Did my kid read this book or dream it?
December 22, 2024 5:29 PM Subscribe
My 13-yo kid asked for help identifying a book, maybe YA, that they read a few years ago. There is a girl whose family moves from the city to the woods for financial reasons. The girl goes exploring in the woods and encounters a cabin that looks abandoned, but when she goes in to look around she finds an old woman whose legs are being eaten by maggots.
The girl gets to know the woman and then helps her by bringing her more maggots? After meeting the old woman, the girl may start sleeping with her family's cow either as a punishment or because she wants to. Eventually, the woman dies and the girl has some sort of philosophical epiphany.
I am stumped, my googling has turned up nothing, and the story is weird enough that I think my kid might actually just be remembering a dream (or nightmare). However, my kiddo is pretty insistent that this comes from a book. What say you, well-read folks of MetaFilter?
The girl gets to know the woman and then helps her by bringing her more maggots? After meeting the old woman, the girl may start sleeping with her family's cow either as a punishment or because she wants to. Eventually, the woman dies and the girl has some sort of philosophical epiphany.
I am stumped, my googling has turned up nothing, and the story is weird enough that I think my kid might actually just be remembering a dream (or nightmare). However, my kiddo is pretty insistent that this comes from a book. What say you, well-read folks of MetaFilter?
Could it be Polly Horvath's Canning Season (2001)?
posted by dum spiro spero at 7:19 PM on December 22
posted by dum spiro spero at 7:19 PM on December 22
This is just a guess based on googling a bit, but Liselle Sambury's Delicious Monsters is a popular YA novel that came out a bit under 2 years ago. It features a girl who moves from Toronto to "a secluded mansion in northern Ontario." And searching inside the Amazon preview turns up like 30 references to maggots and perhaps 2 references to a cabin, 2 references to a cow, and 3 references to a barn.
posted by Wobbuffet at 7:32 PM on December 22 [1 favorite]
posted by Wobbuffet at 7:32 PM on December 22 [1 favorite]
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The book your kid is looking for IS horror, isn't it?
Might see if you can narrow down where your kid believes they acquired the book from (library, ebook, borrowed, etc), or if they remember any details of the cover...
posted by stormyteal at 6:19 PM on December 22