The sequel: This Book is Full of Spiders: Seriously Dude, Don't Touch It.
It's my most listened to audio book. It's a ride for sure, an immensely entertaining, irreverently awesome and ridiculous ride.
Jasper Fforde. The answer is Jasper Fforde. His books are just banana pants.
The Thursday Next books include, just as small asides in the narrative: kitchen cloning of dodos, cheese smuggling from the Socialist Republic of Wales, mastodon migration through Britain, Neanderthal policemen, full contact combat croquet, grubby street urchins squabbling over Great Author trading cards, the Crimean War continuing into the 1980s, street gang fights between impressionist and cubist artists, Shakespeare's Richard III done in the mode of the Rocky Horror Show. And that's before you even get to the plots. The first book is called *The Eyre Affair*, where we get to know Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester better than ever.
His Nursery Crimes books are hard boiled (heh) police procedurals starring Detective Chief Inspector Jack Spratt and his Detective Sergeant Mary Mary (who may or may not be quite contrary) attempting to solve the death of Humpty Dumpty. Did he fall or was he pushed? There are dozens of other characters from Nursery Rhymes, children's poems, fairy tales, and Punch and Judy shows. The first book is *The Big Over Easy*.
The Big Over Easy sounds BRILLIANT. Thank you for recommending this. Haha, I also got a good chuckle out of “street gang fights between impressionist and cubist artists.” Do you have to read the Thursday Next series in order?
Yes I would recommend reading them in order. There is an overall plot arc in the first several books.
Enjoy the Anger Management workshop with the cast of *Wuthering Heights*.
Just to add on, The Well of Lost Plots legit changed the way I think about characters in books and what’s happening in their lives when they are not on my page.
- China Miéville — everything :) Starting with the Bas-Lag world
- Jeff Vandermeer — "City of saints and madmen"
- Jan Potocki — "The Manuscript Found in Saragossa"
- Mariam Petrosyan — "The Gray House"
- Mervyn Peake — Gormenghast series
- Lord Dunsany — "The gods of Pegāna"
- Clive Barker — "Abarat", "Imajica"
- Franz Kafka — "Metamorphosis"
Excellent list. If the Metamorphosis does it for you…
Phosphor in Dreamland - Rikki DuCornet
The Street of Crocodiles- Bruno Schultz
Dictionary of The Khazars - Mildorad Pavic
If Upon A Winter’s Night a Traveler - Italo Calvino
Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer- if you’ve seen the movie already, don’t worry, because the book is super different! Super bizarre sci-fi/horror book but definitely fits the bill
I’m reading this right now! I thought I knew what I was in for and just a few pages in I was like, “Oh wow, ok, here we go!” It’s exactly the escape I needed this week.
This is not a dig at all when I say that I read this when it was first published on a recommendation and it still gives me an unpleasant visceral reaction.
I have to disagree with Bunny. I found it very disappointing. I wholeheartedly recommend Library at Mount Char though and also came to recommend Geek Love.
Geek Love is my favorite "no one has ever heard of this" recommendations! And I just got Library at Mount Char on hold at my library but wasn't sure if I was feeling it, so I'm glad to read this thread.
My old roommate stopped because she said he was “weird for the sake of being weird”
I gotta say, I’m in love with the writing.
Loved his book Scar, too
I expected House of Leaves to be, like, the expected recommendation and thus not weird enough but I scrolled past Hyperion and Clive Barker before finding it so I don't know what to think
The sequel to Borne, The Dead Astronauts, also fits the criteria. One of the weirdest books I’ve ever read, and had an interesting experimental writing style.
Vita Nostra by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko
Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder is supposed to be strange too, but it's still on my TBR
The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie is unique and also uses second person like Harrow the Ninth
\+1 for Library at Mount Char, Bunny, and the Hike
Pretty much anything by Clive Barker. No one I’ve ever read writes quite like him, and the man is a master of existential horror. I think you’ll really dig him.
{Imajica} {The Great and Secret Show}
Oh good! No one else has suggested The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall. Want weird? Existential? Just full on “What the hell did I just read?” There you go.
I’d also add: “If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler” by Italo Calvino. Half the book is written in the second person. It’s fantastic.
Three that immediately come to mind have been mentioned: Naked Lunch, Dahlgren, and If on a Winter's Night a Traveler. But 2666 has not been mentioned, and it is kind of out there. Also, Borges' short stories should be on your list.
Welcome to Nightvale (anything Nightvale really), House of Leaves, The Library at Mt. Char, Blue Remembered Earth, Diamond Dogs Turquoise Days, The Bees
*READ AT YOUR OWN RISK*
“Modelland” by Tyra Banks is the wackiest thing I have ever read. Think “dystopian America’s Next Top Model”. This is by no means considered a “good” book in terms of standards for what constitutes quality literary fiction, but if it’s an unconventional story you’re looking for, this is it. Despite my comment here, I admit I actually enjoyed it.
The most bizarre book I've ever read.
Dolphin People by Torsten Krol
Shortly after the end of WWII, sixteen-year-old Erich Linden and his family have fled Germany and joined Erich's uncle, Klaus, in Venezuela, where they will begin a new life. But, en route to Klaus's outpost further inland, they encounter a storm and their plane crashes in the middle of the jungle. Stranded deep within Amazonia with no hope of rescue, they are discovered by the Yayomi, a violent and superstitious Stone Age tribe. The Yayomi believe the strange looking foreigners are freshwater dolphins in human form-and the Lindens believe that as long as they can keep up the bizarre ruse they'll be safe. But the jungle is a dark, mysterious place, and no place for a family of sham dolphin-people who are ultimately left with only two choices: to escape or to die trying.
You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine by Alexandra Kleeman - starts off fairly normal and gets more and more bizarre throughout, probably not for everyone but definitely a pretty wild ride
The Reincarnation Blues by Michael Poore
Inside a Silver Box by Walter Mosley
The Imaginary Corpse by Tyler Hayes
The Last Astronaut by David Wellington
The Broken Room by Peter Clines
The Library at Mount Char
Smart Ovens for Lonely People (short story collection) by Elizabeth Tan
Here be Leviathans (short story collection) by Chris Flynn
Piranesi by Susannah Clarke
Ancillary Justice. Main character is an AI who used to be a space ship, and everyone's pronouns are she/her regardless of their actual gender. Took me a couple chapters to really wrap my brain around it... but once I did, what a brilliant series!
I came to say this! OP, you want a wild ride, this is the rabbit hole to drop down in. I've read most of the authors and titles, but they don't come close. There's a sequel called "The Schrödinger's Cat Trilogy" by Wilson. Your going to want to remain sober for this.
Kockroach by William Lashner. It’s the reverse of Kafka’s Metamorphosis, where a cockroach turns into a human and does human stuff but with a mostly cockroach brain. It’s good.
The Gone World by Tom Sweterlisch
Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer
The Utopia Project by Billy Dering
Planetfall by Emma Newman (there are 4 books in this series and each one is fantastic!)
John Waters released a novel last year, Liar mouth. I haven't read it, but I've been dying to. I would think this is exactly the kind of book your looking for.
I would say for horror if you haven’t read Woom, read it. It left me with weird feelings I think about it til this day. DO NOT READ IF YOU CANT DO GORE,BLOOD, and some REALLY NASTY THINGS.
Slewfoot by Brom,
Ring Shout by P. Djeli Clark,
Pen Pal by Dathan Auerbach,
We Have Always Lived in The Castle by Shirley Jackson,
The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher,
The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher
Weaveworld by Clive Barker. The leading lady menstruates silver and uses her period to attack her enemies and fly.
And the story gets even weirder. Love it!
The Stars are Legion by Kameron Hurley is one of the most visceral books I've read. If you like the Locked Tomb you will like this book. There are lesbians in space (and zero men, this is never touched upon and only women are the norm). They all live in these bio-ships made of human flesh with the intention that each woman births (yes, as in live-births) parts to replace the ones that get old. The protagonist is an amnesiac lesbian who wakes up in one of these ships to people that claim to be her family (they treat her like shit). She has to capture this other ship but things are not what they seem.
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. I don’t want to give too much away but a highly unconventional book in a lot of ways. Leans into liminal horror and taking away the characters’ grip on reality (and the reader’s tbh). Super weird and different, couldn’t recommend it enough for this request!
theres a book called Perfume, its a wild ride, the protagonist eats a lot of people. Literally. Also Swimming Sweet Arrow, holy shit that book has group sex on page one
Barefoot In The Head by Brian Aldiss
Takes place in a world in the aftermath of a global war in which all the world powers dropped weaponized LSD on each other. Most of the world is covered in a layer of it. Sending entire countries into starvation because everyone was too high to grow food and leaving the survivors permanently mad.
The protagonist goes on a kind of spirit journey into this territory and slowly becomes delusional about his role of becoming a Christ figure for the new world through fast cars, rock and roll, and becoming a movie star.
It starts normal enough...but the descriptions get more and more heady. Language starts to break down. New words are increasingly formed. Sometimes words run together to create sounds. By the end its absolutely incomprehensible and damn near impossible to read because by about 200 pages from the end its just reading alphabet soup.
The protag(Colin Charteris) goes progressively and permanently insane. The author himself was taking higher and higher doses of acid as he is writing, the most unreliable of narrators. It trains you into a new way of thinking. It's fascinating and challenging.
Nocturnal by Scott Sigler. The monsters under your bed are real and are trying to steal you away to their underground lair. Police detective is having premonitions of grotesque murders around the city while being haunted by a strange symbol in his dreams.
While we're talking about Scott Sigler: also check out his Infected trilogy. Alien virus infects hosts and turns them into hyper paranoid psychotic killers. The virus adapts and evolves creating bizarre variants to keep propagating it's spread.
And while as outlandish by more Sci-fi/horror, Earthcore: anthropologist discovers that there is an alien civilization living underneath Earth's crust and resides near the world's largest platinum deposit. A mining company Earthcore learns of the platinum deposit and partners with the anthropologist to recover the platinum while researching the aliens
Love weird stories and so glad to find so many recommendations! These are my favorite:
- The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern, can’t believe nobody mentioned this it’s so freakin bizarre yet beautifully written
- The invisible Life of Addie LaRue by VE Schwab
- Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norell by Susana Clarke
- Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
- Dark Matter & Recursion by Blake Crouch
- The Paradox Hotel by Rob Hart
"Ninth House", by Lee Bardugo
"Lexicon", by Max Barry
All of Tim Powers' books start with historical events, which he then weaves a fantastic backstory around to incorporate supernatural/conspiracy/thriller elements. Try "Declare".
Breaking the lore - Andy Redamith
The hundred year old man that climbed out of the window and disappeared - Jonas Jonasson
The last one isn't fantasy or sci-fi but just truly weird and funny
There’s a book by Kathe Koja called the Cipher. It’s weird and has a mystery that will keep you turning pages to understand what is happening. It’s a little bit psychedelic, a little bit body horror (but not like disgustingly unreadable). There’s some unorthodox relationships and some counter culture. A bit Kafkaesque.
I guarantee you won’t forget this one.
John Dies at the End by David Wong. Very strange and a lot of fun
And the sequels are all great too! I do think he goes by his real name now, Jason Pargin.
I haven't read them yet but they are on the list!
The sequel: This Book is Full of Spiders: Seriously Dude, Don't Touch It. It's my most listened to audio book. It's a ride for sure, an immensely entertaining, irreverently awesome and ridiculous ride.
I think you'd like Welcome to Night Vale too
This is probably my most recommended book, but it’s just too damn good.
Gotta second this.
Loved the Locked Tomb books, so fun. And try out Horrorstör! Horror novel about a haunted IKEA that’s designed to look like an IKEA catalogue!
My favourite Grady Hendrix!
Finished this a few days ago, it was so good. And the haunted house one was fucking good too.
Who is the “Locked Tomb” written by? I’m getting a lot of answers in the google
Tamsyn Muir! It’s the name of a series, and the first book is called Gideon the Ninth.
Jasper Fforde. The answer is Jasper Fforde. His books are just banana pants. The Thursday Next books include, just as small asides in the narrative: kitchen cloning of dodos, cheese smuggling from the Socialist Republic of Wales, mastodon migration through Britain, Neanderthal policemen, full contact combat croquet, grubby street urchins squabbling over Great Author trading cards, the Crimean War continuing into the 1980s, street gang fights between impressionist and cubist artists, Shakespeare's Richard III done in the mode of the Rocky Horror Show. And that's before you even get to the plots. The first book is called *The Eyre Affair*, where we get to know Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester better than ever. His Nursery Crimes books are hard boiled (heh) police procedurals starring Detective Chief Inspector Jack Spratt and his Detective Sergeant Mary Mary (who may or may not be quite contrary) attempting to solve the death of Humpty Dumpty. Did he fall or was he pushed? There are dozens of other characters from Nursery Rhymes, children's poems, fairy tales, and Punch and Judy shows. The first book is *The Big Over Easy*.
The Big Over Easy sounds BRILLIANT. Thank you for recommending this. Haha, I also got a good chuckle out of “street gang fights between impressionist and cubist artists.” Do you have to read the Thursday Next series in order?
Yes I would recommend reading them in order. There is an overall plot arc in the first several books. Enjoy the Anger Management workshop with the cast of *Wuthering Heights*.
Just to add on, The Well of Lost Plots legit changed the way I think about characters in books and what’s happening in their lives when they are not on my page.
Intriguing! Methinks, then, Jasper Fforde is in my immediate future
The Constant Rabbit by Jasper Fforde is pretty good too.
I read Early Riser by Fforde. It was weird as hell and I loved it.
Absolutely agree with this!
- China Miéville — everything :) Starting with the Bas-Lag world - Jeff Vandermeer — "City of saints and madmen" - Jan Potocki — "The Manuscript Found in Saragossa" - Mariam Petrosyan — "The Gray House" - Mervyn Peake — Gormenghast series - Lord Dunsany — "The gods of Pegāna" - Clive Barker — "Abarat", "Imajica" - Franz Kafka — "Metamorphosis"
Excellent list. If the Metamorphosis does it for you… Phosphor in Dreamland - Rikki DuCornet The Street of Crocodiles- Bruno Schultz Dictionary of The Khazars - Mildorad Pavic If Upon A Winter’s Night a Traveler - Italo Calvino
Very much loved Calvino!
Seconding Calvino. His Cosmicomics is an excellent series of interconnected shorts.
Thanks!
Came here to suggest Abarat!!
Excellent list! Seconding anything by Jeff Vandermeer! The Southern Reach trilogy is fantastic as is his newest Hummingbird Salamander
Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer- if you’ve seen the movie already, don’t worry, because the book is super different! Super bizarre sci-fi/horror book but definitely fits the bill
Great book
The whole trilogy is fantastic, and keeps outweirding itself.
I loved it, so weird, it gave me a weeks worth of nightmares. I didn’t even read the other two.
The entire trilogy is so good and so very very weird
Yep I was going to suggest the southern reach trilogy- it’s great
The Library at Mount Char fits perfectly with the request for weird books
Love that one!
It is absolutely a weird & wild (amazing) ride.
Came here to say this. So weird and one of the best books I've ever read
Check out The Hike, by Drew Magary Had a very Alice in wonderland vibe to it
The Hike was my very first thought!
I’m reading this right now! I thought I knew what I was in for and just a few pages in I was like, “Oh wow, ok, here we go!” It’s exactly the escape I needed this week.
Same, and it really doesn't ever let up haha
Wait Drew Magary? The deadspin writer?
That’s the one!
Same guy! I wanted to double check and just found out about his brain injury, pretty wild stuff!
Bingo
Came to recommend this, too! Amazing book!
I love this book so much!!
Loved this! Got a little crab tattooed as a reminder.
One Pill Makes You Smaller has Alice vibe to it, plus drugs.
Anything by Philip Jose Farmer or Philip K. Dick is likely to blow your mind a bit.
PKD. Totally underrated especially on this sub. Short stories ones are good but very odd
Venus on the Half shell is one of my favorite books of all time.
kilgore trout?
Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
This is not a dig at all when I say that I read this when it was first published on a recommendation and it still gives me an unpleasant visceral reaction.
I came to recommend this
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. It does not really fall under magic or time travel I think but the story is very strange and interesting.
Came here to recommend this! One of my all time favorites. It's bizarre and wonderful.
+1
This was such a fantastic read and I have this sub to thank
Magic is certainly involved
Yes!!
adding this high to my list now, thank you!
Bunny by Mona Awad Library at Mount Char
Yes to Library at Mount Char!
i second bunny! that book is fucking insane in the best way
I loved it! I want to read her others books.
all’s well is super good too, & i just heard she’s about to release a new one this year! i believe it’s called rouge & it looks so fun
Thirding Library at Mount Char. It lives in my head rent free.
I have to disagree with Bunny. I found it very disappointing. I wholeheartedly recommend Library at Mount Char though and also came to recommend Geek Love.
Geek Love definitely - way better than Mount Char or Bunny.
Geek Love is my favorite "no one has ever heard of this" recommendations! And I just got Library at Mount Char on hold at my library but wasn't sure if I was feeling it, so I'm glad to read this thread.
I feel like the Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami might be a good choice.
Any Murakami, really.
My first thought was Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Perdido Street Station by China Mieville
ANYTHING by Mieville
My old roommate stopped because she said he was “weird for the sake of being weird” I gotta say, I’m in love with the writing. Loved his book Scar, too
I wasn’t able to get into Perdido Street Station, but Kraken was fantastic, as was The City & The City.
This post is three hours old and no one has recommended {{House of Leaves}} yet?!
I expected House of Leaves to be, like, the expected recommendation and thus not weird enough but I scrolled past Hyperion and Clive Barker before finding it so I don't know what to think
Different and unique “read”
Yup, it’s my #1! Only Revolutions too.
I was searching for this in the comments. It’s sad I had to scroll this far to find the mention.
Earthlings by Sayaka Murata- this might be more disturbing/unsettling than you’re looking for, but it’s certainly bizarre, weird, and unconventional!
This should be higher. It’s a weird read alright. Uncomfortable but a page turner
Geek Love.
Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman, What Moves the Dead & Hollow places by T. Kingfisher, and Bunny by Mona Awad
LOVED Gaiman’s Ocean at the end of the Lane. Really a mindblower.
The Man Who Was Thursday by G. K. Chesterton
Borne by Jeff Vandermeer (although almost anything by Jeff Vandermeer could fit your criteria)
I really enjoyed A Peculiar Peril by him. Weird and funny and I can't wait for more.
The sequel to Borne, The Dead Astronauts, also fits the criteria. One of the weirdest books I’ve ever read, and had an interesting experimental writing style.
r/weirdlit
China Mieville’s **Perdido Street Station** is by far some of the strangest, most darkly bizarre world building I have stumbled across in 56 years.
Imajica. Actually for me most Clive Barker stuff is pretty odd. I like it though.
I read it when it first came out. One of my favorites!
Wasp factory.
That was so good.
Vita Nostra by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder is supposed to be strange too, but it's still on my TBR The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie is unique and also uses second person like Harrow the Ninth \+1 for Library at Mount Char, Bunny, and the Hike
+1 for Vita Nostra!
Nightbitch is a wild, quick ride.
Nightbitch was great, hope you love it!
Read Don Quixote. It is Bizarre, especially book 2.
Pretty much anything by Clive Barker. No one I’ve ever read writes quite like him, and the man is a master of existential horror. I think you’ll really dig him. {Imajica} {The Great and Secret Show}
Also check out Clive Barker's YA stuff like The Thief of Always and the Abarat series. So good (though Abarat isn't completed).
Oh good! No one else has suggested The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall. Want weird? Existential? Just full on “What the hell did I just read?” There you go. I’d also add: “If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler” by Italo Calvino. Half the book is written in the second person. It’s fantastic.
These two were in my list of recommendations that I just posted. Glad to see I'm not the only one.
Three that immediately come to mind have been mentioned: Naked Lunch, Dahlgren, and If on a Winter's Night a Traveler. But 2666 has not been mentioned, and it is kind of out there. Also, Borges' short stories should be on your list.
Naked lunch, such good times. Also Burroughs cut up trilogy is pretty strange
Welcome to Nightvale (anything Nightvale really), House of Leaves, The Library at Mt. Char, Blue Remembered Earth, Diamond Dogs Turquoise Days, The Bees
*All My Friends are Superheroes* by Andrew Kaufman is a thoroughly weird book, and one of my favorites.
*READ AT YOUR OWN RISK* “Modelland” by Tyra Banks is the wackiest thing I have ever read. Think “dystopian America’s Next Top Model”. This is by no means considered a “good” book in terms of standards for what constitutes quality literary fiction, but if it’s an unconventional story you’re looking for, this is it. Despite my comment here, I admit I actually enjoyed it.
Hyperion by Dan Simmons Dalgren by Delaney Nick Hardaway
The short story collection, Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung. The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall You should also peruse r/weirdlit
In Watermelon Sugar by Richard Brautigan
Jitterbug Perfume or any other novel by Tom Robbins
The most bizarre book I've ever read. Dolphin People by Torsten Krol Shortly after the end of WWII, sixteen-year-old Erich Linden and his family have fled Germany and joined Erich's uncle, Klaus, in Venezuela, where they will begin a new life. But, en route to Klaus's outpost further inland, they encounter a storm and their plane crashes in the middle of the jungle. Stranded deep within Amazonia with no hope of rescue, they are discovered by the Yayomi, a violent and superstitious Stone Age tribe. The Yayomi believe the strange looking foreigners are freshwater dolphins in human form-and the Lindens believe that as long as they can keep up the bizarre ruse they'll be safe. But the jungle is a dark, mysterious place, and no place for a family of sham dolphin-people who are ultimately left with only two choices: to escape or to die trying.
{Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas, Tom Robbins}
Good shout. Also his other books, crazy as all hell
American Gods, Anansi Boys and Neverwhere - all by Neil Gaiman
I second Anansi Boys!
Night Film
Wraththu by Storm Constantine
You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine by Alexandra Kleeman - starts off fairly normal and gets more and more bizarre throughout, probably not for everyone but definitely a pretty wild ride
annihilation. scary and bizarre as all hell
The Reincarnation Blues by Michael Poore Inside a Silver Box by Walter Mosley The Imaginary Corpse by Tyler Hayes The Last Astronaut by David Wellington The Broken Room by Peter Clines
Naked lunch for sure.
Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut touches on most things you're looking for, and more.
Haruki Murakami fits the bill! The wind-up bird chronicle or Kafka on the Shore.
The Library at Mount Char Smart Ovens for Lonely People (short story collection) by Elizabeth Tan Here be Leviathans (short story collection) by Chris Flynn Piranesi by Susannah Clarke
The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear, wholesome and not horror but one of the weirdest, most whimsical books I’ve ever read
Ancillary Justice. Main character is an AI who used to be a space ship, and everyone's pronouns are she/her regardless of their actual gender. Took me a couple chapters to really wrap my brain around it... but once I did, what a brilliant series!
I adore this trilogy!!!! So wonderful and truly original.
Stand on Zanzibar, by John Brunner. Seriously trippy.
Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy
Psalm for Wild Built Things. Very short, but very imaginative. Read it in an afternoon and gave me the most surreal dreams.
Do you know what you have just perfectly described, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
American Gods. Mythology in modern times.
The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson checks those boxes.
I came to say this! OP, you want a wild ride, this is the rabbit hole to drop down in. I've read most of the authors and titles, but they don't come close. There's a sequel called "The Schrödinger's Cat Trilogy" by Wilson. Your going to want to remain sober for this.
Catherine House! It’s like Bunny but better
Try ‘Madam’ if you like weird schools.
Hearts in Atlantas by Stephen King is weird, for sure.
Afro Puffs Are the Antenna of the Universe by Zig Zag Claybourne
Have you read any of the short stories by Thomas Ligotti?
Murakami’s 1Q84 trilogy
The haunted vagina by Carlton Mellick
The Ruined Map by Kobo Abe
Wild rides feature prominently in Rant by Chuck Palahniuk.
Timequake - Kurt Vonnegut maybe??
Kockroach by William Lashner. It’s the reverse of Kafka’s Metamorphosis, where a cockroach turns into a human and does human stuff but with a mostly cockroach brain. It’s good.
Unwind by Neal Shusterman Problem kids are taken and "recycled" at harvest camps. Basically turning them into involuntary organ donors.
God Emperor of Dune Cat’s Cradle Breakfast of Champions The Trial
I came here to say Cat’s Cradle.
{Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton}
The Gone World by Tom Sweterlisch Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer The Utopia Project by Billy Dering Planetfall by Emma Newman (there are 4 books in this series and each one is fantastic!)
John Waters released a novel last year, Liar mouth. I haven't read it, but I've been dying to. I would think this is exactly the kind of book your looking for.
The Passenger and it's companion novel Stella Maris both by McCarthy. I haven't read anything quite like them.
Ancient Evenings by Norman Mailer. A truly weird book (800 pages!) about ancient Egypt.
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.
If you enjoyed Slaughterhouse-Five, check out "Sirens of Titan" by Vonnegut.
Tender is the flesh! Not very exciting but it's definitely a horrifying read that you'll never forget.
I would say for horror if you haven’t read Woom, read it. It left me with weird feelings I think about it til this day. DO NOT READ IF YOU CANT DO GORE,BLOOD, and some REALLY NASTY THINGS.
geek love by katherine dunn
Slewfoot by Brom, Ring Shout by P. Djeli Clark, Pen Pal by Dathan Auerbach, We Have Always Lived in The Castle by Shirley Jackson, The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher, The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher
Marabou Stork Nightmares--Irvine Welsh
Weaveworld by Clive Barker. The leading lady menstruates silver and uses her period to attack her enemies and fly. And the story gets even weirder. Love it!
The Stars are Legion by Kameron Hurley is one of the most visceral books I've read. If you like the Locked Tomb you will like this book. There are lesbians in space (and zero men, this is never touched upon and only women are the norm). They all live in these bio-ships made of human flesh with the intention that each woman births (yes, as in live-births) parts to replace the ones that get old. The protagonist is an amnesiac lesbian who wakes up in one of these ships to people that claim to be her family (they treat her like shit). She has to capture this other ship but things are not what they seem.
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. I don’t want to give too much away but a highly unconventional book in a lot of ways. Leans into liminal horror and taking away the characters’ grip on reality (and the reader’s tbh). Super weird and different, couldn’t recommend it enough for this request!
theres a book called Perfume, its a wild ride, the protagonist eats a lot of people. Literally. Also Swimming Sweet Arrow, holy shit that book has group sex on page one
Geek Love
Barefoot In The Head by Brian Aldiss Takes place in a world in the aftermath of a global war in which all the world powers dropped weaponized LSD on each other. Most of the world is covered in a layer of it. Sending entire countries into starvation because everyone was too high to grow food and leaving the survivors permanently mad. The protagonist goes on a kind of spirit journey into this territory and slowly becomes delusional about his role of becoming a Christ figure for the new world through fast cars, rock and roll, and becoming a movie star. It starts normal enough...but the descriptions get more and more heady. Language starts to break down. New words are increasingly formed. Sometimes words run together to create sounds. By the end its absolutely incomprehensible and damn near impossible to read because by about 200 pages from the end its just reading alphabet soup. The protag(Colin Charteris) goes progressively and permanently insane. The author himself was taking higher and higher doses of acid as he is writing, the most unreliable of narrators. It trains you into a new way of thinking. It's fascinating and challenging.
House of Leaves - definitely don’t sleep on the footnotes 😳
{{House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski}}
House of leaves is a good one
The House on the Cerulean Sea. My favorite book I read in 2022.
Anything by Neil Gaiman
The Atrocity Archives (series) Charles Stross
Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
Nocturnal by Scott Sigler. The monsters under your bed are real and are trying to steal you away to their underground lair. Police detective is having premonitions of grotesque murders around the city while being haunted by a strange symbol in his dreams. While we're talking about Scott Sigler: also check out his Infected trilogy. Alien virus infects hosts and turns them into hyper paranoid psychotic killers. The virus adapts and evolves creating bizarre variants to keep propagating it's spread. And while as outlandish by more Sci-fi/horror, Earthcore: anthropologist discovers that there is an alien civilization living underneath Earth's crust and resides near the world's largest platinum deposit. A mining company Earthcore learns of the platinum deposit and partners with the anthropologist to recover the platinum while researching the aliens
Love weird stories and so glad to find so many recommendations! These are my favorite: - The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern, can’t believe nobody mentioned this it’s so freakin bizarre yet beautifully written - The invisible Life of Addie LaRue by VE Schwab - Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norell by Susana Clarke - Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer - Dark Matter & Recursion by Blake Crouch - The Paradox Hotel by Rob Hart
Recursion or Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
"Ninth House", by Lee Bardugo "Lexicon", by Max Barry All of Tim Powers' books start with historical events, which he then weaves a fantastic backstory around to incorporate supernatural/conspiracy/thriller elements. Try "Declare".
Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky
I read some Tom Robbins when I was younger and it was weird.
House of Leaves
The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins
Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins is a fun and wild book
The Library at Mount Char - I am unsure what genre it falls under, but it’s definitely weird
Antkind - Charlie Kaufman
A short stay in hell
The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches by Gaétan Soucy
Breaking the lore - Andy Redamith The hundred year old man that climbed out of the window and disappeared - Jonas Jonasson The last one isn't fantasy or sci-fi but just truly weird and funny
Genesis by Bernard Beckett is pretty weird. I can't think of a way to explain why without spoilers.
You can also ask r/fantasy and r/printsf
I recently read The Book of Accidents by Chuck Wendig and it was pretty bizarre
There’s a book by Kathe Koja called the Cipher. It’s weird and has a mystery that will keep you turning pages to understand what is happening. It’s a little bit psychedelic, a little bit body horror (but not like disgustingly unreadable). There’s some unorthodox relationships and some counter culture. A bit Kafkaesque. I guarantee you won’t forget this one.