2021 Halloween Treasure Hunt

It's October, and the Halloween Hunt has returned!

The object of the game is to solve our clues (in verse!) and go to the LibraryThing page each clue is talking about.

Go HERE for the hunt.

You have about a week—until Sunday October 31st at 11.59 pm Eastern Time—to find all the jack-o-lanterns hidden around the site and get them into your nest.

Use this thread to brag, ask for and give hints, etc.

In a change from previous hunts, where only one was required, we'll be awarding profile badges to anyone who finds at least two jack-o-lanterns. As in previous years, anyone who finds all 12 will be entered into a drawing for a LibraryThing coaster set and sticker.

Helpful tips

Please, use the spoiler tag when posting hints or suggestions. Here's how:

To use the spoiler tag, type the following before whatever you'd like to hide:

<spoiler>

And this, at the end of what's hidden:

</spoiler>

If the hunt isn't working for you

You might be using the old version of the LibraryThing site. Is the nav bar at the top of the page salmon/peach colored? That's the old site. Go here to change your design. You can switch back afterwards.

Yea! And cool vulture, conceptDawg, although that isn't the first thing I think of for Halloween.

>2 Taphophile13: Yeah, at this point I'm just freestyling and picking whatever bird I want to do. :) I've done a lot of them and the themes can get a little repetitive. This one was picked by my daughter because she likes vultures (an odd kid, yes).

Vultures are wonderful! Thank you for the beautiful art, conceptDawg.

I love the vulture! Thank you for your wonderful art piece, conceptDawg!

>4 aspirit: Seconded!

Sooo, 2 was obvious and I thought 3, too? But I can't seem to find it, anyone has a trick for it? - found it, forgot there were the categories on the left side!

>3 conceptDawg: Well, your daughter knows vultures need love too.

The message about the treasure hunt on the homepage is messing up the layout so that I can't see most of the main menu bar - I had to dismiss it in order to be able to access the link to talk. Is that on purpose? I don't think it's done it before with hunts and the pages with jack o' lanterns don't do it.

>9 melannen: Thanks. Fixed and I'm pushing it out to the servers in a moment.

I thought I had #5 but none of the links I thought would do it seem to be working in the common knowledge places. Anybody have that one successfully?

Similarly, for #8, I have now tried every version of every fictional town in all of Maine. Am I barking up the wrong tree with where to look for these, or is there a bug in the common knowledge places?

>11 bibliovermis: I'm having a similar issue for #4.

>12 Marissa_Doyle: for four, I found that doing a tagmash of the vegetable favored by rabbits and a relevant genre helped.

>11 bibliovermis: I'm assuming that you are using the search on the CK main page for this. If so, there is a place that is often used in one particularly spooky Maine author's works. Look for that.

>12 Marissa_Doyle: I found that that one is a specific children's picture book I'd never heard of, and nothing to do with a particular spooky rabbit series that sprung immediately to my mind

>15 bibliovermis: Ah. Yes, that's where my mind went too. Wrong vegetable. Thanks for the hint!

>14 conceptDawg: I promise that I have tried every single town in Maine Stephen King ever mentioned, in all their variations. When none of those triggered it, I tried every other fictional town in Maine I could google. Since neither "Transylvania" nor any of its variations triggered anything, either, for another clue, I wonder if there's some bug? Or am I doing something else wrong? What I'm expecting to ultimately trigger the win is a visit to a page with a URL like www.librarything.com/place/encoded+place+here

I literally just joined this website today and the treasure hunt sounds so cool. I've managed to find one but I'm lost when it comes to the others.

>17 bibliovermis: - Yeah, ditto - I'm not getting anything for either of these two either.

>17 bibliovermis: I surely haven't tried every fictional town by a popular Horror author, but none of the places that came up at the top of internet searches brought up the pumpkin. More hints from the LT team for #8 would be appreciated.

>17 bibliovermis: Yeah I tried every version of the place beyond the forest I could think of in tags and CK. Unless it's supposed to be a specific work, either there's a bug or I'm stumped.

>17 bibliovermis: If you, let's say, take the most popular author from Maine and then just google "fictional town" with that author name: it's the first result for me (though your results might be slightly different because Google is also spooky).

>18 Mobstar: Welcome! Some of the correct answers for LibraryThing hunts will be tags, some will be authors, some will be books, and some will be under Common Knowledge (such as awards, and places). Keep guessing, keep checking this thread for more clues, and no doubt you'll quickly learn more about this site.

>22 conceptDawg: I did that in a different search engine. It's either not the answer or there's a technical problem. Unless... we're not supposed to be looking in Places?

>22 conceptDawg:
From Google I found a good site
That might be the home of a knight
Who lived on a stone;
But despite all I've done
The treasure hunt says it's not right.

(having actually gotten it now that it's fixed, it's not the town this clue points to, it's the other one that comes up for that author.)

>25 melannen: :applause:

Agreeing with everyone else that the most likely candidate/s for #8 doesn’t seem to be working.

Other than that, I’m stuck on #5, #6, #10 and #12. Help?

>18 Mobstar: Welcome. You are not alone!

>22 conceptDawg: Yes, the name of the place is not a stumbling block, I don't think. It's that the place URL ( see comment >17 bibliovermis: ) doesn't seem to be working for this. Is that the right thing to be looking at? Or should I be looking for tags etc.? Also see #5, for which I'm having the exact same problem.

>27 PawsforThought: #10 is a tag page for a popular Halloween activity, #12 is a kid's book, the first word of the title is "spooky".

#5, now that it's fixed, is possibly the spookiest actual town. Like when you think "oh yeah, this place was mentioned, in horror" it's this one.

Please let me know if you would like additional hints for any of these.

OK! I'm working on the issues for #5 and #8. It's a problem with the way the server is treating the URLs and it doesn't recognize the correct answer.

But I'll get it fixed in the next few minutes.

>31 conceptDawg: Thanks. #8 is working now.

>31 conceptDawg: You're my hero! Also, love the vulture

>23 aspirit: Thank so much! I haven't made much progress but I sort of know what I'm doing now. My main problem is that I don't know how to find a page or link for a location or place unless they aren't talking about fictional places but events under the "Local" tab?

>34 Mobstar: If you search on the main site search, from the top right of the main bar, there's a lot of different result types listed on the left. Under 'Bibliographic', there's an item for 'Common Knowledge', which expands into different types. 'Places' is one of these!

Hints for #7?

>36 cataylor: For #7, some hints: Extremely popular debut novel from 2005, by Elizabeth Kostova

Stuck on #1 and #6... Neither ring any bells for me.

Also stuck on #6

>38 Maddz: For #1 think of what sort of place this describes - a venue you might visit for scares, it is the tag for that Hope that helps

Has anyone been able to get #6? I've had a lot of ideas but no joy in either tags, or common knowledge characters. Hoping it's just that I need more ideas, and not another bug!

>35 bibliovermis: YES! I got number 5 thank you!

Got everything but #6. Any hints?

I've also got all of them but #6.

I'm stuck on #6 as well. Tried every tag for a scary imaginary creature that comes in all shapes and sizes I could think of.

Yeah I thought #6 would be IT by Stephen King or a tag like nightmare but I guess not

>40 Caramellunacy: Thanks! That worked!

Admins, here's just about everything I've tried so far for #6, as both tags, common knowledge, and book titles. If it was meant to be one of these, it might be another common knowledge bug: bogeyman, boggart, It, Pennywise, Pennywise / It / Robert Gray, shapeshift(ing/er/ers), The Thing

>48 bibliovermis: Try being less specific for #6.

Okay, stuck on 5, 6, and 12.

I swore 12 should be Something to do with Peppa Pig but I seem to be missing it.
Same with all the others above with 6. Tried it all.
I just have no clue on #5. I saw a clue higher up the list but it read more like it belonged to clue 8 to me...

>49 hailelib: Thanks! That was not a good riddle for that answer.

>50 gilroy: For #5 Think of the region known as home to Nosferatu / Dracula and look in common knowledge for places. You may have already tried this (it didn't work when I first did it, but has since been fixed and has worked for me now)

>52 Caramellunacy: Oh, duh! I should have thought of that. Thanks.

Got 'em all!

#6 was the last to yield. The trouble there, for me, was that the clue seems to indicate a singular term, but the solution uses the plural.

>50 gilroy: Yeah 12 was a shot in the dark for me as well, it's a different pig. You should be able to find it if you keep looking for Halloween board books

>50 gilroy: #5: It's a real place. It's a mountainous region in Europe, and its name literally means beyond the forest.

#6: A tag. It's a generic term for vampires, ghosts, werewolves, etc. Oh, and it's the plural form.

#12: I got that one with a tagmash of board book, costumes, pigs.

>54 paradoxosalpha: Congrats! I'm still really stuck on 6 but now that you've said that I'm going to try the plural term for every single thing I've done so far!
only 4 more to go for me!

>54 paradoxosalpha: Thanks! Now have #6! First thing that came to mind, but I hadn't tried the plural.

>54 paradoxosalpha: Same! I had tried the relevant term in singular, and finally got it with the plural hint.

For #6: children sometimes think they areunder the bed.

>56 amanda4242: >60 Taphophile13: Really? That's a horrible clue for that tag... But I have them all...

Honestly, I had already found #6 but I hadn't put it as a plural so the hint was a god sent.
But no matter how hard I try I can't find #11

>62 Mobstar: Welcome to LibraryThing! This treasure hunt is a great way to get to know the site.

#11 is a common knowledge award page. You can find those by either searching the site in the upper right corner, and then on the left side of the page selecting "common knowledge" and then "awards"; or find a book you think might have gotten such an award and scroll down to the "Common Knowledge" section and the "Awards and honors" field, and click on the award name.

#6 is more of the Genus and not the Species of the Creature.

>54 paradoxosalpha: That got it for me!

Now got 'em all...

>30 bibliovermis: Thanks for the help. #12 is still a complete mystery to me. All I get when I search for words from the clue (and your hint) is something called John Pig’s Halloween and numerous Peppa Pig titles

>66 PawsforThought: With the clue, I brute forced that one. The answer is a book and author I've never heard of...

Do a work search using that one word, sort the list alphabetically, and work your way through book titles starting with that word. Don't bother clicking through any title that hasn't been catalogued by a large number of members...

>37 bibliovermis: Thanks! That was my last one. Not a vampire book fan.

>56 amanda4242: Thank you! I finally got it. Never heard of it - I’m guessing it’s something that’s been bigger in America than Europe.

>37 bibliovermis: Thanks, I would never have gotten that without your clue, since the rhyme applies to pretty much every vampire novel I've ever read!

Damn how has everyone found #11 I've literally tried to brute force my way through it by opening every horror and thriller award link and it didn't work

>71 Mobstar: If you're looking on Wikipedia, it's not in the list of horror awards pages because it has its own subcategory (That tripped me up too.)

>72 melannen: I've tried science fiction horror thriller, speculative horror, fantasy I just can't find it the award pages on library thing are all purple for me now lol

OH! forget it! I have them all I GOT ALL THE JACK-O-LANTERNS! haaaa I still don't know which award it was but I don't care anymore! Finally... few well that was amazing! What a ride!
thanks for helping me!

>74 Mobstar: I've noticed that it was sometimes taking a second or two for the jack-o-lanterns to pop up, so if you were clicking through a list real fast it may not have appeared.

I'm still stuck on #4. I feel like I've combined all the tagmashes I can think of.

Never mind! Got it!

Thanks everyone for the hints. I have them all, now I can go back to the book I was reading :-)

Help! I am still working on #1. Is the answer one word or two ?

>78 Yamanekotei: Singular noun, two words

>76 missylc: It is a book, I found it at the first page of the tagmash rabbits, vegetables

>63 norabelle414: Thank you so much! Indeed this was quite the learning experience!

>75 melannen: YUP! I defo was clicking through like an idiot! welp everything turned out well in the end. The satisfaction of completing the task has boosted my ego for the day!

>20 aspirit: I'm not on the team, but try looking into Common Knowledge. That's where I found a few of them.

Yay, got them all! Thanks for all the hints.

conceptDawg, thank you for the great picture.

All done! Nice tour de LT as usual! And the vulture was also nice.

>54 paradoxosalpha:
Thanks for the singular/plural clue about #6 . . . that was exactly my problem too. Got it right away after I saw your comment.

>11 bibliovermis: I did find #8 where you were looking. Still looking for #5.

Well, that was fun. I waaaay overthought #1, and to a lesser extent #10. Though #6 should definitely be singular; no way I would've gotten there without a hint.

>88 sausage_mahoney: Yes to #10. I must have been within an inch of it at least 10 times :-)

I got them all! For #6, think vague and plural.

Just need 7, 10 and 12! Ten should be easy, but I'm not getting it.

I am STILL stuck on #1 - from other hints I’ve tried haunted houses but no joy. Just little more help please?

>92 amac121212: You are right, but not the plural.

I got a good number of these with the bare minimum of help (basically just a few google searches for some), #6 was really confusing. It really seems to be describing something much more specific than what the answer actually was. Actually multiple times I got caught up overthinking the words in the clues when the answer was much more basic, I feel like some past LT hunts have gotten really detailed/specific so I guess that's where my mind went.

It was fun though! Got them all in less than an hour without much issue. Happy Halloween everyone!

Help! I have them all except #12. Could anyone give me another hint? Thanks!

Never mind! An Amazon search is a very efficient way to find this answer.

Got them all! #6 was the hardest, so thanks for the various hints above! It seems obvious in retrospect, but I was overthinking it, I guess.

Thanks as always to LibraryThing staff for a fun hunt!

>79 missylc:

Thank you! I was looking at a different pair of words . Now I got back from work and found the answer in two minutes.

Yay, I got them all!

I just wasted an hour. Could not find even one. I am going back to reading.

Thanks, ya'll for the hints! Was stuck at #4, #12, and #6, but with your help got all 12 under 30 minutes. I don't know if I'm too old or what but I've never heard of the books being mentioned in numbers #4 and #12.

Got 'em all in a couple of hours, even though I am not a fan of spooky horror stories and refuse to read them. As always, Google helped on a few of them and I did need a hint on number six - a plural answer to a singular clue is a true horror!

>58 lkmiller: I was stuck on #6 until I read your hint. Thank you, got them all now.

Got them all with just a Google for a couple of them. Spooky spooky Happy Halloween 🎃

Got them all, with the help of Google in some cases, and of other members in this thread for numbers 6 and 7. Thanks, it was fun!

>98 BettyTaylor56: If you're on the 'old' LibraryThing style (known as the salmon colouring) it doesn't always show even when you get an answer correct.

Hints thus far are collated in the LibraryThing Treasure Hunts group, sorted by clue number.

>1 AbigailAdams26: I noticed that my browser stopped cookies, so I did not manage to get the lanterns. (Not that I am *that* able to find them, but this is another story)

(Indeed I found three of them, I woudn't have believed it)

All done!
Tougher than last time, I think. I needed a few hints
It was great fun as always - thank you

Phew! Done. Actually, I managed more than usual by myself though I really got stuck on 4, 8, 7 and 12.

Thanks for the game! And for the hints. I love playing the Treasure Hunts.

Done!

Thanks to LT staff for the hunt and LT users for the hints!

Solved them all! Thank you, LT for a glorious fun romp this morning!

I'm done,
'twas fun,
wishing luck to everyone!

Thanks for another great hunt (love the vulture)... #8 really kicked me hard, but I FINALLY got it! Whew! Again, thank you all for organizing these hunts.

Wow, #4 sent me back. Although I was wrong... It's not the one with which I grew up.

That was fun! #10 was the last one I got which is funny because it should have been one of the easiest.

Hooray - got them all! (with a little help) Thanks so much to the organizers for another fun treasure hunt!

How fun! Got them all and I must say that #8 was the most difficult for me. Got stuck on the wrong place;). Thanks again LT for a fun, fun treasure hunt!!!

Thanks for the fun! I got all of the answers, with a few hints. I actually thought that #6 was a good clue.

But now I am curious about #11. I got it, but don't remember which answer it was that worked.

Got them all, with a little help from the hints provided above.

BTW ... never got a banner notice of the hunt. But I check this group's threads every week or so and that's how I saw it this morning.

>117 banjo123: https://www.librarything.com/bookaward/Bram+Stoker+Award

ETA: I think #6 was misleading grammatically. It consistently used the singular in the clue but the answer was plural.

>118 BookConcierge: I haven't gotten a banner either. I picked up on it from Tim's emailed State of the Thing.

>120 CurrerBell: Same here.

All I have left is #8....I know the author, given the state it's in....but I've searched the three fictional towns I can think of in every format I can think of and clicked all over the place trying to get the right spot.....and I'm at a loss.. Help!?

Nevermind.....I decided to try the one I tried first....and this time I got it. Not sure what I did different....but it worked! Whew. All done! That was fun!

>18 Mobstar: Welcome to LibraryThing! The website is filled to the brim with incredible information, giveaways, and delights. During my first treasure hunt I also could only find one until I began using the hints on the "talk" related to that hunt. One of the delights of the treasure hunt is not only earning the badges, seeing ConceptDawg's creative art design, but it also introduced me to various "parts" of the site that I might not have found independently as quickly. So welcome aboard and enjoy the hunt. :)

>21 melannen: I had to check my spelling by googling it and bingo, worked the first time. :)

I have them all now. Needed help on #5 and #6. I sort of had #10, but it was a slightly different wording, so after looking at the clues I tried again and got it. Pretty clever not to put any actual works by Stephen Kingin the Hunt. I clicked through a lot of them thinking there must be one! Thank you everyone! ConceptDawg, I also "loved" your vulture, although I probably will be afraid to go to sleep tonight. :-)

Thanks for the hints, all! Definitely wouldn't have gotten #12 without one.

Still stuck on 7, though. I know what I think it pertains to, but I don't know what the specifics are here.


It's about Van Helsing, yes? I just don't know what new reboots/retellings of Dracula there have been recently.

You need to do a tag mash of vampire and history, then look through a couple of books.

>126 pith: #7 It's listed in the Inspired section of the work-to-work relationships for Dracula.

>119 CurrerBell: Thanks! That was the first one I tried, but it did not work the first time. Probably I was on some other page by mistake.

I guess in #6, I felt that the plural made emotional sense. Thinking of Lady Gaga's fans.

>128 amanda4242: Thank you so much! There's so much about LT that I still don't know, and that section was one of them. I'll have to start browsing more!

>40 Caramellunacy: 🤦‍♂️ Thanks for that hint. Don’t know how I missed it!

>1 AbigailAdams26: I cannot work out how to start the hunt. I’ve never done this before. Looking at the clues, I know most of the books.

>1 AbigailAdams26: how do I enter the answers?

>133 hippomamma: Go to the page on LibraryThing of the book (or author or tag or Common Knowledge) that answers the clue and the system should award you a jackolantern.

And if you don't see that happening you may need to change to the newer site style https://www.librarything.com/design_choice.php

OK I have found 5 answers in the last hour or so...

But the Pine Tree state one is hard. I dont read that authors books, but I am familiar with the titles. You cant be a reader and not know those titles!!!

So what is the odd thing that makes the town stand out?

>136 Robloz: It's just one of the fictional towns used by the author although not the first that comes to mind (at least not my mind :-)

>22 conceptDawg: You have GOT to be joking!!! I did exactly what you said and the first book on that list not even related to the town in question - although it is set in the state. I did solve it - eventually!!! Actually now that i think about it, that book does have the odd thing that sticks out, but again, I did not see any mention of the towns name in the book description.

>138 Robloz: Well, that is the point - they cannot all be really easy - there needs to be some challenge after all.

>137 bnielsen: Thanks. I did eventually solve the clue - see message number 138

>139 AnnieMod: LOL I suppose so. Ok I am now 7 done with 5 more to go!! 2 hours and 40 minutes so far...

I want to get them all before i get to bed.

>133 hippomamma: you dont need to enter anything. As long as you are logged in, any search you do that lands on the correct book (and usually the book weith the most members who have read it is sufficient) will automatically be counted. You may have to refresh the "clues" page regularly or after every search.

Thanks, LT, for another great hunt. I wish we could do these every month. :-) Happy Halloween!!

>142 Robloz: ... correct book or tag page or character or place name or tag mash ...

>133 hippomamma: You don't actually "enter answers." Solve the riddle and search for the answer. If you end up on the correct page, you will see a banner at the very top of the page saying you found the correct answer and earned a jack-o-lantern. The correct response could show up in multiple places (like Tags, Common Knowledge, Works), but the correct answer will be on only one of those pages. That is part of the fun and frustration--you know for certain you have the correct answer, you just need to find where it lives. :-) I usually play with LT open on multiple tabs--one for the riddles and at least one for searching (and at some point one for clues).

Argh! Nothing is working for me. I've tried switching to the old version, and signing out and clearing cache, but I'm not getting any banners, even though I'm sure I have at least 5 of the clues. I'm going to try from my work computer on Monday.

***update. I restarted my laptop, and now it works. 6 down and 6 to go.

>145 shadowranch22: ok. So I’m thinking that the first one is hp (I don’t know how to do spoilers. I’m very new to this).
Do I simply search the name?

>147 hippomamma: Not necessarily. See this thread: https://www.librarything.com/topic/336174 for some hints on how to look for something in a Hunt (not for a specific clue but general advice on how you work on these hunts).

Thanks for another happy hunt! And many thanks for the helping hints!

>30 bibliovermis: Your 'spooky' hint actually led me through google, to totally accidentally find the answer to #4, lol.

>133 hippomamma: Hi there! As others have noted, there is no need to enter your answers. Simply find the page on our site (work, author, award, place, tag, etc), and you will accrue a jack-o-lantern.

Any joy on #4? I was sure I knew what it was, but I tried everything and I didn't get that one. Are we sure it is working?

>152 al.vick: A variant of the tagmash described here
https://www.librarything.com/topic/336161#n7634475
worked for me.

Yes!! This was my first hunt. I had a really great time. Thanks for all of the hints everyone. I worked on this between patients, it took about 24 hours to complete.

So much fun. I love the treasure hunts!

Wow, I found them all! Most time cost #6; that was so easy it was very hard to find.

How long does it take to get your Jack-o-Lantern badge displayed under your badges? Thanks.

>157 athometarheel: anywhere between the day after the hunt and a few months later. It does not happen when you find the 2 answers or the night after as with regular badges. It happens after the hunt is over and LT awards all badges for that hunt.

Got them all!!! Needed the hints for a few. Thank you!!

Does anyone have a hint for 9? I have been googling, and since no one asked for a hint here before, I assume I am thinking way too hard haha.

>160 tmrps: For 9, I googled the main points of the clue (schoolmaster, Katrina, headless horseman) then couldn't believe I didn't think of it on my own because it's one of the few I actually now. Another hint, the story was filmed by Tim Burton

Finished the hunt mainly thanks to all the clues, so big thanks.

>20 aspirit: #8 Go to a Maine horror author's page, and on the right hand side is a list of places tagged in their books: click away!! I found in after three tries :-)

>160 tmrps: You probably are.
#9: "Katrina" and "headless horseman". Technically even just the latter may be enough but the first locks it in. And make sure you find a record concerning the text itself and not a collection containing it.

>160 tmrps: Google the second and third words of the last line and the woman’s name. You’ll know it when you see it.

With thanks for a few hints, I've got them all. Love the treasure hunts! :-)

Just wanted to pop in to say how much I look forward to these treasure hunts! I wish they were every month :)

I'm not a massive user of librarything but hunts like these are like my favorite thing! Thanks for the hints along the way.

>161 SandraArdnas: I have it now, but I am completely unfamiliar with the story. That's probably why I could not find it.

Woohoo! Got all 12 jack-o-lanterns! It was a lot fun! And the hints here really helped. Thank you!

>168 tmrps: You may want to read it :) Or watch the movie. Or the series based on it (as problematic as it could be in some places). It is just the season for it and it is a very good story but it is short so won't take a long time. :)

>158 AnnieMod: Thank you!

I wonder if it is possible to find out how many people participated in the Hunt. I would be interested to know if some of them are more popular or if they are similar. There is only 1 I didn't do and that was because I had absolutely no time. Then another where I only got a couple of the answers then quit.

>172 krazy4katz: After the hunt is over a post will be made about how many people found the minimum to get the badge and how many found them all.

Woo Hoo - all done in a short couple of hours work and this time I didn't have to put in a plainted cry for help on my last couple in the dying days of the hunt.

My sincere thanks to those who put up hints.

Cheers

>173 rastaphrog: Thank you! I forgot that they do that. Maybe they could put up something like 2 years worth of statistics.

>114 Lynsey2: that is the only one I haven’t gotten. Can you give me a good hint🎃
Never mind, I found it. Stupid “ing”. You are right. Should have been the easiest.

>176 Micheller7: You probably looked at it a few times, just not the exact form. Look for it, then click on the first few in the list you found. It is a a noun, not the verb

Thank you for all the hints. Found them all.

Thanks for everyone's hints for #6, 7, 8 and 12. I found all of them!

I've updated the collated clues to this point and added a new thread for number 9.

Is #8 the Odd Thomas series by Dean koontz?

>181 JodiPM: No, it's a place

>181 JodiPM: Think of the other famous horror novelist (famously from "The Pine Tree State". The place is a fictional one he's used in a few of his workd, including one that was made into two films recently.

thank you for the hints. I got all 12.

More terrific artwork! The vulture was a great choice on your daughter's part! Be thankful you have an odd kid ... they are so much fun!

>17 bibliovermis: It is definitely one of the oft used Stephen King towns. You might be spelling it incorrectly. Do a search for Stephen King towns in Maine in Google and you'll find the spelling.

>83 slmr4242: and >162 Michael.Rimmer: There was a technical problem that's been fixed since I posted.

Thank you all for the hints in the first couple of days! I found all the Jack-o-lanterns once the hunt fully worked with the help of this thread.

Got them all, thanks in large part to hints on this thread! So thank you all! I had fun and learned quite a lot about how to get around on LT (though I've been a member since, I don't know, 2006? I know, I'm slow) and even got hit with a BB!

conceptDawg (#22):

Alternatively (now that the clue is fixed), there's a 'fair' way to do it (i.e. using only LT-internal searching without resorting to Google:

Go to the author page for said popular Maine author, and look in the "Related Places" sidebar for towns in Maine.

I'm probably one of the very few people who thinks the clues ought to be gettable using only general knowledge + LT tools without resorting to Google, but Googling does seem like cheating in a way searching on LT doesn't.

paradoxosalpha (#54):

Thanks, that's all I needed. Turned out to be what had been my second try, only the plural form rather than the singular the clue suggested.

Also I know at least one book from the top-tagged list that is a strong counterexample to the 'gross, ugly, horrific' description!

>186 TsarinaTyna: Could you use the spoiler tag?

I did it. Thanks for the help. Loved the Vulture.

>147 hippomamma: Directions for how to add spoilers are in the first post of this thread.

thank you! #8 was difficult. Got them all!!

Thank you! That was fun!

Still don't know #8, I have tried everything I could think of and stuff from hints I saw.

>54 paradoxosalpha: Thanks! I had tried the singular. Agree the clue is confusing. Now I have them all.

>196 JodiPM: Do you know which author is being referenced in the clue? The thing you're looking for is a fictional place he has used in several works, most famously one about an evil clown that was made into two films recently. Look at the work page for that book and go down to the CK section. Click on the place name under "Important places".

>196 JodiPM: All the hints so far for clue 8 are here.

>54 paradoxosalpha: I had the same issue with #6. I was looking for singular and it didn't work. Use the plural.

>198 PawsforThought: I did that but didn't put the town name and the state, I just put the town name Well I feel stupid now LOL Thank you for the clarification!

I just wanted to add thanks for those who posted clues for 6 and 7 and a thanks to LibraryThing for such a fun activity!

Thank you for the fun! For the first time I managed with much use of the hints! - and with a lot of luck managing to land on the correct page - to 'find' (though it's probably more accurate to say 'be found by') all twelve pumpkins; I have no idea how some of them eventually found me - I was about to give up on 5 and 6, even though I knew what the answers were, when they clicked 'Found!'.

Thank you to the compiler(s) and to those of you who contributed clues and unwitting encouragement!

Best wishes to all - and 'Happy Hallowe'en' (even though I'm not inclined to celebrate myself, being culturally imbued with November 5th and Bonfire Night to mark the Gunpowder Plot... )

Think about Stephen King stories

>21 melannen: it’s a place known for vampires

>38 Maddz: #1 is place you visit for fun on Halloween - many charge admission

I've been able to get them all except for one of them. Someone, anyone... Please PLEASE give me a different hint for #12. I just can not find this one.

>207 Jessinikkip: #12 It's a book by Sandra Boynton

>207 Jessinikkip: #12: Do a tagmash of pig, costumes, board book.

>20 aspirit: Keep at it. You’ll find it.

is the 2nd one Dracula? ugh this hunt is so confusing

>211 jackalope1: Yes.

>21 melannen: A clue maybe: Did you see It? Do you remember where it was set?

>25 melannen: NVM, you got it! Also, brava!

Man, the pig one was hard. I had to do a teeny Google hack for that one.

>20 aspirit: Are you still having trouble with # 8? If so, you know the author, so look under common knowledge for places. My recollection is that there are 3 that do not exist in the real world. I tried all 3 and one of them was correct.

That was fun - some may have yielded easier with some of the clues but the last one just clicked on its own (well, with a bit of brute force). :)

>37 bibliovermis: Oh wow, I was stuck on this one but I LOVED LOVED LOVED that book. I might just get it out and re-read it!

Stuck on #6 as well, I was SO CERTAIN it was a certain HP character.

At the end, #6 was so simple hahaha. Thank you for letting us play!

Stuck on 4, 5, and 6.

>221 DKnight0918: For #4 search the name of the animal and its favorite food; the correct book has the name of the food

For #5, you have to know the name of a place in Europe where a famous evil person lived who was a count

For # 6, a generic term for all types of bad, spooky creatures, plural

>54 paradoxosalpha: thank you.this was the last one for me, too.

Got them all! As fun and slightly frustrating as usual. : ) Thank you, LT!

>225 AtlantiCareLibrary: It's the town name, not the trait.

Thank you all for the hints and for the fun, I got all lanterns. Happy Halloween!

For the first time, I got all the riddles. #6 was easy after I found out it was plural! Thanks for the Halloween fun!

Came here to say thanks for the fun treasure hunt! All of the hints were helpful and made it even more fun--I always look forward to these : )

>128 amanda4242: That was incredibly helpful thank you! And bonus--I learned a new thing about LibraryThing.

>189 lorax:

So I suppose when I post an image of all the clues to Facebook and invite my non-LT friends to play along that is somehow "cheating"? . . . Nothing more annoying than the "Fun Game Police" . . . I think of this as like a "REAL" Treasure Hunt . . . where you're given a list of things to find/gather and it's up to you how you (and your team) go about getting them (and sometimes open to wild interpretation, which is part of the fun) . . . but then I'm sure there's always someone in those groups crying about "cheaters" too. Boo Hoo to You.

I play a lot of games with variable difficulty settings, and I think Lorax's chosen constraints are a really coherent way to play the hunt on a "hard" level.

Crowdsourcing through |f| isn't really any more culpable than following the hints (or asking for them) in this thread, and might additionally introduce some folks to the site who wouldn't have known about it otherwise.

>189 lorax: I usually try to get them through LT first, but that never works for all the clues (for me anyway). So, I have a choice: I can ask for help here or I can use Google. I tend to use Google before I ask for help. You are only responsible for your own personal sense of "fair play" and how to do this. Others may have a different idea.

Each to his/her/their own...

Always enjoy a good LibraryThing Hunt. Thanks for this year’s Halloween edition.

Another fun Halloween treasure hunt -- thanks to all who created it, and who offered tips and hints!

>40 Caramellunacy: thanks :-) (I even found the name at my first attempt - sometimes I wonder how I learned such expressions, given that English is not my mother tongue and I don't like horror...)

>94 Heather19: indeed I managed to find #6 only after this hint :-)

>161 SandraArdnas: Thanks! #9 was the hardest for me... Eventually I did a tagmash leaving out Katrina (which pointed to the hurricane)

It's the first time I actually tried to solve all the clues... (or rather I decided to browse for hints :-) )

Am I the only person who has nooooooo idea of what this whole thing is and what I'm supposed to do?

>239 VicRML: Follow the link in the first post and You Too Will Know. :)

>239 VicRML: Go to the link in the first post to open the page of riddle clues.

Solve each clue and when you think you have the answer, search LibraryThing for that response. You might have to go to tags or locations or characters or the author name or the actual book title. It all depends on the clue and what it's asking for. When you land on the correct page you'll get a little pop-up banner

If you get stuck, you can ask for additional help in this thread ... there are plenty of examples above.

Have fun.

Still have one errant jack-o-lantern. I have seen both hints offered here. I thought I had the answer, but #11 eludes me. Please, help!

>242 fyrfly: It’s an award named after the person who wrote the book in clue #2

Thank you to everyone for the hints & especially thanks to >105 humouress: for collating them. 6 & 12 were so hard! But y'all came through as you do every time :)

The homepage banner isn't working and I'm using the newest version of the site? Can someone help? It's really hard to find the hunt without it.

>245 toast_and_tea: There is a link to it in the very first message of this thread.

I am stumped on number 10! Any clues?

>247 mgallagher:
Don't overthink that one - you probably got it but not in the correct form.
10: "the children are going (the answer goes here)". One word or 3, either will work

>248 AnnieMod: Ah, got it! Thanks!

>243 PawsforThought: Thank you! I was all over that at first and it wasn't coming up. This time, after a few stumbles, there it was.
Later, I thought it must be the award named for the author in #3.

Thanks to everyone who makes these puzzles - and the solutions - possible.

Thx to the participants who made it clear that some clues refer to tag pages or common knowledge pages. There were 3 clues for which I knew the answer but couldn't get the form quite right.... Took much perseverance! But was fun! Thx to the Hunt makers and participants!

Thanks for the fun Halloween Hunt! Thanks to those who left hints on this page. I managed to get all 12, nine by myself, and 3 with the help of the hints on this page. So much fun!

Argh. Despite using LibraryThing a lot to look stuff up, my account's lain fallow for... um... QUITE a while, so I just re-joined today to participate in the Hunt. (LOVE the vulture, btw.) I've gotten 11 of the 12 myself, but #6 is proving too general for me. Time to look for hints! *rolls up sleeves*

>54 paradoxosalpha: HA! Got it. THANK YOU. It was the first word I'd tried, and I fell into the same trap you did. Naughty, naughty admins!

Yay, got them all, with one small clue. ^_^ (11 aaaaall by myself.) This was SO much fun! Happy Halloween, everyone!!!

#8 is so hard. I have been everywhere.

>256 SusanBraxton: Do you know which state is the Pine Tree State? If so, then there is a famous writer of horror books that is from that state and many/all (not sure) of his books take place there. However, there are 3 towns that are fictional in that state where his stories take place. If you go to common knowledge for several of the books and look at places, you should find it. Clicking on the place should bring up the badge. If not, come back for more clues.

Was not sure if I was going to finish before the deadline but I did! First time to complete a hunt on time. I had so much fun.

>240 Ennas: Thanks.

>241 BookConcierge: Thank you. I figured out what to do. Found two, but have no idea what the rest are talking about. Happy to have got that far. Enough for me. :-)

Thanks everybody for the tips.This was fun and takes me a few hours to find them all!

I am not a native english speaker, so some book titles were really hard to find for me since some of them never published in my ountry or they published with different names.

So a guide with all the clues:

#1 This is a tag. It was pretty easy to find with this information. Search for the term and click tags on the left
#2 The most famous book of the genre from the most popular writer.
#3 This is the author of many spooky stories, but he is famous for his poem. Check the animal named in the clues
#4 A children book. Hard to find for me since it was not published in my country. Find the favorite veggie of the animal. It is all about that spooky veggie, not the animal.
#5 It is a place in real world, in Europe. Quite famous. Be sure to type the name correctly though
#6 It is a tag. It is plural. Do not think specific, it is the very common name that covers all things spooky or not spooky.
#7 There are great hints above, a novel published in 2005, Author name is Elizabeth. Has inspired work-to-work relation with #2
#8 It is under common Knowledge -> Places. The author is probably one of the most famous writers of the gence. And this place is his most popular fictional town in Pine Tree State
#9 This is a short story, but it also have a movie with lead actor known with his famous pirate role. But the short story is spookier than the movie
#10 This is a tag. The spooky event of the children at the most spooky time of the year.
#11 It is an Award. The writer of #2 and the father of all things spooky
#12 It is a children book. It is a board book. The hardest riddle for me to solve. I use google for all clues given above answers to find the result. It is not Peppa Pig. The title have a nice rhyme.

>54 paradoxosalpha: Thank you. I agree the way the clue is written in #6 it seemed like it would be a singular term. After trying the plural I got it right away.

>58 lkmiller: Same here. Plural was a helpful tip given the wording of the clue.

Thanks, as always, for a fun time. This one seemed a little trickier than usual, but the rhymes were very well done! And thanks, too, to ConceptDawg for the lovely art! If you live near vultures and are brave enough to stand underneath them, or close by, as they fly, they play leap frog with each other when the wind is up. It's fun to watch. P.S. They also fly into the wind and just hang in the sky with their wings spread. As, I said, it's fun to watch.

A fun hunt - thanks for the joy of it

Always enjoy the treasure hunts! Hallpween might be my favourite, too. :-)

This Halloween hunt was fun! Thank you very much. Great hints, great choices!

>264 lorsomething: Fascinating info about vultures! Thanks.

The 2021 Halloween Hunt is now closed. Thank you to all who played.

>264 lorsomething: I'm not brave enough to stand under any bird, in flight or otherwise, if I can help it ;0)

Lots of fun! Thank you to those who put this together

>268 chibitika: You're welcome!

>270 humouress: I would say you're too smart! You never know when they might jettison their cargo! :D

>273 lorsomething: So I learned, through bitter experience.

>269 conceptDawg: thank you!

Darn, I missed the hunt!

I got them all, but my badge has not showed up on my profile. Wondering what I did wrong :(

>277 SusanBraxton: The badges had not been awarded yet. Sometimes it takes them a day or 3, sometimes longer (a few months in one case). These are not like the regular batches -- just be patient :)

>277 SusanBraxton: They are done manually, so that's why it's not immediate.

Hello All! Our 2021 Halloween Hunt ended slightly after midnight on Halloween. This was one of our most active hunts ever, with 1,678 people playing, and 1,060 players finding at least five clues. The average number of clues found was eight.

Thank you to everyone who participated! Our randomly selected winners this year are:

DisassemblyOfReason
MissSquish
ErlendSkjelten
Lady_Librarian84
Sean191

Winners, please message me with your mailing address so we can send you your prizes!

Hell, I found 7 ... Im under average :)))

anyway thanks for game,it was cool.

LucindaLibri (#231)

??

It feels like *I personally* am cheating if I google. I really literally could not care less what anyone else does.

I can't believe I missed this! I don't miss hunts.

Only thing I can think of is that I went into the hospital around this date and didn't spend much time online.

Total bummer. :(

How long does it generally take to get your badge. Am I getting impatient or should I have gotten it by now already?

>284 tmrps: I was wondering the same thing lol

>284 tmrps: You're getting impatient ;0)

I saw another post somewhere (I forget where, sorry) but the indication was that LT staff give out the badges for the last treasure hunt when they open up the system to set up the next one.

>286 humouress: That may have happened, but I got at least one shortly after the hunt concluded, so it varies.

OK, thank you very much. I thought there had been any mistake and I was the only one not having the Halloween badge. I thought I was the only one who hadn't acquired the Halloween badge to date, but I see that it must be general. Well, I'm not in a hurry, it's not a matter of life or death. I'd be worried if I saw that I'm the only one who still doesn't have it... :D :D :D

Greetings to all.

Hello Tim,

Just a gentle nudge, as I too haven't received the Halloween badge. In the past the badges were given within a few weeks of the end of the hunt, so I didn't want to miss out.

I don't think anyone has gotten a badge — I haven't either, so perhaps they will come out after the Valentine's Day Hunt. I keep pdf copies of all the hunts I have done so I can look back at them.

Keep in mind with the site improvements they are working on and have implemented the badges may be delayed for a bit. There was one year when it was three hunts later before the badges were caught up. They will get them to us as soon as they can (I don't have mine either).

I have reminded timspalding that Halloween Hunt badges for 2021 still need to be awarded. They're still on the list! Thanks for your patience, everyone.

>283 Morphidae: Actually, I did do this one. When I saw that other people didn't get their badge, I looked at the questions. Sure enough, they all looked familiar. YAY!!

Badges have gone out.

I haven't received my badge?

>295 Morphidae: Looks like you missed this one, Morphy! See >283 Morphidae:. Sorry you were in the hospital!

>296 norabelle414: I realized I didn't miss it. See >293 Morphidae:

I am having an issue with a book I have just added. Whenever I try to edit the information, it does not give me the option. I deleted it and added it manually, but the situation did not change. I tried to edit other books I added, and I found that it does only happen with this book. I cannot edit it at all or change the cover.

Is there anybody who can help me, please? Thank you.

>298 Eucalafio: One or more of the servers are having a hiccup - noone who gets on the problematic servers can edit books at the moment. You need to wait for LT to fix whatever is wrong with the server(s). There is a bug report in progress: https://www.librarything.com/topic/345228 and https://www.librarything.com/topic/345227 - you may want to monitor them for updates.

>298 Eucalafio: There's a bug report.

https://www.librarything.com/topic/345228

>299 AnnieMod: Thank you for your kind response. The issue was soon repaired.

>300 amanda4242: Thank you.