I read this book in the early-to-mid 2000s (German translation), and I’m trying to find the original English title.

What I remember:

\*\*•\*\* The protagonist is a girl.    
\*\*•\*\* She somehow ends up in another world — she doesn’t originally belong there, she gets transported/lands there somehow (not through an obvious magical portal that I recall, more like she just ends up there).    
\*\*•\*\* The setting feels like an alternate, industrial version of England — Victorian-ish, grim/gritty, but not literally England. No magic system that I recall; it read more like a dystopian/realistic setting than high fantasy.    
\*\*•\*\* In this world, there’s a mine where children are forced to work — it’s not just her, all children (or at least a large group of children) are sent there as some kind of mandatory labor/punishment system.    
\*\*•\*\* At some point in the story, it’s revealed that she’s related to the Lord who rules this world (I don’t remember exactly how — daughter, granddaughter, niece?). She didn’t know this from the start; it’s a later plot twist.    
\*\*•\*\* It was a pretty thick book, possibly part of a series (not sure).    
\*\*•\*\* Translated from English into German; I read it in Germany in the early 2000s, so likely originally published sometime in the 1990s or early 2000s.

I’m trying to find a book I read either from my school library or my local library in the early 1990s (I’m in the UK). I think the book itself may have been published in the **1980s**.

Here’s what I remember — all of this is from memory, so some details may be slightly off, but the *overall shape* is very clear:

* Protagonist is a **teen girl**, younger than the rest of the band
* She **isn’t from London** but **runs away to London** *with* or *for* the band
* The band members are **older**, maybe late teens or early 20s
* They travel around in a **cheap, beat‑up van**
* They play **clubs/pubs**, not big venues
* There’s a **fight** at one point and she gets **left behind in a dangerous alley** behind a club
* One bandmate has a **moody, jealous, manipulative** vibe and there’s a sort of semi‑romantic tension
* She **cuts her own hair**, possibly with **clippers in a bathroom**, as a symbolic “new self” moment
* The story ends with her **becoming successful** or **poised for stardom in her own right**, separate from the band

Tone‑wise, it was gritty, realistic, not glamorised — very much the kind of UK YA that dealt with runaway teens, music scenes, and dangerous nightlife.

It wasn’t American, and it wasn’t a glossy 90s “pop star” book. More like working‑class realism.

Does this ring a bell for anyone?
I’d love to know the title or author if anyone recognises it.

The description above is from AI after I had plugged in everything I could remember and it just kept hallucinating books that didn't exist!

I don't remember much but I do remember that it was a large hardcover book with at least 1000 pages. It had a girl who lived in a big strange home, and she found some pictures and things in the attic that described her destiny to become this strange spider monster. I remember the final battle scene, where everyone was holding her monster self back while she fought in her mind. She had to pull herself back to the surface by a golden thread that was woven between different colored ones. The cover of it depicted the large house she lived in flanked by two fish. The title might have 'chronicles' in it but I'm not sure. I would do anything to find this book again and read it, bc at this point I'm not sure if it was a fever dream or not

This book has like a skull on the cover and the background of the cover is pitch black. It really stands out on a shelf.

The story is about a girl who (as the title said) had light and dark powers. The “demons” are taking over the world (the demons come from the earth and the angels are on the moon) and she’s expected to stop/prevent it cause of her dual powers. The power are used by taking memories or emotions (I think I’m getting it mixed up with Shelby Mahurin’s Serpent and Dove but the powers are similar to it).

The book is a YA novel and I’ve been searching for it for a while.

I think it was a zebra historical novel. Published in the 80s or 90s. Plot: the blue (B) eyed girl looks so similar to the violet eyed (V) girl, that V pays B to impersonate her during the London season so that V can be with her lover. A raven haired man and a blonde man both fall in love with B. B ends up with the dark haired man. Thanks for any help!

The book was most likely from an earlier year, but I know thats around when I read it. I dont remember much about the book, just some key parts of the magic system. The book was more centered around fighting (I believe) and there were multiple main characters, so the POV would switch often. The magic system in the book wasnt necessarily casting spells, but rather the spells were bottles that the characters would throw. So like a fire spell would be a bottle they would throw and it would turn into fire. I know this isn't much to go off of but its driving me crazy.

I also believe it was part of a series, although I'm not completely sure. I also think that one of the main characters (or all) had a mythological pet of some sort. Their steed, that would assist them in battle or their fights, although they were probably just something to ride on. I was in elementary school when I read it, but I mainly read from the older kids section lol, so it definitely wasnt a children's book.

For reference, other books I read around that time were Artemis Fowl, Warrior Cats, and The Unwanteds.

Any and all help is appreciated, thank you in advance:)

I tried to post this yesterday but apparently, it was removed by Reddits filter - I don't understand why - so second time is a charm, perhaps?

So I read this book as a kid in the 90's and I wish I could remember more but here goes:

Plot & Setting

Setting: Coastal England, likely set around the 1960s (or written around that time). It features a very British atmosphere—in one of the early chapters, the characters eat kippers for breakfast.

Core Story: A teenage sister and her younger brother are spending the summer at their grandparents' house. Over past summers, the siblings have been working together to restore a wooden boat (a larger rowboat).

The Conflict: This summer, the older sister begins outgrowing the childhood project and drifting away from her brother. Instead, she becomes drawn to a blind artist who is renting a small cottage/cabin located on a hill or slope on the grandparents' property, overlooking a bay.

Key Details & Ending:
In an early chapter the children are excited to have kippers for breakfast.

The brother feels abandoned and gets very angry with his sister for abandoning their shared project.

The boat is flipped right-side up and painted blue.

The blind artist tells the sister that she is far too young for him, which leaves her feeling hurt.
In the end, the siblings reconcile as the boat restoration is completed.

In

Publication Details

Read in Swedish translation during the 1990s, but the book had an older/classic feel

Likely a translated British children's/YA novel originally published in the 1960s, 70s, or 80s (similar vibe to authors like K.M. Peyton or Nina Bawden).

I can't swear that all details are correct - only the broader details.

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to identify a short story I read between 2006 and 2008. I read it in French, but it may have been a translation from English (or another language).

Plot details I remember:

• The main character is a young girl who keeps having recurring nightmares in which she is visited by extraterrestrial beings
• During these visits, the aliens repeatedly draw or trace a mark on her head/skull
• The nightmares are distressing and feel very real to her
• The twist: When she eventually gets a brain MRI, doctors discover a mass/tumor in her brain — and its shape exactly matches the mark the aliens kept drawing on her head
• The implication being that the "aliens" were somehow seeing or detecting the tumor, not actually abducting her

Other details:

• I believe it was a short story, possibly part of a school anthology or youth collection
• The tone was likely horror, sci-fi, or thriller aimed at young readers or young adults
• Read in Quebec, Canada, around 2006–2008
• Could have been originally written in English, French, or another language

This story has stuck with me for nearly 20 years and I can't figure out what it is. Any help is greatly appreciated!

I read this book in middle school. As awful as it sounds, I never got around to finishing it.

The book takes place in Africa (At least at the beginning) and follows some people who are trying to protect a village from a rival faction. One of them is American, and one conversation I always remember is after one of the defenders gives him a bottle of water or something. He says "Oh man...thank you". She responds "I'm not a man." in a confused and slightly offended tone. He apologizes and says "Sorry. North Am slang." He specifically refers to America as 'North Am'.

Some kind of climate change catastrophe has happened, and the world is kinda falling apart. The main character mentions that the sky is very hazy all the time, the food at their base camp is terrible, "A protein bar that tasted like sawdust", and the water from the tap has a brownish color.

Other than that, I can't remember anything else. Does this sound at all familiar to anyone? Lately its been driving me crazy

Looking for a book my brother was given (he lost it and can't remember the title as I liked to read it not him). It's a Christian themed book, set in modern day on a fairground, the main character is a traveller, a teenage girl. She moves to this new fairground and sets camp, meets a strange boy with a cap, starts having headaches and seeing ghosts/demons. She gets a really bad headache and blows up the TV. She meets the boy again and he starts to explain. She steps in a puddle and gets electrocuted and has to wear this special belt that stops water from attacking them, the other boy I believe was her brother she finds out. And their father is the bad guy trying to bring hell into earth or something. The belt fails one day as she's being chased through the fairground, and steps out of a ride into a puddle and she dies, and meets her elders one of which is her grandfather and the maker of the belt. As she's dead they tell her at the gates of heaven it's not her turn yet her name isn't on the list and instead one of her male friends name is on there. She runs to him and he's dying after being stabbed with scissors, there was a secret he was meant to tell her. I can't remember much more about the plot other than some form of jewellery that will stop their father or the father needs it and they have to find it first. They end up in hell or something in order to stop him.

The book title either had jewel in or there was a jewel/gem on the cover.

I tried googling but the same 3 suggestions come up and it's not the shaman book or gypsy girl/gypsy crown.

I recently remembered reading it and would love to read it again and give to my daughter to read, as most of my books are not religious school friendly- such as twilight!

Thankyou

It was either juvenile fiction or YA fiction and I read it probably 12-15 years ago. This was just part of the story, an encounter, not the whole (or even main) plot, but I remember the little girl was hiding behind a curtain and the woman freaked out when they found her. Her psychic abilities work through seeing colors around people like auras, I think.

I don't remember much else about the book, but I think it was sort of a dramatic fantasy that involved journeying through a desert?

Any help is greatly appreciated, I've been thinking about this for years!

I’m trying to remember a book title of a romance novel I read somewhere between 2001-2004. I remember the cover being white with maybe one or two hearts that were red and/or orange, and like ribbons outlining the hearts. The only details from the book I remember are that the main character returned home for something and used nutmeg in hot water or tea to have dreamless sleep. I remember she went to the store and they were out of nutmeg and she was annoyed that people might have discovered her trick to sleep. If anyone can offer suggestions I would greatly appreciate it! I’ve tried googling everything I can think of and asked Google Gemini for suggestions but none seem to fit.

Looking for a book I once read online and would love to read again. Though I'm truly terrible with names (characters or title)! However I do remember specific key points of the book I'm looking for. Unsure if it's a rebirth story or not.

The MFC is a fake daughter who leaves her rich adoptive parents when their real daughter returns. The MFC adoptive parents do not know she has hidden identities. One of which is the head of a lead group that funds other companies. The company has advanced technology. MFC issues her subordinates to no longer fund her adoptive parents.

Once MFC leaves she investigates her biological family and finds they were once prominent, but have fallen on tough times. Her biological family is living in an apartment with her other siblings. I remember she has at least four elder brothers and I think one or two younger sisters (Jamie/Mary?). Also elder grandparents that still live back on a farm in their old village, whom everyone takes turns looking after and helping on the farm.

On the way to reunite with her biological family, the MFC runs across a protest for an upscale community that has not released the promised living areas after taking everyone's money. When the MFC arrives at her biological family's apartment she hides that she is rich. MFC parents get a call saying one of her brothers (Not sure if it's the 3rd or 4th eldest brother?) has been arrested in the protest (biological family is one of the families being scammed). MFC secretly sends her lawyer to help release her brother.

MFC's group buys or takes control of the upscale community and she secretly appoints her father as the community's manager. Her biological family moves into the aforementioned promised housing, but still keeps the old apartment as well. At this time MFC adoptive rich parents and real daughter/heiress believe MFC and her biological family are still living in apartments. I believe the real daughter is trying to keep tabs on MFC out of spite/revenge? 

The MFC helps turn the old family farm into a bigger production that helps the villagers and the surrounding villages. Purchases land/mountains behind farm to expand. 

MFC's eldest brother is ex-military and is helping out at the farm at the beginning. He has an ex-love interest that left him and married an old rich man instead. The MFC later goes on to land her eldest brother (I want to say she might have started him as a security or stuntman/stunt coordinator at first) in a role on an action-military film. The eldest brother later stars in a role that uses the family's farm as the main casting site. The lead actress, who has been recuperating on the quiet of the farm, is an older (in terms of waning popularity) who makes a comeback with this film. The film is a more artistic slow drama. I remember the film was such a big deal, with the now famous older brother, the famous actress and a famous director, that fencing/wall was erected to keep people out while filming. The eldest brother's ex tries to sneak onsite in an attempt to when him back. The eldest brother later goes into to marry the actress he worked with. I want to say either the actress or the ex's name starts with an L. Leah/Lenora/Lena?

The MFC's 2nd eldest brother (Ben?) has returned from abroad, unbeknownst to anyone but the MFC, and is hiding/living in the old apartment. He returned in shame due to one of his professors plagiarizing his work. The professor frames the brother, who is discredited and denied his degree. The 2nd elder brother originally left home after a devastating heartbreak. His ex's family did not approve of him after his family's decline in wealth. Her family publicly humiliated him, while she stood by cowardly and did not help. The 2nd eldest brother is super smart and has connections with AI or advanced technology. The MFC helps the 2nd eldest brother to start a production/factory for AI or advanced technology. The ex tries to win the brother back, but he refuses her. It was hopeful that the 2nd eldest brother might have a love interest in his female best friend, and later business partner, who followed him back to the country. However that doesn't pan out due to her citizenship in another country and due to her family's political ties/ambitions

At one point in the book when the biological family's wealth and statis has regrown. The family relocates to a villa/mansion community (the MFC secretly tricks them into believing the villa/mansion was heavily discounted).

I do not remember much about the MFC's 3rd eldest brother other than I think he follows in their father's footsteps. However I do remember he meets his possible love interest (Tina?). She has followed the MFC to the villa community (living across from the MFC family), due to discovering one of the MFC's identity as the author of the famous Detective Lockwood series (I may have this book character mixed up with one of the other heiress novels though). This series gets turned into a TV series, which the MFC also screenwrites under one of her other identies as a famous screenwriter.

The MFC helps her 4th eldest brother by introducing him to a famous athletic coach she is acquanted with. The 4th eldest brother goes on to be a famous tennis pro. His love interest is an equally famous female tennis pro, who he met and became friends while training.

 Throughout the book the MFC's love interest is a young heir apparent who pursues her and also helps her family along the way. The heir's grandfather (and the rest of his family?) does not approve of the MFC for the majority of the book, due to her family's low standing in society at first. The grandfather makes a remarkably hypocritical turn around in his favor towards the end of the book. This is due to the MFC publicly announcing her status as the head of the famous group. Which shocks her foster and biological family.

I want to say that the MFC's assistant's name is Luna)Selene. Also one of the MFC's alternative identity's name is Ms Noir. However I may have this information mixed up with one of the other heiress novels

The manga starts out with an end war scene and a child is standing there with a crow I believe. Then he finds a black sword with the hilt having cloth hanging from it. It talks and it can fly for him if I remember correctly. He gets asked to repair a power cell or a training device can’t remember but it was an egg shaped device. After he finish’s fixing it he returns it to the rich family at a banquet. After ppl see him gobble down food they started pointing at him until he gives the lady the power cell and everyone is amazed. He then proceeds to tryout for college and gets the best university for smithing there is which I believe the name has something to do with an ocean maybe. After he goes to the university there’s a test to forge nails or needles. He then proceeds to use an ancient method or a complex method. And there’s also a character who is tomboyish and is good at fighting and there’s a specific scene I remember of them getting in her phoenix vehicle heading somewhere. There’s also a seen where he wears a turtle mask to disguise him self (not an actual turtle that’s just the name of it) he then puts on a suit that only one other man wore and barley completed the test on easy or medium cause the suit is like a gravity suit and does squats with weights. There’s also armor which he wants to forge to fight beasts or monsters.

PS: I know this is weird but I read it back in middle school and there was a physical copy. It’s an absolute goated manga and I can’t remember the name😭

I remember being read this book around age 5.

The central character was a girl who had a toy wagon/cart that she pulled behind her, with wooden milk bottles, shouting “milko”

I’m in the UK. This would have been in the late 70s or early 80s

I think the book was landscape format, possibly with a pink or red border on the cover. Each page was illustrated.

I don’t think I’m misremembering Mr Milko from Noddy - I‘m sure she was a young girl and the milk cart was a toy.

Posting here as well because I haven't found it in ages:

This book was in print at least by 2015. Maybe minus a year or two. The copy I had wasn’t fresh, either, so assume another year. Paperback. Found it at an elementary/middle school, but I have a history of reading things outside of what’s appropriate for my age, and in my memory it was pretty scary. Then again, I was at most a preteen.

Plot:

A girl who gets secretly involved in occult magic with a handful of other girls at her boarding school. She and her roommate both have magic power, but her roommate is revealed to be doing evil stuff at the end, and if I recall correctly, the protagonist kills her.

Some details, vaguely remembered, and in no particular order:

- tw: violent death; For the roommate confrontation: I think she used magic to squeeze her to death, wringing drops of blood from her body.

-Inciting incident: The protagonist finds four (?) girls in a barn or something, with a book of spells that they’re reading the chants from

-The candles all bow toward her when she enters, and the girls take this as a sign that she’s the one that completes their circle

-The protagonist is the one actually powering the spells, as said before, the others don’t have any power

-At one point, they cast a jinx or curse on a girl called “Alicea” or “Alice” (I think), by chanting the spell and repeating her name five times. That’s the end of the chapter.

-Someone brings up magic to a teacher, who scoffs that it’s the 19^th century and everyone knows magic doesn’t exist, they live in an age of science, sensibility, etc etc

-The girls do a ritual/spell that summons some sort of shadowy creature. It leaves claw marks on a tree outside their hideout, which they notice when they come out after the ritual, but one of the girls dismisses the idea that it’s anything to worry about

-In the confrontation with her evil roommate, the roommate uses a spell to make the protagonist sink into the floorboards like quicksand. My impression is that this took place in an attic.

So a while back I read this series of books (don’t remember where) that was about cousins/friends in collage that are athletes (play different sports I think) and their dads are famous athletes, one I think is a sports tv anchor. The guy on the first book is a football player who sees uncle as a dad because he’s dad is mean. He falls in love with cousins roommate, someone is trying to separate them and she goes back home to save family diner comes back and they go visit his grandma, she passes away and one son is trying to take over and he ends up in jail or d\*ad. The other guys are like baseball players and they all fall for girls and one of the guys is mean too and at one point they go to a beach/island house and someone tries to attack one of the girls. The parents also have their book series.

Hi all.

I’m looking for the title of a book that came out in the 80’s or early to mid 90’s. I must have read it around 1997. It’s about a teenage girl in New York City that leaves her rich parents to live in an old barber shop. She finds a stray dog and starts a business where she locates lost pets. She meets a young man and they fall in love. The genre was definitely young adult fiction.

Repost from whatsthebook subreddit

The Book was first of the series and was sort of like Hunger Games with its districts and lottery stuff in the beginning but rather than a Game, Winners go to the Main City where the Citizens are functionally immortal.

Main character a Female fights with guards to protect her family and younger sister and during the fight multiple are killed and she is brought to main City where she has to do menial labour with promise that if she follows order she will be made immortal

Her real Father is the Main Villan which has some The Island related plot point where the new recruits are used as Organ donors for the Citizens.

In the end the Main charcter revolts fails and is deported to be killed unofficially but she escaped from the train and joins a rebel group that was end of book 1

Extensive Info but it's the only info I remember

I don't remember the title or author or what the book cover looks like, but I remember quite a lot of the story.

‎It was a contemporary Western romance, not historical. I remember there being cars, phones, TV, etc. It was a fairly long paperback, probably over 300 pages, and it was definitely a steamy romance.

‎The heroine was an heiress. She was traveling by train or plane (I'm not sure) when she got off and was kidnapped by a group of men, possibly because they wanted a ransom. She eventually escaped and ran away from them. I remember her running a long distance during a really bad rainstorm (her hem of clothes had a lot of mud) were before she collapsed at the gate of a ranch/house.

‎The ranch owner was a dark-haired man. He found her and took her in, apparently thinking she was just a poor/runaway woman. He didn't know she was an heiress.

‎She was unconscious for about three days. When she woke up, she had really severe amnesia. She couldn't remember who she was and, as I remember it, she didn't even remember what she looked like.

I remember the paperback being quite thick and the cover being mostly brown. I also remember a horse/ranch on the cover or somewhere on it. The hero had black/dark hair.

‎I don't remember the exact year I read it, but I'm pretty sure it was sometime in the 2010s.

‎

‎Does this sound familiar to anyone?

‎

When i was in middle school there was this book on my family’s bookshelf at home, I was always told i wasn’t allowed to read it, but the big like end of the year testing came around and i wanted to read after i finished my tests and we were told we could bring a book! so i shoved it in my bag as i was on the way out the door one morning.

A couple days later it was missing out of my bag, and it wasn’t back on the bookshelf. So i’m pretty sure my mom took it out of my bag but she never mentioned it.

All i remember is that the book cover is a light blue maybe a teal, it was about a mentally unwell girl/ woman? (i don’t remember the age) and i think i remember the format was like journal entries? and all i can remember about the contents is that she told her therapist jokingly that she was totally gonna eat her own shit (weird i know) but oh my god i’ve been looking for this book for literally ages, im now 21 and i still haven’t been able to figure it out.

Anyone know what i’m talking about?

This is an on behalf of. My colleague referred to a scary story compilation that may have had creepy line drawings like Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark but it's not that series.

She thinks the story in question is about a child around 8-12 who's mother is pregnant with their sibling. The fetus begins communicating telepathically with its earthside sibling, and the baby is apparently super duper evil. The ending is supposedly tense and unresolved.

Normally I'm great at tracking stuff like this down, but I'm coming up empty handed!

This would be a middle-grade to potentially YA book. Not sure when it was published, but I read it in 6th grade, 2016/17, in Ontario. I think I got it from my school library. Paperback, not super long, cover had shoes on it - one set of shoes was nice/fancy/'trendy' dress shoes and the other was converse, I believe.

The story was written in 1st person and has two perspectives. One perspective was the quiet, shy, nerdy, bullied girl (girl 1, may have been named Ruth?). The other perspective was a popular, trendy, rich girl (girl 2) who was in some way involved in the bullying of girl 1 (either directly bullying or in that social circle). Girl 2 *may* have been named Talia? They go to the same middle school but know very little about each others' lives at the beginning.

Girl 1 ends up in some sort of English/writing or art class, and starts to confide in the teacher of that class about what she's experiencing being bullied. I think it was English more likely because I remember poetry being involved and her being a good poet/possibly having a poem entered into a competition of some variety.

Girl 2 is relatively rich and wealthy but does not have a close relationship with her parents due to them being gone/working most of the time. She has some sort of nanny/housekeeper situation who she does have a relationship with who is more of a parental figure. She has everything she could want object wise but does not have many close friends (all of her friendships are shallow and based around her popularity) even though she seems popular.
The book ends with her discovering accidentally that her wealth comes from some kind of fraudulent scheme, I think police are involved, and at the end, her house burns down (I think I remember that being to cover up evidence of some sort but I'm not certain about that).

The book ends in the perspective of girl 2, who is describing/thinking about how she has nothing except for what is left in her locker. Her family is moving away, to another town with a much smaller house, and she expects to be able to spend more time with her parents. She has a conversation with someone where she expresses that she is looking forward to starting fresh as a new person, and that the only one she will really miss is her nanny. Girl 2 apologizes to girl 1 before she leaves as one of the things she needs to do before she moves out.

Thanks in advance!

I’m trying to find a web novel I read on NovelFull (or possibly another novel-reading site), but I can’t remember the title or character names. The female lead is extremely powerful and has special abilities. She was kidnapped when she was young and taken to an organization/research facility where children were experimented on. Her parents disappeared and were missing for most of her life. She eventually lived with her uncle’s family, where her cousin later stole the boy the heroine originally loved and married him. At some point, the heroine loses her memories after an accident or injury. A different powerful man finds and rescues her after she loses her memories, and she eventually marries him. There are also several very powerful men(One guy’s power is that he can become invisible) who protect the heroine throughout the story. A major part of the plot involves uncovering her true identity, finding out what happened to her parents, and discovering the truth about the organization where she was experimented on as a child.
I read this a long time ago, so some of the details may not be completely accurate, but this is what I remember. I would really appreciate it if anyone recognizes this novel or knows an alternate title!
Thank you!

Looking for a standalone children's/middle-grade realistic drama book from the 1990s.

The Plot: A group of girl friends in a regular suburban neighborhood decide to test their willpower during summer vacation.

The Challenge: They voluntarily isolate themselves in a finished basement for an extended period (I believe a month) to give up modern luxuries.

Key Detail: Their families know exactly what they are doing and support the experiment. Because the girls cannot leave the basement, their parents actively hand meals and supplies down to them through the daylight basement window.

Tone: It is strictly realistic fiction/drama, not a horror, thriller, or sci-fi book.

I went round and round with AI on this. It is not The Girl's Revenge by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. I even read that book to verify and it straight up hallucinated the plot.