I can't think of another writer with so many tools at their disposal. That's one thing, but to be able to use those tools to cut right to the most crucial questions makes Abdurraqib the best writer of our time. Using memoir, cultural critique, history, and poetry, this book examines what it means to perform whether on stage or in your own personal space. This is a wild ride that will break your heart, but if you can hold on long enough, Aburraqib can build it back up.
Further suggestions:
"Between the World and Me" - Te-Nehisi Coates"The Nineties: a Book" - Chuck Klosterman
"How the Word is Passed" - Clint Smith (highly recommended by bookseller Becky)
Andy Davidson's follow-up to "The Boatman's Daughter" is as dreadful as it is beautiful. A haunted family history comes to a head when a mother and son inherit a cabin deep in the woods. Once this book gets going, you're in it, and it gets going right away.
Honestly, I don't know exactly what to think about it, but I'm still thinking about it. A challenging and beautiful read. Give each segment and each page time and space to breathe.
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A genre-bending big sweeping world of magic and evil that you can find yourself lost in. At times horrifying, at times historic, and at times mundane as you follow the lives of father and son witches grappling with the consequences of their power.
This book is like a season of "Black Mirror," but instead of technology, the theme is death and grief. A hybrid between novel/short story collection, this book examines a world ravaged by an ancient virus and climate change. While it may hit too close to home for some, I found it a compelling way to begin processing some of the grief and change of the last two years.
Further suggestions:
"Station Eleven" - Emily St. John Mandel
"Brief Interviews with Hideous Men" - David Foster Wallace
It's never too early to start thinking about what you want to read this Halloween!
This book has one of the most fascinating narrators I've ever read: a multi-conscious all-knowing parasite posing as the world's doctors in order to keep its human hosts alive One such doctor is sent to an old chateau to care for the ills of a decrepit local despot and his family. This post-post-apocalyptic novel is a ton of fun with plenty of creepy body horror.
For fans of A24 horror.
A literary page-turner that will keep you up at night - Full of scenes that are truly creepy -A story of crushing grief and horrifically grisly possession - Dark without being oppressive.
Further suggestions:
"The Shining" - Stephen King
"House on Haunted Hill" - Shirley Jackson
Main character Jade is one of my favorite fictional characters in a long time. She is a reservoir of slasher movie knowledge taking the reader through what feels like a lucid nightmare. This book is impossible to put down and left me shook at the end. Graham Jones plays with tropes to create something completely fresh. It's equal parts classic bloody fun and scathing commentary that will make you question whether the world deserves to burn.
TW: suicide, references to rape
A gruesome, wild ride that gets in your head and twists it around. Graham Jones combines classic haunted house and slasher tropes then blindsides his unsuspecting characters with a malevolent force bent on revenge. It's the stuff of nightmares.
I could not put this book down. James Han Mattson crafts amazing characters and brings them all together as contestants in a surreal full-contact haunted house gameshow. Learning how each character came to be part of the team, and how one character ends up dead makes this an elevated literary page-turner addressing important questions of race, sexuality, and desperate American capitalism.
Further suggestions:
"The Sympathizer" - Viet Thanh Nguyen
"A Cosmology of Monsters" - Shaun Hamill
"An absolute delight from the jump. With sharp humor like Vonnegut and lovely characters, Williams had me laughing out loud. This book is for lovers of words, absurdity, and the absurdity of words."
Further suggestions:
"Welcome to the Monkey House" - Kurt Vonnegut
If it helps, just tell yourself you're reading sci-fi. That makes Kolbert your field guide through a chaotic world of looming life-threatening disasters and plucky renegade scientists dreaming up fantastical ways to combat them. Will our heroes convince the world to take action, or will their efforts lead to further catastrophe?
Further suggestions:
"Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers" - Mary Roach
Keefe's fast-paced narrative style makes this a hard book to put down. A heartbreaking look into moral ambiguity, righteousness, and how one's actions are remembered.
Further suggestions:
"Killers of the Flower Moon" - David Grann
"Race Against Time" - Jerry Mitchell
I absolutely loved this book! With a breakneck non-linear structure and poetic Melville/Steinbeck-esque musings on mass extinction, hens, fate, and so much more, "Barn8" has something to offer with every sentence. You'll laugh, cry, and want to grab a drink with the author.
Further suggestions:
"The Rib King" - Ladee Hubbard
One of those supernatural-bayou based-atmospheric-literary chillers. Dark and raw. Like "House of Leaves" meets "True Detective" season one. "Sounds creepy and awful," says Secret Garden owner, Christy. It is! And I couldn't put it down.
Further suggestions:
"Revelator" - Daryl Gregory
