Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
What we're reading

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

Original poster

Weirdest / Strangest Book

114 replies

RayofSunshine18 · 18/07/2025 13:45

What is the strangest / weirdest (in your opinion) book that you have ever read but HAD to finish?

Mine is Better to Eat you With by Amber Garza

OP posts:
MaggieBsBoat · 19/07/2025 13:04

Also I love this thread. Adding lots of books to my list. Thanks!

Bitchesbelike · 19/07/2025 13:03

CatChant · 18/07/2025 18:42

The Restraint of Beasts and All Quiet on the Orient Express, both by Magnus Mills. Very readable and unsettlingly odd.

The restraint of beasts was a weird one. Didn’t expect the ending

MaggieBsBoat · 19/07/2025 13:02

Oh and Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami. It’s just lovely but strange.

MaggieBsBoat · 19/07/2025 13:00

WhiteNoiseBlur · 18/07/2025 21:45

I couldn’t finish this even though I really wanted to - did you read the two narratives at the same time or ignore the footnotes? I just struggled!

Show quote history

I did! I look back now and wonder how I managed it (less stressed times maybe), but I think that’s what made the whole experience more impactful.

Id like to add in here The Box Man by Kobo Abe. Long time ago I read it, but it’s beautiful and haunting.

CrossPurposes · 19/07/2025 12:05

Moxyland, Zoo City, and The Shining Girls - all by Lauren Beukes.

And Maul by Tricia Sullivan.

IzzyHandsIsMySpiritAnimal · 18/07/2025 23:46

Naked Lunch
The Watchmaker of Filigree Street

Both weird in their own ways

IlovetoKnitandRead · 18/07/2025 23:44

Ghost Music by An Yu, I think it was about orange mushrooms or talking mushrooms and orange clouds.

PammieDooveOrangeJoof · 18/07/2025 23:29

The Butcher Boy is one of my faves. Along with The Wasp Factory.

DemBonesDemBones · 18/07/2025 23:25

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake. Absolutely unhinged.

InWalksBarberalla · 18/07/2025 23:04

The Animals in That Country by Laura Jean McKay. Very weird, not sure if it was good or not, but certainly different and parts stuck in my head for a while after.

sallyrhubarbbb · 18/07/2025 22:55

TerrierCollector · 18/07/2025 22:29

Haha, not exactly light honeymoon reading, is it?

Show quote history

Definitely not, but my husband recommended it (yes, we clearly are those kind of weirdos). He was thoroughly enjoying my horror as the pages were turning!

TerrierCollector · 18/07/2025 22:29

sallyrhubarbbb · 18/07/2025 22:27

I mean, it’s so so good but so bonkers. I read it on my honeymoon and spent the rest of the holiday making this face 😮 every time I thought about it again.

Show quote history

Haha, not exactly light honeymoon reading, is it?

sallyrhubarbbb · 18/07/2025 22:27

TerrierCollector · 18/07/2025 22:18

Possibly my favourite book of all time!

Show quote history

I mean, it’s so so good but so bonkers. I read it on my honeymoon and spent the rest of the holiday making this face 😮 every time I thought about it again.

Sally2791 · 18/07/2025 22:21

I read a book that was part of a quartet. The book flipped between a dystopian community living in an isolated place in France and a woman trying to escape an abusive relationship with her child set in not very modern times. Would love to read the rest! Any thoughts?

TerrierCollector · 18/07/2025 22:18

sallyrhubarbbb · 18/07/2025 22:13

Perfume by Patrick Süskind. It was the weirdest book I have ever read, and nearly ten years later I still randomly think of it. Very very odd, but excellent.

Possibly my favourite book of all time!

sallyrhubarbbb · 18/07/2025 22:13

Perfume by Patrick Süskind. It was the weirdest book I have ever read, and nearly ten years later I still randomly think of it. Very very odd, but excellent.

zaxxon · 18/07/2025 22:09

So many ... Dostoyevsky's Notes from Underground , as a teenager.

Kazuo Ishiguro's The Unconsoled, which I still love.

Brian Catling's The Vorrh trilogy, a total fever dream. I used to read them when jetlagged, on purpose.

Tom Phillips ' A Humument, more artwork than book, not unsettling exactly but certainly changes the way you look at things

pollyhemlock · 18/07/2025 21:51

clazbear · 18/07/2025 17:20

Maybe others won’t think it odd, but I found Our Wives Under The Sea really strange!

I agree. Deeply strange. Overtones of HP Lovecraft.

WhiteNoiseBlur · 18/07/2025 21:45

MaggieBsBoat · 18/07/2025 17:48

I loved House of Leaves by Mark Z Danielewski. A thoroughly terrifying book. I read a lot of unusual fiction but this one is my favourite.

I couldn’t finish this even though I really wanted to - did you read the two narratives at the same time or ignore the footnotes? I just struggled!

Britneyfan · 18/07/2025 21:40

The Last Days of Jack Sparks. Super weird but so compelling!

bookworm14 · 18/07/2025 21:38

The Children’s Hospital by Chris Adrian. No description really does justice to how strange it is. I read it once, more than 10 years ago, and bits of it still stick in my head.

ladymalfoy45 · 18/07/2025 21:36

The End of Mr. Y by Scarlett Thomas. I've bought her other books ,but that one was a mind bender.

PermanentTemporary · 18/07/2025 21:33

Poor Things by Alasdair Grey. I didn’t have to finish it, but I did so it counts.

ReginaChase · 18/07/2025 21:29

The Possession of Mr. Cave - Matt Haig.
I felt very unsettled by the whole thing!

Skissors · 18/07/2025 21:23

I've read The Bees and The Last house on Needless Street, agree both are weird. Thought the Bees was very imaginative.

The Whistleblower by Robert Peston was weird in a so bad it's good way.

Swipe left for the next trending thread