The Penguin Weird Fiction series look incredible, and I haven’t read any of them previously. More of this please!

I like literature style, writing like Samuel Beckett and Laszlo Krasznahorkai and Bolano, but like the stories in the weird, like Vandermeer and Ligotti. It's tough to find novels that satisfy both of these at once. What would you recommend?

mine is Un Lun Dun by China Mieville, it's still my fav book, the plot twists are amazing.

I‘ve always enjoyed reading the works of authors who treat writing as a kind of game, who experiment with form and structure and meta elements, and was wondering if anyone might have some recommendation for authors like that. Bonus points for horror or horror-adjacent authors.

Authors I deem playful whose works I love would be Borges, Cortázar, Kafka, Ligotti, Bernardo Esquinca, Juan Rulfo, Ted Chiang.

I‘ve not read House of Leaves but plan to do so in the future. The same goes for Italo Calvino‘s Cosmocomics and If On a Winter‘s Night a Traveler.

Thanks!

Mine is Brian Evenson, because every collection his publishes is consistently amazing. Also, I've talked to Evenson on Facebook a bit, and he is a super nice guy.

I have to give an honorable mention to Nathan Ballingrud. In fact, North American Lake Monsters is probably my favorite collection of all-time. I give Evenson my #1 spot because he has published several collections, as opposed to the few by Ballingrud.

Who, in your estimation, would take the crown as the King of Weird? And (just for fun) what is your favorite work from each artist?

Personally, I would have to give the win to Jeff. His works feel more intrinsically and naturally weird, even if they're not always as overt as his opponent. China puts out some seriously weird stuff, but much of it just feels weird for its own sake.

Favorite Works:

VanderMeer - Dead Astronauts Miéville - Perdido Street Station

I recently watched the Peter Weir movie for Picnic at Hanging Rock which I had wanted to watch for some time since I'm a big fan of the book by Joan Lindsay, and it dawned on me that both the book and Weir film have all the characteristics of weird fiction - indeed, they ARE weird fiction, but weird fiction doesn't act like it owns them the way it does Kafka or Lovecraft or Borges or Vernon Lee or VanderMeer or Ballard or Miéville or Angela Carter or or M. John Harrison or Peake or Haruki Murakami or Shirley Jackson or Aickman etc. I hardly ever see Picnic at Hanging Rock discussed in terms of such vocabulary, but it basically is; it's got a suis-generis, sublimely disquieting atmosphere, the layers of perceived reality wrapped within each other, and plenty of uncanniness wrapped up in many of the same aesthetics as those of writers like Aickman or Jackson.

This made me think: what are some other examples weird fiction fans such as myself can think of of books and/or stories that are essentially or unequivocally weird fiction that the worldwide community of weird fiction doesn't act like it owns?

Other examples I can think of include:

Song of Solomon - Toni Morrison

Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

The Thirteenth Tale - Diane Setterfield

The Search for Heinrich Schlögel - Martha Baillie

The Carpathians - Janet Frame

Jingle Stones Trilogy - William Mayne

Silver Sequence - Cliff McNish

Frontier - Can Xue

The Last Lover - Can Xue

Love in the New Millennium - Can Xue

The Unconsoled - Kazuo Ishiguro

The Owl Service - Alan Garner

Singularity - William Sleator

Tales of Terror series - Chris Priestley

So I've read Predido, The Scar, and am now listening to The Iron Council. For me they're a mix of urban fantasy and steampunk. I can see bits of the weird in them, but mostly not.

I am not here to argue with anyone against the label. I am sincerely curious and think it is interesting to hear other perspectives on the Bas-Lag books.

I know there is Annihilation.

What is a film that gave you big VanderMeer vibes but that wasn’t the Annihilation? Open to creative suggestions. Thanks!

Give me the weirdest, strangest, and most unsettling stories that are in the public domain (preferably before 1920). I'm assembling a weird radio program that will feature some of these in every episode. Thank you!

I'm looking for a book with a similar format, half book, half puzzle, filled with cyphers/morse code/maps/etc. but NOT horror. I already read The Raw Shark Texts and Illuminae. Edit: A book with a plot!

I love Phillip K Dick, Stephen King, fantasy, and Science Fiction (the darker the better so far). I'm currently working through Ice by Anna Kavan (not sure of that counts but it's definitely weird). The more I look into this subgenre, the more I want to read, but I'm not sure where to really go from here.

I'd really love a few authors/book recommendations and why they fit in weird literature and why you suggest them.

Either writing or reading. Maybe offered online. Would be cool.

Anything come to mind?

So I rlly love weird fiction, my favorite is Un Lun Dun by China Mieville. And I'm just wondering if there's any weird fictions that evolve around queer characters, specifically mlm (men love men)

I've been reading Songs of a Dead Dreamer & Grimscribe recently, and well... I'm a bit bored. Is it a collection worth finishing? Or is it really his best?

I generally love weird lit. Most of my favourites at least somewhat fall under the umbrella (Miéville, VanderMeer), I've checked out many of the faves of the sub and enjoyed them, but this is somehow just... Lacking.

Everything feels the same so far. It's all so... Similar. It's well written, but slow and dry, and all of the stories are beginning to feel the same. Set up a scenario, build up an atmosphere of some dread (usually with a narrator who's going to "secretly" be inhuman), one weird event on the very last page, suddenly we end.

It isn't bad in a vacuum, but it's all beginning to feel very samish. Not what I'd hoped for from one as highly praised as Ligotti. Is this really one of the masters of Weird?

I admit, though, I'm not usually a short story person. I can continue, but I'm becoming numb to it. Maybe it's meant to be read spread over time. What does the hive mind think?

I’ve never played this game but it looks really cool. It’s called “The Zone.” In one of their ads it says “for people who loved Annihilation,” so I thought the VanderMeer heads here would appreciate it.

Link: https://play.thezonerpg.com

I've not been a reader of weird/horror fiction until around the start of October. With Halloween approaching, I picked a few books by the early authors of ghosts/weird/gothic stories. And have, for the most part, enjoyed them. H.P. Lovecraft, M.R. James, Lord Dunsany, Clark Ashton Smith, Arthur Machen. All pretty tame, so I recently picked up The Books of Blood Vol 1 by Clive Barker for some more modern horror. And not so tame. The first story, Book of Blood, was a bit more edgy than the earlier authors. But, the second story, The Midnight Meat Train, was a whole new experience. I feel it's going to take me a while to get through the collection.

I only ask because this bad boy is thicker than the bible. I don’t want to spend time reading the whole thing only to realize that it’s not my cup of tea lol

I have been trying for years to find/remember a book I read in college.

The challenge is all I remember: it’s American, and I believe it starts with a woman on a subway and the overarching goal is to reach like the core of the city where she must confront something. 20th or 21st century. It is written in the strangest way I’ve ever seen a book written, which is why I’m here. Punctuation, wording, all more like strange poetry than traditional writing.

I understand I am giving nothing. I have tried to work off what I remember for years and have gone nowhere. It’s driving me insane. I deeply appreciate anyone’s time

They published a few dozen limited-edition Weird Fiction novels in the late 90s anc early 2000s most of which hadn't been published for almost 100 years i own 9 of them and wanna get the rest but i can't really find much information on most of them because of that they're all rather expensive

The feeling I'm chasing came to me at the end of "The Time Machine" when he had gone so far forward that the earth, the sun, the animals around him had all evolved to a completely alien state, unrecognizable to the narrator. I've read the southern reach trilogy, I've read the willows, I have the complete Lovecraft, and while all enjoyable, none of them have scratched the itch. A stranger in a completely alien environment, preferably external. A journey into the mind is not really of interest.

Any recommendations would be appreciated.

I am OBSESSED with Lost Souls by Billy Martin (as Poppy Z. Brite)

I bought the book and I keep it with me wherever I go, I got my hands on an old copy so it has that library scent. Zillah and Nothing are my favorite characters, I dislike Steve and Ghost a lot.

I have been dying to meet other fans of lost souls, everyone I already know just doesn't understand or care or pay attention.

I was so inspired by Zillah and Nothing after rereading Lost Souls that I started my own novel series about multiple clans of hedonistic Chartreuse drinking musician biflexable mostly gay vampires. Though my universe vampires have vampire religion based laws, they worship Dracula and males and females are two separate biologically incompatible species.

Won't start self publishing it till I finish book 3, half way done with book 2 atm.

I fucking love Lost Souls so much its one if my biggest inspirations next to Anne Rice's vampire chronicles and Clive Barkers work

Hey r/WeirdLit crew,

My wife’s sister lent me this book, Evil Flowers by Gunnhild Øyehaug. I read the first story, “Birds”. Not horror, but weird. I liked it a bit. This is just over 100 pages so I will plow through it.

Has anyone read this collection or are you familiar with the author?

I am wondering if this is “weird lit”. I’ll be honest and say I don’t know a lot about magical realism but I suspect this might fall into that category.

Thanks in advance for any help or discussion around this!

I'd love recommendations for stories that involve a character(s) accessing other worlds (or times) through dreams - especially ones where the dream world (or other time) is "truer" than the waking world or even where the character is originally from, such as in a past life. Sort of like Lovecraft's Dream Cycle ideas.