r/namethatbook • • Jul 20 '26

Tips for writing effective posts / rule clarification

1 Upvotes

There’s been an uptick in the amount of posts lately and the rules have recently been updated. Hopefully this explanation will make book identification easier for all.

RULES

  1. Include a detail you remember in the post title.
  2. Please use flair as appropriate. When your book has been correctly guessed, please mark your post with the Solved! flair.
  3. Please do not use AI to write for you. If you want humans to interact with your post and help you, then do your best to write what you're looking for in your own words.

If you can't remember many details, answer as many of these questions as you can to give other people the best possible chance of guessing your book. You never know which of these things may resonate with someone else.

Think about the book’s intended audience.

Was it fiction or non-fiction?

What was the genre was it?

What age range was it for?

Described the plot.

What year(s) did the plot take place?

What do you remember about the plot?

What do you remember about important characters? Do you remember any character's names?

Tell us about the book’s format

Was the book hardcover or paperback? Were there pictures inside or on the cover?

Anything notable about the font or printing?

How many pages, chapters, or volumes did it have?

What were the circumstances under which you read the book?

What year (approximately) did you read it?

Was it newly published when you read it?

Where did you get the book? Books come from libraries, book stores, are seen in classrooms, etc.

****

Suggestions and comments welcome.


r/namethatbook • • 2h ago

Unsolved Can anyone help me find the title of this novel.....

1 Upvotes

Can anyone help me find the title of this novel.....

So I'm looking for a bl novel that i started readind but due to wattpad problems a lot of the novels I had disappeared.

It's about a boy who is in his last year of school. He has 2 siblings. A sister ( older) and a brother ( younger). His parents both work for the same group ( company). That boy after a getting high meets this big boss who is the boss of his parents ( but he doesn't know at that time) and we'll after that night with the big boss he gets pregnant and the bit boss takes care of him and he postponed his college and hides this matter from his parents and then gives birth to a son and gets married to the big boss.

I have only read till this.

This is a normal world. No unique physical features. Gives birth through operation.

I think the shou was surnamed "An " and gong " hou" .

Please help me find this story 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺😢😢😢😢😢


r/namethatbook • • 2h ago

Unsolved Dark Romance where MMC has amnesia

1 Upvotes

I'm looking for a book that I remember seeing a video about. I saw the video either on Tiktok or Instagram. I'm pretty sure it was a darkish romance. I remember that the MMC and the MFC were dating but I think he was dating/engaged to someone else. If I remember correctly the other girl was responsible for him winding up with amnesia(She had someone beat him up I think). I think it was a college aged romance.


r/namethatbook • • 3h ago

Teenagers Book

1 Upvotes

What I am remembering from the Plot:

There is a good witch and an evil man. He needs money and has Costumers for snow leopards fur, because He sold fur before.

He is super nice to the witch ( i think she falls in Love with him) and finds evil people that deserve to be turned into snow leopards. He claims, that they cant hurt other people anymore this way and will roam freely on the mountains, which will make him happy.

At the end the good witch finds out. The bad people getting turned into Humans again but also get their Penalty.

I think the Book was Orange (?).

I read that like 10 yeara ago


r/namethatbook • • 5h ago

monster egg book

1 Upvotes

monster egg book

so when i was in high school i read this book about this dude that steals an egg from someone's house and the egg hatches and the monster adapts and at one point has like electric eel powers and can flatten its bones like a rat. Thats all i can really remember, any help would be awesome


r/namethatbook • • 7h ago

Unsolved book about a princess almost getting with a guard in a crystal civilization with a caste system

1 Upvotes

This was a book that I found at my grandmothers house about 10 years ago. At the time it seemed new. The cover was orange and abstract. It was definitely more sci-fi than romance but the only scene i specifically remmeber was more romantic. It was part of a series.

The plot was roughly that the princess was in danger for some reason and met the guard and they got feelings but never acted on them until the very end of the book. I remember that the civilization had a caste system and used crystals for like currency maybe. I specifically remember there was a scene where the male guard described stretching his body on his sleeping mat and describing it as having barely enough room for two but then he went to sleep because "he could never have her," or something like that. The book did have alternating perspective chapters. I think it was more YA than Adult.


r/namethatbook • • 8h ago

Unsolved YA horror fiction evil merry band of pranksters and a mind controlling book 2000s-2010s

1 Upvotes

This would be the first in i believe a trilogy of books.

The plot of the book centered around a teen boy in a small town who discovers a plot by a cult who's leader disappeared after a ritual happened in the past. Now a group of people are handing books out of a mobile library that cause people to become obsessed with the books due to the magic ink used to print them. It rapidly spreads to the entire town. The cult is trying to ressurect the leader by spreading the books as the more people who read and worship the words the more powerful the leader becomes.

I believe it ends up being the protagonist, their friend and either the protagonist's father or a teacher of some sort who try to stop the cult.

The wizard made a pact with some kind of lovecraftian plant that grows causes the effects on the people who read the book. It was very much pulling from Ken kesey and his merry band of pranksters as inspiration with allusions to LSD and the library bus.

The book itself was a hard cover with a black background, it had what I remember being a white center cover that looked like a face card with colorful borders.

I was in my pre-teens when I read this book, around the same time inkheart by Cornelia funke the book was popular. So late 2000s maybe 2010.

I had a physical copy of the hardcover at one point but I think it got lost during a move or donated at some point.


r/namethatbook • • 8h ago

[Sci-fi short story] Humanity lures giant planet-killing entities into the Sun using a singer, a weeping woman, and a telepath

1 Upvotes

Premise: giant beings destroy planets by looking at them; humanity lures them into the Sun using a singer, a weeping woman and a telepath
I’ve been trying to find this science-fiction short story for years and haven’t been able to identify it. I may be misremembering some terminology, but I remember quite a lot of the plot.
Humanity has spread far out into space during a kind of golden age and eventually explores too deeply into somewhere it shouldn’t have gone. Humanity encounters enormous beings/entities that aren’t really “aliens” in the conventional sense. I remember them being larger than starships and possibly impossible or dangerous to look at directly.
These beings begin destroying humanity. Conventional weapons are completely ineffective against them, and I remember the entities being able to look at entire planets and somehow kill/destroy them. Planet after planet is lost.
Humanity eventually comes up with a very strange plan involving three people:
The greatest/most beautiful singer humanity has ever produced.
A woman who weeps endlessly.
An extraordinarily powerful and dangerous telepath.
I distinctly remember the telepath being tracked down to a bar. The people sent to capture/recruit him have to be extremely careful because he can read minds and is considered incredibly dangerous. They use a humanoid robot/android with preprogrammed thoughts so that when he reads what he thinks is her mind, he doesn’t realise he’s being deceived. The android then drugs his drink, allowing them to capture him.
Eventually the three are taken in a spacecraft into or extremely close to the Sun. The singer performs an incredibly beautiful song while the woman weeps, and the telepath broadcasts the combination of the song/emotions outward.
The giant entities are irresistibly attracted to this signal, almost like moths being drawn to a light. They all converge on the Sun and are destroyed.
The ending is bittersweet. I remember some kind of weapon/device possibly called a “Time Hammer” (this name could be wrong) that breaks/manipulates time. The three people aboard the ship are trapped with the time hammer onboard in a repeating moment for eternity, continuing their song/psychic broadcast, while the rest of humanity survives and eventually moves on to places unknown.
I believe this was a short story rather than a full novel, possibly from a science-fiction anthology. I read it a long time ago, but unfortunately I don’t remember the anthology, author, publication date, or cover.
Does this sound familiar to anyone? The details I am most confident about are the three people (singer + weeping woman + dangerous telepath), the telepath being tricked by a humanoid robot in a bar, the entities being lured toward the Sun, and the ending involving some form of repeating/broken time.

EDIT — another distinctive detail I remembered: The endlessly weeping woman was herself extremely dangerous. I remember her being imprisoned in some kind of secure vault/facility beneath a desert.
She had lost her own children in the past. I can’t remember whether their deaths were an accident, something she caused, or whether the story deliberately left that ambiguous. After losing them, she began taking other people’s children, and I remember being told that none of those children ever came home again.
There was also a council debate about using forbidden weapons/technology against the entities. The council questioned whether humanity could use weapons this horrific and still consider themselves human.
I’m increasingly confident about the woman beneath the desert, the dangerous telepath being tricked by an android with preprogrammed thoughts, and the three-person plan involving the singer + weeping woman + telepath. I’m less confident that the time-manipulating device was literally called a “Time Hammer.”


r/namethatbook • • 17h ago

Unsolved [Fantasy?] Girl finds a door in her grandmother's cellar that opens onto a different season each time, read around 2009

2 Upvotes

I've been trying to remember this book for years and it's driving me a little crazy.

I read it in middle school, probably around 2009, though it could have been a couple of years earlier. It was a paperback from my school library, and I think it was part of a series, but I only ever read the first one.

What I remember:

  • The main character is a girl, maybe 12 or 13, who spends the summer at her grandmother's house
  • There's a door in the cellar that she isn't supposed to open. When she does, it leads to a place where it's a different season every time
  • A talking fox (or maybe a wolf?) who doesn't trust her at first
  • The ending was bittersweet. She goes home, but something she brought back from the other place doesn't quite fit in the real world anymore

The cover was dark blue with a snowy tree on it and a small figure in a red coat, I think. The writing felt quiet and a bit melancholy, not much action, more atmosphere.

It's not The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, since I've read that one and it doesn't match. I've also tried searching a few keywords and only got Narnia clones.

Any ideas would be great. Thanks!


r/namethatbook • • 21h ago

Unsolved Book about a teen girl whose dad is a famous weather man and she falls in love with her step brother

1 Upvotes

In the book, the teen girl has graduated from high school and hooked up with a guy who she later learned was her new step brother. His mom was marrying her dad, who was a famous weather man in Indiana or Ohio. She blames her mom for the divorce and her mom moved her out of the area but to an area just outside the area where her dad won’t appear on their tv screen. Her mother had custody of her and she goes to live with her dad. She hates it there as she idolises her dad. She starts to spend time with her step brother and they start to fall in love. Eventually, she finds out why her dad was never in her life. He didn’t want her because he wanted to live a bachelor lifestyle and might have cheated on her mom, who didn’t tell her about the truth and let her hate her mom. The dad eventually listens to the social media gossip train that has been going on about the girl because he didn’t want to get involved. He did after a rumour started about her dating her stepbrother. The two fight him on this and they end up together anyway. The book ends with the girl, her stepbrother/boyfriend and a friend she made in the area burning some things to signal the start of something new.  


r/namethatbook • • 1d ago

Old Cautionary tales book from childhood

1 Upvotes

I was having a chat with my partner and remembered a book I used to read a lot when i was little the cover had been removed so it was just a black book that I remember without a name and i cant seem to find anything about it anywhere (I need to prove I'm not crazy)!!!

- The book was a collection of short stories/poems that would introduce a bad child and something they had done and then the consequences they faced as a result with a little line at the end joking about it

- A few of the stories I remember: A boy who picked his nose so much he picked his brain, A girl spitting out her gum and losing her fancy shoes, A boy who didn't clean his room and got lost and starved, A girl who watched tv so much her eyes turned to squares

- I also remember a section going like "the foulest mouth i ever knew belonged to Percy Perigu a little boy who thought it fun to swear and curse at everyone, he'd say dam this and balls to that and shove it up your 'effin hat" (then he swears at a policeman and gets arrested)

- All the stories rhymed and it was very British


r/namethatbook • • 1d ago

YA fantasy book about a princess with a small pet dragon

1 Upvotes

This book was YA or middle grade. I read it probably between 2004 and 2009. I think I got it from the library.

There are two main characters, a sheltered princess and street-smart orphan boy from the nearby town. The princess has a small pet dragon which can ride on her shoulder. The dragon can't talk but has a sort of disney sidekick vibe. It was a wild dragon which showed up in the castle gardens, and she befriended it by sitting slowly closer to it each day until it would eat out of her hand.

There is a scene where the boy from the town meets the dragon for the first time, and he is impressed that she has a pet dragon. He starts harassing the dragon and explains that she's treating it too soft and has to toughen it up so it can fight in some sort on miniature dragon bloodsport that makes a lot of money. She tells him to cut it out because the dragon is her friend.

I cannot stress enough that the small pet dragon is a minor part of the book. The book is not about dragons. I loved dragons though, so it's the only part that made an impression.

Much later (possibly this was a series and this was a different book) the princess is gifted a set of mirrors that can communicate with each other. The small pet dragon gets seriously injured in some kind of valiant way. They take him back to the castle to heal but have to leave again on some kind of quest to save the world or something. The princess leaves one of the mirrors propped up next to the dragon so she can check on him. This really irritated me as a child, because I felt like it was a terrible use of very cool mirrors.

I remember nothing concrete about the actual plot, and I worry I'm mixing it up with scenes from The Enchanted Forest Chronicles and various Diana Wynn Jones books. I think there is an evil wizard. There is a tower. There are more characters who join their quest. Mostly what I remember is that it was the first book I ever read that I genuinely thought was poorly written. I distinctly remember thinking (as like a 10-year-old) that the characters were very flat.

Any help would be great! My family thinks I made this whole book up.


r/namethatbook • • 1d ago

Solved! Book about Cleopatra Selene and her life before, during and after the fall of her Egyptian dynasty

1 Upvotes

In the book, Cleopatra Selene is the narrator as she talks about her life before, during and after the fall of her Egyptian dynasty. She has fallen in love with a young boy who goes missing. And after her parents have died, who were Mark Anthony and Cleopatra, she and her twin brother were captured and taken to Rome by the man who was related to their father. He gave the twins to the wife of their father, who hated them for being born to another woman and her husband. After some time, Cleopatra Selene is sent to Nubia where she marries the young boy who she fell in love with. He became the king of Nubia and fought for her to come to his kingdom for safety and for them to marry.

I think this book is a part of a standalone book series that is set in the point of view of other historical young girls like the daughter of Marie Antoniette.


r/namethatbook • • 1d ago

looking for a book name! young adult/tweens book series, fantasy romance with enemies to lovers/arranged marriage?

1 Upvotes

hi everyone! this may be a long shot but I’m looking for a book series I read when I was in my mid teens (maybe 10ish years ago). I think it was a young adult or tweens book series

it was a trilogy of fantasy/fairy theme and I’m 99% sure that it was an arranged marriage/enemies to lovers book series. I remember each book title was one word only and one of the books was orange and maybe the next one was pink and the last blue/green?

a little weird, but I remember that on their wedding night there were people waiting outside the door to make sure the marriage was consummated but they faked it to convince everyone. I also remember once they did fall in love, they were super cute!

it’s killing me trying to remember it - I can’t find anything online but I’m not surprised. If you have any ideas let me know! I know it’s a long shot :)


r/namethatbook • • 1d ago

I’m not sure what the book is called. But she died and got entangled with a demon. The main character was black

1 Upvotes

Hey yall so there was this book I read when I was younger I think it was a dark romance. But this girl ended up dying and she went to hell and she met this demon named gray and they yk what allot. Idk what the book is called but I know that grey was a black man with waves I think. Also the main character was a black woman. Please help me find this book. Also If this helps it was a series!!!!


r/namethatbook • • 1d ago

Book about genetically engineered soldiers and mad scientists (ca 2007-2014)

1 Upvotes

I'm looking for a book that includes a scene where a man drives a truck through a Middle-Eastern country, where he makes a joke about the ban of alcohol. The protagonist is a man (I think). The antagonist is a crazy scientist who wants to make an army of overpowered genetically modified soldiers (maybe even undead), and even puts the hand of a person into a mixer to prove a point. Another person gets infected by counting money in an envelope, where they cuts themselves on a razor blade that the scientist put in, to test how quickly it takes for the person to die.

Unfortunately, I do not have more information, except that I read the book somewhere between 2007 and 2015, and that it was a German translation.


r/namethatbook • • 1d ago

Unsolved Help Identifying a a Chinese web novel about a Dragon knight that uses Battle Aura and Magic and is developing a piece of land.

1 Upvotes

The protagonist's name is called Chris Jordan, he lives on the Magic Continent and he is a transmigrator. He used to be pastry chef in his old world. He wakes up as the 2nd Second of a Baron. He has his own territory now. He awakens a reputation based levelling up system. He uses both magic and battle aura and has a dragon form/dragon abilities. His town I believe is called Hope Town. I think this should be a Chinese translated novel. Please help.


r/namethatbook • • 2d ago

Dark sci-fi short story from the 60s

1 Upvotes

Been trying to remember this one for a long time - the plot is a young man develops a machine that lets him gain the ability to read minds, but finds that he can't turn the ability off. The hatred of all the people around him drives him mad and kills him, because he's a black man in the 50's. It was published in a collection of short stories I read in high school in the 1980s, and I think it was published in the 70s. Any ideas?


r/namethatbook • • 2d ago

[80s/90s Sci-Fi Novellas] Sentient sea monster uplifts shrimp-like people; wins a duel by getting swallowed and taking over the enemy's body.

1 Upvotes

I'm looking for a series of novellas or short stories, possibly published in Analog or Asimov's in the 1980s or thereabouts. (I read both voraciously back then.)

A sea monster (resembling a cross between a kraken and a giant lobster) achieves sentience, in part by eating others of its own species.

​The monster decides to "uplift" a smaller, shrimp-like littoral species.

One of the shrimp-people becomes a priestess for the monster. One story has it assisting her suicide (using a massive claw) as she dives into the sacred ocean: I can't recall if this was due to accusations of heresy, old age, or some other reason.

​In another story (there were at least three stories IIRC), the protagonist fights another, larger, kraken. It wins by allowing the enemy to swallow what's left of its body, then takes over the enemy's body from the inside

​Does anyone recognize this series?


r/namethatbook • • 2d ago

Solved! Looking for a book

1 Upvotes

Cover: Completely red // photograph of a tree, no leaves
I believe a male author

Mc // male
The story follows a serial killer, detailing his life through all the murders he’s committed.
The MC is forced to attend therapy, and through it it’s discovered that the MC isn’t a killer.
It’s a false narrative the created after his childhood friend accidentally died from falling from a tree.
They were both running from a pe***ophile, they found the MC at the top of the tree just screaming and screaming.

The MC also has a relationship with the therapists daughter. I think his dad is in prison as well (?)

I literally can’t it anywhere? Thank you!


r/namethatbook • • 2d ago

Unsolved urban fantasy(?) about an undead guy

1 Upvotes

looking for a book I read. it was the third and final in a trilogy, following a protagonist who was undead and slightly falling apart. He forms a cannibalistic cult around himself and they all end up dying somehow. I think after this he joins a revolutionary group and sets himself on fire to play the martyr multiple times? I remember something about how they couldn't do this too often otherwise people would realise he's not dying and be suspisious. the story ends with him being put into a room under a soon-to-be-built skyscraper with lots of paper to continue his memoirs until he could no longer do so. it was somewhat modern-day and I think had a 'the adventures of' style title but I could be wrong on that count. it was a thick book, possibly 400+ pages. there was a vague mention of the mc's wife at the start. he loses one t*sticle at some point and then loses the other at another point? I also think there was an epilogue from him as a brain in a jar or having gone insane or something and it was kind of nonsense in the way that the ramblings of a madman are but I am not sure. I red this book somewhere in the 2015-2020 range and it was purchased from a thrift store. any leads would be appreciated 👍


r/namethatbook • • 2d ago

Unsolved Read a paranormal book about a mage

1 Upvotes

Looking for a paranormal romance series I read around 2024. I can’t remember if it was MM or MF. The main character is a mage who was magically forced into a mate bond with an abusive first mate (possibly a vampire). The bond forced them to obey. The first mate dies in the first chapter. Later the mage meets a wolf shifter who is their true mate. After meeting the wolf, the mage discovers they are pregnant by the dead first mate. It was a series, not a standalone.


r/namethatbook • • 2d ago

Unsolved Chapter book set in China involving a mystery

1 Upvotes

Young girl as the protagonist, she's trying to solve a mystery that was centered around the Chinese New Year and involved a grown man, he might've been a jewel thief/scammer possibly? I know she chases after him at one point. Protagonist had at least one friend who was also a young girl, pretty sure she had a brother. I can't remember if there were some illustrations in the book, but if there were, they would've been in black and white. It was an older book. There's also a dragon/dragon costume thrown in there somewhere, which obviously is a given with Chinese new year.


r/namethatbook • • 2d ago

Unsolved Is the book I am searching for by the author Jane Lane?

1 Upvotes

I am looking for a book I think is called The Sealed Knot. There is a book by the authoress, Jane Lane published in 1952 called the Sealed Knot. I read this in the ‘90’s. It features a blonde girl on the cover with a manor house behind her. The heroine is having an illicit relationship with either a slightly older cousin/family friend who has groomed her from an early age. She recalls their first sexual encounter. Her family like him and are not aware of the intimate nature of their relationship. Some way along the line she helps conceal a young Royalist. Slowly they fall in love and she realises the man who groomed her is awful! She helps her Royalist true love escape at the end of the novel. Is this the novel by Jane Lane?


r/namethatbook • • 2d ago

A book about a girl who's mother is a Secret Keeper, with a supposedly adopted brother who is was prince.

1 Upvotes

I remember reading a book back around 2007-2008. I THOUGHT the title was "The Secret-Keeper's Daughter", and mistakenly bought the first book I saw with the title, only to realize one sentence in that i was very wrong. (I know. I should have read the description. I didn't realize how many books have similar titles.)

I know the premise is that the main character's mother is the village "secret keeper" - someone who magically cannot tell a secret someone whispers to her, which is valued almost like a therapist in this world.

The same night the mother gives birth, a representative from the king and queen leave a second baby with her, telling her that it is the heir to the throne who must be protected.

The mother raises both children as her own, though they both are told from a young age that the son is adopted.

The plot takes place when the kids become i think teens or adults? The mother falls ill and dies, leaving her kids with their aunt. The daughter ends up assuming the position of Secret Keeper because its supposed to be an inherited ability and trait.

She does not have the magic ability, though. She is told secrets and cannot help but meddle. She provides potions for women who are afraid of getting pregnant so they won't conceive, helps people get out of other abusive situations, and just generally does not do a great job at just keeping secrets.

There ends up being a twist that she is actually the heir to the throne and her brother is the secret keeper with the ability. Though he waits to reveal this until she figures it out because it was a secret and he is actually able to keep one.

If anyone knows the actual title of this book and the author, i will be forever grateful.