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Here's a couple I half-remember. One is about a semi-random freedom fighter in Roman times who randomly impressed a brother/sister pair, then eventually woos the sister but feels embarrassed about having a lower status or whatever. Meanwhile the protag's sickly sister romances a Roman soldier behind her brother's back, which pisses him off because he loving hates Romans but eventually the book ends with the brother inviting the Roman guy over to gently caress his sister. Another is some random middle-class woman in medieval times being bored with everything because she's too smart or whatever, then realizing her soulmate was the stable boy who lost toes to frostbite because he was the only other person in the universe to really notice the crucifixion of Christ, and also some random important guy decides to marry them together and give them some land to save the world or whatever. Also I remember some dipshit magician guy recruiting people, including a random woman turned love interest who is actually a princess at the end because why not. I don't actually care to remember what these books are since I'll never revisit them, but if you want to reminisce about books you barely remember and want to talk about them, this thread is as good as any!
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Apr 7, 2023 23:11
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| # ? May 9, 2024 13:58 |
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I remember reading a short story in middle school about a guy who's traveling and comes upon a bed-and-breakfast run by an old woman whose hobby is taxidermy. At the end of the story, it's implied that the old woman has been poisoning her guests with cyanide and stuffing their bodies. The story ends with the guy drinking poisoned tea that smells faintly of almonds. I can't remember the name of the story or if it was any good, but that's how I know that cyanide smells like almonds. I could probably Google it easily enough, actually. Fake edit: "The Landlady," by Roald Dahl.
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Apr 7, 2023 23:50
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BeastOfTheEdelwood posted:I remember reading a short story in middle school about a guy who's traveling and comes upon a bed-and-breakfast run by an old woman whose hobby is taxidermy. At the end of the story, it's implied that the old woman has been poisoning her guests with cyanide and stuffing their bodies. The story ends with the guy drinking poisoned tea that smells faintly of almonds. I can't remember the name of the story or if it was any good, but that's how I know that cyanide smells like almonds. I could probably Google it easily enough, actually. Holy gently caress I think I read this one at some point, it actually sounds familiar. I read a ton in my school years, both for fun and for assignments. A lot of them I've long since forgotten, but I can think of two that stuck with me in vague ways. Alas Babylon by Pat Frank, about a small town in the aftermath of nuclear war. And The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen, about a Jewish girl who time travels to learn of the Holocaust. The latter I had forgotten the name of until a goon thread helped me with it a few years ago. I think the first I read for an assignment and the second I read on my own, but it's interesting what stuck in my ADHD-addled brain and what didn't.
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Apr 8, 2023 13:14
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A few years ago, I had the pleasure of finding my half-remembered otherwise-forgotten reading. I'd read it in 8th grade at a school librarian's recommendation, in the year our school adopted Accelerated Reading, and I didn't especially care for it. I wasn't much of a reader, and had exactly no interest in YA, especially the YA of 1995-96. But I had vague memories of that book, about a girl and an alien sneaking around a spaceship, and after some searching, found Alien Secrets by Annette Curtis Krause. It wasn't half bad!
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Apr 8, 2023 23:58
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There was a CYOA where a family moved into a small town where, unbeknownst to the family, once a year the dead would rise and tear apart the flesh of some living. They didn't kill and eat every human being that they came across, there was a segment with the reader/their sibling going to school among the living dead, but they did kill quite a few. I remember a segment where the protagonist had to hide in the bathroom stall while they reached up from underneath. I think it was called Ghoul Day or something but searches dont bring anything up. It was a pretty grim book, I tried to find the happiest ending and the best in terms of fewest deaths was where only the mother turned into a ghoul.
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Apr 9, 2023 02:19
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My middle-school library was pretty crap for actual books, but great if you were the weird kid who liked reading musty-smelling Readers Digests from 1941-1943. The two books I actually remember reading there were: A Rag, A Bone, and A Hank of Hair, which I was obsessed with so I reread it a bunch and practically memorized it; and a book that I *think* was called Divorced, Beheaded, Died. I dont remember anything at all about that one except that it's where I learned the litany of Henry VIII's wives and that basically every woman at the time was named Anne or C/Katherine.
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Apr 9, 2023 10:36
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I think I read it in elementary, not middle school, but I read a book about a kid who gets stuck in a time loop at summer camp and goes through a bunch of possibilities to "solve" the loop and then it turns out the reason he had to keep repeating the day was just because he promised his mom he'd brush his teeth but hadn't been brushing his teeth
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Apr 9, 2023 10:52
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Just remembered The Whipping Boy existed thanks to this thread. A total Prince and the Pauper knockoff.
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Apr 9, 2023 11:37
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We read House of the Scorpion in middle school but gun to my head I know nothing about it. Someone in another thread mentioned The Cheese Stands Alone which flipped a switch in my brain. I looked it up on Wikipedia and drat that poo poo was wilder than I remember Also one of the first dense books I read was about a girl who gets kidnapped by pirates or something and then is eventually accepted among them or something. There's definitely a lot of books like this now but I do wish I could remember this one.
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Apr 9, 2023 16:00
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Doc Fission posted:We read House of the Scorpion in middle school but gun to my head I know nothing about it. This is the one with drug lord making clones for replacement organs I think. Tex-Mex Never Let Me Go
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Apr 9, 2023 16:11
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Doc Fission posted:We read House of the Scorpion in middle school but gun to my head I know nothing about it. That pirate girl one might be The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi.
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Apr 9, 2023 16:27
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wheatpuppy posted:That pirate girl one might be The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi. Googled this and one of the covers looks extremely familiar! I'll check it out. I read it in 5th grade and I remember liking it but could never fully remember the title or anything so hopefully it's this one. Thanks 
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Apr 9, 2023 16:38
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I read a book in like 5th grade about someone making friends with someone from 'another dimension' or something. the person from another dimension was mostly invisible and unnoticeable, but for some reason, when they stepped into a pool, people could see their outline in the water. Read it in 1995 or so. Any clues anyone?
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Apr 9, 2023 18:07
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Some book about a kid with a gambling problem and eventually he gambles away his finger or something.
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Apr 9, 2023 18:22
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First, an elementary-aged book. It was about a kid who owned some sort of toy castle set, only the knight toy came alive and I think they did a portal fantasy into the castle and... defeated an evil mage or something? Literally the only scene I remember with any clarity is the knight sitting on a toy chest with his back against a wall so that he couldn't be ambushed, and the boy was like "wow being a knight sounds so cool, i'm going to be that when i grow up" Second, more of a YA book. It was fantasy, but not high fantasy because it focused on dark magic characters and maybe was set on earth. I think the main character might have literally been Satan who was raising a half-daughter lol. Two things I remember: 1. The magic system was jewel- and level-based. The darker and "deeper" you'd go down a jewel the more powerful the magic, and if you dove too quickly you'd shatter the jewels and uhh that'd be bad, I think 2. The names were insane and incredibly embarrassing, even to an edgy high school nerd. I think there was a character named something like Daemon Satan Lucifer, and he had a brother named Gabriel Darkness Lucifer, or some combination of those words. Much later in life I "read" My Immortal and I'm like 60% sure that the fanfic was partially inspired by this book I'm describing, though my book was more emo than gothic, if those terms mean anything anymore. I associate it strongly with the bands AFI and Evanescence
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Apr 10, 2023 02:26
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WarpDogs posted:First, an elementary-aged book. It was about a kid who owned some sort of toy castle set, only the knight toy came alive and I think they did a portal fantasy into the castle and... defeated an evil mage or something? Literally the only scene I remember with any clarity is the knight sitting on a toy chest with his back against a wall so that he couldn't be ambushed, and the boy was like "wow being a knight sounds so cool, i'm going to be that when i grow up"
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Apr 10, 2023 03:15
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cheetah7071 posted:I think I read it in elementary, not middle school, but I read a book about a kid who gets stuck in a time loop at summer camp and goes through a bunch of possibilities to "solve" the loop and then it turns out the reason he had to keep repeating the day was just because he promised his mom he'd brush his teeth but hadn't been brushing his teeth I love this sort of obnoxious shaggy-dog kidlit. It makes me think of this Bruce Coville story where some kids are getting stalked by a monster and finally end up cornered, and then it turns out one of the kids left their jacket somewhere earlier in the day, and the monster has been chasing them down to give it back, with a big "your JACKET, kid  " reaction.
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Apr 10, 2023 11:02
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I remember reading some very weird drama about teenagers which was different from anything I had read before - fairly certain it was a sort of proto-YA book. I think it had a character called Lydia in it? There was also a series where (some) people could turn into a animals. The first couple of books it was like mice and rabbits and stuff. But then it went off the rails and became vampires and unicorns. This was definitely YA, and I remember even back then realising the scenes where everyone stood around talking and occasionally attacking each other were bad.
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Apr 10, 2023 11:03
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When I was in 5th grade the class read a book about a wagon train party getting slaughtered and the book is written from the perspective of a brother and sister, and all I remember was the graphic depictions of the dead bodies during the first chapter. What a cool book for kids!
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Apr 10, 2023 15:12
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On like 6th grade for a book report, I wanted to read a James Bond novel - my dad had all the Bond books and the titles called to me even before I knew who James Bond was. My teacher was like "Uhhh, it might be a little too grown-up for you, but if your parents are cool with it, ok" and my dad hadn't read them in years and was just like whatever. Anyway the only thing I remember from the book was a naked, oiled up lady dancing and grinding on a big hand until the hand was all lubed up too. I think it was The Man With the Golden Gun.
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Apr 10, 2023 15:32
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Antivehicular posted:I love this sort of obnoxious shaggy-dog kidlit. It makes me think of this Bruce Coville story where some kids are getting stalked by a monster and finally end up cornered, and then it turns out one of the kids left their jacket somewhere earlier in the day, and the monster has been chasing them down to give it back, with a big "your JACKET, kid I had no idea it was a thing lol. I think I only read the one
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Apr 10, 2023 18:56
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I read most of the A Series of Unfortunate Events books as a kid and I remember nothing about them! All that's left is a vague feeling that it was an alright book series.
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Apr 10, 2023 20:45
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cheetah7071 posted:I had no idea it was a thing lol. I think I only read the one There were at least 2, "Help I'm Stuck in the First Day of" -Summer Camp and -School.
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Apr 11, 2023 03:12
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sirtommygunn posted:I read most of the A Series of Unfortunate Events books as a kid and I remember nothing about them! All that's left is a vague feeling that it was an alright book series. It was sick. He loses his mind in book 5 and it becomes like, YA Lost.
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Apr 11, 2023 03:45
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There was a book we read in class when I was quite young that I wish I could remember the name of because it was the first time I ever encountered the idea that writers could put layers of meaning into their work. It was something about a boy wizard/mage fighting some big evil guy, or maybe he ended up in a magical world from his normal world; I really don't remember the details except that the kid's name was Grey and/or his eyes were grey or something. My teacher made a big deal about how important grey was to this world and how that represented the conflict between good and evil. It was the first time in my life a teacher ever approached a book from something beyond the literal plot. I was completely incredulous and argued with him (arguing with a teacher!  ) because grey was just a colour, his name was just his name, and authors couldn't possibly put all this hidden meaning into the words they wrote like that - why wouldn't they just say it? How could they even write if they had to put all this extra stuff into every sentence?  I so clearly remember how shocked and almost outraged I was about the idea that there could be hidden meaning in books and that authors would deliberately conceal important things without just saying them.
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Apr 11, 2023 06:13
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When I was in the 7th grade, I found a paperback in the school library with a spooky ghost illustration on the cover that had an innocuous/forgettable title like "ghost stories" or "tales of the supernatural" or something, but which turned out to be a collection of extremely hosed up ghost sex/torture erotica. I remember reading it very intently over lunch period (appalled, of course), then the bell ringing out of nowhere.
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Apr 11, 2023 10:53
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Enfys posted:... I remember that one. It was British, and the first time I came across their spelling of tire. I recall nothing else.
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Apr 11, 2023 15:07
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I remember reading The Chrysalids back at school. I don't recall much about it, really. Mostly that it was post-apocalyptic and mutants were shunned by the non-mutants, but the protagonist teen left home to side with the mutants and... they escaped to New Zealand at the end, I think?
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Apr 11, 2023 15:07
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At some point in childhood (more probably elementary school but don’t really remember when) I read a series of unsubtle Christian fantasy stories about a kid who got a magic flying bicycle representing his moral innocence or some poo poo, which the sinister forces of Satan (represented by a shady guy who took orders from an evil telephone) wanted to take from him. I don’t really remember much about this except for one scene where the shady guy failed to steal the bike one too many times, and the evil telephone started to tell him how bad he was at his job and how his rear end was on the line, so he threw it out the window where it immediately exploded. For some time after this I was very loath to answer the phone This is also kind of mixed up in my head with Michael Chabon’s Summerland, a no doubt deeply personal magical-realist tome about being really into comparative mythology and baseball as a kid. I liked the gods and stuff but the baseball was a turn off. skasion fucked around with this message at 15:22 on Apr 11, 2023 |
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Apr 11, 2023 15:19
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There were a whole bunch of "James bond but for kids books" that were very popular and I enjoyed a lot, the author even visited our school and gave a talk. The plots were all about some kid who was a super spy with lots of gadgets and stuff. I think he eventually became more successful writing some other sort of book or something.
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Apr 11, 2023 20:21
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There was one book that I only had on audiobook book but listened to a million times in the car, my parents must have hated it. It was about a school (maybe?) where the bad guys were teaching the children fake science in order to ?????
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Apr 11, 2023 20:23
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There was a well-loved compilation volume of ghost stories in the 6th-grade-and-up section of the library at my K-8 elementary school which had had its binding replaced at some point. On the replacement cover, a former student-volunteer librarian had drawn a fairly capable cartoon ghost with a sharpie, and inscribed the title as "Gosts, Gosts, Gosts"
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Apr 11, 2023 20:55
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So many of these, except I remember the titles more often than the plots. Looking back, I guess I read lots of fantasy. the "My Teacher Is an Alien" series (esp. "My Teacher Fried My Brains") -- just like it says on the tin, as far as I recall The "Dark is Rising" series -- chosen one must stop evil... somehow. My main memory is that it makes Wales and the Welsh language sound cool The Indian in the Cupboard (which ended up being a series too?) -- a boy's plastic toys coming to life, eventually morphing into like somehow the boy could also get teleported/time-traveled back to the Wild West where the real people inhabiting his toys were being transsubstantiated from? At one point his consciousness is inserted into a teepee? The Magic Grandfather -- this was sad, maybe, somehow? The grandfather was definitely magic in one way or another. The Gift of Magic -- was this Lois Duncan? master of preteen drama and thrillers?
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Apr 12, 2023 08:12
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coldtaxi posted:
Had forgotten about that one, but can now distinctly remember the cover. There was one of those green toy soldiers too I think
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Apr 12, 2023 13:56
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I read a poo poo ton of hardy boys, but I remember nothing other than that they were ghost written and that one (I think there were 2 regulars?) of their friends was named Chet Morton. I don't even remember the main characters names.
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Apr 13, 2023 00:32
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FoolyCharged posted:I read a poo poo ton of hardy boys, but I remember nothing other than that they were ghost written and that one (I think there were 2 regulars?) of their friends was named Chet Morton. I don't even remember the main characters names. Frank and Joe Chet is the fat guy. The other buddy is Biff iirc Iola is Chet’s sister who Joe dates. In an edgy 90s reboot of the Hardy Boys which I once read in a bed and breakfast, she is killed by a car bombing in the first chapter and the Hardy Boys go on a campaign of bloody revenge. I read a lot of these. Most very forgettable. My school library had kept up with the series through the ages, it was like a slice into the recent history of chapter book publishing formats. My favorite was the jersey devil one I think. Not sure why I’ve heard that the early books are noir-inspired and anti-cop and some of them were later redacted to be more pro-establishment. A lot were also Sax Rohmer level racist
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Apr 13, 2023 00:39
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Antivehicular posted:I love this sort of obnoxious shaggy-dog kidlit. It makes me think of this Bruce Coville story where some kids are getting stalked by a monster and finally end up cornered, and then it turns out one of the kids left their jacket somewhere earlier in the day, and the monster has been chasing them down to give it back, with a big "your JACKET, kid I semi-remember Bruce Coville having some interesting/entertaining stuff. The only semi-specific thing that stayed with me though was I think a short story from one of his "scary" anthologies. Some kid is in a snowstorm and wishes that the snow would never stop, and it gets granted. It snows and snows and piles up and the adults are despairing and I think it was left inconclusive but you could assume that everyone either froze to death or suffocated in snow-buried houses. Kind of a Twilight Zone ending for a kid's story. Edit: Did some googling, was "Snow" in Book of Nightmares 2 and was actually written by Al Sarrantonio.
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Apr 13, 2023 00:54
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wheatpuppy posted:I know this isn't the "ID that book" thread, but I am gonna guess Castle in the Attic and Anne Bishop's Jewel series, respectively. you nailed both. I'll grab a copy of the former for my kid, but I wish the latter had remained a title I had forgotten lol. reading the plot summary of the books is unlocking memories that probably should have stayed dead the good news is that the names are somehow way more ridiculous than I remembered  my god
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Apr 13, 2023 02:55
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I have heard grown people very earnestly discuss the Black Jewels books and I don't know how they can fuckin' do it. Just... how
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Apr 13, 2023 05:24
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As a kid in the school library I found a novelisation of the movie Seven, but like a really slim one with a writing style for like YA readers. I'd never seen Seven and it was kind of hosed up. I remember thinking it was a really weird thing to find at age 11 on the shelf next to the loving Iron Giant
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Apr 13, 2023 09:50
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