Help me identify a book from limited information.

June 18, 2006 9:53 PM

I'm hoping someone can help me remember the title of a book I read a long time ago. When I was in middle school, I picked up a fantasy book at the library that I absolutely loved. This many years later, I can't remember the title or author for the life of me.

As best I remember, the book is about a young boy who one way or another ends up (trapped? lost?) in a creepy house where lots of strange things start happening and he ends up fighting against all manner of evil. He eventually makes it out of the house and all is well.

I may be mixing it with another book, but I think it had a dragon of some sort in it as well. The antagonist was a creepy, evil old man.

I realize this doesn't provide a lot for you all to go on. I just really want to track down the book because it was one of the only books I read voluntarily over a period of some years, and I would like to read it again.

posted by jxpx777 to media & arts (11 comments total)

It isn't The Thief of Always, is it? That doesn't sound quite right, but was the first/only thought I had.
posted by Cricket at 10:20 PM on June 18, 2006

There is a scene similar to this in Steven King's The Wastelands, part of the "Dark Tower" series - in which the young boy Jake Chambers enters a house that is the "gatekeeper" to another dimension (where his "ka-tet" of friends, including Roland the Gunslinger, are waiting for him), and the house basically comes to life and begins attacking him.

no dragons there, though, but the rest fits pretty well.
posted by ab3 at 10:37 PM on June 18, 2006

That almost sounds like the plot of the computer game "The 7th Guest".
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 11:21 PM on June 18, 2006

Could it be The House with a Clock in its Walls by John Bellairs?
posted by sueinnyc at 12:02 AM on June 19, 2006

I always guess William Sleator for kids' fantasies, but the only one that sounds close is Singularity. Around what year was this?
posted by lemuria at 12:04 AM on June 19, 2006

Seconding sueinnyc. That was my guess too.
posted by fuzzbean at 12:58 AM on June 19, 2006

Not all the details are quite right, but your description made me think of Castle in the Attic by Elizabeth Winthrop. A boy is shrunk and trapped that size in a castle until he defeats a wizard.
posted by Carol O at 4:47 AM on June 19, 2006

I'd second The Thief Of Always by Clive Barker. How old are you? That'd give us a clue as to whether this was a possible candidate.
posted by merocet at 6:32 AM on June 19, 2006

the house with the clock in its walls
posted by ryecatcher at 9:30 AM on June 19, 2006

I am 25 years old now, so that would mean I was about 13 or 14 when I read the book. I also remember it being paperback and at least 200 pages because I was shocked that I actually stuck with it to the end. Also seems like the cover was a bluish purply color.

Thanks for the suggestions so far. I will look those up and see what I can discover.
posted by jxpx777 at 1:29 PM on June 22, 2006

I think it is the Thief of Always. I found this page and there is the paperback version in bluish/purply color, 240 pages first printed in 1993. I am going to see if I can find it locally and read it. I will post back to let all know for sure, but I'm almost positive this is it. Thank you guys sooo much. I honestly can't believe anyone would even have a guess about it much less know for sure. This is truly the best of MeFi.
posted by jxpx777 at 1:42 PM on June 22, 2006