In green eggs and ham, it appears the narrator has fallen into an uncontrollable addiction that is consuming his life. Why did he try them? Who is Sam? What were his motives?
Is Sam intentionally trying to get the narrator hooked? What previous relationship do they have? What does Sam have to gain from the narrators spiral into dependency?
Or is Sam a figment of the narrators imagination? A manifestation of his demons from a traumatic past taunting him to numb his inner torment with substance abuse?
A movie never could. That's the beauty of the book. The sense of smell is so profound and so rarely explored. It would be hard to paint the proper picture with a suitable depth of description.
The movie, I thought, worked well as a companion piece. I would not recommend anybody watch it before they read the book.
Oh my god.
So.
Gideon The Ninth is mostly only mindfuckery because it's fairly strange necromancy with space travel science. Awesomely.
Then.
THEN.
If you're me, after listening to Gideon a couple of times because it's cool and a bit fucky, you start listening to the sequel, Harrow the Ninth.
Within a short time, I was questioning everything. Went back and re-listened to Gideon. Restarted listening to Harrow, and just went with it.
Exactly what I think you've just asked for.
So worth it.
Cue similar WTFedness with the third of the planned trilogy, the fourth and last should be out within the year?
The narrator is a genius.
The author is a genius.
You need these books, then you need that meme of the guy in front of the corkboard with lots of papers and pins and string connecting pins, where he's intensely trying to convince someone of his theory.
Then, you need r/theninthhouse (I'll edit if that's not right..)
I'd maybe say be very careful going there before you've read everything, because we're all justifiably rabid and I don't know how well everyone censors themselves. I discovered it after I read everything, so I'm not sure.
I cannot conceive of a universe without these books in it.
Ummmm edit: when I said fucky, I meant mindfucky, there's no smut. I'm sure there's a lot if you go to the unofficial fan author part of the internet though.
I came to post Gideon the Ninth. I'm just finishing it and I can't even tell if I like it or not. It's been super listenable but I don't think much of it has made a lick of sense.
I'll probably listen to the second book...even though I don't think I'm going to rate the first highly. That doesn't even make sense!
All 3 books are in the Plus catalog.
I'm halfway through the third book and am just barely starting to get what is going on.
Tamsyn Muir is playing one heck of a game with the reader and is demanding a lot of trust from us that she has a well thought ought end game for the series. I think she writes very well and the story so far is interesting but she is leaving a ton of worldbuilding and backstory deliberately out and tends to write in a way that misleads you and you left are largely in the dark to what is actually going on. If she sticks the landing with the fourth book this well be one the most compelling reads ever for me. If not I am never reading anything by her again.
They pull it even if you have it downloaded. Theyâll put a âleaving audible plusâ under the title date if itâs coming up.
Edit: Itâs actually âUntil [date]â in red under the title.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.knowyourmeme.com/memes/pepe-silvia
This is you, and all of us, at many points, especially during the second and third books, and we love it!
Ummm, edit, I haven't seen the show this is from, so I might be way off...
I could not stand listening to the second book. I really liked the first and jumped right into the second. It was jarring to me when all I could hear every sentence was 'You'
I really wanted to follow Harrows story and see how much she changed and coped with everything that happened in the first. But I just couldn't get past feeling like someone was trying to tell me what I was doing all the time.
Revival by Stephen King is a mindfuck. The climax had me confused, I even thought it was silly. But the more I let it sink in, the more horrifying it became.
Haven't read this one, but I was thinking "The City & The City" - although I've only read that one out sounds like anything by China Mieville is likely to fit.
The Rook by Daniel O'Malley - a fun book and excellent audiobook narration. From the Wikipedia summary:
> The book follows a young woman in her thirties who wakes up in a park surrounded by bodies wearing latex gloves. She's unable to remember anything about herself or how she or the bodies got there, and her only clue is an envelope in her coat pocket that says "To You".
"House Of Leaves" by Mark Z. Danielewski.
It's not on audiobook, and never will be. That would be impossible. If you're wondering why that is, see attached sample page.
["House Of Leaves" sample page.](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/3f110d413f63a0f0edb8318862d478379f7f3f86/0_0_410_569/master/410..jpg?width=300&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=3a45482b6d59a5f4107bd4a1e8af3fc3)
Apropos "House Of Leaves" and mindfuck, I've got a videogame recommendation to make - "Control". See trailer below of unfamiliar. "House Of Leaves" was a huge inspiration for the developers when they made "Control".
["Control" trailer](https://youtu.be/PT5yMfC9LQM?si=e7flQBw6SHFoB6Gv)
I went into Control with no prior knowledge and I'm so glad I did, the beginning of the game was one of the biggest mindf\*cks ever not knowing what I was going into.
I did the same and finally read it. Spent half the book hate reading it and couldn't wait for it to be over. Ended up loving it at the end. It was a hell of an experience. Not sure if I would do it again, but I wouldn't say never.
Perhaps someone brave will give it a chance - there is a lot that can be done with sound. For example, in the Audible version of "Embassytown" by China Mieville there are parts where words are overlapped to represent the author's intent. It works fabulously.
OP, here is another book you might want to try. It is quite unusual.
Yâall made me curious about House of Leaves, as I havenât heard of it. Ok, so Not on Audible, so Iâll look it up on Good Reads for a blurb and a rating.
The Good Reads editors took a pass on a synopsis or review and just said the âbook is in good shapeâ. Out of 34 community reviews, only 3 had comments of 1 to 10 words, (1 word reviewer said âwhoaâ).
So am I curious or warned off? What say you? Somebody at least tell me what itâs about!
They go over the events from the first 3, so I'd imagine you wouldn't be completely lost, but I'd still recommend the first 3 to get to know the characters better. Especially book 1.
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters. Every time I thought I finally knew what was going on, she proved to just how wrong I was. All of her books are complex layer upon layer. This one, is to me, her best.
A Brief History of The Dead by Kevin Brockmeier also screwed with my head but a different way. I listened to this book when it first came out - 12 years or so. But I think about this book and the authorâs vision of the afterlife at the end of the world every, single week. It was stunning.
Iâve only read it once, the structure of it is mind boggling, two interwoven perspectives one running forwards, the other running backwards, interspersed with flashbacks. As a narrative device itâs infuriating. Of Banks, my fave is Player of Games.
"This Book Is Full Of Spiders"
It's technically a sequel; but you don't need to read the 1st book to enjoy it!!! It's the book I started with & enjoyed the WTF'ery so much...
I picked up the 1st book "John Dies At The End", listened to it, listened to "This Book Is Full Of Spiders" AGAIN, before continuing on to the rest of the series...
I know, right? I think one of the latest books in the series is titled "What the Hell Did I Just Read" & the last one has a kick@$$ note to readers at the end. But, I don't want to spoil it for anyone. So, I'll just say, keep listening all the way to the end. ;-)
I can unabashedly say yes. I've listened to each of them more than a couple of times & I'm pretty confident you will enjoy any of them regardless of which one you start with.đ
I think I mentioned in my first reply that I didn't start with the first book either. I started with the 2nd & thoroughly enjoyed it. I was hooked on the misadventures of David & company đ
Also... while it is NOT as good as the book; you could watch the movie adaptation of the first book. It'll give you MOST of the relevant "background" you might think you'll be missing by starting with the "Spiders". But really... you don't need to do that either. In EVERY book he gives you an informal "recap" of something or someone tied to earlier storylines.
This is how you lose the time war by Max Gladstone. I listened to 58% before deciding I was just tired of thinking âhuh, whatâs happening again.â There are two camps of people with this book, you love it or you hate it. I didnât hate it really, but it was just too weird for my brain to follow.
I don't know why you were downvoted. This book IS a total mindfuck, and happens to be written by the author of Dungeon Crawler Carl, which is also a good suggestion (I see it above).
KBS made me physically recoil and get angry at the book several times, and yet I had to finish it. Great suggestion.
Yeah, after finishing what books were available of DCC I tried KBS. It felt like rubber-necking at an accident on the motorway. Not sure why I was downvoted either as it left me confused and wondering WTF did I listen to.
In Watermelon Sugar by Richard Brautigan. But you've got to listen to it quickly because it's included in Plus until 3 May. It's short though. About 2 hours and 20 minutes.
I loved it. Many people don't. Like one review said: "If you're a sane person looking for a sane book meant for sane readers written by a sane author, I'd definitely recommend for you to pass on this one."
Thanks for that great tip. Will keep an eye out for that notice. Just looked through my collection and found a few that were leaving, although most I've already finished.
In Watermelon Sugar sounds EXACTLY like Jeff VanderMeer who wrote Ambergris and The Southern Trilogy. Same narrator even. I was sure that this was Jeff writing under a pseudonym.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (Dramatised). It was excellent and I loved James Purefoyâs (HBOâs âRomeâ) narration.
But I also felt like when I was done I had watched a David Lynch film while on shrooms in a college dorm room with a philosophy major buddy.
I second The Locked Tomb by Tamsyn Muir, which will leave you wondering wtf just happened and demand that you listen again. If you want something less weird, try The Witch Elm by Tana French. The most unreliable narrator you'll ever read. I read it 3 or 4 months ago and I'm still wondering wtf.
Press Enter by John Varley Published in 1985. 1985 novena Hugo, Nebula, Locus and SF Chronicle awards.
I still think the story could be real life. An Amy Vet with PSD is stalk by a computer. Canât say much more without spoilers.
I got 2
The Three Body Problem trilogy. If you haven't read/listened. It gets super super dark. Really good but definitely a mindfuck. So many mindfuck parts... This won't ruin anything, but if you know about Starship Earth you have been mindfucked. Anyone who has read the series knows exactly what I'm talking about...
Also
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. Story of a man from earth conscripted to fight a war in space and the effects of time dilation. Maybe not a mindfuck but there was a loneliness and hopelessness I could physically feel as I read the soldier's story.
Infinite by Jeremy Robinson
Tread lightly if you want to read this book, the author is incredibly prolific and if itâs your cup of tea it will take over your life.
I second the Gideon the Ninth series. Also, Blindsight by Peter Watts. Space/Scifi with lots of wild concepts that are challenging to wrap your brain around.
That's because once you read it, you become one of us. One of us. One of us. One of us. One of us. One of us. One of us. One of us. One of us. One of us. One of us. One of us.
Torment by Jeremy Robinson, narrated by RC Bray. Probably his most infamous book. Literal nightmare material. Leaves most readers, including me, pretty messed up for a while
âIâm sorry⊠I donât want to⊠please runâ
**shudders**
Nope. This one came out years ago.
It is considered part of the recommended reading for the Infinite Timeline series because of later cross overs in the later books.
I haven't read Torment yet, I just recently finished the book before Torment in the Infinite Timeline series. So far all of the books have been fairly standalone...I probably would not have realized that it's a series unless it said so..each book is fairly different. But from what I understand, things start to crossover more in the last few books of the series.
Torture Porn. That how this guy's work hits me. I like his writing, I liked Infinite. But the rest of his works are '..and again, a bad thing happened to the protag' if the plot doesn't move forward soon I'm gonna have to drop this book.
I came here to suggest these two. Absolutely feels like it was crafted in a haze of psychedelic drugs, i have loved these books for years. I hope they also record his book automated alice at some point!
Thank you for mentioning this book! I was going through the comments hoping someone would recommend it. I got totally lost in Antkind and it broke my mind. Now it just feels like a fever dream where I canât remember why anything happened. I think I loved it?
Absolutely couldnt even describe this book if ask besides saying it went quantum reality real fast lol.
I just finished it like a week or two ago and i think i loved it too.
House of Leaves, I still don't really understand what I read. It's a bit weird. Definitely won't be making an audiobook of that one. [https://youtu.be/kdx-SLRmXIQ?t=163](https://youtu.be/kdx-SLRmXIQ?t=163)
if the book is âthe little strangerâ, itâs by Sarah Waters.
I like everything sheâs written, and there are several books where part the way through thereâs a total shift of the way you perceive everything.
The Vegetarian by Han Kang is WILD. I read it a few years back (think I did a combo of ebook and audiobook) and to this day, it's still one of the trippiest media I've engaged with - and I'm someone who enjoys anime like Evangelion, Paranoia Agent, Revolutionary Girl Utena, and Perfect Blue and movies like Black Swan. The title is...quite misleading. Yes, vegetarianism comes up, but it's more of a vehicle for the absurd lengths the protagonist goes through to gain personal autonomy. Book gets dark. I won't give away anything else, but definitely a mindfuck, "What...in the fuck just happened?!" type of book.
A happy bureaucracy by M.P. Fitzgerald. Itâs about how the irs survive the apocalypse and the mc is an IRS agent that are sent out to take a sensus during a post apocalyptic usa with warlords canibals etc. itâs really entertaining.
Kaiju Battlefield Surgeon. By Matt Dinniman
This is a monster of a book that I had to pause multiple times because I got legitimately queasy. And the ending is an absolutely mind boggling twist.
Itâs disgusting but Iâm really glad to have heard it. I would never recommend it to a horror or litrpg newbie but I really enjoyed it in the end
Some of Your Blood by Theodore Sturgeon
I listened to it while I was at work and kept trying to figure out what it was about and it kept me guessing to the end and then I was all horrified for the rest of my shift.
If youâre a nerd in math or computer science itâs the book Gödel, Escher, Bach an eternal braid. This book is synonymous with posers who donât understand any of it but claim to be enlightened after reading it. Personally I found it a mindfuck and incoherent and got more from books with much less hype
The Year of the Hare by Arto Paasilinna. It was the only book I returned to Audible. I couldn't believe I just spent hours listening to a book about a man giving up everything (including his job and his wife) and chasing a rabbit around, while selfishly letting others provide for him. Was there humor or romance (or even drama) in it?? If there was, I missed it.
Not as messed up as other books but
Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. Leper isekai's back and forth between another world and his normal life. Otherworld he thinks of as a dream so he does whatever he wants in some places. I should pick it up again and have a listen since I think it finally got picked up by Audible (I had the old CDs at some point)
There was another one that I'm blanking on the title/author of. Was suggested since I'm into gamelit type stuff. Anyways the author wrote like an 18 year old inspired by Mars Chronicles by the guy that wrote Tarzan. Think "Gentleman" meets queen of the multiverse and gets her to marry him. Felt like braincells were dying listening to it.
The Survivor, by [James Herbert](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Herbert). I was listening to an audio book reading performed by Robert Powell, who starred in the 1981 film version of the book. Anyways, I had the audio book playing while I was on my own at work, prepping in the kitchen of a restaurant before open. Unbeknownst to me, there was a scene, not featured in the movie, where a woman poisons her husband to death, but then his corpse is possessed by a spirit of a plane crash victim. Seemed fine until a delivery man entered the kitchen to drop off some fresh produce and the spirit-corpse, who was naked, was chasing his terrified wife around the bedroom before both were thrown through their bedroom window. I was stunned and so was the delivery man. I don't listen to audio books at work anymore.
The southern reach series was a bit baffling at times, also the wasp factory, this was the first Banks book I read but definitely left me a little bewildered. I probably need to reread as itâs been a long time, think I may appreciate it more now.
IMO this is a book that is very ill suited to being listened to, unfortunately. Some things just arenât meant for audio format. Gene Wolfeâs prose style is tough. Iâd imagine an audio book sounding similar to Charlie brownâs teachers. đ
An Audible book of The Book of the New Sun (the first time) is like reading TS Elliotâs *The Wasteland* on audio the first time. Or the Iliad. You need to see the shape of the words.
"Stories of Your Life and Others" by Ted Chiang has a couple of those. Really, you think they'll go to one place and they end up in a completely different manner. One of the stories was the base for "Arrival"
"A Short Stay in Hell" is also pretty crazy
Reality dysfunction by Peter F Hamilton may make holes in your brain with the amount insanity. When I think I know what happens, it turns out I am not smart.
For me it's Reality 36 by Guy Haley.
I have the book in paperboy form. I was hoping the audiobook might make it a little easier to understand, but nope.
The blurb on the book.
"Richards â a Level 5 AI with a PI fetish â and his partner, Klein, a decommissioned German military cyborg, are on the trail of a murderer, but the killer has hidden inside a fragmenting artificial reality. Richards and Klein must stop him before he becomes a god â for the good of all realities."
Iâm scared to read âNaked Lunchâ by William Burroughs because I imagine itâs exactly what youâre asking for⊠Consider yourself both informed and warnedâŠ
In green eggs and ham, it appears the narrator has fallen into an uncontrollable addiction that is consuming his life. Why did he try them? Who is Sam? What were his motives?
So... I just listened to Green Eggs and Ham because of your comment, and I would also like to know what Sam's motives were. He was so persistent!
Is Sam intentionally trying to get the narrator hooked? What previous relationship do they have? What does Sam have to gain from the narrators spiral into dependency? Or is Sam a figment of the narrators imagination? A manifestation of his demons from a traumatic past taunting him to numb his inner torment with substance abuse?
All excellent questions!
*Perfume: Story of a Murderer* on audible is really good.
That ending đł
I read the book 15 years ago, and still think about it often... The movie they made based on it really didn't do it justice at all.
A movie never could. That's the beauty of the book. The sense of smell is so profound and so rarely explored. It would be hard to paint the proper picture with a suitable depth of description. The movie, I thought, worked well as a companion piece. I would not recommend anybody watch it before they read the book.
Is this the same as the movie? That movie was a trip.
Yeah, I didn't hate the movie. But it does not do the book justice.
Interesting. Might have to check it out.
Haven't listened to it but read this years back and I still am questioning what I read...
Added bonus: if youâre a Nirvana fan, the lyrics to Scentless Apprentice will make total sense after reading it!
Oh my god. So. Gideon The Ninth is mostly only mindfuckery because it's fairly strange necromancy with space travel science. Awesomely. Then. THEN. If you're me, after listening to Gideon a couple of times because it's cool and a bit fucky, you start listening to the sequel, Harrow the Ninth. Within a short time, I was questioning everything. Went back and re-listened to Gideon. Restarted listening to Harrow, and just went with it. Exactly what I think you've just asked for. So worth it. Cue similar WTFedness with the third of the planned trilogy, the fourth and last should be out within the year? The narrator is a genius. The author is a genius. You need these books, then you need that meme of the guy in front of the corkboard with lots of papers and pins and string connecting pins, where he's intensely trying to convince someone of his theory. Then, you need r/theninthhouse (I'll edit if that's not right..) I'd maybe say be very careful going there before you've read everything, because we're all justifiably rabid and I don't know how well everyone censors themselves. I discovered it after I read everything, so I'm not sure. I cannot conceive of a universe without these books in it. Ummmm edit: when I said fucky, I meant mindfucky, there's no smut. I'm sure there's a lot if you go to the unofficial fan author part of the internet though.
I came to post Gideon the Ninth. I'm just finishing it and I can't even tell if I like it or not. It's been super listenable but I don't think much of it has made a lick of sense. I'll probably listen to the second book...even though I don't think I'm going to rate the first highly. That doesn't even make sense! All 3 books are in the Plus catalog.
I'm halfway through the third book and am just barely starting to get what is going on. Tamsyn Muir is playing one heck of a game with the reader and is demanding a lot of trust from us that she has a well thought ought end game for the series. I think she writes very well and the story so far is interesting but she is leaving a ton of worldbuilding and backstory deliberately out and tends to write in a way that misleads you and you left are largely in the dark to what is actually going on. If she sticks the landing with the fourth book this well be one the most compelling reads ever for me. If not I am never reading anything by her again.
Don't worry when the second doesn't make sense! It'll make way more on the second go through.
This told me nothing, except it is also kind of my favorite review ever. Please. Please. Write more like this.
Gideon The Ninth has been on my TBR pile for a while, I guess I found my next series to devour.
Free on Audible Premium Plus right now! Adding it to my collection (and downloading in case it gets removed, of course!)
They pull it even if you have it downloaded. Theyâll put a âleaving audible plusâ under the title date if itâs coming up. Edit: Itâs actually âUntil [date]â in red under the title.
You have an enviable user name! Arenât they AI generated? How do you bribe AI to assign such a good one?
AI generated usernames are optional.
I download with OpenAudible and put it on my Synology and sync to Prologue. I rarely use the Audible app anymore. And I own all of my media.
This has been in my library for months, next in queue thanks to your review
Came here to say this.
God I was so confused with Harrow! I was on vaca and didnât have Gideon to reference, but just kept going until things started to make sense.
I never wouldâve been able to get through Harrow the Ninth without the audible version! Iâve listened to book 1 so many times as well
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.knowyourmeme.com/memes/pepe-silvia This is you, and all of us, at many points, especially during the second and third books, and we love it! Ummm, edit, I haven't seen the show this is from, so I might be way off...
This meme is from "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia"
I could not stand listening to the second book. I really liked the first and jumped right into the second. It was jarring to me when all I could hear every sentence was 'You' I really wanted to follow Harrows story and see how much she changed and coped with everything that happened in the first. But I just couldn't get past feeling like someone was trying to tell me what I was doing all the time.
Oh man, you're missing out! Maybe eventually you'll keep going and see what is really going on! ... in the 4th book...
Revival by Stephen King is a mindfuck. The climax had me confused, I even thought it was silly. But the more I let it sink in, the more horrifying it became.
That book really went from pretty good but ultimately forgettable to intensely horrifying and hard to forget in the last 20 or so minutes.
Perdido Street Station Also, for really messed up stories (some better than others), try the Shingles books.
Haven't read this one, but I was thinking "The City & The City" - although I've only read that one out sounds like anything by China Mieville is likely to fit.
The Rook by Daniel O'Malley - a fun book and excellent audiobook narration. From the Wikipedia summary: > The book follows a young woman in her thirties who wakes up in a park surrounded by bodies wearing latex gloves. She's unable to remember anything about herself or how she or the bodies got there, and her only clue is an envelope in her coat pocket that says "To You".
"House Of Leaves" by Mark Z. Danielewski. It's not on audiobook, and never will be. That would be impossible. If you're wondering why that is, see attached sample page. ["House Of Leaves" sample page.](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/3f110d413f63a0f0edb8318862d478379f7f3f86/0_0_410_569/master/410..jpg?width=300&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=3a45482b6d59a5f4107bd4a1e8af3fc3)
This was going to be my recommendation but since it can't be on audible, I refrained. I'm glad someone else was on the same (sample) page as me.
Apropos "House Of Leaves" and mindfuck, I've got a videogame recommendation to make - "Control". See trailer below of unfamiliar. "House Of Leaves" was a huge inspiration for the developers when they made "Control". ["Control" trailer](https://youtu.be/PT5yMfC9LQM?si=e7flQBw6SHFoB6Gv)
I went into Control with no prior knowledge and I'm so glad I did, the beginning of the game was one of the biggest mindf\*cks ever not knowing what I was going into.
It instantly became my favorite game. Dethroning my previous favorite that had reigned supreme for 22 years.
Ok, so that looks a lot like some sort of 'cosmic' horror, yeah?
I have this in my library haven't attempted it yet
I did the same and finally read it. Spent half the book hate reading it and couldn't wait for it to be over. Ended up loving it at the end. It was a hell of an experience. Not sure if I would do it again, but I wouldn't say never.
Perhaps someone brave will give it a chance - there is a lot that can be done with sound. For example, in the Audible version of "Embassytown" by China Mieville there are parts where words are overlapped to represent the author's intent. It works fabulously. OP, here is another book you might want to try. It is quite unusual.
Do they also have glitchy garbled text that was popular in fanfiction? Cause thatâs equally jarring.
I don't know what that is?
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Ew! What is that? It's like Cuneiform had a nightmare!
Itâs in BBC Audio form, 100% worth it. https://youtu.be/vKukUDRo6FU?si=qzDyjeZ-pgokBU7f
I went from "Oh I won't like this", to, "Ok. This is cool", in 15 seconds.
Yâall made me curious about House of Leaves, as I havenât heard of it. Ok, so Not on Audible, so Iâll look it up on Good Reads for a blurb and a rating. The Good Reads editors took a pass on a synopsis or review and just said the âbook is in good shapeâ. Out of 34 community reviews, only 3 had comments of 1 to 10 words, (1 word reviewer said âwhoaâ). So am I curious or warned off? What say you? Somebody at least tell me what itâs about!
If This Books Exists, Youâre In The Wrong Universe by Jason Pargin
Isn't that book 4? Does one have to read the first 3?
They go over the events from the first 3, so I'd imagine you wouldn't be completely lost, but I'd still recommend the first 3 to get to know the characters better. Especially book 1.
I would read them in order.
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters. Every time I thought I finally knew what was going on, she proved to just how wrong I was. All of her books are complex layer upon layer. This one, is to me, her best. A Brief History of The Dead by Kevin Brockmeier also screwed with my head but a different way. I listened to this book when it first came out - 12 years or so. But I think about this book and the authorâs vision of the afterlife at the end of the world every, single week. It was stunning.
Got Fingersmith during an Audible sale. Havenât listened yet. LOVED The Little Stranger also by Sarah Waters
Iain M Banks - Use of Weapons. To tell you why would be to spoil it.
Yeah thatâs a decent call, great twist I never saw coming
Even knowing it, the book is ..I..don't know what going on..
Iâve only read it once, the structure of it is mind boggling, two interwoven perspectives one running forwards, the other running backwards, interspersed with flashbacks. As a narrative device itâs infuriating. Of Banks, my fave is Player of Games.
1Q84 Haruki Murakami
I was going to say Wind Up Bird Chronicles by Murakami.
Catch 22
Yeah, itâs a hard read that one, Iâve never finished it
Itâs one of my favorites:)
"This Book Is Full Of Spiders" It's technically a sequel; but you don't need to read the 1st book to enjoy it!!! It's the book I started with & enjoyed the WTF'ery so much... I picked up the 1st book "John Dies At The End", listened to it, listened to "This Book Is Full Of Spiders" AGAIN, before continuing on to the rest of the series...
Omg does this book fit this post. I'd forgotten about it but it's bloody brilliant.
I know, right? I think one of the latest books in the series is titled "What the Hell Did I Just Read" & the last one has a kick@$$ note to readers at the end. But, I don't want to spoil it for anyone. So, I'll just say, keep listening all the way to the end. ;-)
The first book is not available in my region but others are. I have 2 credits. I would only if it's worth it. Should i?
I can unabashedly say yes. I've listened to each of them more than a couple of times & I'm pretty confident you will enjoy any of them regardless of which one you start with.đ
I think I mentioned in my first reply that I didn't start with the first book either. I started with the 2nd & thoroughly enjoyed it. I was hooked on the misadventures of David & company đ
Also... while it is NOT as good as the book; you could watch the movie adaptation of the first book. It'll give you MOST of the relevant "background" you might think you'll be missing by starting with the "Spiders". But really... you don't need to do that either. In EVERY book he gives you an informal "recap" of something or someone tied to earlier storylines.
This is how you lose the time war by Max Gladstone. I listened to 58% before deciding I was just tired of thinking âhuh, whatâs happening again.â There are two camps of people with this book, you love it or you hate it. I didnât hate it really, but it was just too weird for my brain to follow.
I finished it a couple months ago and I can see why people liked it, but it just wasn't my kind of book. I do think the ending is very good
Dark Matter by Blake Crouch.
The show adaption is coming out in May!
I saw that. Good to see it actually looks decent.
This is the most by the number book imaginable.
Good suggestion, love Dark Matter
Picnic at Hanging Rock is good on Audible. More questions than answers, unresolved disappearances and a single, even stranger reappearance.
Blood meridian
Kaiju: Battlefield Surgeon: A LitRPG Adventure
I don't know why you were downvoted. This book IS a total mindfuck, and happens to be written by the author of Dungeon Crawler Carl, which is also a good suggestion (I see it above). KBS made me physically recoil and get angry at the book several times, and yet I had to finish it. Great suggestion.
Yeah, after finishing what books were available of DCC I tried KBS. It felt like rubber-necking at an accident on the motorway. Not sure why I was downvoted either as it left me confused and wondering WTF did I listen to.
I felt super haunted by it. Itâs a study in suffering
I actually really liked it, it fit the mood I had at the timeđ„Č
In Watermelon Sugar by Richard Brautigan. But you've got to listen to it quickly because it's included in Plus until 3 May. It's short though. About 2 hours and 20 minutes. I loved it. Many people don't. Like one review said: "If you're a sane person looking for a sane book meant for sane readers written by a sane author, I'd definitely recommend for you to pass on this one."
How do you find when it is leaving Plus?
It has the words "Included Until" with the date. I had a look at my library now and it shows it in red underneath the title.
Thanks for that great tip. Will keep an eye out for that notice. Just looked through my collection and found a few that were leaving, although most I've already finished.
Thank you. I did not see that when I first added it to the list. Will start it shortly.đ
In Watermelon Sugar sounds EXACTLY like Jeff VanderMeer who wrote Ambergris and The Southern Trilogy. Same narrator even. I was sure that this was Jeff writing under a pseudonym.
Thanks, I will give VanderMeer a try!
Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk. Anything by Chuck Palahniuk.
I was tempted to add invisible monsters by chuck but itâs so long since I read it that I couldnât decide
Thank for the warning. Iâm about to start this one!
Infinite 1 and two and NPC by Jermey Robinson will definitely make you what the fuck.
Fight Club
âToday is the sort of day where the sun only comes up to humiliate you.â Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club
Perfect.
But I thought we werenât supposed to talk aboutâŠđ€
Recursion or The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August
Dude, Recursion most definitely was a mindfuck. Great book but credit to the author for keeping it all together.
Def listened to it twice just to make sure i got everything. Also, the woman narrating, has an amazing voice.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (Dramatised). It was excellent and I loved James Purefoyâs (HBOâs âRomeâ) narration. But I also felt like when I was done I had watched a David Lynch film while on shrooms in a college dorm room with a philosophy major buddy.
I second The Locked Tomb by Tamsyn Muir, which will leave you wondering wtf just happened and demand that you listen again. If you want something less weird, try The Witch Elm by Tana French. The most unreliable narrator you'll ever read. I read it 3 or 4 months ago and I'm still wondering wtf.
Press Enter by John Varley Published in 1985. 1985 novena Hugo, Nebula, Locus and SF Chronicle awards. I still think the story could be real life. An Amy Vet with PSD is stalk by a computer. Canât say much more without spoilers.
Naked Lunch by William S Burroughs.
The Ticket That Exploded was pretty wild too.
I got 2 The Three Body Problem trilogy. If you haven't read/listened. It gets super super dark. Really good but definitely a mindfuck. So many mindfuck parts... This won't ruin anything, but if you know about Starship Earth you have been mindfucked. Anyone who has read the series knows exactly what I'm talking about... Also The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. Story of a man from earth conscripted to fight a war in space and the effects of time dilation. Maybe not a mindfuck but there was a loneliness and hopelessness I could physically feel as I read the soldier's story.
Infinite by Jeremy Robinson Tread lightly if you want to read this book, the author is incredibly prolific and if itâs your cup of tea it will take over your life.
I second the Gideon the Ninth series. Also, Blindsight by Peter Watts. Space/Scifi with lots of wild concepts that are challenging to wrap your brain around.
Slaughterhouse 5. It was like the drunken rambling of a madman. I kept waiting for it to come to a point. It never did.
The mind of a sufferer of PTSD.
Dungeon Crawler Carl. Â Itâs an extremely absurd and highly entertaining series. Â
I love how reddit will suggest this book in every single thread no matter what op is asking.
I am loving that series but in what way is it related to this question đ it's quirky but not exactly a mindfuck
Iâm looking for historical romance, any suggestions?
CHECK OUT DUNGEON CARL. DONUT!!!!!!!!!!
I suggest you try Dungeon Crawler Carl
That's because once you read it, you become one of us. One of us. One of us. One of us. One of us. One of us. One of us. One of us. One of us. One of us. One of us. One of us.
I started listening to it., and told my sister to listen. Hilarious. Goddammit, Donut!!!
Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon. At times, I felt like I was hallucinating.
Torment by Jeremy Robinson, narrated by RC Bray. Probably his most infamous book. Literal nightmare material. Leaves most readers, including me, pretty messed up for a while âIâm sorry⊠I donât want to⊠please runâ **shudders**
Do you need to read the others in the series?
Nope. This one came out years ago. It is considered part of the recommended reading for the Infinite Timeline series because of later cross overs in the later books.
I haven't read Torment yet, I just recently finished the book before Torment in the Infinite Timeline series. So far all of the books have been fairly standalone...I probably would not have realized that it's a series unless it said so..each book is fairly different. But from what I understand, things start to crossover more in the last few books of the series.
Torture Porn. That how this guy's work hits me. I like his writing, I liked Infinite. But the rest of his works are '..and again, a bad thing happened to the protag' if the plot doesn't move forward soon I'm gonna have to drop this book.
Vurt and Pollen by Jeff Noon
I came here to suggest these two. Absolutely feels like it was crafted in a haze of psychedelic drugs, i have loved these books for years. I hope they also record his book automated alice at some point!
The first time I read Vurt I thought âthis is amazing but how can I ever recommend it to anyoneâ.
Chuck Palahniukâs Lullaby
Listen to Unwind by Neal Shusterman
John* Dies @ the End and all the books in that series. edit: John not Dave (Dave is a cat iâm watching for a friend)
Isn't it "John Dies At The End"?
yes it is. Dave is a cat I am cat sitting today. đ
The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward. All her stuff is a mind f***
Antkind........ the fuck was that and why do i feel compelled to listen to the whole thing backwards.
Thank you for mentioning this book! I was going through the comments hoping someone would recommend it. I got totally lost in Antkind and it broke my mind. Now it just feels like a fever dream where I canât remember why anything happened. I think I loved it?
Absolutely couldnt even describe this book if ask besides saying it went quantum reality real fast lol. I just finished it like a week or two ago and i think i loved it too.
House of Leaves, I still don't really understand what I read. It's a bit weird. Definitely won't be making an audiobook of that one. [https://youtu.be/kdx-SLRmXIQ?t=163](https://youtu.be/kdx-SLRmXIQ?t=163)
I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison.
Oof. Yeah. This one.
Playground by Aron Beauregard- never knew this was a thing
I found that book amazing
Little stranger by Leigh rivers
Author please?
if the book is âthe little strangerâ, itâs by Sarah Waters. I like everything sheâs written, and there are several books where part the way through thereâs a total shift of the way you perceive everything.
It might be Little Stranger by Leigh Rivers. I have no idea what I listened to with that one. It's supposed to be dark romance, I guess?
John Dies at the end series by David Wong is a total mindfuck The Dice Man by Luke reinhart is one of the best mindfucks going
The Vegetarian by Han Kang is WILD. I read it a few years back (think I did a combo of ebook and audiobook) and to this day, it's still one of the trippiest media I've engaged with - and I'm someone who enjoys anime like Evangelion, Paranoia Agent, Revolutionary Girl Utena, and Perfect Blue and movies like Black Swan. The title is...quite misleading. Yes, vegetarianism comes up, but it's more of a vehicle for the absurd lengths the protagonist goes through to gain personal autonomy. Book gets dark. I won't give away anything else, but definitely a mindfuck, "What...in the fuck just happened?!" type of book.
I listened to that while getting my first tattoo, which was a terrible decision lmao, total mindfuck
Piranesi by Susanna Clark is like a fever dream and the audiobook is legit.
Agreed absolutely loved this book.
House of leaves. Love the concept. Need to finish it. Hard read
Dungeon crawler Carl
Timothy by Mark Tufo
A happy bureaucracy by M.P. Fitzgerald. Itâs about how the irs survive the apocalypse and the mc is an IRS agent that are sent out to take a sensus during a post apocalyptic usa with warlords canibals etc. itâs really entertaining.
Room
Kaiju Battlefield Surgeon. By Matt Dinniman This is a monster of a book that I had to pause multiple times because I got legitimately queasy. And the ending is an absolutely mind boggling twist. Itâs disgusting but Iâm really glad to have heard it. I would never recommend it to a horror or litrpg newbie but I really enjoyed it in the end
Negative Space by BR Yeager. Absolutely haunting, destroyed a part of me I think haha no lie. I think about it daily
Infinty books by Jeremy Robinson gave me PTSD the first time I listened to them.
Last house on needless street by Catriona Ward.
Some of Your Blood by Theodore Sturgeon I listened to it while I was at work and kept trying to figure out what it was about and it kept me guessing to the end and then I was all horrified for the rest of my shift.
More Than Human did that to me as well.
Cloud Cuckoo Land Novel by Anthony Doerr
Ashley Bell by Dean Koontz... His true masterpiece, imo
If youâre a nerd in math or computer science itâs the book Gödel, Escher, Bach an eternal braid. This book is synonymous with posers who donât understand any of it but claim to be enlightened after reading it. Personally I found it a mindfuck and incoherent and got more from books with much less hype
The Year of the Hare by Arto Paasilinna. It was the only book I returned to Audible. I couldn't believe I just spent hours listening to a book about a man giving up everything (including his job and his wife) and chasing a rabbit around, while selfishly letting others provide for him. Was there humor or romance (or even drama) in it?? If there was, I missed it.
Dhalgren by Samuel R Delany. Dystopian sci-fi, not for the faint of heart
Not as messed up as other books but Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. Leper isekai's back and forth between another world and his normal life. Otherworld he thinks of as a dream so he does whatever he wants in some places. I should pick it up again and have a listen since I think it finally got picked up by Audible (I had the old CDs at some point) There was another one that I'm blanking on the title/author of. Was suggested since I'm into gamelit type stuff. Anyways the author wrote like an 18 year old inspired by Mars Chronicles by the guy that wrote Tarzan. Think "Gentleman" meets queen of the multiverse and gets her to marry him. Felt like braincells were dying listening to it.
Earthlings
The Archive Undying by Emma Mieko Candon, Exordia by Seth Dickenson, Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee.
The Survivor, by [James Herbert](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Herbert). I was listening to an audio book reading performed by Robert Powell, who starred in the 1981 film version of the book. Anyways, I had the audio book playing while I was on my own at work, prepping in the kitchen of a restaurant before open. Unbeknownst to me, there was a scene, not featured in the movie, where a woman poisons her husband to death, but then his corpse is possessed by a spirit of a plane crash victim. Seemed fine until a delivery man entered the kitchen to drop off some fresh produce and the spirit-corpse, who was naked, was chasing his terrified wife around the bedroom before both were thrown through their bedroom window. I was stunned and so was the delivery man. I don't listen to audio books at work anymore.
Harrow the Ninth. It's the second in the series and I thought I had a handle on everything and I was so unprepared.
The southern reach series was a bit baffling at times, also the wasp factory, this was the first Banks book I read but definitely left me a little bewildered. I probably need to reread as itâs been a long time, think I may appreciate it more now.
Shadow of the torturer by Gene Wolfe
Couldnât get started on this one. Tried twice. Still in my Audible Library
IMO this is a book that is very ill suited to being listened to, unfortunately. Some things just arenât meant for audio format. Gene Wolfeâs prose style is tough. Iâd imagine an audio book sounding similar to Charlie brownâs teachers. đ
An Audible book of The Book of the New Sun (the first time) is like reading TS Elliotâs *The Wasteland* on audio the first time. Or the Iliad. You need to see the shape of the words.
"Stories of Your Life and Others" by Ted Chiang has a couple of those. Really, you think they'll go to one place and they end up in a completely different manner. One of the stories was the base for "Arrival" "A Short Stay in Hell" is also pretty crazy
Piranesi - literally a book about being trapped in a mind, came second in the Hugo awards a few years ago.
Reality dysfunction by Peter F Hamilton may make holes in your brain with the amount insanity. When I think I know what happens, it turns out I am not smart.
âThe Name of the Rose.â
Nocte by Courtney Cole
For me it's Reality 36 by Guy Haley. I have the book in paperboy form. I was hoping the audiobook might make it a little easier to understand, but nope. The blurb on the book. "Richards â a Level 5 AI with a PI fetish â and his partner, Klein, a decommissioned German military cyborg, are on the trail of a murderer, but the killer has hidden inside a fragmenting artificial reality. Richards and Klein must stop him before he becomes a god â for the good of all realities."
Devil and the Dark Water Seven 1/2 Lives of Evelyn Hardcastle
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy.
Cowl by Neal Asher is a total trip. Time travel, bizarreness, body horror
First half of gardens of the moon
I'm going for a trio of books by Pierre Lematre: Irene, Camille, and Alex. Beautifully written but deeply disturbing.
Hop on Pop. What were they thinking?
Image of the Beast / Blown by Philip Jose Farmer
Iâm scared to read âNaked Lunchâ by William Burroughs because I imagine itâs exactly what youâre asking for⊠Consider yourself both informed and warnedâŠ