[ SECRET POST #4538 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #4538 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.



__________________________________________________



02.


__________________________________________________



03.


__________________________________________________



04.


__________________________________________________



05.


__________________________________________________



06.


__________________________________________________



07.










Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 35 secrets from Secret Submission Post #650.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

07. https://i.imgur.com/B521ruU.png

[(Anonymous)]

I'm surprised to see a secret about this book here. I thought it was a super obscure novel. Read it in 6th-7th grade first time. Loved it. Later I found a copy from 1984 that I bought.

What kind of blurb did yours have?

OP

[(Anonymous)]

If you go to this page: https://www.amazon.com/Battle-Horse-English-Swedish/dp/0027512401 You can scroll pictures of the book. The second picture is the back cover that had the blurb I read. It really does sound like a fantasy novel.

Re: OP

[(Anonymous)]

I can understand how that easily could be interpreted as some fantasy story. There's no sleeve on my copy so there is only a smaller blurb on the back:
(I've translated it from Swedish)
'It goes deathly silent on the "rundown" - the backyard of Östermalm.
Henning, the leader of the Realstudents, on his peculiar war horse challenges the unknown Black Knight for a battle on life and death!
But under the carefree, unsuspecting surface lurks the seriousness, and the game becomes bloody reality.'

[(Anonymous)]

That sounds pretty fetishy for a YA book, lol.

[cloudtrader]

I've never heard of this book, but this secret is one of the few to ever make me giggle out loud. Thanks for the giggle, OP!

[tabaqui]

Okay, so, I'm a little baffled by this book, frankly. Are we talking about kids riding on the shoulders of other kids? Or on their backs piggyback? How are poor kids made into 'horses' for jousting? Can kids actually carry other kids without falling down ten steps in?

Also, frankly....my brain immediately went to pony play and i wondered just where half these 'horses' ended up.....

[(Anonymous)]

I'm the anon from the first comment.

Now, it's been a while since I last read it, but the poor kids that wanted to be horses in the game were standing in a 'Penn

[(Anonymous)]

GDI, it posted before I was done typing.

As I said, the poor boys that wanted to be horses in the game were standing in a 'pen' and the rich boys tossed in coins. 'Horses' were picked based on who was strongest in the ensuing scuffle. Then there are some that partner up most of the time.

Then there's Kossan. She's the regular mount for rich kid Henning. He's sort of the leader type and Kossan has a crush. She trains a lot with Henning and when she's not carrying him or doing chores at home, she's carrying the younger kids around.

I don't remember if it was on shoulders or piggyback in the text, but the front cover has them go piggyback. No pony play, just playing horse and rider the way kids do.

If you find the book anywhere, I can recommend it.

[tabaqui]

Ha, yeah, that doesn't make pony play kink leave me alone *at all*.

How weird.
It sounds interesting, but very, very weird. :D

[(Anonymous)]

Hmm. I have to say I'm disappointed that it's het... I would not have guessed that just by looking at the cover.

[(Anonymous)]

There's no actual romance. Just because someone has a bit of a crush doesn't make it a romance. That's only a bit of that characters motivation to be the horse. The story is told through the eyes of another boy, first person POV.

I feel that the theme of class is stronger. It is taking place in 1930's Stockholm after all.

OP

[(Anonymous)]

I’d say Kossan is a love interest in the same sense that, say, the title character of Stargirl is a love interest. Then again, Freak the Mighty is in the same vein as both books, and no one ever called Freak a love interest . . .

I am imagining Freak/Max as a parallel to Gene/Finny from A Separate Peace, and I cannot believe I never thought of this before.

[(Anonymous)]

That is such a trippy cover. If I saw the cover without reading a blurb, I would have thought the book was about monster horses that eat people's heads.

[maldeluxx]

That was a good read (bought a secondhand library sale copy because it was impossible to get otherwise); mine was a Finnish translation.

[(Anonymous)]

This book is a trap. I'm dead certain that if I'd picked this up as a kid and found that there were no actual horses involved I'd have felt a terrible sense of betrayal.