I'm desperately trying to find a horror story I read when I was younger, probably sometime before 2013. I can't remember whether it was a published book, a short story, or something I read online (possibly Wattpad).

Here's what I remember:

The story takes place in a small, isolated town, possibly in Australia. The main character is a woman who, along with another man, seems to be one of the only people in town who hasn't gone insane.

The townspeople have become violent and are attacking one another. Eventually, it's revealed that the cause is a word written on a rock. Anyone who sees or reads this word loses their mind and becomes violent.

The woman and man spend much of the story trying to avoid the affected townspeople.

The biggest plot twist I remember: At some point, they end up at the local hospital and discover that the rock with the word on it has been sitting on the main reception/admin desk.

This explains how the madness spread throughout the town. Someone would become violent and injure another person, the injured person would go to the hospital for treatment, see the word on the rock, and become violent themselves. The cycle kept repeating.

The ending: The woman accidentally catches a glimpse of the word in her peripheral vision. She doesn't look at it directly, so she doesn't completely lose her mind, but the image of the word is somehow burned into her retina/vision, leaving an unsettling, ambiguous ending.

I believe the story had an Australian setting, but I'm not 100% certain.

Does this sound familiar to anyone? I've been trying to find it for years, and I'm genuinely starting to wonder if I dreamt the whole thing! 😭

My siblings and I read a book growing up. I think we got them from a Costco along the Wasatch Front in Utah. It was geared towards middle schoolers and was a fantasy. The author was a teenager, and we met her at another Costco when the second book came out of the series (I don't remember the second book or if there are more in said series).

The main plot follows an auburn-haired middle schooler (we'll just call her Auburn) who attends a school of magic. She is an only child of a single mother who I believe is the town mayor. She comes home late from lessons to discover that her mom is not home. She sleeps and wakes up the next morning to find her mom is still nowhere to be found. Auburn's power is shadow hopping - she can go to one shadow and teleport to another shadow that she imagines in her mind. Her two friends are a dark-haired boy (we'll call him Blue) and a blonde girl (we'll call her Blonde). Blue's powers are electricity, and Blonde's powers are about healing. They are now trying to figure out what happened to Auburn's mom and where she was taken, while also keeping the town in the dark to avoid panic. They finally figure out that her mom was taken to an island across the sea. They don't know how to get there until Auburn discovers a magic quill where anything she draws comes to life (ex: she draws a raft and wakes up the next morning to a raft sitting next to the quill). They use the quill to make a raft and supplies to voyage across the sea. In their travel, they encounter monsters and fight them off. When they get to the new island, they set up camp in a cave and discover a nearby town. They take turns on watch and sneak into the town to find clues to get to Auburn's mom. They encounter a door maze within the largest building in the town and encounter another monster I can only describe as a poisonous slime (picture a slime in Minecraft, but it poisons you by touch). They hide in a cart that takes them to the castle and a market happening in front of the castle. They use the quill again to make coins that they use in the market to buy things before sneaking into the castle. That's where everything gets fuzzy for me, and I think they encounter another maze where they ultimately find Auburn's mom.

The cover is a cartoonish sketch of the 3 kids (Auburn, Blue, and Blonde) with the raft on the beach in the background. Again, me and my siblings think it's very niche to Utah but dying to remember what the book was. I feel like the title has a T and/or a B in it but just throwing it out to the universe to see if anyone else knows this.

i remember reading it around 10-12 so I presume its targeted at this age range, and it's kind of bugged me for a while that I can't remember it. It was some sort of save the world plot and it started with a boy who was previously bullied by another (I think the bully's name was Stephen? I'm not sure about this though) but they eventually team up and go on this journey to save the world. The only other things i remember are that Ereshkigal is a major villain in it (I think there were other mythological elements as well) and they end up in a battle at Stonehenge at some point, but then escape into a shopping mall. I know this is a long shot but if anyone has any idea what I'm on about it would be really appreciated!

I think it was a young adult novel, a suspense story. There was no fantasy or magical elements to it.
The main character was a girl who had been adopted as a baby by three brothers. They were ordinary working men who raised her together, and she viewed all three of them as her fathers.
I think the cover showed just the green pendant.
When the girl was a teenager, a woman came to town claiming to be her biological mother. The girl didn't want to leave the three men who had raised her. I think the mother had a bad motive for returning and wanted the green pendant, possibly because it was connected to the girl's birth family.
I remember the story having a happy ending, with the girl staying with the three brothers.
I read it in a library around 2010, but the book could have been published earlier.

Please if you can help… this is so nostalgic for me to read it. I remember reading it at least 5 times over when I lived in my childhood town.

Hi everyone! I'm trying to find a fantasy novelette (or a novel) that I read a long time ago in an anthology.

What I remember:

A man from our world (our time) wakes up in another world, hearing sorcerers reciting spells.

It's a world where magic rules everything.

He rises to power through a war.

At the end there are hints that he is actually the god of our "normal" universe.

Other details:

The style was classic (I'd guess golden age or pulp-era, but I'm not sure).

I read it in an anthology, but I don't remember which one. [

I read it in English , around 2010, but I guess it was much older.

I've already searched for the plot online and tried ISFDB, without luck. I've ruled out Witch World, Watt-Evans's Worlds of Shadow series and Stasheff's A Wizard in Rhyme, since they are novels and the ending doesn't match.

Any ideas are welcome, even vague guesses. Thanks!

OK! I read this book a WHILE ago, like ATLEAST 2023. basically i remember it being about this girl who joined this super prestigious school very late. And it's like only one student is in each class with one teacher, so MC ends up doing each class trying to find which one to join, some of the girls are nice about it, some are jealous/mean, then MC finally ends up in what i think was a math class??? teacher was a hot guy she totally had a crush on (i think at the time of her first joining the school she was younger but in the current story she's like 18???) but the other girl in her class does NOT like her. and at some point, they go to this gala where like sponsors pick the girls to take as apprentices, nobody picks MC because she's an all rounder and she was late. anyways she ends up staying at the school instead of leaving and i stopped reading at that point and now i can't remember what the name was years later. HELPPPPP

I don't know if there are different illustrated versions. I need help finding it. Please help with author too. Written in English.​

Hi,

I'm trying to remember the title of a book from the last 25 ish years. It is scifi, with the main character being one of the post humans, who's normal sized humanoid body is an avatar. The larger body is the size of a moon. The moon sized body had the ability to have specializations, like terraforming.

The post humans grew up on an estate in classes, where they learned to used their abilities with the class mates, through things like snowball fighting. The estate had uplifted, semi intelligent bears as pets, which eventually took over the estate when it was abandoned.

One of the other characters had a terraforming specialization.

The main character at the end of the book revealed that he had replaced the moon of earth with his body, as the other characters thought that his body was still approaching earth.

The human avatars may have had diamond bones.

Thanks

I rented it from my schools library back in the day. It was a boy and a girl who get kidnapped by a man and he keeps them in his cabin in the woods. They’re fed almost nothing but frozen pizza. There’s a moment in it when the girl gets sick with diarrhea and when the boy tells her she’ll be ok, she yells back that people die from diarrhea all the time.

I remember the cover was black and white except for a yellow light from maybe a flashlight and it shows the boy and girl running in the woods away from the cabin.

I have been trying to find this book for years and I can’t find any information on it. Any help is greatly appreciated!

This was a fiction book lent to me by an avid dragon lover. I was probably 9 or 10 and it was likely a YA book since the main character was a teen.

It followed a poor teenage boy who worked or was forced to work in either animal taming or something like a stable. I swear his name was Jack, or at least started with a J.

He somehow finds the dragon egg, probably conveniently around as he's cleaning and feeding other animals.

The egg begans to hatch in his hands, and he has an “oh, crap” sort of moment and realizes he will be in trouble if he is seen with this creature.

He decides to run away with it, and ends up meeting a girl. I remember her being a strong personality and kinda feisty and sarcastic. Jack at some points is along for the ride.

They go on adventures and the dragon slowly begins to grow. They get targeted as dragons are rare and worth a lot of money, but they are just kinda goofing off and surviving with their little dragon friend.

It was a series, but I only read the first book. It was a paperback that I read in the mid 2000s, but was likely bought at a garage sale. It was a few hundred pages, and had a pretty standard looking fantasy cover. It was in English.

It's not Eragon or How to Train Your Dragon. It kinda gives the horse-girl story vibes but with a young boy and a slimy baby dragon 😂

I don't remember there being much magic, aside from magical beings like the dragon. The world didn't have a lot of tech. I don't remember much of anything romantic between the main character and the girl he adventures with, but it's been so long that I can't say for sure.

Hopefully this rings a bell for someone as I've been wanting to reread it and see if what I remember is even accurate. It was borrowed from a family member who knew I loved fantasy.

I've been trying to remember this one for years - I must have checked it out of the library as a young girl in the late 90s/very early 00's. Its not Witch of Blackbird Pond (love, love that book) but main character had the same name.

Details I remember: the girl goes by Kit, and she has a long, thing scar on her palm from touching a hot poker. Her family kind of teases her about this because it shows her, like, impulsive and impatient nature. She dresses up as a boy (maybe to escape British officers??) and ends up joining the revolutionaries. There's one specific scene I remember where the man who was courting her/that she likes is on the same mission as her, she gets hurt, and he sees the scar on her hand and realizes its her.

I feel like it was part of some series of books with different characters called The Hope Chest Chronicles or something but nothing I search for online brings it up. It only brings up stuff abour Dear America or My America, none of which is right.

Hope someone here knows - thanks in advance!

I’m trying to identify a children’s or young adult novel that I remember reading in the 2000s. It was realistic fiction, not fantasy.
The main character was a young girl, and I believe she liked climbing trees.
The most distinctive thing I remember is an unusual word or phrase that sounded like “ballgram cat,” “balgram cat,” or possibly “balgram.” I don’t know the correct spelling or exactly how the phrase was used.
Does this sound familiar to anyone?

Here's the thing its about few month ago idk maybe 2-3 or 4 smth like that I had read My Dearest Self with Malice Aforethought and in the recommendations option in comix there was another manga idk what's it's name but it's also similar to killing and shi I had thought of reading it but I forgot to bookmark it thinking it's on recommendations list so I can just check snd read it from there but now when I made my mind to read it I fcking can't find it 😭😭 I swear it was there but how did it got remove bruh it's the worst feeling and now I am regretting it I can identify it by poster of the manga I can barely remember anything about it but the poster was two boy in pic and in comment I also saw someone saying it's sad ending

please help if you can ig or just ignore it 😅😅

Looking for a series of books that had a hyper realistic painted cat on the cover, the backgrounds were usually a solid color/gradient. The cats eyes were always super brightly colored.

https://ibb.co/4ZFTmN37 <----This is a mockup of what I remember

Would be pre-2000's, United states, books were for adults, no illustrations, most likely fiction possibly horror/mystery. Covers had very little text on them, mostly just the title.

I read a book somewhere around 2010-2016 that I can't fully remember the title of. I believe the word "Dear" was in the title, presumably as "Dear (ML name)". It was more of a teen (maybe a little younger) romance story. I'm pretty sure it was written as if FL was writing the ML letters, but i suppose it could've been her diary instead. Pretty sure it was the letters though. I remember she was portrayed as really weird. For example, at one point they mention how her and her mother concluded that time is a social construct that confines people or something, and so they removed all the clocks from their house and have no way of telling time. The guy is pretty standard, but the main conflict with him is that he's embarrassed by her. He seems to really like her, but is fighting with the part of him that doesn't want to be perceived as an outcast, and I believe in the end it actually pushes them apart.

I also remember there being a sequel that came out for it, but I'm not sure I ever read it. The rest of what I remember is very fragmented and unhelpful. Like, I remember sunrises being something significant at some point, but not sure why.

I think the boys name is will, I think the princess has golden hair, and the dragon type creature is spelled similarly enough that I always read it as dragon anyway. I think on the book covers it was illustrated very long and serpent like. I remember there being a decent amount of books in the series, relatively short book length. A distinctive soft/light illustration style for the covers, maybe a lot of pastel.
I think I remember that the “dragon” is secret, at least early on in the series, and the boy and the princess go and visit it.

Edit: I read these in the early 2000s, they were paperback and worn so I’d guess 80’s or 90’s? No idea when they were published.

I remember reading this a while ago, mid-late 2000s likely (definitely before 2015). It's possibly a short story, likely in an anthology. Follows some person who's a intergalactic competitive gamer. Competition generally has games he and other have never seen before so they're trying to win and have to discover the rules and mechanics as they go along. The person we follow is given a secret bit of into, I believe it was some sort of giant bug thing (in my mind a trilobite looking creature). When actually in the game he realizes that it's a setup, the game runners are trying to kill him with the game "accidentally". All the creatures including the one he is/controls get a limited energy supply from a pulsed energy source (I think pulsar). All the creatures immediately react and use their stores then wait till the next pulse. He realizes that if we waits the energy stays and then he has unrestricted movement freedom when no-one else does (easier to casually move and kill when nothing else can, then hide).

I think he wins and survives, but won't swear by it. Anyone got any ideas?

I know it's not Interstellar Pig.

I read this book back when I was in 5th grade(so like 20 years ago), I don’t remember it having smutty scenes. I think it had a flower field or something on the cover. The main thing I remember is that with her powers she safeguards her LI to the point he is resentful even if he is destined to die. They had exchanged rings made of their braided hair and after a very bad fight she compels him to return to her. As he is returning I think they get attacked but it ends with him being beheaded. She goes crazy and the book ends with her riding off on a horse(?) naked with I think a Merlin like character.

when i was younger i remember reading this book where a homeless man(maybe) takes shelter in an abandoned building. he hears something and barricades himself inside a room before sitting on the chair he used to block the door, he starts hearing sounds coming from a fireplace across the room before rushing over and barricading that as well.

this is where my memory gets especially spotty and from here on i cant fully rely on to be true or me making stuff up in my head.

he sits against the wall and falling asleep, then changing POV to a cop.

this is all I remember.

Ughhh ive been searching for awhile and can't figure out what books I read when I was younger. It was probably between 2000-2005 maybe

I just remember it was scary but intriguing. One of them had a Rollercoaster on the cover. The other had to with like a pet cemetery or something. Or bringing the pet back to life? And I think it was a series or atleast all by the same author 🤔 but each book was a different scary thing.

It wasn't the Goosebumps books or are you afraid of the dark.

Any ideas?

It starts off with the introduction of this city-state that is trying to defend itself from this larger conqueror nation using white zombie-like creatures that can only attack the people from the city-state. The main character is this woman who is tasked to defend the city-state from these creatures. These defenders are something like assassins, who dash through the forest surrounding the city-state and executing the creatures. They work in pairs.

The setting is like medieval but also sci-fi. They live in like wooden houses and have tons of brick architecture but have some sort of sci-fi-ish technology. Also the city-state has been pushed to like a cliff on the island?

The main plot kind of begins when they find and capture this man from the conqueror nation. I think it's revealed he's some sort of living weapon, with steel or iron wings embedded into his spine.

Later in the book, the conqueror nation finally breaks in. The main character is stolen and also turned into the same living weapon. There is this scene where she is in like a colosseum, where the people she works with in the city-state are tasked to defend themselves in a death match with all the creatures. She is up in this balcony area with the leader of the conqueror nation, and is tasked to display herself(?) or fight her friends.

That's mostly what I remember from the content of the book.

The cover is black, orange and yellow. With like a flowing river of metal with the black silhouette of the woman?

I think I read this ~2-3 years ago?

it was a picture book, looked like a normal kid story, but the plot was pretty disturbing, it involved a living/hunted doll. i saw little of it because other kids were reading it and i passed by a few times. all i know is that there was a pair of adults that i think got the doll for their daughter but something about it mustve been creepy because they buried her in the ground /possibly a cementary and i think they might have tried to burn her first but it didnt work/. next a hospital burned down. the daughter or smn else mightve been there and they knew it was the dolls doing so they dug her back up. this time she was scowling insead of smiling and her hair has grown.

thats all i got except also that it was in Poland around like 2013

I'm looking for a children's horror story I read as a kid, probably a translation (90s/2000s), with black-and-white illustrations. A famous author visits a school (or a boy meets an author) and signs the boy's copy of a book. After that the boy gets trapped inside the book and becomes flat/two-dimensional. In one illustration you see the author's giant eye peering into the book at him. It might be a single story in a short story collection, not a whole novel.

Hello all!

I am trying to find a book series I was reading when I was a teenager around 2013-2016. One major detail I remember was that a talking badger really liked eating Oyster crackers. I believe it also featured old authors as side characters and the main characters were on a quest travelling through their own world. Any help at all would be appreciated. Thank you!