The Landlady

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]]The Landlady]] is a short horror story by Roald Dahl. It starts out with Billy, a young British man, looking for a place to stay. He finds the BED AND BREAKFAST INN and a quaint old woman inside, who welcomes him to stay, just like the other young men she's been fond of.

It's pretty much High Octane Nightmare Fuel to anyone who knows what Bitter Almonds signify.

For landladies in general appearing in fiction, check out Landlady.

Tropes used in The Landlady include:

• Affably Evil
• Bitter Almonds: Billy thought to himself that his tea tastes like bitter almonds, which was cyanide that the landlady used to poison him so she could stuff him.
• The Collector: The old woman herself freely admits to stuffing her old pets that have passed on. She collects other things too...
• Creepy Housekeeper
• Dirty Old Woman: She's really got a thing for young, handsome men.
• Genre Shift: Until the very end, it appears to just be a little Slice of Life story.
• Hell Hotel: What it actually turns out to be, although it appears pleasant.
• Nice Guy: Billy
• Nightmare Fuel
• Viewers Are Geniuses: Although you can eventually realize what the landlady's problem is, you can't understand the true horror of the story unless you're familiar with the Bitter Almonds trope.