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:
openNo Title Literature
It's a fantasy book for youngish children.
It starts with the protagonist living on an island but he gets swept away to adventure. The four elements are each ruled by a different king or queen (Air and fire were kings, water and earth were queens I think) who were all created by or children of Night and they're going to have a war, which causes the elements to meld and that's bad.
The protagonist meets a hermit philosopher type and his daughter, and one of the air kings soldures who made snowballs? Hailstones? in the back of a cloud for war but crashed it on his adventure, it ends when they meet Night who's spent years trying to figure out Truth but getting nowhere and convince her to tell her children to stop fighting.
Any ideas?
openNo Title Literature
The books I'm thinking of are young adult/teen books (though I read them when I was in my tweens). It involved two young protagonists, a boy and a girl (I forget if they were sister and brother) and it was a series involving mythology.
Basically, there was a way they could go into myths (I forget if it was through some computer program) and become the characters inside them. I remember one of them being about this Japanese (or just an Asian one in case I'm not remembering this correctly) lady. I forget if she was a ghost but she may have been. Anyways, this guy in the myth falls in love with her and later on some stuff goes wrong. The teenager in the real world goes into the myth and ends up taking the place of the guy and his partner/sister/whoever she is has to go in there and save him. The cover had a pic of the Japanese lady on it and it had a blue motif.
This was just one of the books. It was a series of books and I think I vaguely remembering on having the Minotaur in it. I really want to read them again and I've been going crazy trying to find it.
Edited by 64.229.182.126openNo Title Literature
One of Aesop's fables - a pet bird refuses to sing because that's what got it captured, and its owner's dog tells it that's stupid since it's already been captured. What's this called? Other details I don't remember?
openNo Title Literature
I can't remember the title of these books, so please help me out. The plot (as far as I can remember) goes something like this: Due to a shortage in food in the last few years, the government has made it illegal for families to have more than two children. The first(?) book revolves around an illegal third child, Luke. Due to the law, Luke has never left his house(minus going out to his backyard for a short while). If it helps, his two older bros are Matthew and Mark.
The first half of the book goes on to show how he lived his life I believe. The second half revolves around him meeting another illegal child, only this girl can actually leave home with the help of a fake ID. He learns that there are actually a bunch of other illegal children she associates with via internet chat room. It ends on all the kids of the chat room trying to lead a march on the law that forbids their existence, but they get killed. Luke decides to attend a boy's only school that could possibly help out the illegal children under an alias. I believe the alias sounded Asian.
I know there is a second book showing a girl(?) with the same problem, only she's near the place Luke went to.
openNo Title Literature
Went to add this to Free-Love Future and suddenly realised I didn't remember what it was called or who it was by.
It's a Free-Love Future where people are pretty much expected to wander into each others' houses for sex at night. The point of the book is that a society like that would develop its own sexual "deviencies". One of the main characters is criticized by his wife becuase he keeps sleeping with the same woman, not because he's attracted to her, but because he's attracted to her brother — it's the fact he won't just sleep with the brother that's considered abnormal, and she attributes this hangup to him studying 20th century sociology.
I think there's a guy visiting from another society who keeps an open mind about the sex, but gets very embarassed when the couple have a blazing row.
And there's one scene where the sociologist, trying to understand 20th century sex-based profanity, repeats the f- and c- words over and over, comparing them with the modern equivilents "top" and "slot".
Got it from the library in the 1990s.
Edited by DaibhidCopenNo Title Literature
Two seperate books:
1. A boy somehow aquires some little ?statues? of monsters which come alive when he gets them wet. I don't remember them all, but I think one of them was a medusa-like monster. I think he might have had a little sister.
2. A boy lives in the sewers with his father. The dad was accused of murdering someone with the essance of artichoke which is apparently very toxic. Also there are some talking rats who live on a ship. I think it might have been a laundry ship. The biggest and nastiest of these rats has gone missing. It turns out that he made a deal with the bad guy who offered him lots of food. I believe the book ended with the rat being basically hooked up to this machine, there was some serious forcefeeding going on. Then he was set loose on the town, so he wass sort of waddling around causing massive damage, then he got caught on somthing and popped, covering the entire town in a layer of melted cheese.
Looking back, I think I read some really weird stuff as a kid.
openNo Title Literature
A novel or novella written in the first person, entirely as one half of an interrogation. There are only two characters, both men, and the novel consists of everything one of the men says, and nothing of what the other says. As the interrogation progresses, the reader infers the unheard man's reactions and responses based on what the voiced character says.
I heard about this book through part of a lecture that was broadcast on TV Ontario last year. I think the book is set in the Middle East or in some other conflict zone. The original language might not be English. It sounds very intriguing... has anyone heard of it?
Edited by EmbryonopenNo Title Literature
There was this book, not very thick, but it was about this girl who was given five? wishes I think, or maybe three? but if she used up the last one she died. She also died if she gave the wishes away. Along the way, one of her friends,a guy, was about to get hung but she wished and he escaped somehow. He got to thinking he was the one with the wishes.When they ran away, A man wanted her to use one of her last wishes to overthrow the king.
openNo Title Literature
What I'm looking for is a book about a thief. He's born with an incredible luck. When he dies, though, he wakes up in a tower with a cat he later nicknames Emerald(and then shortens to Em or Emmy). This cat later turns out to be a goddess. His mission is to collect the people who will save the world, including a little boy, a vicious princess and a young man(who later starts dating), a kind of "witch"(or a psychic female) and a priest. There might be more of them. The young man has a special knife, which the main character originally "bought" from the princess for the goddess(in her cat shape). There were many enemies, who had to be defeated in different ways(one had to be confused, the witch had to tear one to pieces, etc.) The whole story ends with the goddess and the thief, having fallen in love(possibly married?). The goddess points out that she's pregnant, and the thief hugs her, muttering 'I really do love you, Em' or something along those lines. I hope you can help me!
openNo Title Literature
This was a book - narrated in first-person, I think - about a girl living on a farm with a sister (and brother?). Their father had abandoned them, and they were in danger of losing their home for some reason. There was this kind of sleazy guy that the sister was in love with, and even though the protagonist disliked him, her sister ended up having to marry him to save the house. The title had something about a flower in it - I want to say lilies but I'm not sure. It was older, too, I think - maybe written around the sixties or seventies.
openNo Title Literature
So I remember this book (actually got it as an audiobook), it took place in a just barely post apocalyptic setting. The main characters were this one guy and his little sister whom he actually has legal guardianship over. She's probably about 16 or 17 and does ballet. After the apocalypse happens courtesy of all sources of power cutting out she starts transforming into something strange and vaguely angelic. They set out, looking for something with this wrench wench-esque woman who is pretty clearly a love interest for the hero. The story also has a man who is trapped underground with his mining crew and they also start transforming, although into something different, and two (brothers, I think) one of whom was in a coma when the apocalypse happened, but is somehow still kinda alive. I think that's probably enough for anything who knows of it to recognize it by?
Also, could someone tell me how to close a query? I had a previous one that was already answered.
openNo Title Literature
Young Adult current-day fiction novel about two teens who visit their uncle's old cabin over the summer and find out that a shed nearby has mysterious time bending abilities, with objects and people in the shed experience time slowing down dramatically. People outside the shed observe this as objects inside speeding up.
openNo Title Literature
There was a story I read in my class textbooks as a kid. It was about a boy and a girl, brother and sister, going into the wilderness for a Native American survival rite. The boy did the ritual as his ancestors did it for many years before him, finding his way out in the wilderness, where the girl got a little creative and found her way into a building where she met someone who was nice to her and let her stay there for the duration. There was great debate over whether her rite counted, since it wasn't done traditionally, and the grandfather gave her the okay, for being adaptable.
Now, if someone could tell me the name or author, I'd be grateful ^^;
openNo Title Literature
Okay, this might not really count as 'Literature' since it had more pictures than words, but it was book-shaped, darnit, do it stands.
It was a book I had when I was very little, and lost with no trace long ago enough that I'd nearly forgotten it even exsisted. All I really remember was that there were two monkeys in it, called Miss Chief and Master Cor, and there was something about toffee trees...
I pressed my mother for information, but all she could remember was that the author was one of a British comedy double-act. That's really about all. It's been bothering me for years on end, and I can't seem to find any information with the clues I have. I might just not be looking hard enough, but if anyone has any idea, please help!
openNo Title Literature
A picture book about a family trying to find their perfect car. I remember reading it several times. The family test drives a few cars, and they find one that can basically do anything, it can fly, turn into a submarine...etc.
The art style was kind of simplistic, and the family looked like those little people pegs in the board game "Life", and I think they were each wearing different colored shirts.
Edited by originalhobbitopenNo Title Literature
You're my last hope, TV Tropes! My description is extremely vague, because it's been a very long time since I read this novel. Here goes a long shot:
It's an adult or YA novel (pretty sure it was an adult) about five or so sisters. I'm 93% certain it was magic realism. The author is a woman. The parents weren't around and/or dead, and the eldest sister got a Promotion to Parent very early on (possibly before the novel started). She worked, while the others were in high school and, I think, middle school. One of the sisters was rebellious, and one (probably the youngest) acted very dreamy. Butterflies might have played some kind of motif.
It was set somewhere in Europe.
Here's my only detailed memory of it: the oldest sister went out with a guy, a doctor, and at one point she decided to break her own hymen with a hairbrush handle so he would think she had some experience when they had sex. Yeah, I think that scene supplanted my memory of the title and author. Dangit, brain.
Edited by TaffyCatopenNo Title Literature
A small anthology of sci-fi stories based loosely around - get this - Space Mountain. Well, the first story was, anyway; it involved a kid riding the coaster and getting stranded on an alien world. If I remember correctly, the rest were basic kids' sci-fi fare. Anyway, I read this book as a Disney-loving kid, and I just remembered it now, but I can't quite recall the name of it.
Edited by TheToonGeeketteopenNo Title Literature
It was a book I read part of in 9th grade, so....2-3 years ago.
It was about the future. The society was very...commercialist as I recall. I remember the main boy and the main girl using like some sort of mind link or something to screw with places trying to sell them stuff.
openNo Title Literature
I read this book back in middle school, and I've always wanted to read it again, even after graduating high school...but I just cant remember the name. The cover I remember had a teenaged guy lying on a road, face up and arms strecthed to either side. He was lying on top of, or right below a street arrow. All I remember from the book was the teenaged boy accidentally killed his semi abusive father by pushing him and his father hit his head severely on the fireplace (I believe). The kid freaks out and tries to cover things up by keeping his father in bed and playing recordings of his snoring to fool his aunt(?) that comes over or something. Turns out that his father or something, somehow gets a hold of a lot of money (I think) and the son wants to try and get it. He also becomes friends with a girl around his age, and she wants to be an actress. She knows about the boy killing his father and helps him hid the bod in a huge ditch/hole (I believe it was). At the end though, she runs off with the money. She was acting (remember her wanting to be an actress?) like she was his friend and stuff.
A lot of that is guessed, but what I know for certain is that the boy accidentaly kills his father, tries to cover it up with the help of the girl, and the boy somehow gets money and the girl steals it at the end. For the love of all that is loveable I can't well remember the name or even the name of the characters! I would love to find this book again if possible :(

I'm pretty sure that this is a Goosebumps book, It was about a girl who found this creature that gave her extremely bad luck, she couldn't get rid of it, and there was something about the letter J showing up on her arm or something odd like that. At the end, when she finally got rid of the creature, another one found her, but it was like a potato and it bit her thumb.