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openShort Story About a Boy with a Burrowing Insect in His Arm Literature
This is a short story I read sometime between 2005 and 2011. I want to say it was assigned reading or in an English textbook, but I have no idea what sort of teacher would assign a story as "out there" as this to a bunch of kids.
Body horror warning, I guess?
In the story, a grade school boy finds there is a small burrowing insect under the skin of his arm. It's been there for a few days/ weeks, and it's traveling around in a a spiral, so there's a pattern on his skin "like a burn from a hot stove top." He's not allowed to have pets at home, so he comes to think of the insect as a sort of pet. His class goes on a field trip (to either a museum or a botanic garden) and he meets a girl from another school. They have a conversation about growing up and emotions - the girl has a teenage sibling who doesn't have a handle on their emotions, and the sibling sometimes get so bitter and angry they can't say anything nice or see the beauty in the world around them. The boy sees this as a reflection of his own difficulties in growing up. Then he takes a pen and digs the insect out of his arm, leaving it in a nasty bloody mess on the carpet before rejoining his school group.
Any idea what the hell it is I read?
openDoes anybody know the name of this book? I think it's YA. Literature
I remember briefly reading a book in high school that was for young adults I believe and it was historical fiction. I attended high school from 2004 to 2008 so the book was either published during the 2004 to 2008 time frame or before. The plot involved a woman, she was homely and she worked as servant and was promised to/made to watch over a deformed man that was kept shut away. There was a picture of a candle on the front I think or wood and the background was dark in color. She was none too fond of the man and referred to him like he was a monster. I don't remember if she grew warmer towards him. Also, I think some people mocked her for her appearance and for being promised to a deformed man.
Edited by WriterGirl2015openBritish, YA Fiction, Murder Mystery, Modern Western Literature
I can't remember the title or authors name but it read just like a cowboy Western but set in modern England. From what I remember the book is about two brothers who go and investigate the village where their sister was murdered to find out how she died and who murdered her so that the case will be closed, and her body released from the morgue so they can bury her. The village is basically the middle of nowhere very isolated surrounded by lots of thick heavy forests,farmland and empty flat plains that goes on for miles past the horizon, the landscape in the book is very well known for its dark,spooky,supernatural atmosphere and also some ancient funerary road. The younger brother has some kind of empathetic telepathy power that connects him to the emotions of other people (kinda like a aura detector?) which works best with those he cares for like how he had a vision of his sister walking alone in the dark to the bus station and he felt the presence of her killer following her even though he was hundreds of miles away. there was also this community living on the outskirts of the village in trailers that I think were said to be some variant of Romani because gypsy and Traveller were used as slurs and they weren't allowed into the village because of this. The brothers are half Traveller? on their dads side who is in jail for killing a pedophile. A girl from the Traveller group decided to help the brothers after they asked around for info since she recognized the older brother for fighting like their father who was a famous boxer(she eventually becomes the older brothers romantic interest) she also had a three legged small dog. The older brother was confrontational and aggressive in finding answers,the younger brother was more passive and more of a detective than the other, piecing together new evidence from what wasn't mentioned. As the story moved along it was revealed that the village was so desolate and abandoned because a shady group in the village was intimidating the residents to sell their land so they could get a bigger commission from the real estate company looking to build some retreat.
openHeck if I know Literature
I'm trying to remember a book I read in my youth, the title of which escapes me. All I remember is a scene in which one of the main characters is put through a grueling series of ethical and moral situations to determine if he is suitable to be king. One of the first is set up as follows:
Two people are affixed to a scale, which is set up in such a way that if you save one, the other will be lowered into the ocean, drowning them before you can get the first to safety and then return. He manages to bypass the situation by using the scepter he carries as proof of kingship to jam the scales, allowing him to save both people.
openFantasy assassin novel Literature
Male main character stereotypical fantasy assassin type had a friend who may or may not have been imaginary (no one else could see her or hear her) and shadows where a support important element of the story. I think it was a series. Was NOT night angel trilogy.
openA Children's Book about Bears (?) Literature
Does anyone remember this children's book (80s or 90s?) about these two little bears siblings (90% sure they were bears). Their parents went out for the evening and then the bear children got really scared because they thought there was a monster outside, and they couldn’t wake up their babysitter who kept sleeping on a comfy chair.Eventually, their parents came back and they found out the monster was just a kite that got stuck in a tree and then they all ate cookies. I'm pretty sure the big babysitter bear says "me three" when the parents ask who wants cookies. It s driving me absolutely insane trying to remember. Please ease my pain. Thank you.
openA book that I am almost positive was called "Jeb" or "Jed" Literature
Okay, so when I was a kid, my dad used to get my books on tape from the library constantly. There's 1 book I listened to about 15+ years ago that I SWEAR is real but I have not heard about ot since despite constant googling. So the book is about this boy called either Jeb or Jed, but I'm pretty sure it was Jed. The book is a diary in the style of Go Ask Alice but it's not a true story and as the days go by Jed is revealed to be suicidal (my dad didn't realise this when he gave it to me and confiscated it shortly after I finished it) and the rest of the book is him documenting his suicide plan and getting things in order. He buys his sister, who is an Elvis fan and a bit of a free spirit, some apple seeds and blue suede shoes for her birthday a few days before he goes through with his plan. He kills himself by taking a large dose of sleeping pills and jumping off a bridge into running water. As it turns out, he survives and the last pages are narrated by his little sister. The most vivid memory I have is the last line being "Instead you picked a rotten apple, you didn't see the blossoms. Maybe someday you will." Is anyone thinks this sounds remotely similar, please let me know! I know this book exists but I can't find it!!
openScary Cat Book Literature
I remember hearing about a book that is essentially Watership Down but with cats. I'm not referring to the Warrior cats series. I think it got an animated movie adaptation as well. I can't remember the title for the life of me and my repeated searches of "what is that scary cat book" haven't been working. Please help
openScience fiction novel with nanomachines Literature
I'm looking for a science fiction novel which I read a number of years ago.
It's set on a planet where there are periodic floods of nanomachines that remake the landscape. This nanomachines create deposits of valuable minerals, which people mine for resources, but are fatal to anyone caught in them. Part of the conflict involves the nanomachine floods becoming more severe, so that they overwhelm the walls used by towns to protect their citizens. This is, I believe, due to a villain controlling the nanomachines. The protagonist has a small robot thing that has been programmed to completely destroy the nanomachines if she takes it to the source of the floods, but is reluctant to use it because she's not sure humans could survive on the planet without them.
There's also a thing with the people on this planet that each person has a designated soulmate, who is the only one they are biologically able to have children with, and also the only one who is compatible to give them a blood transfusion. The villain believes that he is the protagonist's soulmate, and tries injecting her with some of his blood to prove it, but her body rejects it and she gets really sick with fever and nearly dies. Later I think it turns out he was originally her soulmate, but altered his body so much to control the nanomachines that he's no longer compatible with her anymore?
openChildren's story about a talking witch's broomstick. Literature
Children's story about a talking witch's broomstick with a Downer Ending (or a Bittersweet Ending as the girl gets out okay).
Usual disclaimer: I read it a long time ago, so some details may be remembered wrong.
There was a broomstick who had escaped from a coven of evil witches and was hiding in the forest, he made friends with a local girl named either Tamsin or Tasmin who brought him food and water. Eventually the witches kidnapped her (possibly after she disregarded the broom's advice not to go and have a look at them) and tried to turn her into one of them and the broomstick made a Heroic Sacrifice to save her by dive-bombing the witches with rowan berries which are deadly to magical creatures. This scared off the witches but also killed the broom and the girl took his charred corpse home and kept him in her room trying to give him food and water again, much to the bafflement of her parents who knew nothing about the whole incident.
Probably written in the 70s, no later than the 80s, by an author who was probably British.
openShort science fiction story set on a space station Literature
This was in a collection of short stories called something like "the best science fiction stories of 20XX". The main characters are the crew of a space station- one of the characters notices a light scar on his face in the mirror and every day it starts looking fresher. Some other characters might have noticed similar things happening to them after -it turns out that the space station is going to have some accidents involving a time warp; he's going to be hit in the head during this and the wound is healing in reverse because of the time warp
openNon fiction book on the subject of superheroes Literature
I remember this being one of two books, on the nature of heroes, I remember the book beginning with some sort of disscusion on the origins of the idea of superhuman characters that were larger than life, like Heracles also known as Hercules, but also pointing out how he wasn't the hero that Disney portrayed him as in their 90's movie about his life, I recall the cover featuring a face mask on a red background and the SECOND BOOK'S COVER WAS GREEN.
openTrying to find a short story Literature
It's a short story written around the 1950s about a woman who murdered her husband by hitting him in the head with frozen meat. The cops came and ate it at the end. It's a good story, but I forgot the title.
Edited by BixenopenLiterature textbooks? Literature
My middle school had a shelf of short story collections, formatted as literature textbooks. There were multiple themed volumes. One was 'sci-fi' themed and contained 'By The Waters of Babylon', and another was 'folktale' themed and contained 'The Magic Brocade'. I can't remember what else was in them, or how many volumes there were. Does anyone know what I'm talking about?
EDIT: One of the volumes possibly contained a story about Hyakume
or Dodomeki
, possibly titled "A Thousand Eyes".
openChild's Play? Literature
A stage play where a little girl goes mute and her parents take her to a child psychologist who uses play therapy to figure out that she has been molested by a family member. The games the girl plays with toys are acted out by cast members as she goes.
openYA novel? Literature
Trying to remember the title of a novel I read as a kid. It was a kid's or YA (not sure) fantasy novel, involving re-planting the Tree of Life, which the bad guy cut down. There was a part with an Orphanage of Fear and a broken pair of scissors, and the tree had been guarded by chimeras, which had purple blood. Ring any bells?
Edited by SumanuilopenAn extremely creepy children's book Literature
It was TERRIFYING. I suppressed the memory so much I barely remember any of it. It was about these bunnies whose parents leave on a trip somewhere and for some reason leave them alone in the house. At one point one of them falls from the rooftop and they wrap him in a towel to hide him from the mailman. Eventually they get kidnapped and the book is about them trying to return home. This is all I know . It's also a rather old book so it was tough for me to find any traces of it. My uncle borrowed it to me once and since we aren't on the best terms I can't ask him about it. Does anybody know what this book is or if it even exists at all ?
openYouth Fantasy Book Literature
I recall reading a book as a child that was about a pair of children that entered a magial world through an abandoned subway station. They had tokens that they used to pass through. They befriended amagical creature that I think was a giant turtle or caterpillar that I believe died later in the story? Based on vague memories of how the library was layed out, I would guess it was aimed at 10-13 year olds.
openAgency that handles runaway nightmares. Literature
Ok I might have dreamt this up but does anyone know a book about a guy who works for an agency that tracks down nightmares? Thanks in advance

I remember reading this book that featured these teenagers finding an abandoned shack on the beach, and inside the shack was a door that would send you back in time. I'm pretty sure the 80s were involved- either as the time period the book was set in or the time the door sends you back to. I don't really remember the plot, but it featured a guy tying a girl to a post in the middle of the ocean with a slashed wrist , so that sharks would smell the blood and kill her. A girl survives this treatment after getting rescued by fishermen, and uses the door to get revenge. This is all revealed in an expositional monologue/through flashback chapters , though- the main characters didn't know about that backstory. Any ideas on what this book could be?