Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

This thread inspired me to answer a question that's been bothering me forever.

When I was younger I read a book about a guy who gets locked up in a mental institution, claiming he's a werewolf. Only the full moon comes and he really IS a werewolf, and so he breaks out and is tearing around the hospital. There's this giant guy with delusions who lives in his own fantasy world and thinks he's some kind of paladin (he might have Down's Syndrome?) who sees a REAL monster and goes off. He ends up ripping a piece of angle iron off his bed as his 'holy sword' and goes after the monster. The book ends on the next full moon with government doctors monitoring all the people injured by the werewolf, quarantined in individual cells in an abandoned building (missile silo?) waiting to see who will change.

I can NOT remember the title of this, and have been looking to find it again for YEARS.

http://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/werewolves

A cursory glance tells me that much of the list is Twilight-inspired
fare, but maybe you'll get lucky and see it.

Nobody, huh?

Doesnt strike a note with me unfortunately. Sounds like a decent read though!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grubbs_Grady

maybe?

- other than that the only thing that springs to mind is some similarity to a Werewolf: The Apocalypse anthology called When Will You Rage? .... but that isn't a perfect match.

Do you remember when you read it? Was it horror or more like a fantasy book?

I have boxes and boxes of old 80's horror novels I can dig through it it might help. Many werewolf types had words like "skin" or "Night" in the title if that helps ring a bell..?

Doesn't appear to be it. (And I'm familiar with the W:tA anthology, totally awesome.)

Bob, I can remember a vague time period when I read it. (Based on the friend who introduced me to it.) Unfortunately, that puts it into the 1999-2005 category, which doesn't narrow it down a whole lot. Although I would guess I read it between 2000 and 2003.

I know it's vague, but I read it after dental surgery (I had a bunch of those, so that's not going to help me pin it down) when I was on a lot of painkillers, which is part of the reason I'm a little hazy on details. I lost the book and it's been bugging me for YEARS since I'd love to read it again, you know, sober.

Do you remember where you bought it or why? If it was on display somewhere, it might be written by an author who is better known in the genre, like James Herbert or Ramsey campbell or something. And it is not a teen book or urban fantasy but an actual horror novel, right?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Do you remember if there was a lot of profanity, sexual content or graphic violence? It might help narrow things down.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Do you remember if there was a lot of profanity, sexual content or graphic violence? It might help narrow things down.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Becoming the Beast?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Or Welcome to Hoxford??


Automatically Appended Next Post:
The Hyde Effect?

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Do you remember where you bought it or why? If it was on display somewhere, it might be written by an author who is better known in the genre, like James Herbert or Ramsey campbell or something. And it is not a teen book or urban fantasy but an actual horror novel, right?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Do you remember if there was a lot of profanity, sexual content or graphic violence? It might help narrow things down.

It was given to me by a friend while I was convalescing. I remember some pretty graphic violence, but I'm not recalling any explicit sex or (unusually profuse) profanity. Keep in mind, of course, that I was pretty out of it.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
Becoming the Beast?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Or Welcome to Hoxford??


Automatically Appended Next Post:
The Hyde Effect?

Nope, nope, and nope. The first was written far too recently. I've read the second though! Great stuff! Although the forward (written by Steve Niles?) irked me. Isn't the third one either, but that one is definitely going in to my to-read list! Thanks for pointing it out.

Sorry I can't be more helpful. (This is part of my frustration. I have so little reliable information to go on in tracking this thing down...) If nothing else, I appreciate the effort. It helps soothe the mental irritation.

Trying to wade through the net on a smartphone is annoying, but if you can wait until tomorrow when I'm back at a desktop then I can have a better look. Until then any detail you recall, no matter what, would be helpful.

from your description, it sounds like it was a pretty good read, but it doesn't strike me as familiar... but i can sympathize when it comes to a book that you read and liked and cannot remember the title of. i've done that myself a number of times over the years...

After trawling through so many Google search results about 'real' werewolves, links between the full moon and mental patients, and all sorts of gak like that, I've decided to call it quits for now.

Are you sure that you remember nothing else? No names of anything, even partial? Other characters? Anything at all? If not, are you sure the details you do remember are correct and not addled by the painkillers you were on?

It's almost as if this book doesn't exist.

 Avatar 720 wrote:

It's almost as if this book doesn't exist.

Tell me about it. Unfortunately no, I can't come up with anything else (or be sure that I didn't get confused). It's pretty damn irritating, to be honest. Like an itch I can never scratch...

 Jimsolo wrote:

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:

The Hyde Effect?

I'm glad I added it to my reading list.

That's the one! Thanks, Bob! This has been driving me insane forever!

 Jimsolo wrote:

 Jimsolo wrote:

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:

The Hyde Effect?

I'm glad I added it to my reading list.

That's the one! Thanks, Bob! This has been driving me insane forever!

You are welcome!

Also, weren't you a big fan of ADF's The Damned series? If so, have I recommended David Weber's Out of the Dark? It is something of a loving, drunken homage to The Damned and Turtledove's World War series, with all the modern gun porn you could want and then some. The ending is a bit ...uh, ...just don't read any spoilers, summaries or reviews.

I was, and I will, thanks!

 Jimsolo wrote:
I was, and I will, thanks!

We'll see if you thank me after the ending. It's a like it or hate it kind of a thing.