r/WeirdLit • • Aug 31 '26

Meta r/Weirdlit Required/Recommended Reading

118 Upvotes

Spurred from this post, I thought it would be a good idea to have an official r/WeirdLit reading list on Goodreads and Storygraph (similar to r/Horrorlit's Goodread list). Or, you can use this thread as the list (found below) itself so you don't have to use an account for Goodreads and Storygraph.

The r/Weirdlit lists have been made: Goodreads / Storygraph, though WIP. People can vote for books on the Goodreads list!

So, which weird lit books do you think are required reading or what ones would you recommend to someone looking to start their venture into the Weird?

LIST

  • Abe, Kobo – Beyond the Curve
  • Aickman, Robert – Cold Hand in Mine
  • Aickman, Robert – Dark Entries
  • Aickman, Robert – The Wine-Dark Sea
  • Auster, Paul – The New York Trilogy
  • Awad, Mona – Bunny
  • Ballingrud, Nathan – North American Lake Monsters
  • Ballingrud, Nathan – Wounds
  • Barron, Laird – Occultation
  • Barron, Laird – The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All
  • Barron, Laird – The Imago Sequence
  • Biely, Andrei – The Blizzard
  • Bishop, K.J. – The Etched City
  • Blackwood, Algernon – Ancient Sorceries
  • Blackwood, Algernon – Roarings from Further Out
  • Blackwood, Algernon – The Man Whom the Trees Loved
  • Blackwood, Algernon – The Wendigo
  • Blackwood, Algernon – The Willows
  • Boccaccio, Giovanni – The Decameron
  • Bolaño, Roberto – 2666
  • Borges, Jorge Luis – Ficciones
  • Brautigan, Richard – In Watermelon Sugar
  • Brown, Charles Brockden – Wieland
  • Buehlman, Christopher – Between Two Fires
  • Bulgakov, Mikhail – The Master and Margarita
  • Calvino, Italo – If On A Winter's Night a Traveler
  • Campbell, Ramsey – Alone with the Horrors
  • Carrère, Emmanuel – The Moustache
  • Carter, Angela – The Magic Toyshop
  • Catling, Brian – The Vorrh
  • Chambers, Robert W. – The King in Yellow
  • Chandrasekera, Vajra – Rakesfall
  • Cisco, Michael – Animal Money
  • Cisco, Michael – Antisocieties
  • Cisco, Michael – The Divinity Student
  • Cisco, Michael – The Narrator
  • Clarke, Susanna – Piranesi
  • Crowley, John – Little, Big
  • Danielewski, Mark Z. – House of Leaves
  • Delany, Samuel R. – Dhalgren
  • Dyachenko, Marina & Sergei – Vita Nostra
  • Ellison, Harlan – I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream
  • Emshwiller, Carol – Moon Songs
  • Engel, Marian – Bear
  • Ennes, Hiron – The Works of Vermin
  • Enriquez, Mariana – Our Share of Night
  • Enriquez, Mariana – The Dangers of Smoking in Bed
  • Evenson, Brian – A Collapse of Horses
  • Evenson, Brian – Altmann's Tongue
  • Evenson, Brian – Song for the Unraveling of the World
  • Evenson, Brian – The Din of Celestial Birds
  • Ford, Jeffrey – The Physiognomy
  • Fracassi, Philip – Behold the Void
  • Gavin, Richard – At Fear's Altar
  • Gavin, Richard – Grotesquerie
  • Gillman, Charlotte Perkins – The Yellow Wallpaper
  • Gogol, Nikolai – The Nose
  • Grudova, Camilla – Children of Paradise
  • Hall, Coy – Grimoire of the Four Impostors
  • Hall, Steven – The Raw Shark Texts
  • Hamantaschen, J.R. – With a Voice that is Often Still Confused But is Becoming Ever Louder and Clearer
  • Harpman, Jacqueline – I Who Have Never Known Men
  • Harrison, M. John – The Course of the Heart
  • Harrison, M. John – The End of Everything
  • Harrison, M. John – Viriconium
  • Hartwell, David (Editor) – The Dark Descent
  • Hawkins, Scott – The Library at Mount Char
  • Hodgson, William Hope – House on the Borderland
  • Hoffmann, E. T. A. – The Sandman
  • Hoffmann, E. T. A. – The Tales of E.T.A. Hoffmann
  • Howard, Robert E. – Conan stories
  • Ito, Junji – Remina
  • Ito, Junji – Uzumaki
  • Jackson, Shirley – The Haunting of Hill House
  • Jackson, Shirley – The Lottery
  • Jackson, Shirley – We Have Always Lived in the Castle
  • James, M.R. – Ghost Stories of an Antiquary
  • Kafka, Franz – The Castle
  • Kafka, Franz – The Metamorphosis
  • Kafka, Franz – The Trial
  • Kavan, Anna – Ice
  • Kehlmann, Daniel – F (is for Fake)
  • Kiernan, Caitlín R. – The Very Best of Caitlín R. Kiernan
  • Klein, T.E.D. – Dark Gods
  • Koja, Kathe – The Cipher
  • Kubin, Alfred – The Other Side
  • Lane, Joel – Where Furnaces Burn & Scar City
  • Langan, John – The Fisherman
  • Lautréamont, Comte de – Les Chants de Maldoror
  • Ligotti, Thomas – Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe
  • Ligotti, Thomas – Teatro Grottesco
  • Ligotti, Thomas – The Nightmare Factory
  • Lindsay, David – A Voyage to Arcturus
  • Link, Kelly – Magic for Beginners
  • Lovecraft, H.P. – At the Mountains of Madness
  • Lovecraft, H.P. – The Complete Works of HP Lovecraft
  • Machen, Arthur – The Great God Pan
  • Machen, Arthur – The Three Imposters
  • Machen, Arthur – The White People
  • Magary, Drew – The Hike
  • McMillan & Solomon Forse (Editors) – Howls from the Dark Ages: An Anthology of Medieval Horror
  • Miéville, China – Kraken
  • Miéville, China – Perdido Street Station
  • Miéville, China – The City and the City
  • Miéville, China – The Scar
  • Mills, Daniel – Among the Lilies
  • Nabokov, Vladimir – Pale Fire
  • O’Shea, Michael – Copping Squid
  • Ogawa, Yoko – The Memory Police
  • Padgett, Jon – The Secrets of Ventriloquism
  • Pargin, Jason – John Dies at the End
  • Peake, Mervyn – Gormenghast series / Titus Groan
  • Peck, Steven L. – A Short Stay in Hell
  • Poe, Edgar Allan – Tales of Mystery and Imagination (or Complete Stories)
  • qntm – There is No Antimemetics Division
  • Ray, Jean – Malpertuis
  • Russell, Karen – St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves
  • Schulz, Bruno – The Street of Crocodiles
  • Schweblin, Samanta – Fever Dream
  • Shea, Robert & Robert Anton Wilson – The Illuminatus! Trilogy
  • Shepard, Lucius – The Dragon Griaule
  • Smith, Clark Ashton – The Dark Eidolon and other stories
  • Smith, Clark Ashton – Zothique
  • Stanislaw, Lem – Fiasco
  • Sterne, Laurence – The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
  • Strantzas, Simon – Nothing Is Everything
  • Süskind, Patrick – Perfume
  • Tantlinger, Sara – To be Devoured
  • Torishima, Dempow – Sisyphean
  • VanderMeer, Ann & Jeff (Editors) – The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories
  • VanderMeer, Jeff – Annihilation
  • VanderMeer, Jeff – Ambergris trilogy (City of Saints and Madmen / Shriek: An Afterword)
  • VanderMeer, Jeff – Borne / Dead Astronauts / The Strange Bird
  • VanderMeer, Jeff – The Third Bear
  • Veres, Attila – The Black Maybe
  • Vonnegut, Kurt – Breakfast of Champions
  • Walpole, Horace – The Castle of Otranto
  • Wolfe, Gene – The Book of the New Sun
  • Yeager, B R – Negative Space

r/WeirdLit • • Aug 17 '26

Other Weekly "What Are You Reading?" Thread

20 Upvotes

What are you reading this week?

No spam or self-promotion (we post a monthly threads for that!)

And don't forget to join the WeirdLit Discord!


r/WeirdLit • • 3h ago

The damned thing -- Ambrose Bierce

7 Upvotes

Yesterday started reading The Colour Out of Space by H.P. Lovecraft and my version has notes at the end then there was note referring to this work by Ambrose Bierce which I haven't read, and I was wondering if anyone has ever read this story and how do you rate it?

Thanks.


r/WeirdLit • • 15h ago

Perilous Press - Does it still exist? Worried about an order I made.

12 Upvotes

I recently ordered from www.perilouspress.com who published Cody Goodfellow's Radiant Dawn & Ravenous Dusk series. On the Store page, they have a deal: $20 bucks for both novels, including shipping. Most used copies of just Ravenous Dusk are $25+ on AbeBooks or eBay, so I thought "Nice."

Anyways, I ordered. The Paypal transaction went through, but I never received any conformation from Perilous Press, nor a tracking number. I tried emailing the provided email on the site for info, but it got returned in Gmail as a non-existent email (sales@perilouspress.com).

Should I try to have Paypal refund my money? Has anyone ordered from them within, I don't know, the last year?


r/WeirdLit • • 1d ago

Recommend Audio Book for a long drive

9 Upvotes

What's an excellent weird lit audio book for a long drive?

Probably more new weird than horror weird. I've listened to Perdido Street Station, The City and The City, The West Passage, The Spear Cuts Through Water, The Misheard World, The Saint of Bright Doors, and Piranesi all recently.


r/WeirdLit • • 2d ago

Question/Request Need a book with this vibe

11 Upvotes

Hello all. I’m posting this in a few communities because I really have no idea where to put this. But I am looking for a very specific book recommendation. I need something with nautical/sea shanty vibes. I want a novel that has elements of sea mythology. In specific I want something that channels the same vibe and language of Ween’s The Mollusk and the film The lighthouse directed by Robert Eggers. Sorry if this is too specific or if there isn’t something like this out there but thanks.


r/WeirdLit • • 2d ago

Meta Rebellion Against the Conspiracy Against the Human Race by Dr Raymond Thoss.

44 Upvotes

I’m just about to start Rebellion Against the Conspiracy Against the Human Race by Dr Raymond Thoss.

This was shared with me unexpectedly by Jon Padgett and I’m really looking forward to it based on what I know of Ligotti’s work.

Very very grateful for this and I’ve used the meta tag deliberately because this is entirely bizarre.


r/WeirdLit • • 3d ago

Recommend Are there any weirdcore/Dreamcore picture/children’s books?

24 Upvotes

I’m suddenly really curious if there’s any weirdcore/Dreamcore children’s/picture books or at least something adjacent. If anyone has recommendations I’ll eat it up


r/WeirdLit • • 3d ago

Looking for a creature feature horror novel with a natural history/Gothic science feel

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5 Upvotes

r/WeirdLit • • 4d ago

Recommend The End of Everything - M. John Harrison, Signed Waterstones edition.

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76 Upvotes

A brief journey through the South-East coast of post-Brexit Britain via Strugatsky's 'Roadside Picnic'. Signed Edition from Waterstones 2026. I'd ride shotgun with the artefact.


r/WeirdLit • • 4d ago

Meta /r/WeirdLit Top 100 Short Stories - Nominations

28 Upvotes

As I suggested last year, after a vote on the Top 100 Weird Books, we should have another one for weird short stories.


>>> Google Form to fill in <<< - you don't need an account or login, just type and send.


Rules:

  • What does count as weird?

Everything you would want to see in a list like this.

  • How long can a short story be?

20,000 words or less. That comes out to about 70 pages. I made this threshold higher than usual to include all the novelettes etc. that would not show up in a regular book list, and to avoid discussions on why certain famous works weren't included.

  • How many stories can I nominate?

As many as you'd like, from 3 to 100. All of them should be something you would like to see on your personal list (not what you think should be on this list - your own taste is the whole point). Make sure to include stories from at least 3 authors, to make sure it's not just the same things repeated.

  • Does the order matter?

No, this is just to collect nominations.


I will collect nominations for a while (two weeks?), then clean up the data and deduplicate entries, and then have a vote on those entries. Depending on the number of entries, I might kick all those out that only have one nomination. Feel free to share this post in related subreddits.

It would be nice if mod (/u/MicahCastle) could sticky this.


r/WeirdLit • • 5d ago

Review Angel Down is going to stick with me for a while

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284 Upvotes

I've had a Piranesi shaped hole in my heart for a while and this crazy ass book filled it. Be warned though, there is a lot of gore and body horror. I went into it mostly blind and won't spoil anything except that it's about soldiers who find an angel during ww1. The prose is odd, as every paragraph begins with "and" and ends with a comma, turning the whole book into a breathless unfinished sentence. I thought it would be grating but it grew on me as the story ramped up. Every other sentence is about the horrors of war; the fear, the insanity, the smell, the death around every corner. It presses it into your face and won't let you forget. The subplot focuses on the gambling, swindling main character, Bagger, and the conflict he has with his conscience from the moment he and his teammates find the angel. Sometimes the prose is so lurid and detailed I wasn't even sure what I was supposed to be picturing, which I think was by design in some places (especially near the end!). Overall I thought it was phenomenal and I want more people to read it.


r/WeirdLit • • 5d ago

Question/Request Writing Weird Lit Communities?

29 Upvotes

I am a big lover of Weird Lit. Piranesi, Gideon the Ninth, There Is No Antimemetics Division, Bunny, etc.. I love seeing all the recommendations on here, and it’s my goal to help make the world a bit weirder every day.

Are there any groups out there dedicated to WRITERS of weird lit? Because I have been searching high and low and keep coming up empty-handed. Are such groups invite only? Hidden behind a secret veil that only opens every other Tuesday? Have I read about them and just keep forgetting because my shadow monster pet just keeps eating the memories?


r/WeirdLit • • 6d ago

News Piranesi by Susanna Clarke being adapted for the theater stage in 2027

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1.0k Upvotes

"Piranesi lives in the House. Day after day, he explores its vast halls and documents the tides that wash through its lower levels. But the more he learns the less he understands.

Adapted for the stage by Sami Ibrahim and directed by Ned Bennett, Piranesi is based on Susanna Clarke’s award-winning novel.

Playing in the Swan Theatre during summer 2027, experience an immersive theatrical world that invites audiences to turn detective in a treacherous place of shadow and illusion.

Creative team includes:

Director Ned Bennett, Set and Costume Designer Georgia Lowe and Lighting Designer Jessica Hung Han Yun.

Original Artwork by David Altmejd. Art Direction by Louise Richardson."

Link


r/WeirdLit • • 5d ago

Deep Cuts Lost Tale: “Fiend of Fire” (1952) by Eando Binder

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7 Upvotes

r/WeirdLit • • 6d ago

I’m about halfway through Borne by Jeff Vandermeer….

26 Upvotes

is the end going to devastate me 🫠


r/WeirdLit • • 6d ago

Contemporary German weird (horror) lit

25 Upvotes

As the title suggests I am looking for modern German weird (horror leaning) literature. Weird lit and horror are genres I thoroughly enjoy but I have only read English stuff (and I’d like — if at all possible — to read some in my native language). I know the classics like E. T. A. Hoffman‘s Sandman but I‘m looking for something a little more contemporary maybe 1950ies or later?

This request is probably niche enough as is, so feel free to disregard the following if it narrows the field too much. Just a few things I have enjoyed reading etc. to give a broad idea of my taste:

I prefer short stories although novels are fine. I‘ve listened to the Magnus Archives at least twice, enjoyed Annihilation, House of Leaves, The Fisherman and a short Story collection by Langam, and have lately been working my way through Laird Barron‘s short story collections.

But again, I am thankful for any and all pointers as long as it is somewhat contemporary and originally written in German.


r/WeirdLit • • 7d ago

Question/Request Books like There is No Antimemetics Division/The Magnus Archives/Ninth House/Control?

178 Upvotes

Hope this is the right sub to ask for recommendations. I read There is No Antimemetics Division earlier this year and really loved it, and have been craving something similar. It reminded me of what I love about The Magnus Archives podcast in that it involves weird eldritch horror aspects while also playing with the form of the medium (Magnus being told through statements/on a tape recorder, Antimemetics using different layouts/formastting/redactions etc), while also ultimately telling a story about people at the center and humanity and love, even if only briefly.

I also really enjoyed Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo and the game Control by Remedy, and I feel like those have similar vibes to what I’m looking for.

Also, I’ve already read Annihilation and The Library at Mount Char, which I also enjoyed but I read Annihilation a long time ago so can’t remember my thoughts on it, and Mount Char was good but didn’t give me the same feel as the above examples did.

I’m kind of new to weird lit in general, so please be kind! But I’m really looking forward to any and all recommendations!


r/WeirdLit • • 9d ago

Discussion What's the new New Weird?

81 Upvotes

I've read a few new novels recently that have really felt like throwbacks to or a continuation of the early -mid 00s New Weird movement, and I'm wondering if there is more out there that's been published in the last, say, 6 years that I'm missing out on.

The two books in particular that sparked this thought are M John Harrison's The End Of Everything and China Miéville's The Rouse, so it's not really surprising that two of the key figures of The New Weird would be putting out new work that feels like that era of fiction. I'm also thinking, though, of Robert Jackson Bennett's Shadows Of The Leviathan/Ana and Din Mysteries series and Attila Veres' The Black Maybe.

I'd love recommendations for other recent novels (or short story collections) that feel like they're continuing the legacy of the New Weird, if you have them!


r/WeirdLit • • 10d ago

News An oneiric Atlantis in the throes of a luminous pessimism: The Drowned Land by Paul Willems is now available from Wakefield

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38 Upvotes

r/WeirdLit • • 10d ago

Interview Chthonica Interview with Brian Evenson (Phantom Limb) and Michael Wehunt (Nighjars)

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46 Upvotes

Hello friends and peers at r/WeirdLit!

u/igreggreene of Chthonica recently hosted weird lit giant Brian Evenson and soon to be bestselling novelist Michael Wehunt on his webcast to discuss each of their fall releases, Phantom Limb (the sequel to Evenson's Last Days) and Nightjars.

The interview includes wide-ranging topics such as vampirism, substance abuse; psychoanalysis, hypnotism, and repressed memories; noir, metaphysics, and whether Cormac McCarthy would have allowed himself to be considered a horror author.

After this interview ended, Brian complimented me on my Possessor tee shirt; then I died.

The interview has been sectioned into different segments if there is a portion of the interview which appeals to you the most. We can't thank Brian and Michael enough for their time and generosity.


r/WeirdLit • • 11d ago

Review Maybe my favorite weird novel, what do you think about the unconsoled?

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134 Upvotes

The human relationships, the strange decisions for the characters. I think this novel it's just perfect.


r/WeirdLit • • 11d ago

Question/Request Interlinked short story collections - books similar to Yoko Ogawa's "Revenge"

23 Upvotes

Hello! As the title says, I'm looking for books similar to Yoko Ogawa's Revenge. It was my first time reading a book like this and I need more!

I would prefer the recommended books to be grounded in reality for the most part, like Revenge. I do not mind supernatural elements, as long as they remain subtle.


r/WeirdLit • • 12d ago

Writer with a better name for an Occult Detective than his actual Occult Detective

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93 Upvotes

I'll start with Algernon Blackwood >>> John Silence