The atmospheric mystery hooks you right off the top and the worldbuilding is just *Chef's Kiss* - magical, eerie and slightly terrifying - a deceptively short read which is a perfect cure for a slump!
Apr 18, 2024
Related Recs
a brisk and incredible read that happens to have a setting that is completely at the whims of the sea, a labyrinthine, infinite collection of corridors lined with ornate statues, inside of which an ocean is imprisoned. it’s a great evolution of borgesian magical realism with beautiful prose and a hook that sunk deep into me early on, i lamented closing the final page for weeks after
Jan 23, 2025
Magical realism/general spookiness is the perfect genre for short stories, mystery lends itself to brevity.
We Have Always Lived in the Castle - Shirley Jackson (158 pages)
Our Wives Under the Sea - Julia Armfield (232 pages)
Annihilation - Jeff Vandermeer (195 pages)
Pirasesi by susanna clarke (245 pages)
The Magic Toyshop - Angela Carter (200 pages)
(Or even short Angela Carter’s Love which is 120 pages)
Jan 4, 2025
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the doll's alphabet by camilla grudova - strange, fabulous, surreal short stories that play around with the grotesque, gothic and uncanny
fen by daisy johnson - short story collection set in the same setting, reads as if fables or myths
drive your plow over the bones of the dead by olga tokarczuk - less overtly weird but hypnotic, concerned with astrology, william blake and morals. eccentric and delightful and one of the very very very best books ever written
the fish by lloyd jones - oh i love this one.. told through the point of view a young boy whose sister gives birth to a fish. devastating and compelling and strange
swanfolk by kristin ómarsdóttir - a young spy is entranced by a group of swan women. very dreamy and whimsical but also investigating ideas of power / sanity / violence
lament for julia by susan taubes - novella + short stories, one of the best books i've ever read. the novella is disturbing and strange, told through the POV of a demon who lives inside julia's i and wickedly controls / recounts her life
agree w the pisces by melissa broder - romance with a merman that is fabulous and fun and weird
audition by pip adam - a scifi novel about prison abolishment that plays with a really unique, experimental writing style. i loved it even though i traditionally don't like scifi/fantasy
pale fire by vladimir nabokov - poem, fictional poet, forward, index; such a weird, strange, experimental, confident and unusual structure with a plot that is as equally as strange by the time you're finished
any kafka too...obviously
hope this helps, i love weird lit ♡
Jun 1, 2024
Top Recs from @inpoortaste
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I feel like as you get older, friendships require a lot more effort and intention - you have to commit to wanting to be someone’s friend because everyone else is also an adult with so much going on in their lives! so people can seems a bit hostile and unwilling to open themselves up, but I would say the best way to make new friends is being the one to risk it first. You might be surprised as to how many people are willing to also open up once they know they’re not going to be emotionally dismissed!
Apr 23, 2024
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All the best and worst bits about being a human and loving another human
Apr 18, 2024
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Melodrama is one of my favourite pop albums ever, and the tracking is PERFECT. The album closes on this bittersweet but ultimately highly compassionate and energetic song that synthesizes everything it’s like when you’re coming into your own and discovering who you are in a world that seems very, very vast.
We can be alone and confused together 😎
May 5, 2024