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I’m looking for a short story in the horror/thriller genre from an anthology, and it may or may not have been included in a sci-fi anthology as well. The story has haunted me since my teens, but I can’t seem to find it. It may have been from the 80’s.
The general story is that a woman (I believe) has killed her male lover out of some sort of rage or calculated manner, and is preparing him for consumption in a way that resembles a highbrow cookbook recipe. In fact, the language used in the short story is of such an elevated and pretentious character that it stands out like a sore thumb.
I think the story is narrated, but I could be wrong.
I do remember that at the conclusion of the story, as this man has been dismembered, marinated, cooked, etc. the murderous cook (chef?) has taken a spoon and collected just a drop of liquid from the man’s penis and thus reflects sadly on the whole affair. Not very appetizing if you ask me, but again, the writing is of such an elevated nature that it doesn’t come across as salacious, just horrifying.
Those are my recollections of the story, there may be some differences.
Any help with the title and author would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you.

calzephyr

My husband told me about a book he read when he was a child in the 80s (Canada, English).

It was one of those ratty paperbacks...so well read or well loved in the library. It was probably written in the late 70s.

It was about a genie that was trapped in a tape recorder back in the 60s. A young boy buys or finds the tape recorder and releases the genie. The boy helps the genie discover how life has changed in the last ten or fifteen years.

Despite this very specific description, the best Google can come up with is Kazaam, the Shaq movie where there's a genie trapped in a boombox.

Is hubs misremebering? Mashing up a few different sources? Any guesses?

unrelaxing

I read a book recommended to me by a classmate in 2006 and have been looking for it for Years. I remember only two things about it - there was a young woman who went to night school, and there were vampires. Paperback, quite a cheesy cover as is the case for most books under this genre.

Hoping someone else might have read it!

dabbler101

My brothers and I have fond memories of book our parents read us to us in the early 80's (that's why I'm guessing it may have been published in the 70's, but I'm not sure - it may have even been earlier). I don't think it was much longer than 20-30 pages. I believe it was a hard cover, and if my memory serves me there was an illustration of red barn on the cover, with a rolling farm landscape surrounding it. I believe the book introduced the reader to a number of animals that lived on the farm, maybe even shared some simple information about what they did / what they ate, etc. Maybe in the middle some place it became clear that a big thunder storm was approaching, I remember the dark ominous thunder clouds more than anything else really. The story then was about all of the animals heading to their respective safe places to take cover for the storm and I recall it being fairly tense: I remember wondering would all the animals be safe? Like many children's stories, in the end the storm passed, the sun had come back out, and the animals began to come out of their safe places... I've tried many internet searches for this book, using key words and such, but have not had any luck. My brother Ben is turning 40 soon, and I'd love to be able to find this book and give it to him so that he could read it with his two children. If it sounds familiar, or you think you have a lead for me to chase, please share!
Thank you!

Current Mood: hopeful
Current Location: New England
Current Music: n/a

shieldmaidenofsherwood

My friend and I both remember reading this around middle school. There were necromancers (we think) and alchemists and at some point a girl cracks a pitcher over the head of the villian. The cover was really full of details and had a crow on a skull, maybe some scrolls

jamisnively

My sister swears she remembers me reading a book when I was late elementary school age, around 2001-2004ish, and she thought it was a Harry Potter book. But none of the Harry Potter book covers match her memory of the cover art of this particular book. I have vague memory of what she’s describing, a green hand that comes out from the bottom of the picture and you don’t really see any other part of the body the hand comes from. I don’t remember what the plot might be, but it would be a book written for children. Anyone have any idea?

meatina

This is a book I read at primary school in the UK, so would have been published before 1991 as that was the year I left the school.
It was a slim hardback book about ghosts, I think it was just called "Ghosts", and the cover was blue with a shrouded skeleton with glowing eyes on. I think it was published by Scholastic, but that might be my memory playing ticks on me.
Pages I remember include these pink creatures that lived in graveyards, that were fatal to look at, so someone put mirrors up to kill them, and an account of the ghost of Abraham Lincoln. (Clocks stopping at the time of his death as a ghostly train went through a station?)
It isn't the recently republished Usborne World of the Unknown "Ghosts" book, but it is very similar in style.

cardiacuk

I'm hoping someone can help me find this book as it really affected me when I was younger. Some plot points I can remember include the protagonist having a homosexual encounter backstage at a theater, a character being killed by being stabbed in the eye with a pencil, and the protagonist not attending the funeral, and also the protagonist climbing a balcony at the end of the book to speak to a girl. I also remember dolls being involved somehow too, and a bridge being sabotaged. I must have read it before 1999, if that is any help.

frs56

I'm looking for a book I read 10+ years ago. It was a large format book (not large print, just larger than the airport paperback.)
The main character was a woman who worked with fabric for the royals (I'm thinking purple, but it could have indigo)
I'm thinking she was either a Dyer or a weaver.
The book was set in ancient times and I'm thinking it was in Istanbul but it could have been Greece. I do remember it was a coastal city. The original purple comes from the phoenician city of Lye, so it could have been there.
Thanks in advance.

malkat_1987

These were all hardcovers.

One was about weather and natural disasters. I can't remember what the cover looked like. I think each topic spanned two pages. The main illustration for each section also spanned two pages. I remember sections about earthquakes, tornadoes, and tsunamis. The illustration for the tsunami section had a giant wave striking a Japanese town. The book also talked about Pangaea.

The second book had "natural world" somewhere in the title. It also talked about weather and natural disasters, but had sections about rocks, glaciers, and water too. Like the last one, I can't remember the cover.

The third book was about the history of life on Earth. I *want* to say there was a mammoth on the cover. Like the weather book, each section and accompanying illustration spanned two pages. It's possible they're both by the same publisher. I remember a section about animals from North and South America meeting for the first time, and a section on early humans.

I'm sorry if this is too little to go on. These books were important to me, and I've been racking my brain trying to come up with as many details as possible.

callunav

This was a novel somewhere on the line between intermediate and YA. It was very funny, probably mostly intended for girls, and vaguely historical - meaning it seemed to be set in some time pre-20th century (UK or Europe, I think), but I doubt it was adhering to any actual history very much.

I encountered it in 2016 as a hard-backed library book, in the hands of a kid who I would guess read at a 13-15-y.o. level. I had the impression that it was the first in a series, but wouldn't swear to it.

I unfortunately only got to read a few pages of it. It was a first-person narrative from the point of view of a girl who was, at least at the start of the book, a lady's maid. She was catastrophically bad at being a servant, mostly through wild, hyperbolic over-confidence. She spilled soup on nobility, all sorts of things like that, and when her employer exploded in rage at her incompetence, she assumed the woman was hysterical and slapped her. She sailed blithely through all the havoc she created, never considering that she might not be expert in everything. Many of her actions were preceded by statements like, "I have the decisiveness of a general - I quickly took command of the situation." There was a lot of "I have the ___ of a ____" in describing her own prowess.

I *thought* that the protagonist's name started with a P. Whatever it was, the title of the book was "Just [Name]."

I'm delighted to discover that this community exists, since I loved WhatWasThatBook on LJ. Any/all help appreciated.

ETA: Found in record time, despite several errors on my part. Thank you,

conuly!

book_lover78

I remember the plot of this book fairly well, but I can’t remember the title and I think there should be a sequel by the end of the year! The main character’s father dies and she is accused by her stepmother of doing various bad things. After a rigged trial, she is locked in a cage and left in the forest for the fae. She is taken by a fae hunter to a military training camp for an evil queen’s army. Makes friends, goes through trials, and eventually finds out that she is actually fae. She and her friends have to run away after a coup at the camp to (I think) a lake so she can unlock her true form.

Any ideas? I thought I might have read it on Kindle Unlimited but I am not totally sure about that.

nise12

YA romance the book is part of a series, about brothers each has his book, the age I think is between 18 and 21 in the book I'm looking for and is about a redhead that returns to attend her best friend wedding after she left town for a year after being finding that she cheated on the groom's younger brother with his twin who's the one really loved. she lived in a trailer.
what I also remember about this series is that the first book - about the 2nd oldest was in love with their neighbour (the best friend mentioned above) who I remember had a cardiologic (?) problem and has a scene where she faints and has to be taken to the ER
the second book- was about the oldest brother and his girlfriend in college but decided that they should take a break (it was his idea)
the third or fourth, since i think the first couple had 2 books, is about this readhead and the twin she cheated with

sadiedw

Hey all, I spent hours searching and I have thrown in the towel.

I want to say the book had quail on the cover, or quail or partridge birds were involved somehow, and maybe a girl? Kind of a moodier type of mood to it?

YA novel where the main protagonist is a girl who is kind of an outsider and possibly had magic powers.

In one part of the book a bully at school pushes her and she hits her head, she goes home to take a shower and the back of her head is bleeding.

I really want to find this book, it’s one of those books you encountered at the library over summer vacation when you were in middle school and stuck with your younger siblings and divorcing parents for weeks, you love it, return it to the library, and even when you go back to get it again a week later it is gone, and you can’t remember the title, and it bothers you forever.

Let me know if you know it!

ek_0725

So I can't find this book. I can't remember the author or the title. I can only remember the basic plot line. So it's about a boy named Blue, his dad drops him off at his grandmother's house. His dad is a famous race car driver, and Blue is very unlucky. Blue's whole family is cursed. His whole family either has super good skills, like his cousin (he has girl twin cousins) can tame and speak to animals, but her sister is constantly attacked by animals. But he meets this neighbor who's family is also cursed, in the same way except almost her whole family is unlucky. At the end Blue and the girl he met, have to destroy this crocodile-person-being to uncurse their families. Please tell me if you know this title.

amandapaige94

Hello! I’m looking for a Young Adult novel, fiction. Not sure how long it is, and I only remember a few plot details. It’s about a peasant-type girl who is sent to work in a “Queendom” where women rule rather than men. There’s a rivalry between either a mother/daughter or older/younger sisters in the royal family and each rival has her own “court” color (the colors of the court ladies’ dresses’, flags hung in the halls, and other details, and the two colors are green and blue). The peasant girl is without her mother because she talks about missing her a lot. The girl is assigned to work as a fabric dyer and always talks about her hands being stained yellow, or possibly green. I remember the end specifically because both of the rival royal women end up poisoning each other and the new royal baby, whose color is purple, has a flag raised in her honor over the Queendom, and the peasant girl watches this take place as she is leaving in a horse-pulled cart, possibly being smuggled out. Literally the last words are close to "and she watched the purple flag as it was raised high over the somber queendom" or something. Sadly, I don't remember what the cover looked like. I might have read the novel during the years 2007-2011 when I was in middle or high school. I do believe the specific word "queendom" is used to describe the place to the peasant girl when she first arrives, because she isn't used to the concept. I also think the book may have been part of a series about this girl because I get the impression from my memory of the end of the book that her story continues. I used to think the novel might be part of the 'Gathering Blue' and 'The Giver' series by Lois Lowry but I haven't had luck with that lead, although I may have read those books around the same time. I remember that the younger of the royal females who are fighting over the throne becomes close to the girl, and eventually invites her to the court and gives her a taste of the nice life. There's a male royal adviser character who is playing both sides of the rivalry as well. If anyone has any questions about what I remember please ask! I would love to read this again as an adult.

Current Mood: hopeful

megs422

Please help. I’ve posted this in every book group I can find. I’m starting to think I am actually crazy. Between 2000-2003 I read a series of books, I want to say there were 4, that had to do with a boy coming of age and discovering his worth and powers. Pretty typical for that time frame. The specifics though, involve broken waygates (they could be called something else). The boy eventually, probably in the last books, transforms physically because of his use of magic. He gets ears like a horse, his eyes move a bit farther apart, his nails and teeth become square and harden. I remember him accepting the changes. They’re part of him. He also lived an older couple in the book. They had horses and a farm I believe. The woman was ugly, but her husband loved her deeply, because of her character. That always struck me as relatable because I tend towards liking people based on how they act rather than how they look and when you’re 16 that’s a rare trait. Or it seemed to be anyways. I remember fire magic and maybe a magic plague of some sort, though that could be from another series entirely. This book series was one of the first that introduced me to gates and I feel like they traveled between places in his world, not to other worlds. Someone has to have read these right?? Thank you!!

Current Mood: determined

buttonsbeadslace

Google has failed me, so I'm turning to you guys :) I first read this story a few years ago, online. I thought it was in Strange Horizons but maybe not? It's about a research facility where some sort of experimentation with space and time causes a certain hallway in the facility to fill up with mud and gore at regular intervals. It's told from the point of view of the woman hired to clean the hallway. She has an advanced degree and could get a job doing something more glamorous, but they pay her a lot because she's the only person they trust to go in that hallway and not mess with any Things Humankind Was Not Meant To Understand that she might see there.

7odyssey

I read this one post apocalyptic book a few years ago about a treasure hunter/ruin surveyor that was being hunted and found refuge in a fortified town. The whole book was about him getting revenge on the group hunting him and adapting to life in the town. There were these crystal trees that would shoot crystal shards at you and if you were hit by one it would grow in your body until it consumed you and turned you into a tree.

blades454

I'm looking for a book I only remember a few things about. I remember there were these creatures or ghost that passed through people, which either killed them or put them in a coma. I wanna say the main character is a boy and his friend or sister is attacked and he's immune or something

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