Weird fiction: 9 favourites and books on my TBR
I’m approaching the end of ‘Natural Beauty’ by Ling Ling Huang and it’s shaping up to be one of my favourite books of the year so far.
I’m finding myself drawn to more and more at the moment - there’s something about the way in which these novels extrapolate wider issues and themes that are tough to confront and digest in a really new and visceral way that are impossible not to contemplate.
Whether it’s savagery of the beauty industry, the spirals of loss and grief, the strange magic that lingers in the everyday, or the desperation to escape the cruelties inflicted on female bodies into something, anything, else.
This type of novel is largely a section of fiction that surrounds women and the female experience in our society, and the burning need to either confirm or escape it.
As I’ve read more and more of these types of novels, my wishlist has grown too. The below are five that I’ve read and loved, and four that I can’t wait to get stuck into.
‘Our Wives Under the Sea’ by Julia Armfield - a beautiful, haunting story of a woman whose wife goes missing at sea, returning forever changed
‘Death Valley’ by Melissa Broder - a surreal, hallucinatory journey into the California desert with a side of grief and loss
‘Patricia Wants to Cuddle’ by Samantha Allen - a lesbian Bigfoot comedy horror with a slice of reality TV (full review here)
‘Natural Beauty’ by Ling Ling Huang - a scathing look at beauty standards and the beauty industry through body horror
‘Chlorine’ by Jade Song - a strange, heartbreaking exploration of a swimmer’s transformation into a mermaid
‘Rouge’ by Mona Awad - another surreal, scathing exploration of the beauty industry, with a side of whimsy
‘Piglet’ by Lottie - a dark, propulsive novel of hunger and desire (the summary is so vague, but I’m sold anyway!)
‘Ripe’ by Sarah Rose Etter - a sharp, visceral exploration of the hellscape of capitalism and the intense demands of modern life
‘Motherthing’ by Ainslie Hogarth - a darkly funny look at the extreme battle a woman has with her mother-in-law
Are you leaning towards weird fiction at the moment? Have you read any of these?
Written by Sophie
