EVERYONE Has Read This but Me - The Catch-Up Book Club discussion

Looking for weird fiction recommendations. Like, that book that doesn't really fit in any genre, and you feel weird about recommending it to people because... how do you explain that?... but you keep thinking about it anyway. that's what I want. Make my 2021 weird lit. Thank you.

Omg I’ve waited for this! Here are my weird book recs:

- Abarat by Clive Barker (Hopefully you can find an illustrated copy, I don’t understand why people bothered to publish it without all the paintings that are so intrinsic to the story)

- Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

- Smoke Gets in Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty

- A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan

- Pure by Julianna Baggott (hasn’t made it into pop culture yet but SHOULD)

- The FitzOsbornes at War by Michelle Cooper (this is the last book in the trilogy, it takes place during World War II and is about young adults of a royalty from a bankrupt, ramshackle island. My first historical fiction with queer characters and a polyamorous relationship.)

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (this is well-known, but most people who know of it don’t know how weird it is and how difficult it is to due to a non-linear plot.

- Of Bees and Mist by Erick Setiawan

- Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine (this has my heart)

- A Taste for Rabbit by Linda Zuckerman. I can’t say anything about this without spoiling it, but I love it

- Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin. A teen girl dies, then in the afterlife ages backward until she is a baby again and is sent back to Earth as a new person.

Geek Love, by Katherine Dunn

I’m back with more!

- SuperMutant Magic Academy
- On a Sunbeam
- Magic for Liars
- Saga, Vol. 1
-Trail of Lightning (think adult Percy Jackson exploring Indigenous mythology)
- Every Heart a Doorway
-Meddling Kids
- The Book of Joan
- When the Moon Was Ours
- The Color Purple
- The Walls Around Us
- Althea & Oliver
- Sing, Unburied, Sing

Sarina wrote: "I’m back with more!

Um yeah so I have a little passion for weird books that don’t fit the popular taste (or have a cult following)

Not the End of the World by Geraldine McCaughrean is a Noah’s arc retelling from the perspective of Noah’s daughter, a voice that wasn’t valued in her time. It isn’t particularly religious, even if it retells a religious story. It’s more about sexism and the negativity of following God to near-extinction.

Old Media

It's a short story, but it ultimately triggered my search for weird fiction.

Gods Behaving Badly
Lullaby

I recommend House of Stairs by William Sleator. It has a bit of a sci-fi feel to it and is also a little suspenseful. I read it when I was around 12 years old and still think about it often.

I also agree with Sarina's suggestion of Abarat it's one of my favorites and very weird. (There are two other books in this series as well!)

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki (on mobile so can't link). A woman finds a diary as she walks on the beach.
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender. A girl discovers that she can taste the emotions of the people preparing her food.

The Tin Drum, by Gunter Grass

The Atrocity Exhibition by J.G. Ballard

I just finished THE INVISIBLE LIFE OF ADDIE LARUE by VE Schwab. It is definitely one of my favorites. It is a speculative/supernatural Faustian tale so possibly qualifies as weird, although it is very popular.

This is a fun thread. I hope people keep posting on it. I love unusual books

Annihilation
I just finished this one and while it has had it's spot of popularity, it definitely belongs on the Weird List.

Elenap wrote: "This is a fun thread. I hope people keep posting on it. I love unusual books"

Yes! Agreed.

Bunny by Mona Awad

oh you gotta check out a story by Philip Roth's The Breast. it's absolutely absurd.

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton - Agatha Christie meets Ground Hog's Day. I've read this book at least twice and still find myself thinking, "Wait . . . what?"

Erin Morgenstern's second book, The Starless Sea is very different from The Night Circus, and I didn't like it quite as much, but it is wierd.

Oh man. I just read a John Guare play called The House of the Blue Leaves and it is everywhere.

The Naked Lunch by William Burroughs. He says it doesn’t even matter in which order you read the chapters, and you kinda see his point by about halfway through.

I thought A Wrinkle in Time was really weird. Creatures and societies on alternate planets that have strange powers. Even though it is a much loved "classic" I did not enjoy it very much, too weird and the main character was annoying to me.