What Is This Book?

[Jibby]

beyle said:

A friend of mine (back in middle school) lent me a creepy ass book that took place at a funhouse, midway, something to that effect.

I believe it was geared toward teens and featured two sisters. If I'm not mistaken, one of them gets killed. There were clowns too. I think.

I hate clowns.


ETA: I'm not talking about the books Funhouse by Diane Hoh and The Funhouse by Dean Koontz. This book I'm talking about was probably more of an adult book, possibly geared toward high school kids.

Yeah, I'm a few months late with this, but beyle, could it have been House of Illusions?

I doubt anyone will know this, but it's been driving me crazy. I remember reading a romance novel about a woman (possibly named Maggie, but I could have just made that up) who has a daughter in college. She (the woman) buys a bed and breakfast in a town where her ex-high school sweetheart lives. He's married but they hook up anyway, and she gets pregnant. His wife fakes a pregnancy to keep him. Does this ring any bells for anyone? (Please!)

[Deleted]

This is a book I read years ago. It's set in medieval times, and the main character is an orphaned girl in (I think) her late teens, named Ceridwen. She's brought up by an old woman and eventually becomes a sort of nanny to a lord's daughter. At one point the daughter is replaced by a malevolent changeling who tries to convince the lord that Ceridwen is a witch and should be burned. This almost happens, but the changeling accidentally reveals herself and Ceridwen escapes. I remember the book was in the children's section of my library.

[prospazzinator]

Jenny, I think you're looking for Lost Magic by Berthe Amoss.

[Deleted]

YES! That's the one! In fact, that's the same cover image as the one on my copy.

[Wol]

Awesome thread - please help:

It's a YA novel from the 70s about a girls' boarding school in the Northeast. The lead character is kind of obsessed with a "head girl" type character named Wendy and wants to go to Bryn Mawr because Wendy is. I think there may have been some homoerotic stuff going on. If this vague recollection rings any bells with anyone I'd be ever so appreciative.

Upthread I saw mention of the Malory Towers series and flipped out. Just, wow. I read those books until the pages fell apart.

[ramonaq]

This is a long shot, especially because this is a young adult book that I found almost 20 years ago. Here goes: it was about a Shaker girl who falls in love with a Shaker boy. I just remember that her name was Sara (no "h" at the end because that was too fancy). I thought the book was called "Sara," but I looked for it under that title and couldn't find it.

[dwanollah]

It's called "The Gift of Sarah Barker" by Jane Yolen. (She added the "h" because it's prettier that way, but the Shaker way looks down on frills like that.)

[ramonaq]

Oh my god, that's totally it! Dwanollah is a goddess! Thank you so much.

[dwanollah]

Lucky for you, I've spent part of the week cleaning out all of my Chillun's Books for the Barbie Room....

[Smilla]

Okay, here's one that's been driving me crazy for a while: fiction, published in the late '90s/early aughts I think; a young woman from the West coast goes to graduate school in the East, and finds it...snobby to a surreal degree. I think the female protagonist is African-American. And that there were plants (probably ivy vines) on the cover.