The 52 Book Club: 2026 Challenge discussion

3 -- Written Without Quotation Marks

A quotation mark is a set of punctuation marks used to designate the beginning and end of dialogue. (“Like this,” for example). Some authors intentionally choose to create books without quotation marks as a stylistic choice.

For this prompt, choose any book that’s written without quotation marks. As with all our prompts, you may choose to read this book in any format. If this stylistic choice feels disorientating while reading, listening on audio may be helpful. The book may be fully or only partially written without quotation marks.



Here is our Goodreads List for this prompt

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1... here is a Goodreads list

Bird Box by Josh Malerman

This Other Eden by Paul Harding

At this point I'm planning on News of the World unless I stumble across something else.

Beautiful World Where Are You, by Sally Rooney

The Country Under Heaven

My options(unless they change by next year) will be either:

True Biz

or

Orbital

Tabitha wrote: "My options(unless they change by next year) will be either:

True Biz

or

Orbital"

True Biz is terrific!

does a book with no spoken dialogue still count or does it have to be speech but no marks?

Thomas wrote: "does a book with no spoken dialogue still count or does it have to be speech but no marks?"

As they always say, "Your challenge, your rules!" I think it would be just as hard to find a book with no dialogue, and now I'm curious which one you are considering.

Brandon- nothing in particular I just believe I have some non fiction books with no dialogue

Normal People, Sally Rooney

Severance - this one has been sitting on my shelf for over 2 years now and it needs to be read!

Carolyn wrote: "Normal People, Sally Rooney " this is one of my favorites of all time!! i hope you love it.

Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt.

Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf. I just read it (and really enjoyed it), but I sure wish I had waited 6 weeks!!

I finished reading Know My Name by Chanel Miller, and there were no quotation marks in that book. It was also an excellent read.

Døde menn går i land by Bernhard Borge/André Bjerke

Read De dødes tjern and Nattmennesket by him this fall, and the copies I got from the library had no quotation marks. They were also written in the 40ies.

Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson

I'm going to approach this by choosing a graphic novel/comic!

Cosmogyral wrote: "I'm going to approach this by choosing a graphic novel/comic!"

I had this thought, too. The first few comics I looked at had particular phrases in quotes or characters quoting other characters in their dialogue, and I didn't want to count those. I'm sure that it will work for some issues, though.

William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope has no quote marks so far. I think a lot of plays and scripts would fit this prompt.

I'm reading The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey, and when they talk to Faina, there are no quotation marks.

Talking at Night by Claire Daverley. I really enjoyed this debut book!

I can't in good faith recommend it, but some chapters of James Joyce's Ulysses don't use quotation marks during dialogue. If you were going to read it anyway because you hate yourself or something, you could count it here. :) (I read it just last month. I'm both glad I did and also kind of not glad I did.)

Found this on the Goodreads list, I think, but I immediately picked it because I enjoyed the film so much: The Commitments by Roddy Doyle.

This is how you lose a time war

Long Bright River or Plainsong #1

I am going with Bird Box by Josh Malerman

Im am thinking of a nice light hearted read after the first two prompts im going to read the wind in the willows it was a book i read so often as a child and have not read in a very long time. Then, if I have time I may read normal people. 😅

I just finished “Weather and Beasts and Growing Things” by Charlotte Suttee for this prompt. If you enjoy poetic, untethered, loose narratives and sci-fi, this could be a good option for you!

Bad, Bad Girl by Gish Jen is partially written without quotation marks.

I think I will go with manga or comics for this one. I don't think they usually have quotation marks.

I’ve had Ella Minnow Pea on my shelf for a while, so that will be for either this prompt or for “told through letters”

I read Long Bright River by Liz Moore for this prompt.

I read the short story "Things" by Ursula K Le Guin.

Just finished The Road by Cormac McCarthy for this one!

I am reading Plainsong

I read Wilder Girls by Rory Powers. There is a portion of the story where one of the characters is having trouble focusing in reality. Those chapters do not have quotation marks, though dialogue does happen.

Cosmogyral wrote: "I'm going to approach this by choosing a graphic novel/comic!"

I love this idea! Persepolis is screaming my name and fits in with the other books I'm reading atm:
Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
Black Wave: Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Forty-Year Rivalry That Unraveled Culture, Religion, and Collective Memory in the Middle East

I can finish off the month in Tehran and tick a couple of boxes. Thank you!

The Fell by Sarah Moss

One novel I liked twice with no quotation marks is Enemy Women but I'm not yet sure what I'll read for that. I spend most of the year plugging things in that I'm reading already, then look for others specifically later on. So far I've read books that fit five prompts this way and I'm reading one that will fit a sixth one.

I do look at the list sometimes when deciding what to read next (I have lists of a few challenges I'm doing on the wide music stand where I put the books I'm reading if I'm reading at home.)

I read Cryptid Club by Sarah Andersen, 5 Stars

Molloy, Samuel Beckett