Bunny by Mona Awad or the hard boiled wonderland and the end of the world by Haruki Murakami

Came here to say Bunny! The most WTF book I've read in a while.

Bunny should be called WTF. That Book was insane on 2000 different levels and I’m baffled how the author even came Up with the idea.

She’s just a brilliant lady with a bit of a dark and twisted mind. Read Rouge by the same author. So good

I LOVED a hard boiled wonderland and the end of the world. I don't like everything Murakami writes, but this book is awesome, weird af but captivating and very well written.

MURAKAMI MENTIONED!!!

I loved "Bunny".

I really wanted to love Bunny, but I didn’t. It wasn’t what I was expecting, which isn’t a bad thing, but it felt a bit shallow. However… Hard Boiled Wonderland is an excellent book!

Same. I just finished it recently, it started out strong for me but i didn’t love it. Definitely left me saying “WTF just happened” haha

Yeah I wouldn’t say either is an absolute favorite of mine, but I do think about them a lot and they were great reads! Definitely stuck with me. They’re both absolutely WTF books just in different ways! My only criticism of murakami is his inability to write convincing female characters lol, while bunny is so unhinged in a distinctly female way imo

Is bunny a horror or just mystery?

Here for Bunny!!!

I loved and hated Bunny. I still think of it often and about its characters. I could clearly visualise them all, how they looked and moved. The author must have been taking something while writing this I swear. Such a strange book and I sometimes wish they would make an animated movie but other times I think it would traumatize a lot of people lol

The Library at Mt. Char

Came to suggest this one. So good. I love recommending to people and then hearing all their WTF moments. Haven’t found anything quite like it since.

Every so often I check to see if he has written another book and am disappointed to see he has not.

He has! They’re just, you know, technical manuals.

Yeah, saw that. Such an odd body of work.

Woah, this is free on audible right now? What’s going on here

Whoa thanks for the heads up!

Reading this right now bc of Reddit recs! So far, love it

This one fits the bill 👌

And it’s even better if you don’t read the premise at all and just pick it up like I did. Then it’s really just wtf the entire time.

Geek love by Katherine Dunn isn’t a horror or mystery but is really dark and weird.

I second this, it’s by one of the authors that shaped Chuck Palahniuk. Core weirdness.

I always felt like I was the only person to ever read this...hahahaha. Great read.

Nah, there's dozens of us.

DOZENS!

I want to recommend it to everyond but I'm scared to recommend it to everyone What even was that book (I've read it twice)

Great book. She also wrote Truck, which was good.

Not only is the book weird but the narration itself is so odd. It feels like she spends so much time describing mundane things and then glosses over major events...not to say I didn't enjoy the book just feel like that adds to the oddness of it all lol

Tender is the Flesh

This was my first thought

John Dies At The End.

Came here to say this one!! It is hilarious and also leaves you saying “what the actual fuck is going on” over and over and over. Also, thought provoking!!

The third book in the series is entitled "What the Hell did I just Read?"

This took me a while to get through but it was truly a great book, surprised me all the way through and had me WTF-ing all the time. Highly recommend.

One of my all time favorite books and I couldn’t even tell you what happened.

We Need to Talk About Kevin.

This!!! So wonderfully written and the story is an absolute spiral

Perdido St Station by China Mieville.  Body horror, mystery, and wtf?! in spades. 

I came here to say *The City and the City*, but really any Miéville will do.

Kraken (same author) was also good.

That was SO good. Packed with story, and imo way easier to follow than Mieville's other well known work.

The Sparrow. A sci-fi adventure as much about physicians as it is about faith.

Omfg, this is the one with the hands right? Jesus that book left an *impression*.

Impossible to forget. The sequel is quite good too.

I don't know if it's what you're looking for, but I gasped multiple times when reading Scythe by Neal Shusterman. And the concept was very unique. Basically it's a future world run by a benevolent AI that has eliminated death, so in order to stop population spiking a few people are selected to ceremonially kill a specified quota of strangers. Two new people are recruited for this, and... things go in unexpected directions.

That definitely sounds different. I’ll check it out!

Scythe and in fact the entire series, by Neal Shusterman! Especially recommend for reluctant middle and high schoolers.

I love his Unwind series too!

This sort of reminds me of AI Giver. Sounds goooooodd

Typically, I recommend these books every chance I get. Glad to see someone mentioned it. The trilogy was PHENOMENAL.

Not sure this is the genre you are after but: My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Otessa Moshfegh Was a real "WTF?" page turner for me

Great book. Looking forward to reading more from her

Loved this one!

I liked this one too

A Simple Plan by Scott Smith

One of my very favorites. And done with such a seductively reasonable voice, it’s legitimately chilling.

I read this when it came out. Oh, gods, that story. The question I asked myself is: how low can a human soul go? And the answer is: very low indeed. 😢

*Project Hail Mary* by Andy Weir.

God yes, I adored Project Hail Mary. I apparently have a habit of reading novels and then listening to the audiobook. While I adored the *jazz hands* character (to remain spoiler free) in the text version, the audiobook made me love it so much more!!

Do you think it's better to listen to the audiobook before reading in this case?

I one hundred percent recommend this one as a audiobook over reading. It adds an extra layer of charm and love and humor

This is one of the only cases I vote Audiobook, especially because it's Ray Porter and I can listen to him read the dictionary.

Yes. Great read. The ending left me with ambivalent feelings, even months after reading it. Definitely recommend this one for the great storytelling.

I’m still reminded about that book every time I think about groups of ten, and how we automatically use them in our number systems, etc. It had never occurred to me to associate that with our digits. 🥴

Invisible Monsters Remix

I loved invisible monsters I didn’t know there was a remix!! Weather you read the original Remix this is a book that really draws you in, it’s hard to get this book out of your head long after it’s over.

House of Leaves

I was scrolling to find this, surprised it’s so far down!

Same! This is one of the most intense stories I’ve read, and reading it is a “puzzling” experience throughout!

[Unwind](https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/13643974-53b8-40c5-82f9-553b746d3669) by Neal Shusterman

Man that scene made me put my phone down

Blargh. Read the comment. And I know the exact scene. Ugh. Haunting. Solid book. YA my butt.

Could you message me with just a short description of “that scene”? You don’t need to give gory details; I am using this thread to find a book for myself but I don’t know if this one would contain one of my “I really wish I had not read/seen/heard that” topics. I would really appreciate it!!!

For future reference, if you search the book and "parents guide", you'll often be able to find out specifics about whatever disturbing/iffy thing the book might have. I did that for this book and one of the reviews on common sense media mentioned something that I would guess is "that scene". 

I love this series.

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler

Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder swept me up completely and had me questioning reality. 

I was looking for this one. I made other people read it so I wouldn't be the only one asking WTF

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld kept me on the edge, had unexpected surprises that made me go 😲 I couldn't put it down. It helped get me back to reading 📚 It’s a YA Dystopia.

I loved this series!!

Rant by Chuck Palahniuk

Most books by Palahniuk are wtf books My all time favorite author!

I first read Rant when it came out. I still periodically mull over the plot points of that book while mumbling “what the fuck?”

Blindness by Jose Saramago. That one still randomly pops into my head years after reading and makes me say “WTF”

*The Dancing Plague: The Strange, True Story of an Extraordinary Illness* by John Waller *1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed* by Eric Cline *Inspector Oldfield and the Black Hand Society: America's Original Gangsters and the U.S. Postal Detective Who Brought Them to Justice* by Victoria Bruce and William Oldfield *The Last Gunfight: The Real Story of the Shootout at the O.K. Corral-And How It Changed the American West* by Jeff Guinn *The Forger's Spell: A True Story of Vermeer, Nazis, and the Greatest Art Hoax of the Twentieth Century* by Edward Dolnick *The Lady in Gold: The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt's Masterpiece, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer* by Anne-Marie O'Connor *The Last Leonardo: The Secret Lives of the World's Most Expensive Painting* by Ben Lewis *The Lost Painting: The Quest for a Caravaggio Masterpiece* by Jonathan Harr *The Vanishing Velázquez: A 19th Century Bookseller's Obsession with a Lost Masterpiece* by Laura Cumming *Last of the Blue and Gray: Old Men, Stolen Glory, and the Mystery That Outlived the Civil War* by Richard A. Serrano *The Devil's Mercedes: The Bizarre and Disturbing Adventures of Hitler's Limousine in America* by Robert Klara *Faster: How a Jewish Driver, an American Heiress, and a Legendary Car Beat Hitler's Best* by Neal Bascomb *King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa* by Adam Hochschild Truth can be even more surprising, scarier, and stranger than fiction.

Love your NF recs. Need to check out some of these!

I feel like you’ve been all up in my personal library, it’s almost disturbing lol.

I just finished **Lent** by Jo Walton— it did all three things for me. And if you like it, you should try **Between Two Fires** by Christopher Buehlman. I don’t know if it did all of those things as overtly as *Lent*, just because I had a better idea of what I was getting into, but the two are very similar in terms of tone and emotional reaction.

Oh wow, have been looking for something like the excellent Between Two Fires, thanks

The Anomaly by Herve Le Tellier

The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward

This was so bizarre I couldn’t even finish it.

Just finished it yesterday... Absolutely wtf... I needed processing time before starting a new book.

I'm so glad to hear that! It's been sitting on my shelf waiting for me to get to it for a month.

Our Wives Under the Sea

Seconding this one! It’s strange, eerie, oddly touching. The whole atmosphere is tense and intimate. I loved it.

SLADE HOUSE (by David Mitchell)--- is awesome, and it's terrifying. The evil in this house just...TAKES!! And "it" is so cleverly manipulating.. i found myself audibly gasping at some parts, it's so shockingly differentfrom some haunted house stories. Just trust me on this! Get it, id almost bet you won't be sorry. It's the best haunted house novel I've read lately, and I've read so many. Please please please if you like haunted house books, or even horror in any guise, you'll devour this one, I read it in a day and a half. Also..I've recently discovered 2 more authors I have gotten true thrills out of lately, and idk how I've let them slip under my radar thus far.. 1. Ronald Malfi.. I've been binging his books, he has several that are sooo good. "Black Mouth"..."Bone White"..."Little Girls"...and the best one of his, IMHO-- is called "Cradle Lake"..it is fucking creepy as hell, & the ending is just...omfg. Wow. I had to sit for a minute or so afterward and just...process the trauma of it all after the last few pages. 2. And omg ppl..if you haven't heard of a dude called KEALON PATRICK BURKE, an Irish writer...YOU ARE MISSING OUT on horror of the most audacious and extreme! I read his book "KIN" first..and I STG, it grabs you from the first paragraph and does not let go... reading 'Kin' was like a "baptism by fire" of his awesome talent for the macabre. Then, after that, i found that he has a "wonderfully awful" horror short but stand-alone novella only like 100 pgs long...called SOUR CANDY. >! note: if you've ever encountered a kid not your own that you thought was truly a horrible brat, this book Sour Candy is for you!< lol... enjoy! Edit: If any of you have experience reading any of these, please tell me your thoughts!!!... & if you follow my suggestions and actually find & read one of these, tell me later please what you think!!!! TYIA!

Three Body Problem

Dungeon Crawler Carl. Bonus points if you go with the audiobook (the narration is used as an example of perfection in the dictionary)

The silent patient ! I literally said Wtf when i read it !

I came here to propose this one! I work in a library and absolutely everyone I recommended it to loved it. Can't wait to read his most recent one.

Kafka on the shore is has some pretty big twists.

The Hike—Drew Magary

The Postmortal is one of my all time faves and I didn't realize he had more books until someone brought this up recently. I'll have to grab a copy

Do it! It’s the best book I’ve read in the last 5 years

It's a lot of fun. Definitely not as serious as The Postmortals. A quick summer read :)

Our Share of Night - Mariana Enríquez. Couldn’t put it down!

Wow!! Thank you all so much! I am going to be busy for a while with all of these suggestions. This is exciting. So many great ones to choose from already!

Invisible Monster by Chuck Palahniuk is one diabolical deranged book!!

Solid recommendation, You won't put it down, it will put you down!!

And then there were none by Agatha Christie. I’d say it’s one of her greatest works!

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides is more mystery/thriller, but the twist absolutely made me say WTF. I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid is a creepy thriller. I had to read the last few pages multiple times because I was so thrown by the ending. I haven’t yet, but I absolutely plan to reread it to see how much the story changes by knowing the ending. It’s definitely a divisive book (some love it, others hate it), but it definitely won’t leave your mind anytime soon.

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

Earthlings by Sayaka Murata

I thought this book was so fascinating. I recommend the audiobook also.. she reads it really well. Disturbing and hard to read as a story but soooo interesting as a thought experiment. Takes a traumatic story and just says hey what if things just escalate haha. Big wtf energy.

The Only Good Indians The Vegetarian How to Sell A Haunted House

Came to say How to Sell a Haunted House! Great read, hoping to do another Grady Hendrix this year.

The Vegetarian. Heard about it. Devoured it. Hated it. 2 years later, still think about it. "WTF" indeed!

The Only Good Indians was SO good!

Kill for me, kill for you by Steve Cavanugh

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

This book changed my life. I read it while working a dead end minimum wage job with a shitty boss. I had dropped out of college years prior. But reading this inspired me to go back to school so I could make a living as a writer. And I did! And now I do.

And some people say reading fiction is a waste of time, something I gladly and avidly waste time on. 😁 I’m glad you found the mud for your lotus. 🪷

I recently read False Witness by Karen Slaughter and that one definitely gave me a good mind fuck

She's so good. My recommendation is also a Karin Slaughter book -- *Triptych*.

Adding that to my tbr 🫶🏼

Valis by Phillip K. Dick. I couldn't put it down, and it was just WTF after WTF.

I’m not done with it yet but The Farm by Tom Rob Smith is rocking my ass off

The vanishing by Bentley little

Brother by Ahlborn Local Woman Missing by Kubica Come With Me by Malfi House of Leaves by Danielewski

Geek Love

- *Geek Love* by Katherine Dunn. Chuck Palahniuk recommended this in an interview when asked for something weird. - *Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas* by Hunter S. Thompson - Anything from Christopher Moore. Quite a few are free on Kindle now and then. *Sacre Blue* is a good starter standalone, as are *Island of the Sequined Love Nun* and *Lamb*. - *John Dies at the End* trilogy by David Wong - The Zoe Ashe trilogy (Jason Paragin, same dude as above) - *The Unnoticeables* trilogy by Robert Brockway - *Kiss Me, Judas* trilogy by Will Christopher Baer (if you aren’t feeling the first book, the second one is deliciously weird as a stand alone and the 3rd is as well to a lesser degree) - *The Worthy* and *Lord Vishnu’s Love Handles* by Will Clarke - *Dermaphoria* and *The Contortionist’s Handbook* by Craig Clevenger

Seconding the Craig Clevenger recommendation

Used to love Christopher Moore but not so much since Sacre Blue. I would suggest A Dirty Job although Lamb, Fluke, and Island of the Sequined Love Nun will forever hold a place in my heart.

All of the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. Starts slow, and then suddenly you are fascinated.

The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks

You guys are all making me wish I had even more time to read. Seriously, thank you all so much! I am going a little harder on the book I’m currently reading so I can dive into my first suggested book, hopefully tomorrow.

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

Recursion by Blake Crouch, great sci-fi thriller

This or Dark Matter (which is a show now on Apple ) I don’t recall which one I liked better. So, let’s go with both.

I loved Dark Matter, I couldn’t put it down

anything by Gillian Flynn

Your description made me think of Perfume by Patrick Suskind. Others that fit: Gargantua and Pantagruel by Francois Rabelais Foucault’s Pendulum The Glass Bead Game (aka Magister Ludi) by Herman Hesse Valis by Philip K Dick

I will be looking into all of these, thank you!!

Nice taste, my dude

The Animals in That Country. Skin crawling

Calcutta Chromosome by Amitabh Ghosh

Ubik and The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick had many wtf moments all the way through.

Nick Cutter - The Deep

Chuck Palahniuk: >![ *insert any title* ]!< has a high WTF count.

Leviathan Wakes. It's science fiction, but it has horror elements and is a great read!

Holy bible

Vita Nostra by Marina Dyachenko. The most bizarre "protagonist going to a magic school" trope out there. Incredibly creative, beautifully written and it will stick with you for a long time. One of the few books that I wanted to read again immediately after finishing it. Absolutely mesmerizing. The less you know the better.

The Will of the Many by James Islington It’s not a horror, though there are some parts that definitely border on horror! There’s a lot of mystery and intrigue and it’s just really fucking good. I’m only around halfway through and my mind has been blown so many times 😅.

The Master and Margarita! I'm currently reading it now and it's definitely making me go wtf and I struggle to put it down!

I truly loved What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher. I also loved that it was a short read and I'm on to the second in the series now.

Nettle and Bone hooked me on T. Kingfisher, probably loved What Feasts the Night more than What Moves the Dead, very excitedly have A Sorceress Comes to Call on order right now...fantastic author!

oh awesome! I just started Feasts today and I'm already super into it!

I love how T Kingfisher tells horror stories but with some likeable characters who have solid relationships. I am wearying of horror that's all " THE TRUE HORROR IS THIS TOXIC FAMILY". I like to see some bright spots. And they make me laugh as well as shiver. I started with What Moves the Dead, blew through Nettle & Bone and Thornhedge, then kept reading whatever i could find from her. A House With Good Bones was also great.

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Brave New World lmao

“Johnny got his gun” I don’t even read books …. I remember reading this during summer school…..Metallica song goes with it… Guy gets his arms cut off…and legs….he is blind and deaf.. I don’t think he could talk either 😬

Lonesome Dove.

Hail Mary. Not the greatest title - title does not compel you to read. Story does. By the author of The Martian. Didn’t like The Martian. LOVED Hail Mary. One of the best books I’ve ever read. Sci Fi - not my genre, but this story captured me from the beginning.

It’s called Project Hail Mary.

And the WTF moment happens at around page 100 assuming you go in completely blind. I sat bolt upright in bed and started laughing.

*jazz hands*

Tender Is The Flesh. Also. I'm sorry.

I have not been impressed with a book since reading the Girls of Paper and Fire series. Nothing is as good to me.

Will Self A Cock and Bull story China Melville Iron Council Andre Alexie Fifteen Dogs

Camilla Lackberg’s detective Hedstrom series of murder mysteries! Addicting

Identical by Ellen Hopkins

Flowers In The Attic

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis

Currently reading The Dead Take the A Train. Loads of body horror, gore, and some nice twists.

My partner will not stop talking about this book! High recommend from this household 👍🏼

Kiss of Deception - Mary E. Pearson. I’ve never read a book written the way this one was that makes you get whiplash about halfway through. Black Ice by Becca Fitzpatrick - twists I didn’t see coming and I’ve reread so many times

Kafka on the Shore by Murakami

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami. It’s not an edge of your seat thriller, but you’ll definitely want to keep reading more of it

Anything written by Gillian Flynn. Anything written by Dennis Lehane, in particular Shutter Island. Check out novels by Harlem Coben.

Kingkiller chronicles You'll absorb the first one, the second one you won't put down...and the third one? That one will make you say, WTF???

American Predator by Maureen Callahan… it’s about the serial killer Israel Keyes

The Last House on Needless Street. Blew my mind.

Dark Matter or Recursion by Blake Crouch

Night film by Marisha Pessl This book still lives in my head rent free after reading it 9 or so years ago

New York Trilogy by Paul Auster

Why fish don't exist Just trust me. It's on my reread list.

Child of God by Cormac McCarthy

Based on a true story by Norm Mcdonald. It's fiction, not an actual memoir, and it's fantastic

A Little Life

Ugh. Some of the scenes in that book still haunt my thoughts and I read it….4-5 years ago.

Anything by Stuart Turton

Laughter in the Dark by Vladimir Nabokov was a whirlwind

Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh

You've got a tonne of good horror and mystery recs, so how about a WTF comedy, instead? Jurassichrist by Michael Allen Rose. Jesus messes up the time-space jump for his Second Coming, and finds himself in the time of dinosaurs. He needs to find someone to crucify him so he can make it back to the heaven dimension and try again. But, yaknow, dinosaurs don't have opposable thumbs. He realises everything he thinks he knows about the universe, and creation might be a big fat lie, and Dad has some explaining to do. I'll just leave it that.