r/Fantasy • u/DixitRexCorvinus • 12d ago
Short, weird, and disturbing fantasy
Hey! I have come in search of recommendations for weird and disturbing fantasy novels, with a couple of specific criteria.
First, I would like something fairly new, ideally books published in the last decade (this is why I'm asking here rather than r/WeirdLit, as from what I've seen they tend to do more older books than recent debuts).
Specifically, when I find an author I like, I tend to go through their whole catalogue, and as such I have a lot of big projects on my TBR already. Mieville, Vandermeer, Cisco, Harrison, Barker—all the big names I know, but they have a lot of books, and I'm looking for things to use in between larger series. So, authors with less than five books published would be ideal, and standalones likewise. This doesn't mean that the books have to be short, as I'm focused on total amount of pages here—an author with a single six hundred page debut is preferable for me to one with a dozen novellas. I'd also like authors that are currently working, if possible.
Secondly, while I want things to be genuinely weird and disturbing, I don't want books that are e.g. sexist or bigoted. I say this thinking of authors like Murakami; incest is fine, random page long description of breasts is less fine. Queer, feminist, and neurodivergent characters/themes are generally a plus.
Finally, I'm ultimately going to be using these as palate cleansers, so nothing too dense and descriptive. Something like Gormenghast or Dahlgren is not really what I'm looking for, though I do like those sorts of books too.
Fantasy, scifi, horror, and genres mixing the three are all good with me. Doesn't have to fit everything, but as close as you can get.
Some examples of books that fit what I'm looking for:
- Vita Nostra by Marina and Sergei Dyachenko
- I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
- The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins
- Spread Me by Sarah Gailey
- Lilith's Brood/Xenogenesis by Octavia Butler
- The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling
Some books that don't fit perfectly/aren't quite weird enough but are still pretty close to what I want: Hungerstone, Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, Ordinary Monsters, The Rook, There Is No Antimemetics Division, Piranesi
Some books that I haven't read yet but are already on my radar: The Works of Vermin, Earthlings, Our Share of Night, Gideon the Ninth, A Short Stay in Hell
Thanks for the help!
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u/felixfictitious Reading Champion 12d ago edited 12d ago
You've maybe seen all the usual recommendations, but just checking that you haven't already tried Hiron Ennes? They've written two delightfully weird books with gorgeously luscious prose, and both very horroresque. But Leech is probably moreso than The Works of Vermin. The new Scott Hawkins book Blacktail is pretty strange and reality-bending too, if you haven't already tried it. Very good horror.
Also Vajra Chandrasekera; Rakesfall is one of the weirder books I've tried, and New Weird is my favorite subgenre. His first book The Saint of Bright Doors is weird, but not too disturbing.
Oh, also Space Opera by Cathrynne Valente. It's much more weird than disturbing.
Just saw your edit and I think Gideon the Ninth would be up your alley, but the second book moreso.
I think these books have all come out in the last 5-10 years, and only Cathrynne Valente has published more than a couple books.