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resolved High fantasy novel with priestesses and dragons Literature
I read the first book in this series a while ago and it completely slipped my mind. It involved a king and queen, and a convent of priestesses, which is where one of the main characters came from. I'm sure she was a priestess named Melisande or something similar but even that might be wrong. What I do remember vividly is the queen travelling away for some business and one of the antagonists, a dragon disguised as a human, stopped her and raped her in his original dragon form, which is rather graphically described as almost tearing her in two from the size difference. I think she'd also had sex with someone else recently (possibly the king). She returned to her palace and fell pregnant, and gave birth to a normal human child and some disgusting dragon-human crossbreed, which she had her head maid send away somewhere.
I've been trying to find this one on-and-off for years. Please help!
openAfrican shepard goes on fantasy quest because dying solider asked him too... Literature
It was a trilogy of books . Set in a fantasy land about an African shepard who found a group of soldiers washed up on shore and dying. Who made the Shepard swear to fulfil his quest and rescuse a princess. After his village ate the soldier to honor him ( I think ) he set off to do so. He was armed with magical weapons and a bag that carried winds . He ended up with a sell sword for an companion and a talking jaguar he saved from an angry sentient storm ( wind?) . He crossed the seas and managed to prevent a giant squid from destroying the boat he was on by talking to it in sign language and giving it coffee. Oddly when he defeated the overlord to rescue the princess she said she wanted to stay. However he promised to return her to her people and did so. However once he completed his oath he asked if she still wanted to stay with the Overlord. She said yes so he had to fight his way back to the Overlord to hand her over. Sorry for all the details but I have been desperate to read the series again and I have no idea what it is called.
openBook about girl from island who goes to school on mainland Literature
I read this book series in Middle school. I cant really remember much, but I know it was written by a woman who had many other books- mostly for tweens, but this was aimed at a slightly older crowd. The main character is a girl who lives on an island, and travels to the mainland to stay with a woman who owns a boarding house, where other kids from the Island also live so they can attend school. I remember a random detail- about a long, twisted staircase that the characters had trouble with, and the woman who they lived trying to make people think that the main character is crazy/ has a weird thing for fire. I've been struggling to find it for years!
openit was like The Thing, but it was a book and also other differences. Literature
Trying to track down this book I got as a gift about a decade or so ago. I remember it being similar to the film The Thing, in terms of body horror, the difference being it was all technological instead of alien virus-y. The story took place in the United States, I think on the northwest coast but don't quote me on that. I also seem to remember the cover being a picture of a vivisected skull with all sorts of nasty gubbins going on, in a whole lot blue and red, but again don't quote me on that because it's been a while.
Is this ringing any bells for anyone? I'd love to read it again and see if it was as good as I seem to remember.
openChildren's book - looking for a friend Literature
A friend of mine on Tumblr is trying to find the name of a book she and her sister read as kids. She's from New Zealand and thinks she read it around the age of 7, which would be about 2001-2002ish. Here's everything she's said about it, in her own words:
- We’re pretty sure it was set in the UK
- It’s about a girl called Prunella who gets ruthlessly teased at school for the fact that she has ‘prune’ in her name
- She ends up finding comfort in this ‘penfriends/penpals’ thing in a magazine or something I think and so she ends up writing to this other girl - but under the name ‘Ella’, a nickname she’d much rather have
- Think the girl she wrote to went by ‘Angel’
- For some reason at times Prunella/Ella liked to put her fringe into a front ponytail and that’s a thing at the end of the book because it turned out that the person she’d been writing to was actually the biggest bully under a different name (they both had hard things in their homelife I think, so they were essentially making up lives to each other) and the front ponytail was how she knew it was her as I think she told her to do it if they met, I think
- I’m pretty sure it had black and white illustrations throughout
- It's a short book (not a chapter book) designed for kids, like maybe ages 8-11
We'd both be really grateful if anyone could help us out! :)
Edited by Obiwanlivesforever2openBoy with Empath Powers (YA/MiddleGrade) Literature
I've been trying to find this book again ever since I read it! I believe it was a YA/Middle Grade book. The first chapter had the boy getting detention and then a snow storm hit as he was walking home. Then he was struck by lightning and sent to another world. This other world was a medieval world and he discovers his powers when he notices a horse in pain because of a burr under its saddle. He meets a girl, a king, and at the very end there is something to do with being thrown in a pit. At the end he is struck by lightning again and comes home. What book is this? Help would be very much appreciated.
openBook about orphan pretending to be dead rich girl? Literature
Okay, so in school several years ago, I read a book about a girl who grew up in Africa with missionary parents. A terrible disease infected the population and claimed the life of her parents, leaving her an orphan. A wealthy girl around her age was also killed, and the wealthy girl's parents were preparing to send her to her grandfather's house in an attempt to get his money. The orphan girl (I want to say her name is Rachel?) and their daughter both had red hair and looked similar, specifically both having red hair, so they took the girl in and made her pretend to be their dead daughter and go to stay at the grandfather's estate in England. However, she came to grow close to the grandfather, and eventually revealed the truth of who she was to him, and he adopted her. I also remember the grandfather was a ornithology enthusiast and had planned to give his estate to a birdwatching society when he died. Does anyone know the title of this book, because I can't remember it, despite reading the book several times.
openAssist me Literature
Childrens' book, similar to Magic Tree House in length and reading level. These three kids had a door in their basement that lead to a magical world and a enchanted soccer ball that sent them messages. There was a princess whose mother was supposedly dead but it later turned out she was just cursed to be different animals (none of which were colors said animals should be, I think she was a pink dolphin once?). The only scene I remember was when the main boy had a dream that he thought was a memory where he saw the princess and I think the bad guy enter his house through I think a window.
openDoes anyone know who wrote the short story "The Dumpster"? Literature
It's mentioned in Downer Ending/Literature and Be Careful What You Wish For tropes. After reading the synopses, I really want to read the story, but whoever added it to the pages didn't include any details such as author or character names and a Google search turned up nothing.
The basic premise is that of an abusive family being swallowed up by a dumpster, leaving their daughter behind. The dumpster sends her a perfect family as a replacement. At first the girl is happy, but soon her new family keeping pushing and pushing her to become more and more perfect, and if she doesn't, the dumpster will swallow her up as well.
Any help would be gratefully received.
Edited by SontinopenBook about a young (teenage?) soldier in the countryside? Ft. meditating naked on a mountain? Literature
I used to grab any book off my teachers' shelf in elementary and middle school and read it with no regard to the title, so here I am now remembering plots but no titles. This book was about a relatively young kid who was joining the army, from what I can recall, he lived in the country, I know he liked this neighbor girl of his kind of secretly because her dad wouldn't approve or something, and I distinctly remember him going off and meditating naked on a mountain with someone. When I was first trying to remember it I nearly confused it with Where the Red Fern Grows because it has the same sort of countryside setting, I'm pretty sure.
openFunny book about US Gov? Literature
There was a very funny, but very informative book i read maybe 3-5 years ago. It's meant to teach teens about the US government, and how everything went so wrong.
It starts with the founding fathers time traveling to the 21st century and being horrified by what they see.
They go on to explain that they're horrified because we've strayed so far from what they intended when they wrote the Constitution.
There was something about how the Constitution sets up a pyramid, and we've turned it upside down.
Another problem they mentioned was that we treat our government like Superman, as if it can solve all our problems. We put too much weight on its shoulders.
Anyone recognize this?
openBook with a bus crash and codependency Literature
A girl is trying to remember about this book, but she only knows the story. A group of people are trying to find this book since january/2015, but after many searches, no one was able to find it's name or the author name. The only girl who have read the book shared some informations about the book. The author is male, the last name reminds her about trees (wood, paper...). Takes place in Florida, a girl and a boy almost die in a school bus accident (it fell on a river/lake). After that she had many scars and the boy suffered damages that prevents him to play baseball, then they create a co-dependency relationship, in the begining plantonic but then becomes obsessive. The book is written by the point of view of a new girl on their school, who thinks the relationship very weird (the others don't mind at all). She read the book around the year of 2007, but she said the book could take place around the 70's, because there was no presence of cellphones and internet. The cover is half black and half white, similar to Paradox Love (by Dorothy Gravelle). Sorry for the way I wrote, english is not my first language P.S.: NOT the sweet hereafter.
resolved Kids' novel about sidekicks Literature
This is a kids' novel that I read somewhere between 2003-2008. I do not know who the author was. I think it was part of a series, but I don't know which book in the series it was, and I never read any of the other books.
The title was something like "Sidekicks", but this is not the graphic novel by Dan Santat. The art style was similar, but it wasn't a graphic novel, just a novel with illustrations. Also, there were no animal characters.
It takes place in a city where superheroes exist, but the story is about their sidekicks. The main character is called something like "Speedy", because his power is Super-Speed. "Speedy" is the sidekick of quite possibly the worst superhero ever: Pumpkin Pete, who has a pumpkin for a head and appears to be wearing a green unitard. Pumpkin Pete claims to have "all the powers of a pumpkin", but the fact that he runs away from every fight makes it clear that he has no powers at all. As if that wasn't bad enough, he's a total glory hound who takes all the credit when someone else saves the day. And all the citizens believe that he saved them.
"Speedy" hates this, and wishes he was a superhero so that he could be acknowledged for once. He gets his chance when a Mad Scientist attacks the city with a giant robot. Hilariously, when he first meets Speedy, it takes him a while to come down and meet Speedy face-to-face because he has to go down the stairs in his robot. When he finally makes it to the bottom, he's out of breath.
I don't remember the mad scientist's name, but I do remember this: He was really short, and he hated it. His plan was to use his robot to crush everyone so that he would be taller in comparison. (I only just realized how horrifying this is.)
There's one other thing I remember: One of the other superheroes was called Haggis Man. I bet he's still more effective than Pumpkin Pete.
Does anyone remember this?
openRomance/Drama Manga Literature
A manga featuring a dude who crushes on a blonde (tennis player?) from afar when a dark haired girl comes and offers to help him win her over. Has quite a few cliches in it and focuses more on the drama than comedy, if there was any. The dark hair has a rape-ish incident in her past. I think it ends with dude and dark hair together and blonde with her ex. Found it on Tv Tropes the first time but cant seem to find it again.
openA girl and her blob. Literature
This was a book I read back in the '80's that I only vaguely remember. I think a girl was playing around with a chemistry set and created some kind of new lifeform. I think it was a sort of blob that communicated in whistles and something like whale song, and she kept it hidden in her room. She was worried about what people might do to it if it was discovered, and in the end she decides she can't keep it hidden away forever. I think in the end she releases it into the sea and hears it singing like a whale. I can't remember anything about the title, and google isn't any help with the few key words I can come up with that I might my mixing up anyways.
openA short story I can't find Literature
Okay, MAJOR spoilers, but... This dude builds a thing named some variation of Chimera, but it's kind of awful and thinks it's terrific and demands its maker build it a mate. BUT FIRST they have to figure out if the chimera is a man or a woman? First, they say man. Then, a wisewoman says its a woman. The chimera destroys itself. The maker is like, "well, glad we figured out she was a chick." And the wisewoman is like, "Nope. Totes a dude. What but a man would rather die than be called a woman?"
I've been looking for this story forever! Does anyone know it?
openBook about Death via Dodgeball Literature
Okay, so, major spoilers here. There was a book about a girl who, while playing dodgeball, gets hit and breaks her neck. In the afterlife (which, iirc, was similar to a shopping mall), she meets someone who gives her a box of things she''s had over the years and tells her to 'answer her own question'. She doesn't know what the question is, and is expected to figure that out, as well. She looks at all these things and tells the stories associated with them—one thing, i believe, was sm she shoplifted? Anyways, by the end of the book, she realizes her question was 'why didn't i move out of the way of the ball?' and the answer was 'I didn't deserve to live.' Really morbid, and stuck with me for years. Any ideas?
openWarhammer 40k Fanfic Crossover Literature
Hello, I'm looking for a Warhammer 40k Crossover, the one where Humans and Ponies get sucked into the realm of chaos by one of the gods.
openChildren's book, WWII dark fantasy Literature
Looking for a children's book I read in the UK in the early 90s. It's a fairly dark fantasy story set in Britain during WWII. The heroine is a young girl who's been evacuated to a country house. She gradually realizes there's something very strange about the place, especially the grounds at night. Turns out she's one of a long string of evacuees to have been sent there, but all the others have disappeared. Some kind of dark force traps them in the gardens (possibly specifically in a hedge maze?). She keeps hearing a peacock screaming, which has something to do with how the whole thing works. In the end, she manages to rescue them by taking a register; the act of counting them saves them from being 'lost' and brings them back into the real world. The title might have had the word 'Night' or 'Midnight' in it.

In the early 90s, I read a story and watched a movie based on the story within a few days of each other. I don't remember the plot at all. All I remember is that both versions contained the same Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The main character is at the beach, and picks up a small stone. With a shock he realizes that the stone contains the soul of one of the residents in the town, and by touching the stone he can hear the thoughts of that person. He touches a number of other stones and discovers that each contains the soul of a different person in town. This scene has no bearing on the plot and is never mentioned again.
I realize that these "I only remember one scene" questions tend to be hard to answer, but it's such a bizarre scene I'm hoping someone will recognize it.