What's the Name of That Book??? discussion

The Dirt Eaters
This topic is about The Dirt Eaters
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SOLVED: Children's/YA > SOLVED. Post-Apocalyptic Fantasy about a boy with a specific curved sword. Read ~2005. [s]

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message 1: by Bunny (new)

Bunny | 10 comments So, the setting is a post-apocalyptic desert wasteland, there is a boy who's maybe not on the run, but definitely on a journey searching for something. He has a sister with similar powers and abilities, who's kinda been corrupted somehow? Something to do with magical dust (basically cocaine). He carries a weapon that's like... two overlapping semicircles of metal forming a petal shape between them, one of them is sharp, the other forms the handle, but then ends of it point out past the blade and are also sharpened. He trains with some monks for a while, and does these coloured sand paintings that are swept away as soon as completed. He also runs into a tribe of people who file their teeth to sharp points and cut their outer ears off. That's about all I can recall of it. Maybe something about a glass pyramid?


message 2: by Andy Phillips (new)

Andy Phillips | 240 comments I don't know this, but is the glass pyramid supposed to be The Louvre in Paris, or maybe the Luxor hotel in Las Vegas? That would narrow it down.


message 3: by Bunny (new)

Bunny | 10 comments No, it was more fantasy than anything else - only vague bits about something having happened in the long past to turn the world all desert-y. The boy had some sort of powers, but I hardly remember them, mostly just things like quick movements, or high jumps I think. The glass pyramid or whatever it is (something similar?) is the title of the sequel or third book, where he has to go to solve the mystery, and ends up confronting his sister.

The book's cover has him holding his sword on it, I don't even know what it's called but it's a very distinctly-shaped weapon.

Seriously, the only part of this I remember vividly is the nomadic tribe teaching him to fight, and having a ceremony where all the children dance around in a circle throwing flower petals, and one of the adults goes around cutting their ears off and rubbing some sort of numbing agent over the area, as they fall to the ground mixing with the petals. It's so damn strange. If it weren't for the fact I pretty distinctly remember reading part of it in class I'd think this was a really f'ed up dream.


message 4: by David (new)

David Añez | 418 comments Does the sword has any special power or it is just particularly shaped?

It is relevant to the plot: it has been used for generations or the like, or used for something later in the book?

Do you remember more about the power and abilities of the brother and sister?

Does the sister do something notable?


message 5: by Bunny (last edited Nov 18, 2021 03:13PM) (new)

Bunny | 10 comments https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/im...

Here's a picture of roughly what the "sword" looked like, though these are far smaller, they seem to be called Bagua Zhang Crescent Moon Knives. In the book it was about 3ft wide maybe?


message 6: by Becca (new)

Becca (beccalikesbooks) | 5551 comments The Dirt Eaters by Dennis Foon? It seems to be set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland and the boy on the cover has a strange-looking two-bladed weapon:
The Dirt Eaters by Dennis Foon


message 7: by Bunny (new)

Bunny | 10 comments I mostly remember her getting high on magic dust and tracking him tbh.


message 8: by Bunny (new)

Bunny | 10 comments Yes, that's it!


message 9: by David (new)

David Añez | 418 comments Nice! Please remember to update the header with SOLVED so moderators can move it to the appropriate section.


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