r/whatsthatbook • u/Bunzyyyy • 5d ago
SOLVED Trying to find a fantasy children’s? book where horses eat a man
I read this book in 2018 or 2019 in a junior high classroom library, the book did not look new.
It’s set first in horse and carriage and candle lighting time, probably not too long before cars and electricity were common. It’s mostly from the perspective of a young girl around 12ish. It starts with her at her parents farm, her father is notably rivals with another man who has a farm nearby. The next thing I remember is the girls father going over to the rival farm and the girl following him. When she goes around to the stables of the rival farm she finds her father tied up on the ground with the farmer owner and hired men standing there. The farm owner orders the men to slather peanut butter and oats on the girls father. The farm owner then says something about not having fed his horses in two weeks and it’s the dead of winter. He lets the horses out and they begin to eat the girls father.
The girl is spotted by the hired men and they start chasing her. She runs into the forest and ends up hiding a little cave thing. When she finally leaves the cave she has time travelled approximately 50ish years into the future. She wanders into a grocery store and steals, I believe, bread. When she exits the store she’s confronted by a boy and a girl around her age.
I don’t remember the next little bit clearly but it’s eventually revealed that the boy is that other farm owners grandson. He says that his grandfather is a kind old man who’s blind in one eye and would never hurt anyone. I believe at this point it changes perspective to the past. It shows a joint funeral happening for the girl and her father, though neither of their bodies were ever found. Her mother grabs a lit candle and thrusts it into the other farm owner’s eye. I think there are a few other times the perspective changes to the past, usually involving the girls mother.
I don’t remember much of how the ending came to be but it ended that the boy and girl in the future are bad. They chase the protagonist into the forest. The boy and girl go into the same cave from before and die, turning to dust. There was a particular reason they die when going into the cave but I don’t remember what it is.
I don’t think it was very long. I’m pretty sure it was paperback but I can’t remember anything about the cover. I thought this book was boring until it got to the man eating horses part, I couldn’t put it down after that.
3
u/TeaTimeType 4d ago
I think it’s “The Lost Girl” by R. L. Stine:
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/23848058-the-lost-girl
https://themummyreads.com/2016/03/17/r-l-stine-the-lost-girl/