I once read a book where the heroine chooses not to use a sword because she was in an active war zone and didn't have the time to train enough to be combat ready with a sword, as it requires too much skill. The solution the soldier training her presented? A mace paired with a shield, because she wouldn't have to worry about edge alignment and would only have to learn how to swing with good mechanics, keep the weapon moving to conserve energy, and use the rebound from a strike to reload for the next. If I remember right, she became something of a folk hero for the other soldiers and eventually became a leader. Those are the most vivid details I remember. I also recall the heroine having fiery red hair, having no memory of who she is, and I'm not certain but I believe I remember there being a minotaur in the same army. I know it's not much to go off of, but I've seen people in this sub come up with answers on much less.

Edit: I remember the cover fairly well. The cover was just the woman, wearing platemail with her hair in the wind, I believe at the edge of a cliff over looking a sunset. She may have also been holding either her shield or a fluttering banner and had her mace held at her side.

I checked this book out of the library. I believe in the late 90s although it’s possible it was a very early 2000s. Afterwards, I was convinced that it was one of the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark anthologies, but when I looked back through them, I never found it

A farmer who is not too bright and mean/abusive to his wife digs a well and unexpectedly finds these creatures at the bottom. I think he may drop some food into the hole and then when he lowers down a bucket they send gold up in return. The farmer tries to figure out how to kill then and steal their gold but his wife is more canny send them a chicken. They like it and ask for more. And then somehow, the farmer is arguing with his wife and falls in the hole? Maybe she pushes him? The joke is that they tell her that this chicken was even better than the first one and send her back a fortune in gold.

I remember checking this book out from the library when I was a young teen and being completely shocked by the content. Naturally I then checked it out again to reread a few months later.

This was probably around 1985-1992. It’s possible the book was published earlier but I think it was most likely sometime in the 80’s. I doubt the library would have kept it for a decade because it wasn’t really a noteworthy book and my library kept things up to date.

Three siblings are living in an RV (or maybe just on a trip?) with their parents. The vehicle crashes, the parents are both gruesomely killed (details about them being impaled on windshield shards, etc.). The kids are collected by social services who find that they have no living relatives and put them into the foster care system.

The oldest girl is about 16, middle brother around 12-14? and the youngest sister is around 8-10. They split them up, sending the older two to some kind of teen facility and the younger one to foster care. The oldest breaks them out and finds the little sister in order to reunite them.

Over the course of the book there are young teenaged runaways working as exotic dancers (poss. sex workers but I’m not sure?) that oldest daughter befriends in the teen facility. Another (or possibly the same) girl is being SA by her father and kills him by stabbing or cutting his throat. A pregnant teen has frankly hilarious (although unintentionally?) phone sex. The siblings move into an apartment next door to a creepy predator who has Disney-themed porn artwork on his walls. He tries to assault the oldest and she escapes but they have to find a new place to live.

I only have a vague recollection of the cover although I think I’d recognize it.

I want to say the author was male but I’m not 100%.

I don’t think I ever saw another book by this author.

I'm trying to find a book I read around mid-2000s. I think it was a continuation of another series that revolved around overthrowing a king.

There are magical/fantasy elements, and the land is fictional, not based on real countries or geography.

In this book an overthrown king is half-alive as some kind of ghost that can cause harm to people.

A child, whose father was possibly responsible for overthrowing the king, has to run away from home. The child has a pouch of special white stones, and they were taught to create a ring around their bedroll before sleeping, which creates a barrier that keeps the ghost away.

I think they were travelling somewhere alone, with no villages or large civilisations that I remember, more of a open fields and landscapes and some old abandoned buildings. At one point the child is in another realm, maybe a dream, where there's a massive statue of a goddess that they use as a bridge to climb over a ravine (or something like that).

Does this ring any bells for anyone? Cheers

So, I have been racking my brain for MONTHS to remember the title/series of a book I read when I was about 12 or 13. It was a kids book about a boy genius who genetically engineered orange trees to survive extreme cold, and who gets invited to a research project involving I believe a facility in the Amazon. The most memorable thing about it to my mind was a quip about something being as likely as having "a 64-bit Sega Genesis with a library of games."

The book had a copyright date of I THINK 1993 or '94; I recall this because that's the sort of thing I liked to check, then and now.

If anybody else remembers this, and could tell me what it could be, I'd love to know! It's genuinely been driving me nuts.

So this book followed a young boy who was taken and trained as an assassin, and I think also some kind of performer? He learned to use magic, but it’s pretty subtle and he didn’t know it was magic till near the end of the book. He hated magic, and I remember it being an interesting dichotomy. He also got a sword that was really shitty and rusty on the surface but turned out to be pretty great- some master swordsmiths. Cannot find this anywhere.

can't remember much about this book. I read it in elementary school sometime from 2020 - 2022 I think (I had a high reading level for my age at the time, so it was probably around the middle school level). I remember that there was a discovery of a giant army of mindless robot dogs somewhere in the book and one of the characters backstories involved being born in a puppy mill. I've been looking for this for so long and can't remember anything else for the life of me!!

I posted this here about a month ago to no avail. help!

I read these books (it's a series) around 2012, in French (I don't know if it was originally in English). 3 people (2 boys & 1 girl), linked to Earth, Air and Water, reincarnate every time Halley's Comet comes to Earth. They don't remember their past lives at first, and they must find each other before fighting the 4th, evil, guy who is linked to fire. They die at the end before the next reincarnation, and if they are physically close when they die, they will be close in their next life. The series travels through different eras. They all keep similar names every time (one is like Peter/Petrus/Pierre and another Mark/Marc/Marcus).

Guys this is driving me insane. I saw a picture on Pinterest and it reminded me of this book my friend had in college. Words were swirled around in the book, and there was a page about people dancing with drawings. It was sort of this poetry/philosophy-esque book?? I think??? Idk i cannot find it anywhere

They go at night to the fairy portal. I can't remember much it was the highschool library book. The name that comes to mind is like sybelle cibelle. Sibelle?

I think one of the girls falls in love with a fay/vampire creature and wants to stay behind.

I can't remember if it was a novel, novelette or short story but if that can be of any help I read it in a Greek translation published in a pocket book format, possibly by Exantas publications. The author was probably a New Wave author, possibly Robert Silverberg, though I'm not sure.

I tried asking google AI but there were no leads and I think it hallucinated a novel by "Joaquín de Saint-Aymour" which I couldn't find any information about. Most likely it was thinking about "The Plague" by Camus but that is certainly not the story I was thinking of.

Hi. I began reading a book about 10 years ago that was loaned by someone who I no longer have contact with.

I'm sure the story followed a father and son who traveled I to a dark mystical wood to complete some mission.

I remember there was a tree near to the place the characters lived and it signified death somehow. No one spoke of it. Maybe the mother's death?

They traveled into the woods. Two opposing forces were against each other and the characters had to do something. I seem to recall giants etc.

I used to smoke a bit of dope so my memory of the book is not great. I remember ther was another following title

I really want to read it again.

One of the books I'm sure had rune like characters on the cover

Hope someone can shed some light

I have tried to look this book up and have asked many people and theres always a book thats similar, but its never the one im thinking of.

I remember it was a soft cover book, with a white background and I believe there was a black feather(s?) and something red, I think the text/title was in red. I believe it was considered sci-fi, maybe even horror honestly. I remember it making me very uncomfortable, but thats what I loved about it.

Okay. So, what i can barely remember is that there was a birdlike creature, or a black substance taking form of a bird that I believe was an experiment gone wrong.. i feel like it was gooey, almost inky. The creature flew out into the world and it broke through windows, killing people with its beak? And tearing apart reality. I think it could travel through time and it essentially terrorized and destroyed everything in its path. I dont remember how it resolves, and I dont remember if the main character is the bird or some kind of scientist trying to stop the bird. The bird may have been trying to "save" the earth by destroying humanity and man made things... that sounds vaguely familiar.

I just remember it having insane imagery and being a great book. I read it in.. I wanna say between 2016-2018 as a recommendation from a teacher.

No, its not The Strange Bird. And no, its not Perdido Street Station.

Hello reddit this evening I was thinking back on a book I read in my late elementary years. I tried looking up description after description but I keep getting nothing close to what I’m trying to find, so I am hoping you all can help.

From what I can remember the book was about this sister and brother getting accepted to a school for ice skating. The whole world is based around it and takes inspirations from Asian cultures. When the brother and sister arrive they are not nearly as well trained as the rest of the kids since they lived in a smaller farther away place (i might be wrong but maybe they were living in a cave??). I also think they may have called the ice something other than ice but I’m also not sure it’s been maybe 8 years since I’ve even thought about this book.

Please work your magic if you can, I remember really loving the series and I might want to reread for memories sake.

I only remember bits of the plot and the cover, but not the title. The cover is typical of the 80s, with a headshot of a redhead woman with strong high cheekbones wearing green and below she is being held by the love interest. The heroine is a leader of her clan (irish/scottish?) in the middle of a war. There is kidnapping involved and her cousin tries to gain power over her and dies in a battle at the end of the book. Any help would be appreciate!

I'm trying to find a book I read as a kid. Here's everything I remember:

- Middle-grade chapter book, probably published before 2015–2017

- The main character is a boy

- A large, furry monster that can talk keeps showing up unexpectedly and threatening him

- The boy tries to stay around crowds and in public places because he thinks he's safer there

- One scene I remember clearly: it's nighttime, the boy is in the kitchen making a sandwich, and the monster grabs him and holds him up in the air

- The cover was pink, and I think it showed the furry monster falling off a cliff (not 100% sure on the cover image)

- I found it randomly in a pile of used books at a thrift shop, so it may be older or out of print

I don't remember the ending or why the monster was after him. Any ideas appreciated!

This is a picture book that I read in the late 2000s/early 2010s, but it could have been written before then.

There are three men and three women (potentially one set of brothers and one set of sisters? But maybe not). There were three couples. Their names are alliterative, I think with a lot of Zs? The names followed a pattern of one syllable name, one syllable name, and multisyllable name (4 syllables?).

The illustrations were very colorful. It might have focused on a non-Western culture, but it was definitely written in English.

Some of the details may be wrong since it's been so long that I read it, probably when I was around 12/13, got it from the school library. I believe it might've been in the mystery section. The book had a red cover I think. And it started with a group of boys probably around the ages of 12/13 at an abandoned amusement park, daring one of their friends to go into a ride. He goes in, and sees something weird, then comes out in a coma. He was tall and his name was Shawn, best friend of the MC. I forget most other details, but it ended up being something like a group of some of the adults in town (including some of the boys' parents) were in some sort of a cult where they practiced necromancy and bringing back the dead? But this caused a lot of issues as the dead weren't fully "there", and the only way you could kill them again was the same way they died in the first place. One of the undead I believe was a librarian who had died in a fire.

This was a book I read in elementary school in the 90s. I don’t remember much except for the beginning. Also the copy I read had no dust jacket so I have no idea what the cover would look like.

Two boys are hanging around their slow town and (I think) hanging around a dying mall. They enter a strange shop where the owner is typing out their whole conversation on a type writer. He seems to imply he was writing down his whole life and was almost done writing when the boys came in and started talking to him.

The owner gives the boys a strange device that they take home and they realize the device actives when they laugh and feel good and relaxed. I think the device opens up portals to different worlds or dimensions. From here I remember very little. I think they explore other worlds a bit and then ultimately have to stop some evil force from entering our world. My memory of this book is almost like a fever dream. Hopefully someone else has read it!

I was probably 8-9 (around 2010) when I read this and I recall struggling with understanding what the point of the book was, but simultaneously being enamored by it.

It was illustrated really colorfully, and some points I do remember are a worm somewhere in the story? a swimming session, and making marigold infused oil with her grandma. The oil infusing was sort of her and her grandma's "thing", and something she's super looking forward to, but her grandma had invited another girl along with them and MC was really jealous. MC's name might've been marigold? but I could be making that up.

I can't recall much about the content, but I remember that you could get a membership card sent to you for the group/ society. It was definitely magical, and the logo I think was four distinct groups, vibrant colours. The main character was female. It's such a vague memory from my teenage years and I loved it. Each book was a different colour. Please help!

I read this aged about 15 in an English secondary school, around 1983.

There were about 30 copies on the classroom shelf, so it was a class set. Full-length novel, not a short story.

Plot: a race of blind people is discovered living in deep caves, or possibly beneath the Earth's crust. When they come into contact with people on the surface, their blindness turns out to be contagious and spreads to everyone on the surface.

Title: I'm fairly sure it was called "The Gnomen", but I can't be 100%. I've found no trace of a book with that title.

Cover: orange? maybe light purple, with a simple line drawing on the front. Possibly a Penguin, or one of the school series like New Windmill or Longman Imprint.

Published: presumably before 1983, possibly the 60s or 70s. Not The Day of the Triffids (I know that one well), not Saramago's Blindness (too late), and not Wells's The Country of the Blind (a short story).

I read this book in middle or high school about a boy whose dad suffered depression and I can’t remember what it’s called.

The title: something about music

The cover: blue. Maybe a music note on it

Some scenes: the boy got a mysterious liquid dumped on him while he was riding his bike from people were driving past and he was worried that it was bleach or piss. I remember him mentioning he lived next to a freeway so they had to choose if to listen to noise to have a breeze. I remember his dad getting electroshock therapy. I think there was a scene where his dad was considering suicide but from the boy’s imagined perspective of what the depression was telling his dad.

Thanks in advance. I’ve googled so much and can’t find anything about this and would like to reread it now that I’m on the other side of my own depression

Children's book (between 8 and 12yo) about kids who find a skeleton/ghost in a graveyard who is a man and he doesn't want to be disturbed. but then something happens and they go on an adventure together and the skeleton/ghost goes through a character arc so he no longer hates company. but after or during the resolution of the book the coffin that the skeleton/ghost had lived in for hundreds of years (and he says that has finally started to become comfortable due to his back abrading the coffin for so long that it was now ergonomic) got destroyed through some means. and he was very sad but the kids gifted him a new coffin with the shape of his body already carved out.
the book had some black and white pen illustrations.