What are your favorite weird books that have come out it into past 2 years? I feel like I’m hitting a wall and maybe need something a bit more contemporary

Hello!

I'm looking for stories/books which are similar in tone to, particularly Naked Lunch or Queer by William S Burroughs, but others apply as well. For example the "ass story" as I call it and other pieces which I will provide below. These scenes show the type of dark comedic whiplash that I am looking for. I have read Thomas Pynchon and David Foster Wallace, they aren't quite what I am looking for. Kurt Vonnegut is closer to what I am after but he is still not the correct type of dark humour. Maybe Kafkaesque, if Kafka overtly wanted to make you laugh. Overall I am looking for absurdly dark, unhinged, satirical, perhaps postmodern humour, with linguistic experimentation, maybe a little body horror, but mainly focusing on very dark satire. Any suggestions along these lines would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

SPOILERS FOR QUEER AND NAKED LUNCH!

!“Did I ever tell you about the man who taught his asshole to talk? His whole abdomen would move up and down, you dig, farting out the words. It was unlike anything I ever heard. Bubbly, thick, stagnant sound. A sound you could smell. This man worked for the carnival,you dig? And to start with it was like a novelty ventriloquist act. After a while, the ass started talking on its own. He would go in without anything prepared... and his ass would ad-lib and toss the gags back at him every time. Then it developed sort of teethlike... little raspy incurving hooks and started eating. He thought this was cute at first and built an act around it... but the asshole would eat its way through his pants and start talking on the street... shouting out it wanted equal rights. It would get drunk, too, and have crying jags. Nobody loved it. And it wanted to be kissed, same as any other mouth. Finally, it talked all the time, day and night. You could hear him for blocks, screaming at it to shut up... beating at it with his fists... and sticking candles up it, but... nothing did any good, and the asshole said to him... "It is you who will shut up in the end, not me... "because we don't need you around here anymore. I can talk and eat and shit." After that, he began waking up in the morning with transparent jelly... like a tadpole's tail all over his mouth. He would tear it off his mouth and the pieces would stick to his hands... like burning gasoline jelly and grow there. So, finally, his mouth sealed over... and the whole head... would have amputated spontaneously except for the eyes, you dig? That's the one thing that the asshole couldn't do was see. It needed the eyes. Nerve connections were blocked... and infiltrated and atrophied. So, the brain couldn't give orders anymore. It was trapped inside the skull... sealed off. For a while, you could see... the silent, helpless suffering of the brain behind the eyes. And then finally the brain must have died... because the eyes went out... and there was no more feeling in them than a crab's eye at the end of a stalk.”!<

!“You know how old people lose all shame about eating, and it makes you puke to watch them? Old junkies are the same about junk. They gibber and squeal at sight of it. The spit hangs off their chin, and their stomach rumbles and all their guts grind in peristalsis while they cook up, dissolving the body’s decent skin, you expect any moment a great blob of protoplasm will flop right out and surround the junk. Really disgust you to see it. 'Well, my boys will be like that one day,' I thought philosophically. 'Isn’t life peculiar?”!<

!“A curse. Been in our family for generations. The Lees have always been perverts. I shall never forget the unspeakable horror that froze the lymph in my glands when the baneful word seared my reeling brain—I was a homosexual. I thought of the painted simpering female impersonators I'd seen in a Baltimore nightclub. Could it be possible I was one of those subhuman things? I walked the streets in a daze like a man with a light concussion. I would've destroyed myself. And a wise old queen—Bobo, we called her—taught me that I had a duty to live and bear my burden proudly for all to see. Poor Bobo came to a sticky end - he was riding in the Duke Devanche's Hispano Suissa when his falling hemorrhoids blew out of the car and wrapped around the rear wheel. He was completely gutted leaving an empty shell sitting there on the giraffe skin upholstry. Even the eyes and the brain went with a horrible "shlupping" sound. The Duke says he would carry that ghastly "shlup" with him to his mausoleum.”!<

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Hello everyone! I'm an avid nonfiction reader and recently decided that I need more fiction in my life. I loved The Cipher; the obsession, transformation, and Koja's unrelenting writing style (absolutely insane). Where should I go from here?

Edit: Thank you all so much! You guys rock

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I just stumbled over announcements for new English translations of some of Julio Cortázar‘s novels on the official Penguin website.

Apparently, new editions of 62: A Model Kit, The Winners, Final Exam, A Manual For Manuel, and Divertimento will all be released in August 2025 as part of the Vintage Classics series. It looks like Harry Morales has done the translations for all of them.

I‘m absolutely delighted by the news. Cortázar is one of my favourite writers of all time, and with the exception of Hopscotch, his novels are quite hard to get one‘s hands on in translation.

Any good stories or books in 2nd person?

By David Lindsay

My favourite quote from this book,

"Maskull, though fully conscious of his companions and situation, imagined that he was being oppressed by a black, shapeless, supernatural being, who was trying to clasp him. He was filled with horror, trembled violently, yet could not move a limb. Sweat tumbled off his face in great drops. The waking nightmare lasted a long time, but during that space it kept coming and going. At one moment the vision seemed on the point of departing; the next it almost took shape—which he knew would be his death. Suddenly it vanished altogether—he was free. A fresh spring breeze fanned his face; he heard the slow, solitary singing of a sweet bird; and it seemed to him as if a poem had shot together in his soul. Such flashing, heartbreaking joy he had never experienced before in all his life! Almost immediately that too vanished. Sitting up, he passed his hand across his eyes and swayed quietly, like one who has been visited by an angel. 'Your colour changed to white,' said Corpang. 'What happened?' 'I passed through torture to love,' replied Maskull simply. He stood up. Haunte gazed at him sombrely. 'Will you not describe that passage?' Maskull answered slowly and thoughtfully. 'When I was in Matterplay, I saw heavy clouds discharge themselves and change to coloured, living animals. In the same way, my black, chaotic pangs just now seemed to consolidate themselves and spring together as a new sort of joy. The joy would not have been possible without the preliminary nightmare. It is not accidental; Nature intends it so. The truth has just flashed through my brain.... You men of Lichstorm don’t go far enough. You stop at the pangs, without realising that they are birth pangs.' 'If this is true, you are a great pioneer,' muttered Haunte. 'How does this sensation differ from common love?' interrogated Corpang. 'This was all that love is, multiplied by wildness.' "

This is a kind of journey of the soul. A man visits a seance and then gets transported to another planet. But the other planet is really about encountering the wholly other and waking up to expanded consciousness, complete with new tentacle appendages and changed sex.

I consider this to be among the greatest weird stories but I never see it talked about much or mentioned.

Edit * top 5

For the first time I have no idea what to do with a 50$ Barnes gift card. Would love suggestions to blindly spend it.

I normally read high fantasy/grimdark/horror, but open to anything.

I’ve read House of Leaves.

Any favorite creators that review and discuss weird books? There are tons that have made a video or two about 'weird books' but how about entire channels of the topic? Where are all the weird people!?

Google presents this as a weird book. I was wondering if any of you have read it and could provide me with a feedback. Should I dive into it or not?

I discovered Reggie Oliver only relatively recently in my explorations of the Weird. A reference to him in Ghosts and Scholars, the online journal of MR James studies, led me down a fortuitous rabbit hole which ended up in me reading his eleven or so short story collections and short novels. Oliver is, perhaps, the leading writer in the English Weird tradition of MR James, HR Wakefield and Robert Aickman. This is very different from the Lovecraftian Weird, dealing more with the very English strangeness of academia, the class system, social convention and the shadow of the past.

James, of course wrote in the very early 20th century and Wakefield and Aickman followed soon after in the mid century. I spent my university years in the UK myself in the early 00s and one might think that the slightly fusty, mid century world of Oxbridge dons, clubbable gentlemen and strange dusty historical conundrums with clues in Latin or Greek would be thoroughly out of date. One would be wrong.

James himself stated that a good ghost story should be set contemporaneous to the writer rather than attempt to evoke a bygone era- but James himself wasn't above bending his own rules. Two of his finest stories deliberately incorporate well written historical pastiche- Mr Humphrey's Inheritance, which makes chilling use of what might seem a tedious 16th century homily; and Martin's Close which of all things features 17th century court recordings.

Reggie Oliver manages to summon up the mid to late 20th century Britain with its atmosphere of stale beer, smoky rooms, and rising damp along with the authentic voice of an upper class, but slightly down-at-heel, Etonian narrator that gives the ring of truth to so many of these stories. Oliver seems to be something of a polymath and he incorporates history (faux and real), theology, the fruits of a Classical education, and his own experiences as a repertory actor into his work.

His material ranges from traditional ghost stories, to Aickmanesque strange stories, to urban horror, but it never loses that air of authenticity. While he never steps into body horror or full on violence his work is a perfect updating of the Jamesian tradition.

Oliver's own engravings, like a cross between Gorey and Tenniel, which illustrate many of the stories are a bonus.

I was delighted to find that his latest collection This Haunted Heaven has just been released by Tartarus Press. Go get it. I have far too much on my reading list but moved this right to the top and am tempted to do a full re-read of his work.

If you found this interesting please feel free to check out my other reviews on Reddit or Substack, linked on my profile.

Hey ya, this story i know is in the weird fiction genre and was published before May 2020 and by im pretty sure by an asian american writer (could be wrong). I've been trying to find it for some time now and it's been on my mind. Im pretty sure i found it on a website that was featuring weird fiction short story arthors and the website was dark if i remember right.

I remember that a big part of the story had jars in it, jar of souls or jars of essence (not quite sure) it was something that the main character took away from her victims. It was something that her mother could also do and she was sort of estranged with her.

There was a woman who worked in a restaurant and maybe was girlfriend or ex of the Main character and didn't know what was going on. The mother makes an appearance and there is a scene of a man being at a gas station.

I know this is not much to go on, but even just pointing me to a website that has weird fiction short stories would help. Thank you!

Hi everyone!

I'm currently looking for any fantasy series (or maybe a stand alone book) which features a comprehensive study of magic from a scientific point of view. Something like "Ra" By qntm, except for the fact that I didn't really enjoy the way qntm narrates.

The more science it has, the better: equations, conservation of energy, etcetera. Also, no, not Brandon Sanderson. I like his work but I'm looking for something REALLY "scienc-y" like.

Something ideal for me would be a Tipler-Mosca (iykyk) but for the rules of magic.

Any reccomendations appreciated, thanks!

Which, let's face it, he's up there in age and may well not, how would you feel? It's been 12 years now since "The Spectral Link", so I suppose we are just getting on with our lives. Still, as someone whose favorite modern writer most certainly is the beloved Town Manager, I can't help but (don't hate me, Tom) hope that someday he'll announce at least a couple of new tales. Who knows if it's in the cards?

Anyone read this one? I just finished and I feel like I need to have someone to talk this through with Imfao.

This book definitely sucked me in. I finished it in under two days - something about the narrators monologues and insane trains of thought was so gripping to me. But I really wish there was more plot heavy moments. This book is not perfect but definitely an interesting read. I wish there was a bit more character development or just something MORE to this. I felt a bit unsatisfied.

Speaking in this post to anyone who has read this book (or perhaps if you are a fan of her writing in general). I'm about 60% done with the short story collection and I'm loving it so far. All of the short stories have been captivating and weird in their own ways! I almost can't decide which is my favorite... so far, probably a tie between 'Prince Hat Underground' or 'The White Road.' If anyone has read Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel 'The White Road' reminded me of that book. [Slight spoiler warning] Anyways, I've just finished 'The Game of Smash and Recovery' and this one has perplexed me... it was much more abstract than the previous short stories. The only thing I could really grasp from it was it was definitely some sort of alien society (is that even the right word?) Or maybe even some form of futuristic advanced AI that reaches a higher level of intelligence? [EDIT] Another thing that confused me about this particular short story is on the title page it says (Hansel and Gretel) which is the only fairy/folk tale I've recognized so far. I haven't read the OG Hansel and Gretel so that could be adding to my confusion but reading Link's interpretation (?) I could not see any similarities to what I know of the tale. Which did not help me when forming an opinion of 'The Game of Smash and Recovery' lol. Definitely interested in hearing any input on the similarities you may have seen.

If anyone has read this book, I would love to know your thoughts on this particular short story!! Or of course any of the others too :-)

What are you reading this week?

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As someone who's struggling to create them, I find that my preferred perspective for framing a weird story is detachment. I seem to work best when embodying a narrator who is looking back on events from a considerable distance in time or space. It seems to give me the scope I need to create a slightly unreliable narrator whose recollections are colored by the strength of their intellectual honesty as well as basic ability to keep an accurate record. There's also the fact that "the past is a different country", etc. How do you feel about it? What kind of perspective do you prefer when reading or writing these tales?

I’m in the mood for a book with a setting that takes place is a a strange dark reality setting, think the upside down from stranger things as an example. Ideally I would like to avoid a futuristic sci-fi setting if possible. Would love some solid suggestions.

I usually try to read a collection of ghost stories or weird stories over the Christmas holidays. In recent years I’ve read M R James, Longwood, Machen, the King in Yellow, Shirley Jackson, Aickman and LeFanu and I’m looking for something similar- either from 19th-20th century or more modern- I don’t know my way around contemporary short story writers in this genre at all, so particularly looking to improve my knowledge here. Any suggestions gratefully received!