Well, this is a new one.

[conuly]

I am well used to the fact that if you mention an "underground city" on /r/whatsthatbook people will jump up to say it must be "City of Ember" even if there are no other similarities, and likewise any mention of "gray" or "color" will cause people to fall all over themselves to tell you it must be The Giver or Gathering Blue, and if ever you should mention the words "virtual" and "war" anywhere in the same post they'll be equally certain it's Ender's Game. (It's never Ender's Game. It is always Virtual War.)

But this is the first time I've seen somebody suggest Sadako's Thousand Paper Cranes to what is obviously Homeless Bird.

I'm pretty sure that poster twigged on the word "crane" and didn't bother to read any of the post. Nevermind that Sadako is about a child in Japan who folds origami cranes and dies of cancer and the OP is asking about a book about a woman in India who is abandoned by her mother-figure and does something in the textile industry and then embroiders a crane.

No, they're just so similar!

I actually called that poster out on it, and then got this really whiny response about how mean I am because she's drawing on her faulty memory (trauma background, she says) of helping do the lighting in a stage play ten years ago and she's so sorry that it's not close enough.

Well, she should be sorry. Don't pin this one on me, honey. Like, it's not helpful if the book you suggest is nothing like the one that's requested.

Comments

[fuzzyred]

That does sound particularly unhelpful. I have also now been reminded of a book I read forever ago, that I forget the title of and never could remember after the initial reading.

[conuly]

Well, what can you say about it?

[fuzzyred]

I'm not clear on the main progtagonists, but my first inclination is to say it's a boy and a girl. The scene I remember most vividly is the main characters being in Hel's (or possibly Hela) domain, with an army of undead (I think) frozen or slowed in time, so that they can try to accomplish whatever they need to do.

I also recall Loki being trapped somewhere with Jormungandr's vemon dripping down on him.

[conuly]

So this is a Norse based fantasy, or a retelling of Norse mythology? When did you read it?

[fuzzyred]

It may have been a retelling of Norse mythology, but at the time I read it I don't think I realized that so I would have leaned more towards a Norse based fantasy.

I'm pretty sure I read it as a teenager, so roughly 10 years ago, give or take a year.

[oloriel]

Could it be Hereafter, and After? Not sure that "boy and girl" fits the protagonists (more like "dead guy and ex-valkyrie"), but they do try to save Baldur from Hel's domain and they also stumble across Loki. :/

[fuzzyred]

Hmmm... The title doesn't ring any bells, but that *could* be it. I'll have to take a closer look.

[anankastick]

Ugh, that is so unhelpful. If the description doesn't fit any books you know of, don't comment! Reddit can be such a frustrating place...

[conuly]

MOSTLY people on that sub are MOSTLY helpful, and even if they guess the wrong book their guess at least suggests that they have read the description.

But sometimes...! And the ones who seem to be following the "single clue word" approach always act so unwarrantedly confident. "It sounds just like this book it sounds nothing like!"

I wonder, now that I think about it, if those people have read really only a few books in their entire lives.

[anankastick]

those people have read really only a few books in their entire lives.

That would explain it...

[conuly]

(I sometimes feel that way about requesters too. I hate to say anything, but sometimes their writing style raises so many questions. I actually edited one person's post just the other day, because it was nigh unreadable, and then carefully spelled out that if they have to repost it (because you often do) they should take my edits into account - the details put together in a logical order from beginning to end, proper sentences with punctuation, quoted text clearly indicated.

He then came back and apologized for his spelling because he was in a rush. Which, one, is not an excuse, posting here can wait, but two, spelling is the ONE THING I did not feel the need to correct!

[anankastick]

Ha! Way to take notes, guy.

[silveradept]

Yeah, suggesting things that are not anywhere in the ballpark isn't actually helping.

Professionally trying to do that kind of tracking down involves so much of "this detail is accurate and well remembered, this detail is well-remembered but completely wrong, this detail is poorly remembered but unique enough to be accurate" decisions, so I wonder why so many people jump on with relatively memorable books when that's not what's being asked about. Is it the impulse to crow "First!" or something?

[conuly]

I JUST DO NOT KNOW.

[dogstar]

SO MUCH about all of these comments on there.

(Although admittedly I did find a really fun series on KU through a terrible guess the other day soooo.)

I do enjoy that comm, though, but I'm dubious that some of the respondants have actually READ the books in question and not just their goodreads pages!

[conuly]

A lot of the better responders frequently identify books through nothing more than a carefully managed search of various databases, including Goodreads.

The difference is that those folks bother to read the OP's descriptions too.