy asks a girl who's a friend of his to ask the dragon for its name, and then it tells her a name that's even shorter and based on her name instead, and it shows that she was the one who was supposed to have the dragon. Her bond to it is even stronger."

This past summer I found a book online through my state library catalog about making your own puppets, and I believe it was cowritten by Noreen Young (creator of Under the Umbrella tree :) I've been searching recently for it and it's all but vanished! Anybody know what book I'm talking about?