100 Must-Read Strange, Unusual, And Downright Weird Books

100 Must-Read Strange, Unusual, And Downright Weird Books I love strange and weird books, mostly because I, myself, am strange and unusual. (Okay, you got me I wrote this list just so I could quote Beetlejuice.) Seriously, though, I love strange books. So whether theres something just a little different about the story, or the book is full-on bizarre, here are 100 wonderful weird books I have read and highly recommend. Some of these weird books are funny. Some of them are strange books that are a bit disturbing. Some of them are both of those things. And they are all amazing! These were just the first 100 weird books that popped into my head. I am happy to talk about more unusual books   and to learn about them! Please tell me about your favorite unusual books in the comments! Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood: In the future, for starters, people will have blue butts. Bear vs. Shark by Chris Bachelder: A young boy wins an essay contest and gets to take his family to Las Vegas to see a bear wrestle a shark. Lives of the Monster Dogs by Kirsten Bakis: Like Edward Scissorhands. But with dogs. The Vaults by Toby Ball: Intrigue surrounding an archive, set in the dystopian 1930s. The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks: *insert emoji for OH GOD MY EYES here* The Incarnations by Susan Barker: The many variations of lives of two people in  Beijing. Beatlebone by Kevin Barry: So, John Lennon is on an Irish island in 1978 The Teleportation Accident by Ned Beauman: This  has my favorite ending to any book ever. In the House Upon the Dirt Between the Lake and the Woods  by Matt Bell: A man swallows his unborn fetus like you do and it whispers dark secrets to him from inside. The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry: Bizarre dystopian detective noir. The Illumination by Kevin Brockmeier: People begin bleeding light from their wounds. Heart of a Dog by Mikhail Bulgakov (Author), Michael Glenny (Translator): A dog implanted with the glands of a human criminal becomes a bureaucrat. The Weirdness by Jeremy Bushnell: What if Satan wasnt a bad guy? HAHAHAHAHA. But no, really. Observatory Mansions by Edward Carey: About a group of eccentric misfits living in an apartment building. Motherfucking Sharks by Brian Allen Carr: These sharks are not just limited to water, the big toothy jerks. The Vorrh by B. Catling: I cannot succinctly explain it, nor did I understand it, but I definitely loved it. The Daughters by Adrienne Celt:  A family curse predicts a daughter will steal the voice of her mother. Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead by Barbara Comyns: A quaint village begins experiencing a rash of gruesome deaths. An Exaggerated Murder by Josh Cook:  If Sherlock Holmes and Ignatius J. Reilly had a baby, that child would be Trike Augustine. Girlfriend in a Coma by Douglas Coupland: Richards pregnant comatose girlfriends reawakening may bring about the apocalypse. Being Dead by Jim Crace:  The story of a couples murder, told backwards. Like Memento, in book form. Duplex by Kathryn Davis: If you understand this book, please explain it to me. Or not. I still thought it was rad. Geek Love by Katherine Dunn: NONCONFORMISTS FTW! This book is the BEST. The Wilds by Julia Elliott: Weird Southern gothic stories that include robot legs, levitation, and bizarre spa treatments. Sudden Death  by Álvaro Enrigue (Author), Natasha Wimmer (Translator): Bizarre historical tennis. Zeroville by Steve Erickson: This has my other favorite ending to any book ever. Viper Wine  by Hermione Eyre: If David Bowie wrote historical fiction. The Blue Girl by Laurie Foos: About a blue girl, who eats moon pies full of secrets. Prodigies by  Angélica Gorodischer:  This book scratched my Muriel Spark/Barbara Comyns itches, with an extra side of the unusual. After the People Lights Have Gone Off by Stephen Graham Jones: My first takeaway from this horror story collection: Dont tattoo dead people. The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall: A shark made of text actually follows you through the book. Delicious Foods by James Hannaham: One of the narrators of this book is crack cocaine. The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway: My favorite. The hardcover jacket is velour. Its the only book I own that I clean with a lint brush. The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins: This melted my brains. Its my current book obsession. Fram by Steve Himmer: Employees of a fake government agency get sent on a real mission. Sister Mine by Nalo Hopkinson: Conjoined twins, now separated, whose father is the celestial demigod of growing things. Escape from Baghdad! by Saad Hossain: Bonkers war novel featuring jinn and an ancient librarian. Mr. Splitfoot by Samantha Hunt: A religious fanatic runs an orphanage where some of his charges can channel the dead. The Rabbit Back Literature Society by Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen (Author), Lola M. Rogers (Translator): The mysterious disappearance and society revolving around a famous childrens book author. The Hotel New Hampshire by John Irving: SO many weird things going on here. The woman who lives in a bear costume, for starters. Half Life by Shelley Jackson: Nora looks into a secret organization that might help her get rid of her twin. Er, her conjoined twin, that is. The Ninth Life of Louis Drax by Liz Jensen: Poor Louis could be a character in the Ghaslycrumb Tinies. Pym by Mat Johnson: An English professor searches for an island described in an Edgar Allan Poe novel, bringing along bones and Little Debbie snack cakes. The Vanishers by Heidi Julavits: A woman attending a school for psychics goes in search of the truth behind her mothers death. The Vegetarian by Han Kang: A womans decision to stop eating meat has dark and violent consequences. The Legend of Pradeep Mathew  by Shehan Karunatilaka: A madcap quest to find a legendary cricket bowler. The Last Illusion by Porochista Khakpour: A boy raised in a birdcage is rescued by a behavioral analyst and befriends a man who claims he can fly. The Cheese Monkeys by Chip Kidd: Weirdness at art school. (Is that redundant?) I Crawl Through It by A.S. King: Invisible helicopters, naked men in the bushes like its no big thing, and a girl who swallowed herself. Radio Iris by Anne-Marie Kinney: The receptionist at a company doesnt actually know what the comany does. (See also: The Beautiful Bureaucrat.) You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine by Alexandra Kleeman: This is the kind of weird that might make you weep because its not too far off from being reality. Alligators of Abraham by Robert Kloss: Alligators roam the world like humans during the Civil War. (I first read this when I had a fever, then read it again to be sure I hadnt hallucinated any of it.) Archivist Wasp  by Nicole Kornher-Stace: Ghosthunters, supersoldiers, and goddesses, oh my! The Orange Eats Creeps  by Grace Krilanovich: Its like a Burroughs vampire novel that might not actually be about vampires. Big Machine by Victor LaValle: A bus porter is invited to join a group of paranormal investigators. Long Division by Kiese Laymon: Time travel in the post-Katrina deep South. Disquiet by Julia Leigh: Sometimes its really hard to let go. *shudders* Just Like Beauty by Lisa Lerner: Futuristic beauty pageants, mutant grasshoppers, and suicide cults. As She Climbed Across the Table by Jonathan Lethem: Boy meets girl. Boy gets girl. Boy loses girl to a void in space. Stranger Things Happen by Kelly Link: SHE IS THE QUEEN. Read everything she has written. Right now. Ill wait here. The Gracekeepers by Kirsty Logan: A future where the world is mostly water and people are web-footed. setTimeout(function() { if (typeof(__gaTracker) !== 'undefined') { __gaTracker('send', 'event', 'InlineRandomContent Impression', 'InlineRandomContent', 'Daily Deals Giveaway Inline RC Feb 20'); } }, 3000); Three Scenarios in Which Hana Sasaki Grows a Tail  by Kelly Luce: Short stories, including one about a toaster that can predict when people are going to die. The Story of My Teeth by Valeria Luiselli (Author), Christina MacSweeney (Translator): Three guesses what the main character likes to collect. Remainder by Tom McCarthy: Have you seen  Synecdoche, New York? Its a lot like that, but in book form. The Giants House by Elizabeth McCracken: A librarian becomes involved in the life of a boy who cant stop growing. The Portable Veblen  by Elizabeth Mckenzie: Science! Romance! Squirrels! These things are not mutually exclusive. Mermaids in Paradise by Lydia Millet: Mermaids are real, and theyre being exploited for financial gain. Slade House by David Mitchell: Five different Halloween nights, five different times people shouldnt have gone in Slade House. Brave Story by Miyuki Miyabe (Author), Alexander O. Smith (Translator): A boy seeking to change his fate enters the magical world of Vision. The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear by Walter Moers: Its like Roald Dahl had a baby with Terry Pratchett. God Help the Child by Toni Morrison: A woman begins experiencing weird changes to her body when things in her life start going wrong. The Man in My Basement by Walter Mosely: A white man pays a black man to keep him locked in a cage in his basement. Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World  by Haruki Murakami: Madness surrounding a particle accelerator, Lauren Bacall, Bob Dylan, librarians, thugs, and more. Shine Shine Shine by Lydia Netzer: A woman struggles at home while her husband is on a mission to populate the moon with robots. The Country of Ice Cream Star by Sandra Newman: In a future America, people dont live past the age of twenty. What Was Lost by Catherine OFlynn: Whats behind the unexplained images on the security camera at the mall? Lagoon  by Nnedi Okorafor: A  famous rapper, a biologist, and a rogue soldier  walk into a bar Mr. Fox by Helen Oyeyemi: A bloodthirsty author is taken to task by one of his own characters. Version Control by Dexter Palmer: I dont know if Id like the President having the ability to pop round whenever he likes. The Bees by Laline Paul: A novel set inside a beehive, starring what else? bees. The Beautiful Bureaucrat by Helen Phillips: Josephine works entering endless strings of numbers into a computer, but she has no idea what theyre for. Masters of Atlantis by Charles Portis: A crackpot religion is founded based upon the lost city of Atlantis. Waiting for Gertrude by Bill Richardson: The spirits of famous people visit a Parisian cemetery in the form of cats. Dendera by Yuya Sato (Author), Edwin Hawkes (Translator), Nathan A Collins (Translator): A group of elderly women form a utopian community. Plus bears. (Theres a lot of bears on this list.) The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil by George Saunders: Inner Horner is a country only big enough to hold one resident at a time. Jamestown by Matthew Sharpe: A resettling of Jamestown, post-destruction of Manhattan. Cat Country by Lao She: Cat men on Mars! I repeat: Cat men on Mars! A Jello Horse by Matthew Simmons: The narrator embarks on a road trip to visit Americas bizarre museums and roadside attractions. The Unfinished World and Other Stories by Amber Sparks: Short stories, including one about two orphans who take up taxidermy to help with their grief. Some of Your Blood by Theodore Sturgeon: The life of soldier George Smith, presented in letters and documents surrounding his case. Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente: Three words: Stalinist house elves. Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer: Expeditions investigate Area X, an unknown area that appeared over a section of the country. Zazen by Vanessa Veselka: A young woman may or may not be behind a series of anarchistic bombings. Shes not actually sure. Slapstick or Lonesome No More!  by Kurt Vonnegut: Its  about the last president of the United States. May be read as fact  soon. Paper Tigers by Damien Angelica Walters: It had me at a photo album inhabited by a predatory ghost. The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead: Elevator operators in a parallel universe. Damnificados  by JJ Amaworo Wilson: 600 squatters take over an abandoned tower, complete with wolves and ghosts. The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson: Serious Royal Tenenbaum vibes. The Passion by Jeanette Winterson: Napoleon! Venice! More web-footed people! And a woman who is trying to retrieve her heart from a locked box. The Bear Comes Home by Rafi Zabor: The protagonist is a walking, talking, saxophone-playing bear. What are your favorite strange and weird books? Want even more weird? May we introduce the New Weird genre?