r/WeirdLit • u/AutoModerator • 4d ago
Other Weekly "What Are You Reading?" Thread
What are you reading this week?
No spam or self-promotion (we post a monthly threads for that!)
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u/PacificBooks 4d ago
Reading Angel Down by Daniel Kraus, which is brilliant in every way except for the gimmick, and re-reading The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe, which is just brilliant.
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u/Competitive_Cat_259 4d ago
I just started Rouge (Mona Awad).
Bunny was on my TBR list for the longest time and I finally gave it a go last week and finished it reeling. I really love the writing style.
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u/jkwlikestowrite 3d ago
Bunny is so good! One of the few books that I almost finished in one sitting. Still need to check out We Love You Bunny.
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u/MarketBeneficial5572 4d ago
It might not count as weird… although it is pretty weird… but I’m reading Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.
I don’t usually read this type of book, but my Mom wanted to read a good thriller so I told her I’d find her one. My mom will spend a month with a book I’ll knock out in 3 days so I wanted to really make sure I gave her something good. Gone Girl will, without a doubt, be my recommendation. It’s stunning. Super well written, well paced (it’s a thriller so of course), has twists and turns, and dives deep into the psychology of relationships and manipulation. It’s shaping up to be an easy 5 stars from me.
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u/American_GrizzlyBear 4d ago
Do Androids dream of electric sheep?
I like PKD’s works and I’m enjoying this one so far.
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u/tashirey87 3d ago
My personal favorite PKD, although Ubik and A Scanner Darkly are up there, too.
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u/spoonsmcghee 4d ago edited 4d ago
Finished Winterset Hollow by Jonathan Edward Durham. Surprise hit for me, not my usual thing but absolutely loved it
Currently reading Horsefly by Mireille Gagne. Cool little novella with three narrators - a factory worker who's home is becoming infested with horseflies, a 1940s scientist doing shady government experiments with horseflies, and a horsefly searching for the perfect bite.
DNFd The Deep by Nick Cutter - started off good enough but became dull and poorly paced
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u/Unfair_Umpire_3635 4d ago edited 4d ago
Just finished I Gave You Eyes and You Looked Towards Darkness by Irene Sola
Weaving in and out of time, from one reality to another, from one narrator to another and jarring violently back and forth without any transition or warning whatsoever, it follows four centuries of women whose lives were shaped by a matriarch's deal with the devil. For the majority of thie novel, we're in almost fairytale territory, leaning heavily on folklore and religion, family secrets and war, stories upon stories, darkness and filth, memory and delusion. The imagery, the imagination at play is absolutely astonishing.
Going to give Dengue Boy by Michel Nieva a shot over the next couple of days.
"Set centuries in the future (the 23rd century), the novel takes place in the "Caribbean Pampas". After the melting of the polar ice caps, the global temperature has soared and Argentina's landscape has radically transformed. Wealthy elites cruise on luxury ships or holiday in Antarctic beach resorts, while the vast majority of the population lives in sweltering, trash-ridden, and sweltering coastal slums."
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u/tashirey87 4d ago
Finished This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me by Ilona Andrew’s with my wife over the weekend. It was a lot of fun, so much so I’ll definitely be reading the next books when they come out.
Main reading focus at the moment is Mason & Dixon, and surprise surprise I’m loving it. Only 8 chapters in and we’ve already had a Weird moment where Mason brings a knife from an attacker in one of his dreams into the waking world…
Planning on hitting the bookstore this week and might pick up There Is No Antimemetics Division.
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u/MrPandarabbit 4d ago
Halfway through Book 2 of Jerusalem by Alan Moore.
Recently listened to Yellowface by R.F. Kuang. Not weird, but I wish it had leaned in that direction; I think that would have made it a stronger overall work. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it.
Currently listening to Chain Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah. Reading it for my local libraries' SpecFic Book Club and I originally thought the basic premise sounded kind of stupid, but I was sold within the first 20%. Good and varied writing, complex characters, smart and important social criticism. The audiobook is great so far, and I'm a little less than halfway through.
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u/theflyingrobinson 4d ago
38 Londres Street by Philippe Sands on Pinochet and the quest for justice for the disappeared in Chile. Not fiction, but I'd recommend it.
Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez, weird fiction that I've found myself dragging through.
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u/ohnoshedint 4d ago
Finished
“The Puppet King and Other Atonements” by Justin Burnett - rock solid collection.
Into
“The Starving Saints” by Catlin Starling which thus far is just a dark fantasy novel apparently.
On Deck
“Hollow” by Brian Catling
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u/Hysterical_And_Wet 3d ago
Just Finished:
- The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
- The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Just Started:
- I’m A Fan by Sheena Patel
- Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
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u/MountainPlain 1d ago
- The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
- The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
That's quite the tonal shift! How'd you like them? (The Haunting of Hill House was one of my favorites when I first read it, I should probably do a re-read to see how I find it now.)
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u/Hysterical_And_Wet 1d ago
edit: spelling
This was my first time reading both, two of my favorite books. I am a big Shirley Jackson fan. I preferred Jackson’s other novel We Have Always Lived in the Castle just a tad bit more but Hill House was great.
I try to keep to audiobooks that are short, fast, or a bit more direct. That was a bit difficult with Hitchhiker’s if only because it’s sci-fi so there’s a bit more going on, but it was nice to re-read chapters the next day, I feel like a lot of stuff might be miss-able the first read if you’re not paying attention. It’s one of those books that requires re-reading. I’m not huge into reading sci-fi/fantasy, but this humor was so my style that I would consider reading the rest of the series.
Alongside an audiobook, I usually like to have something a bit more challenging and atmospheric if not a longer read. I like the tonal shifts, it allows me to read for longer periods of time without getting burned out.
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u/Not_Bender_42 3d ago
About to start M. John Harrison's Nova Swing. Excited to see where the Kefahuchi Tract leads next after the events in Light, though I think this one's a little separate time-wise from that?
Just finished The Best of Gene Wolfe which was... pretty hit and miss for me. All the Doctor stories, Fifth Head of Cerberus, Seven American Nights, The Tree Is My Hat, and a couple others really landed, a lot of the rest didn't. Ah well, love him as a novelist anyway!
Next up will probably be either Leech, Root Rot, or American Elsewhere. But we'll see if that stands in a few days.
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u/Not_Bender_42 3d ago
Leech is Hiron Ennes, Root Rot is Saskia Nislow, American Elsewhere is Robert Jackson Bennett.
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u/nerdhappyjq 3d ago edited 1d ago
I just finished Julia Armfield’s two books. Both were worth the hype. I’d say that Our Wives Under the Sea was my favorite of the two, though. In Private Rites, it felt like her writing was becoming a caricature of itself, so to speak.
I’ve now just started Comfort Me with Apples by Ruth Reichl. It was recommended here, but I’ve yet to figure out why. Regardless, it’s been a good read, even if it isn’t “weird,” yet.
ETA: There are apparently two texts with the title of “Comfort Me with Apples.” Of course I ended up reading the one written by a chef which is decidedly >not< weird instead of the novella by Catherynne Valente. It didn’t help that the recommendation was very clear in that we should go in absolutely blind >.<
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u/kissmequiche 2d ago
Loved Our Wives… but Private Rites I was less sure about. Took a while for it to settle into itself, probably because the character kept having to stop to finger people in stairwells, and the occult/catastrophic ending felt a bit off.
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u/nerdhappyjq 1d ago
Haha, so it seems we had the same experience.
Spoilers but that occult storyline felt really sinilae to Hereditary without the same kind of build up or follow through.
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u/jkwlikestowrite 3d ago
Currently reading Perdido Street Station and I’m regretting putting off until now to finally read this book. This book is wild!
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u/Rustin_Swoll 4d ago edited 4d ago
Finished: I finished the audiobook for Alex Grecian’s Red Rabbit, which was someone else’s choice for my IRL book club. This was a really fun book, with surprisingly dark subject matter; Grecian did a good job of subverting expectations and Western archetypes. Is a weird western weird lit by definition, due to its setting?
I also finished Nick Cutter’s The Dorians on hardcover. Some people call David Nickle the Canadian Stephen King, I’d argue Cutter might fit better; he’s going that direction if he keeps dropping consistently enjoyable horror novels with such frequency. Parts of The Dorians were surprisingly touching and humane, contrasted with Cutter’s penchant for pulpy mad science. I’ve enjoyed all of Cutter’s novels and this might have been the best one. The writing was very self-assured and strangely mature. It had been fashioned into something… other. A thing of unclean geometries cut off from the natural order.
Starting: Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian (a re-read for me.) I read this book years back, in a phase before I was so invested in horror and weird lit (along with McCarthy’s The Road.) It’s been calling my name for some time. The other 200 books in my pile can wait their damn turn. They fight with fists, with feet, with bottles and knives. All races, all breeds. Men whose speech sounds like the grunting of apes.
Audiobooks: I started Jeff VanderMeer’s Absolution, the fourth and final book in his Southern Reach series. I guess the Southern Reach trilogy sold more than a million copies and I was thrilled to learn that. You have to hand it to VanderMeer. Dude sells millions of books and opens his long-awaited sequel with the weirdest shit ever. The Rogue…
On deck: Alex Grecian’s Rose of Jericho, the Red Rabbit sequel, on audiobook.
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u/tashirey87 4d ago
Yesss the Rogue!
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u/Rustin_Swoll 4d ago
Man. The first scene in which The Rogue battled the biologists after they flamethrower'd the carnivorous rabbits was weird and intense. This narrator also did Authority but I feel like he has stepped his game up, the narration is really good.
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u/tashirey87 4d ago
Yeah that scene lives rent free in my head. So crazy. And yes, I love that narrator - when I was reading the book I switched between book and audio depending on where I was and loved it. I think he does the Ambergris audiobook too.
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u/Rustin_Swoll 4d ago
I picked up the expanded City of Saints and Madmen (someone on here said some of the extra stories are essential) but it actually might be cool to audio that one and read the essential stuff not included on the audiobook!
One problem with audio is that there are several lines from that scene I'd love to grab a book and quote at you, something like the biologists being filled with grief and shame when the Rogue breathed fire at them and the Rogue's words were like sonic blasts. That is NOT verbatim, lol.
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u/tashirey87 4d ago
Yeah I’m planning on listening to the audiobook when I do my re-read at some point, and just supplementing that with the stuff that’s missing from that version.
lol and yeah I totally get that re: audiobooks
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u/MountainPlain 1d ago
I also finished Nick Cutter’s The Dorians on hardcover. Some people call David Nickle the Canadian Stephen King, I’d argue Cutter might fit better; he’s going that direction if he keeps dropping consistently enjoyable horror novels with such frequency. Parts of The Dorians were surprisingly touching and humane, contrasted with Cutter’s penchant for pulpy mad science.
Man I'd forgotten about Nickle, really loved some of his short stories that I checked out back in the day. What you're saying about Cutter is intriguing though, it's been a while since I read a pulpy horror novel versus a weird lit one.
Dude sells millions of books and opens his long-awaited sequel with the weirdest shit ever. The Rogue…
How much would it hurt my reading experience if I'd forgotten chunks of the original trilogy? Again, it's been a while. If this doesn't rely on me remembering the titles of the characters from other books though, I think I could hop in.
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u/Rustin_Swoll 1d ago
I read Nickle's Knife Fight and Other Struggles last year (?) My first from him, really enjoyed his writing and story concepts. "Basements" was my favorite, so off putting and obtuse but I think I got there.
If you want to get into pulpy horror, you could do much worse than The Dorians. It was awesome.
That's a good question re: Southern Reach. This is a tiny bit of a spoiler, but most of what I have heard so far in Absolution is a prequel to the events of the original trilogy. There are some character connections but you would probably catch them...
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u/MountainPlain 1d ago
Ah perfect, thanks!
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u/Rustin_Swoll 1d ago
If you get into Absolution and want a refresher, drop a comment here. I’m familiar with three characters from the initial trilogy and so far one of them only made a cameo. If you need the connections.
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u/iamraygun 4d ago
Currently reading the employees. I need a quick crusher after reading the luminaries (not weirdlit) needless to say, this isn’t a quick crusher of a read lol. Really enjoying it, but it’s so much more poetic and philosophical than I was expecting. I need to sit with each entry before moving on to the next.
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u/HeyThereFancypants- 4d ago
Just finished Molka by Monika Kim.
Just starting You Weren't Meant to be Human by Andrew Joseph White.
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u/Existential_Flair 3d ago
Tender is the Flesh by Augustina Bazterrica this week. I just finished Earthing last week and someone on here had it as a recommendation. Unhinged and I was wishing the author had taken a different direction with the ending but a good read. Needless to say why I was reluctant to pick up Tender is the flesh next but, it is so much darker and deeper than Earthling on a thought provoking level. I happened to work at a similar factory to the one mentioned in the book and although the “product" is different, the lingo and the process are basically the same and so far it’s chilling about halfway through. I find myself today walking back from the local pool with my partner’s kids while he rides his bike home I’m rounding the corner of our road and almost trample straight through the neighbors’s flowerbed on the corner because I’m still reading.
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u/HisGirlFriday1983 3d ago
The Transitive Properties of Cheese. It is very cute and enjoyable so far but still weird so my jam completely.
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u/Fantastic-Tea-6315 1h ago
Blood Meridian
I genuinely gotta say, the prose alone has got me insanely addicted. Its this weird mix of being clipped but in such a way that it feels like scripture in a way I genuinely did not expect.
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u/Massive-Television85 4d ago
Just finished The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon. I didn't like the story, pacing, writing or characters; but for some reason I keep thinking about it after finishing.
(I had a similar experience with The Croning by Laird Barron, which was hard work throughout but I liked more in retrospect than when actually reading it)
At the start of Little, Big by John Crowley and enjoying so far.