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Lost Boys

Orson Scott Card

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Similar in premise + setting

These books are ranked using the premise + setting labels extracted for Lost Boys. Books rank higher when they are close on every selected axis.

Premise labels used: missing children, family crisis, imaginary friends, child endangerment, small-town mystery, secret evil, parental fear

Setting labels used: 1980s, early 1980s, North Carolina, small Southern town, suburban neighborhood, workplace setting, church community, household setting, real-world setting, contemporary setting

This does not mean the books share the same plot, setting, quality, or difficulty. It means their premise + setting embeddings are close.

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The God Project

John Saul · 1983

In an 1980s small town, grieving parents uncover a secret genetic project tied to missing and endangered children.

Why this is here

Premise labels: missing children · child endangerment · genetic engineering · secret experiment · government conspiracy · medical conspiracy · scientific hubris · small-town panic · sudden infant death

Setting labels: small town · Massachusetts · 1980s · New England · contemporary 1980s setting

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1591

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Strange Weather: Four Short Novels

Joe Hill · 2017

Four loosely linked novellas twist memory, weather, guns, and survival into unsettling, high-concept horror.

Why this is here

Premise labels: strange weather · memory theft · mass shooting · sentient cloud · apocalyptic rain · gun violence · post-apocalypse · unreliable hero

Setting labels: 1980s · American settings · Silicon Valley · Boulder, Colorado · Colorado · coastal Florida · mall · suburban town · post-apocalyptic world · contemporary America · small town · skyborne setting · alternate reality

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.2151

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Midnight

Dean R. Koontz · 1989

In a fogbound California town, outsiders and locals uncover a tech experiment turning people into something inhuman.

Why this is here

Premise labels: small town under threat · mad scientist · secret experiment · human transformation · emotion removal · body horror · tech paranoia · survival against evil · investigation of deaths · missing sister

Setting labels: small town · coastal town · northern California · nighttime · foggy atmosphere · 1980s setting · near-present fictional reality · isolated community

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.2185

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The Leaving

Tara Altebrando · 2016

Five abducted kids return eleven years later with no memories, while one sibling hunts for the missing sixth child.

Why this is here

Premise labels: missing children · returned abductees · memory loss · identity mystery · unsolved disappearance · search for answers · missing sibling

Setting labels: contemporary · small town · school setting · kindergarten · eleven-year gap · teen years later · homecoming setting

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.2239

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Bent Heavens

Daniel Kraus · 2020

A grieving teen reopens her father’s alien hunt and finds the truth is far stranger—and darker—than anyone believed.

Why this is here

Premise labels: missing parent · alien abduction · small-town mystery · teen investigation · secret trap · captured alien · government conspiracy · family grief · revenge

Setting labels: small-town Iowa · rural Iowa · high school setting · woods · contemporary setting · school environment · present day

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.2243

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Strung

Per Jacobsen · 2021 · Strung Trilogy

A returning writer finds his hometown transformed by eerie apathy, hanging corpses, and a search for his missing son.

Why this is here

Premise labels: homecoming · missing child · small-town collapse · widespread strange behavior · body-horror mystery · apocalyptic outbreak · author protagonist · family search · social contagion

Setting labels: modern day · small town · hometown · isolated cabin · post-apocalyptic world · dystopian world · town under collapse · hospital · roadside crime scene

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.2258

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Brain Child

John Saul · 1985

After experimental brain surgery revives a teen, he returns changed, and an old local vengeance begins to stir.

Why this is here

Premise labels: brain surgery · teen transformation · medical miracle · memory loss · emotionless protagonist · revenge curse · ancient vengeance · experimental science · small-town mystery · reanimated body

Setting labels: small town · California · 1980s · contemporary setting · historical backstory · local history · high school setting · suburban community

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.2344

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Time Out of Joint

Philip K. Dick · 1959

A daily puzzle champion in 1950s America starts noticing cracks in his world and suspects his life is a carefully built illusion.

Why this is here

Premise labels: constructed reality · paranoia · illusory world · small-town secret · captive protagonist · puzzle contest

Setting labels: 1950s America · suburban life · small town · Cold War era · postwar America · domestic setting

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.2354

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E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial in His Adventure on Earth

William Kotzwinkle · 1982 · E.T.

A stranded alien botanist befriends a boy on Earth while trying to stay hidden and find a way home.

Why this is here

Premise labels: lost alien · friendship · homecoming quest · hidden outsider · human-alien encounter · stranded traveler · secret keeping

Setting labels: suburban home · 1980s suburban family · Earth · small neighborhood · school · government pursuit · residential area

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.2371

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A Cure for Madness

Jodi McIsaac · 2016

A sister must protect her mentally ill brother as a townwide outbreak turns sanity into a weapon and forces an impossible choice.

Why this is here

Premise labels: family crisis · outbreak · quarantine · government conspiracy · moral dilemma · save family or world · infectious madness · sibling burden

Setting labels: small town · Maine · Seattle · quarantine zone · contemporary · pandemic era feel · rural community

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.2374

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Running Wild

J.G. Ballard · 1997

A police psychiatrist investigates a brutal massacre in an affluent gated community where the missing children are the key.

Why this is here

Premise labels: mass murder · missing children · investigation · forensic inquiry · unexplained crime · elite enclave · gated community · parental control · child rebellion · motive mystery · social critique · surveillance society · psychological breakdown

Setting labels: West London · suburban enclave · gated community · exclusive residential community · wealthy suburb · British suburbia · late 1980s · 1988 · controlled environment · surveillance-heavy setting · affluent domestic space · near-urban setting

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.2383

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Remember Me Gone

Stacy Stokes · 2022

A teen training in her family’s memory-erasing business uncovers missing time, town secrets, and a buried past.

Why this is here

Premise labels: memory deletion · stolen memories · family secret · small-town secret · hidden history · unreliable memory · forbidden truth · investigation · buried past · ethical dilemma

Setting labels: small town · Texas · desert town · rural setting · isolated community · mine town · contemporary setting · atmospheric setting · southern setting · possible dystopian undertones

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.2384

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