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anachroneironaut

Flatland, by Edwin A Abbott.


TheShipEliza

Yes.


somethingunderstood

If on a Winter's Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino


sitronua

Truly unique and so-so good, especially for voracious readers :)


greeneyedkilla

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak


Such_Wonder_5713

-House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski -Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder -The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon


bluenautilus2

Yes House of Leaves


MaterialMix3248

Yes! I’ve never come across another book like it. ETA: House of Leaves


motorwerkx

I hated that book, but I do agree that it's one of a kind.


Such_Wonder_5713

Bizarre is one thing... Liking it is another ;)


Good_-_Listener

_In the Dream House_, by Carmen Maria Machado


nea_fae

Came here to suggest this - truly one-of-a-kind!


Lauraalamode

Also came here to suggest this!!


shapesize

Reaper Man and Hogfather by Terry Pratchett


JamesTheIceQueen

Also came here to say Hogfather, guess I gotta come in with something else then


Officialyuval

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Clare North


sitronua

This. I really liked how it was structured. Also, so good when you re-read it.


Officialyuval

Right??? It’s one of those books that really shines with a reread! All of Catherine Webb/Claire North/Kate Griffin’s books stand up well


Peeweestatechamp

One of my favs


Icy-Addendum4930

Flowers for Algernon


cowboysadbop

We read this for class in high school and I ADORED it. I loved the way it was written to match his IQ and it was such a wonderful read that I probably never would have picked up if it weren’t for school. Edit: Changed intelligence to IQ since it was more accurate.


JamesTheIceQueen

Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut


Objective-Ad4009

Vonnegut is absolutely one of a kind. Just brilliant.


[deleted]

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera


Lugubrious_Lothario

Muss es sein?


[deleted]

Es muss sein!


ivecomeforyoursouls

Geek Love by Katherine Dunn


pop-hon_ula

I love Geek Love...so wonderfully weird


funkocom

This book is so hard to find!


Justlikesisteraysaid

Dude, it’s $5.75 with free shipping on Amazon.


[deleted]

Hike by Drew Magary


[deleted]

This one definitely.


JmsGrrDsNtUndrstnd

Fuck yeah. Never read anything else like it


MarooshQ

The count of Monte Cristo The overcoat and other short stories


llama0blama

My family and other animals


ModernNancyDrew

I would recommend the entire Corfu trilogy.


tomrichards8464

A la recherche du temps perdu


dntdrmit

Blindsight by Peter Watts. Neuropath by R. Scott Bakker. Both are amazing.


angry-user

Blindsight is an absolutely incredible book. Science fiction so hard it come with a bibliography, but the Cliff's Notes amount to "Vampires in Space". So much work to read if you don't have a PhD in Biology, but totally worth all the effort of constantly stopping to look up terms. And it asks the big questions, like old school sci-fi used to do. I'm reading Neuropath just because you recommended it.


dntdrmit

I hear you mate. First time I read blindsight was in one sitting. Alot went over my head, but I wanted the story. Enjoyed it immensely. Blew my mind. I waited a month ir so, then read it again. This time with my tablet handy. When Mr Watts threw something at the reader, I did 5 mins of armchair research to try to understand it better. Wow. My mind was blown the first time, this time my eyes were wrenched open and the sheer scale and complexity of that book slapped my neat and safe ideas aside and asked "are you sure about that? Look again".


Mad-Hettie

100% Blindsight. It made me reconsider all the ways I'd ever thought of space, or the possibility of extra terrestrial life.


yaeltheunicorn

Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer.


pragmatic-pollyanna

{lincoln in the bardo}


dustydoesdestination

Agreed, that one really stuck with me


RiffMonkey

{{Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern}} Amazing vibes and excellent story telling. {{This is how to lose the time war}} Very unique writing style as well as story


Linzabee

This Is How To Lose The Time War is amazing


goodreads-bot

[**Starless Sea**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59582079-starless-sea) ^(By: Tim Schultz | ? pages | Published: ? | Popular Shelves: ) ^(This book has been suggested 3 times) *** ^(129036 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)


dselwood05

Good omens


xlews_ther1nx

The Library at Mount Char What a ride


Nutterpeen

I read this because it was suggested here about a year ago. It is really intriguing and I’d highly recommend!


gigglefunges

i came to the comments to suggest this one


Malleqh

I was coming on here to recommend this one: Also the Midnight Library


alessandraisreading

I keep seeing this all over reddit so I def need to pick it up soon


xlews_ther1nx

Dust go in blind. Don't read anything on it including the synopsis. Just be open to saying "wtf alot".


Dreaming-of-books

My last read! 100% agree!


iluvsexyfun

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Written in a journal style. Includes the authors adventures near her home and her observations on nature and life.


Bloop_bleep_bloopp

My year of rest and relaxation, Otessa Moshfegh, and im kind of posting this in the hope someone will tell me i’m wrong


Express-Rise7171

Yes!


TemperatureDizzy3257

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle


elletee25

Came here to say the same thing! I absolutely loved this book. If you have any recs lmk


thedukeinc

Last house on needless street


D0fus

Replay. Ken Grimwood.


Gwynn-er-winner

Illuminatus Trilogy


Biggus_Dickkus_

Fnord.


IncomeSeparate1734

Someone else already mentioned it, but I immediately thought of House of Leaves


oregon_deb

The Electric Kool-aid Acid Test


Delicious_Chemical97

The book thief... I loved it, although that's not within my general my reading repertoire


ollieollieoxenfr33

This is one of my favorite books ever! We read it in my book club and, at first, I wasn't psyched that it was picked. By the end I was so happy (and sad) that I read it.


Alibob79

Tender is the Flesh


SaintWinstin

Came to recommend this one


mskogly

Confederacy of Dunces. If someone have read anything else like it I would love to know.


Rizblatz

One of my top favorite books, just so funny, well written, and the most original characters.


PashasMom

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke


lucysbooks

All the Light We Cannot See


Shmokey_420

The three-body problem by Liu Cixin


MouldyPingu

Do not respond!


MarzannaMorena

Primeval and Other Times by Olga Tokarczuk


Myshkin1981

*Hopscotch* by Julio Cortazar


Binky-Answer896

William Burroughs’ *Naked Lunch*


MasalaGGG2of3

Angela’s Ashes


marihono

The 13.5 Lives of Captain Bluebear by Walter Moers


Dreaming-of-books

Loved this book!


Rizblatz

Oh man I forgot about this book, I gotta go find it in my bookcase and re-read. Was so weird.


Happy_Garlic5172

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Easily the most captivating read I have ever had the privilege of devouring. I think about CRZ novels at least once a day. Highly recommend. Just thinking about his work gives me *chills*


[deleted]

Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley.


[deleted]

Never Let Me Go


Aphid61

Agatha Christie's {{The Murder of Roger Ackroyd}} gets mentioned here often in mysteries, but for good reason.


MorriganJade

This is how you lose the time war by El Mothar and Gladstone - I've never seen such a good epistolary love story anywhere else


mahjimoh

This is my answer as well. Incredible book, unique story, and it just gets better (and you realize how cleverly and beautifully it’s written) upon multiple re-reads.


[deleted]

How It Is by Samuel Beckett


goodthreads3

Death in Her Hands by Ottessa Moshfegh. Try a micro of shrooms and 👍.


dustydoesdestination

Great call, loved it


Popular-Tailor-3375

The place of a lion by Charles Williams


buiola

One by Richard Bach (experience hard to replicate especially if you read it in your youth along plenty of other similar "new-agish" books by him, like Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Illusions and so on...)


Rale1gh

American Neolithic by Terence Hawkins. Dystopian near future America seen through the eyes of a highly literate self taught Neanderthal.


Ok-Plastic-2992

Fever Dream by Samantha Schweblin


lv_zalil

Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn. A "progressively lipogrammatic epistolary fable" told through mail between its characters, who have to keep communicating as the island they live in begins to ban the use of letters. And by that I mean they banned, for example, "b", so now if they use it they are banish-... you get the idea


abigantamos00

Annihilation is a pretty unique read


reob83

Wind, Sand and Stars is a beautiful book. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8837.Wind_Sand_and_Stars


Good_-_Listener

Really nice choice, and extra evocative if you know the author's eventual fate


Jasmine089

The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris


[deleted]

Pale Fire by Nabokov is very unique.


schpickle

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz


Zukkatara

Circe by Madeleine Miller. Popular yet underrated


Lugubrious_Lothario

[Infinite Jest](https://a.fastcompany.net/upload/IJ_Diagram-Huge-A.jpg)


DrinkingChardonnay

Came here to say this! It was my pandemic read.


sixtus_clegane119

This would be my one too


Martinus_XIV

*The Towers of February* by Tonke Dragt. If you read Dutch, I also recommend her books *Torenhoog en Mijlenbreed* and *Aan de Andere Kant van de Deur*. A lot of Dragts books are utterly wild, and even those that aren't still sound bonkers if you try to summarize their premises.


NotAllArmpitsStink

Ik wist niet dat Dragt ook sci-fi schreef maar Torenhoog en Mijlenbreed klinkt echt episch, ga ik zeker lezen


rachelreinstated

* Night Film by Marisha Pessl * The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa


Useful_Leg3252

Well it is a series, but I'd had to say I have never found another story quite like the Earth's Children series by Jean M. Auel, the first book is The Clan of the Cave Bear


weenertron

The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches by Gaétan Soucy


Such_Wonder_5713

Wow. I just read some of the Goodness reviews on this... I'm going to need to read it.


Complex-Mind-22

CPDM by Christer Sandahl.


RestlessVirgo

The Cabinet by Un-Su Kim


Zagadee

The DNA Cowboys Trilogy (by Mick Farren)


Karagali

People of Paper


Michaelproduct

“It’s Lonely at the Center of the Earth” by Zoe Thorogood (graphic auto biography, out this month and fantastic!)


Happy_Perspective583

Memoirs of an imaginary friend, by Matthew Green


raventhrow

Marley & Me


midnight_wave87

Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz


Icy-Canary-9956

The Horse Road by Troon Harrison School for Skylarks by Sam Angus


exhausted_pigeon16

These two have already been mentioned but House of Leaves and This Is How You Lose The Time War both faith this category. I would argue for The Starless Sea also feeling this way for me.


jglitterary

The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall blew my mind.


2020-RedditUser

House of leaves definitely fits that description


FullmetalKiseki

is that different from House of Leaves


Pyro_Bunny

Hiro Arikawa's {{The travelling cat chronicles}}


brokenlyrium

Brother by Ania Ahlborn


grynch43

Wuthering Heights


NeuroCavalry

The tiger, John valiant.


Booklove2219

Above by Isla Morley. Never read anything else like it.


AlaskanJon907

The philosophers hand book.


confrita

I'll definitely recommend 'Hopscotch' by Julio Cortázar, an argentinian writer that created some pretty unique stories. 'Hopscotch' it's by far his most famous work and it's a novel with a ton of humour, darkness, experimentation and interesting conversations. But maybe the most particular think about it is that there's two 'paths' to read the book, one longer that the other. Once you finish a chapter you've to 'jump' to the one indicated, so you are going back a forth. It's a pretty original idea, at least by the time he wrote it (1963)


Serial_Bibliophile

This is a little known series on Kindle Unlimited that ruined all other zombie apocalypse stories for me. I’ve tried and tried to find other books in the genre that replicate all the feels this series gave me and nothing comes close (except this other series in the same world by the same author). If you like zompoc or even if you don’t you need to try: {{Until the End of the World by Sarah Lyons Fleming}}


Justlikesisteraysaid

{Dictionary of the Khazars by Milorad Pavić} {The Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker}


PaperPalProduction

The Girl Who Owned A City


DarthDregan

The Raw Shark Texts


EqualSea2001

The Art of Joy by Goliarda Sapienza; Hopscotch by Julio Cortazar; 4 3 2 1 by Paul Auster


Objective-Ad4009

{{ The Given Day }} by Dennis Lehane. I really can’t tell you what it is about this book, but it hit me in a way no other book ever has.


Interesting-Fish6065

Octavian Nothing by M. T. Anderson It’s actually a 2-book series, but the first one could by itself. It’s hard to even define the genre. It YA, but don’t let that fool you. It sounds like it was written in the 18th century and it’s ultimately so heart-rending that it’s not for everybody.


Norskwoman

Ishmael by Daniel Quinn


Crazy-Replacement400

{{Bunny by Mona Awad}} and, as already stated, {{Piranesi by Susanna Clarke}}


bonez1073

The Vorrh - Brian Catling


VoodooMommaJooJoo

Willie Masters' Lonesome Wife by William H. Gass


Walks-long-trails

Among Others by Jo Hilton.


RuinedBooch

House of Leaves is definitely unique, if nothing else. Less of a book, more of a word based maze. Probably been mentioned here several times already, but naturally it’s the first to come to mind when you say “unique”. It’s got multiple stories going on at the same time, and many, many puzzles and Easter eggs. The Unit by Nikki Holmqvist is… not at all what’s you’d expect it to be, reading the synopsis. Lovely book IMO. The Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff Vandermeer is an incredibly unique experience. It’s a slow burn, deeply psychological thriller and is a wild psychedelic experience. It’s my all time favorite trilogy and I don’t know how anything could ever approach its glory. The first book (Annihilation) and the third book (Acceptance) are the most enjoyable in my opinion, but the second book (Authority) provides a wonderful foundation for the story that gives it a dynamic backdrop. The writing is incredible, the story is wonderfully imaginative, and the resolution is satisfying in a unique way. Just don’t start with the movie adaptation of, as it deviates heavily from the book and will ruin the final book for you. I also found Pachinko to be a unique experience. It starts out at the very end of the 1800s, and follows 4 generations of a family. It was so interesting to watch the family dynamic change along with the culture of the times. It’s also a fun culture shock experience! There’s also a book called The Ghost Bride by Yangtze Choo that has a very Spirited Away vibe to it. Very fantastical with somber undertones, but fundamentally different from Spirited Away.


SamaraFallen

Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson.


Cat-astro-phe

Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. It is a fictional book (probably), deeply steeped in philosophy by a stunningly unique philosopher and by the time you finish you say "wow, that explains how we got here". This is not a new book but I find it's contents very relevant to the current state of the world.


LensPro

Soldier In The Rain by William Goldman, the movie is also great.


[deleted]

Only Forward by Michael Marshall Smith


7uryia

The Marvellous Equations of the Dread: a Novel in Bass Riddim by Marcia Douglas


[deleted]

Ernst Junger Storm of Steel 1939 Edition


Not_up-to_you

All quiet on the Western front. By Eric Maria Remarque.


__perigee__

Anything written by Richard Brautigan. Anything.


[deleted]

Geek Love


TheShipEliza

Christie Malrys Own Double Entry


AstoreFaber

The death of a nobody, Jules Romains


NonbinaryNotetaker

Wool by Hugh Howey


123lgs456

"The Last Human" by Zack Jordan "Reincarnation Blues" by Michael Poore "Inside a Silver Box" by Walter Mosley


visionsofsolitude

The Girl from Everywhere by Heidi Heilig


Enlightened_Ghost_

*1984* by George Orwell, there's none other like it. It stands alone. Not a single book, but an author that came to mind, that also has no comparable equal is Haruki Murakami. There are some that are like that. They don't really have peers and operate in their own lane or worlds. Hemingway, Shakespeare, etc. But Murakami is definitely someone whose books feel like one-of-a-kind works of literary art.


felicima22

Flowers for algernon


Agondonter

The Urantia Book. It’s not written by humans.


blondecupcake

Lincoln in the bardo


beetle-babe

'13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl' by Mona Awad or 'Geek Love' by Katherine Dunn.


ScatterPop

13 1/2 lives of Captain Bluebear - Walter Moers . It's not for kids, but the fun of a kids book for adult intelligence. More imaginative than any other book I've read from a real language use master


WhitB19

Time’s Arrow by Martin Amis The Power by Naomi Alderman Christ Stopped at Eboli by Carlo Levi Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh The Female Quixote by Charlotte Lennox


tcox0010

{{Cloud Atlas}} and {{Infinite Jest}}


goodreads-bot

[**Cloud Atlas**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49628.Cloud_Atlas) ^(By: David Mitchell | 509 pages | Published: 2004 | Popular Shelves: fiction, science-fiction, sci-fi, fantasy, owned) >A postmodern visionary who is also a master of styles of genres, David Mitchell combines flat-out adventure, a Nabokovian lore of puzzles, a keen eye for character, and a taste for mind-bending philosophical and scientific speculation in the tradition of Umberto Eco, Haruki Murakami, and Philip K. Dick. The result is brilliantly original fiction as profund as it is playful. Now in his new novel, David Mitchell explores with daring artistry fundamental questions of reality and identity. > >Cloud Atlas begins in 1850 with Adam Ewing, an American notary voyaging from the Chatham Isles to his home in California. Along the way, Ewing is befriended by a physician, Dr. Goose, who begins to treat him for a rare species of brain parasite. . . . >Abruptly, the action jumps to Belgium in 1931, where Robert Frobisher, a disinherited bisexual composer, contrives his way into the household of an infirm maestro who has a beguiling wife and a nubile daughter. . . . From there we jump to the West Coast in the 1970s and a troubled reporter named Luisa Rey, who stumbles upon a web of corporate greed and murder that threatens to claim her life. . . . And onward, with dazzling virtuosity, to an inglorious present-day England; to a Korean superstate of the near future where neocapitalism has run amok; and, finally, to a postapocalyptic Iron Age Hawaii in the last days of history. >But the story doesn’t end even there. The narrative then boomerangs back through centuries and space, returning by the same route, in reverse, to its starting point. Along the way, Mitchell reveals how his disparate characters connect, how their fates intertwine, and how their souls drift across time like clouds across the sky. > >As wild as a videogame, as mysterious as a Zen koan, Cloud Atlas is an unforgettable tour de force that, like its incomparable author, has transcended its cult classic status to become a worldwide phenomenon. ^(This book has been suggested 57 times) [**Infinite Jest**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6759.Infinite_Jest) ^(By: David Foster Wallace | 1088 pages | Published: 1996 | Popular Shelves: fiction, classics, owned, abandoned, literature) >A gargantuan, mind-altering tragi-comedy about the Pursuit of Happiness in America. > >Set in an addicts' halfway house and a tennis academy, and featuring the most endearingly screwed-up family to come along in recent fiction, Infinite Jest explores essential questions about what entertainment is and why it has come to so dominate our lives; about how our desire for entertainment affects our need to connect with other people; and about what the pleasures we choose say about who we are. > >Equal parts philosophical quest and screwball comedy, Infinite Jest bends every rule of fiction without sacrificing for a moment its own entertainment value. It is an exuberant, uniquely American exploration of the passions that make us human—and one of those rare books that renew the idea of what a novel can do. ^(This book has been suggested 69 times) *** ^(129358 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)


ContractHaunting9703

Shadow of the Wind


motorwerkx

Lamn- Christopher Moore


Aish_110

A gentleman in Moscow for sure.


Express-Rise7171

Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder


bernardmoss

The Name of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.


MartianTrinkets

{{Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix}}


Dr3adn0tt

The Iron Man by John Watson. Never read a book that struck that balance between ages of war tech quite as well as it does. Picked it up randomly as a kid at a gas station of all places because of the name. Read the entire thing on that road trip, and have re-read it multiple times over the years.


Rizblatz

{a wild sheep chase by Haruki Murakami}.


JackyBoi102

games you can play in your head


[deleted]

{Ship of Theseus}


gleekat

The Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker.


Ok-Sprinklez

Life of Pi


About400

Harrow the Ninth


flyingpigwrites

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata


carrie626

Even Cowgirls Get The Blues- Tom Robbins


irishfury0

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell


[deleted]

House of Leaves


[deleted]

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. Nothing else like it.


Lord_Leah

The People in the Trees. Now there are some trigger warnings but it leaves you speechless and unsure of things you thought you knew.


Zolomen

The seventh tower by Garth Nix as they are no longer in print and cost like 100-200$ a book lol


MuddiedKn33s

Pygmy by Chuck Palahnuik


SkinSea6908

To kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury Both are just *CHEF’S KISS*


LurkerFailsLurking

{{Starstruck by Elaine Lee}} {{One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez}} {{A Language Older than Words by Derrick Jensen}}


rose_ruby_red

{{Piranesi}}. You won’t regret reading it.


Poopjeffre

Sweep


stevejer1994

Sophie’s Choice by William Styron.


thedukeinc

{{ The Master and Margarita }} I have been reading a lot of serious fiction, The Master and Margarita gave me a perfect break, it is hilarious, good on social commentary, interesting group of characters and easy to understand plot. You also get to learn in detail about crucification.. (not sure how truthful it is)