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I am best friends with the bizarre. My favourite books are often the ones with a uniquely bonkers story, often complemented by an equally bonkers formatting style. I’ll be honest, I had no clue what to do for this edition’s Lit Corner, so I thought I’d make some short and sweet recommendations for some of my favourite strange pieces of fiction.
House of Leaves – Mark Z. Danielewski
The ruminations are mine, let the world be yours.
House of Leaves is infamous for its uniquely bizarre formatting. A simple tale about a house that is bigger on the inside has layers of complexity added to it with each page. This formatting, combined with Danielewski’s style, makes for a claustrophobic and terrifying atmosphere.
Dead Astronauts – Jeff VanderMeer
Do you understand? Nothing thrives without being broken. Nothing exists without being dead first.
Most people know Jeff VanderMeer for works such as Annihilation and Borne. But by far my favourite of his works is Borne’s underrated sequel, Dead Astronauts. It follows multiple narratives and characters that link together strangely, including part-human shapeshifters travelling through worlds to fight “The Company”, a giant leviathan, a blue fox, a duck, a homeless woman with a strange journal, and an eccentric biologist named Charlie X. This book is as haunting as it is beautiful, and a wild ride in all the best ways.
When I Sing, Mountains Dance – Irene Solà
Because we have been here always and will be here always. Because there is no beginning and no end
Witches and ghosts in the Pyrenees mountain range, When I Sing, Mountains Dance is a hauntingly beautiful story that combines a traditional narrative format with the lyrical prose of a verse novel. It reads like a folktale, and Solà gives the mountains a surreal voice.
Welcome to Night Vale – Joseph Fink & Jeffrey Cranor
People who grow older think they are so wise, she thought. Like time means anything at all.
You’re probably thinking, ‘Isn’t Welcome to Night Vale a podcast?’. You are right, but did you know it’s also a novel? The novel is just as wondrously strange as the narrative podcast. It helps that it was written by the creators of the podcast, who were able to maintain the same surreal charm.
Haunted – Chuck Palahniuk
You are permanent, but this life is not.
Twenty-three people at an artist’s retreat for three months. What could possibly go wrong? Well, according to Palahniuk’s Haunted, a whole lot. This novel is dark, gross and hilarious at times. The novel is split into twenty-three sections, with each section starting with a poem and a short story written by one of the characters. In between these sections, our artists slip more in more into insanity, as their food supply becomes increasingly short.
Written by El Bancroft
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