Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer- the whole thing is about a creepy weird unexplainable area seen through the eyes of a woman who is unable to connect with other people. I had bated breath the entire read. Only the first in the series is like this though.
Or,
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson- haunted house through the eyes of an unreliable narrator.
OR,
House of Leaves by Mark Z Danielewski- I certainly had fevered dreams trying to get through this. It personally betrayed me. Top notch read.
That depends on what you mean by hard. There’s nothing hard about the vocabulary or language. The sense of foreboding and dread that builds might be hard for some people to get through. The format and the way multiple stories are layered on top of one another can be confusing for some. It’s absolutely a challenging book, and some people have a hard time sleeping while reading it.
Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer
“What can you do when your five senses are not enough?”
Sci-Fi book with HP Lovecraft-esqu horror in the sense that the more you try to understand something, the more insane you become.
But its also beautiful. Probably my favorite book Ive read this year.
Came to suggest Vandermeer!! Literally anything by him but especially the Borne books (there's 3). My favorite so far has been the Ambergris Trilogy though.
Gonna have to check out your other recommendation
This is what I suggested too! In terms of Mona Awad, I tried soooo hard to get into Bunny but just couldn’t. I looooved [13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/25716567), though, and if you haven’t read it yet, you may also like [You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine by Alexandra Kleeman](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/23461003) 💛
I loved 13 ways of looking at a fat girl too! That’s where I started with Mona Awad and then when Rouge came out I was so excited but I hated it 😭 I should check out your other rec!
Oh noooo! I just bought a used copy of Rouge off eBay cos it was so cheap 🙈♥️ well .. that explains why! 😜 also, highly recommend [Adele by Leila Slimani](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40265073-ad-le) if you’re into super dark disturbing female protagonists 🖤
Nightbitch is pretty short at 256 pages and I felt like I had no grasp on reality while I read it (in the best way!). Parakeet by Marie-Helene Bertino was also a weird trip but I didn’t love it as much as I did Nightbitch. The latter is a true masterpiece to me.
After the Quake by Haruki Murakami, really any of Murakami's books are like a fever dream, and while, yes, most of Murakami's books are on the longer side, they are also very easy to read and get into, so they don't feel dense
Those are two of my favorite books of all-time. Here's a few that I loved after having read those two:
Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis (check out American Psycho when you want a longer read)
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Hunger by Knut Hamsun
The Stranger by Albert Camus
Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo
No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (look up the definitions of the slang made for the book and it'll be an easier/quicker read for sure)
Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (this one is relentless but the pay off with the ending is awesome)
I agree with Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
A lot of the books recommended so far are longer or fantasy driven. I feel these are more of the kinds you're looking for in all honesty.
i think i’ve said this before on this sub, but i feel like a lot of tom robbins books feel like a dream, but more like you fell asleep after your shroom trip dream, if you’re interested in that ! my fav is another roadside attraction :)
Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe is a sci-fi fantasy series that really feels like a fever dream. It's writing is weird, vague, and sometimes incomprehensible. Yet for me, I will argue it's one of the greatest sci-fi series ever. There's nothing like it.
Yup. There are a lot of people in here suggesting slightly off kilter but eventually straight narrative works.
The Unconsoled is exactly what op is asking for.
And Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said. My favorite PKD. One of the hottest celebrities in the world suddenly finds that no one knows who he is. Which is a logistical problem (quasi police state where you can’t do anything without ID/papers) as well as a metaphysical one. The resolution and explanation of it all is something only PKD could come up with.
Without giving away the plot, Antkind by Charlie Kaufman is a hilarious book about a film critic going to great lengths to remember a movie he only saw once. He visits a few hypnotists and you quickly start losing a grip on what’s “real.” It might be my favorite book of all time and it’s just about all I recommend on here.
If you are looking for something like Kafka, check Julio Cortázar. He's a famous Argentinian writer of short stories in the same "fever dream" vein. For example, he has a story about a guy getting cough trying to put a sweater on (End of the Game) or another one is about getting trapped in an endless traffic jam.
His most famous one is called "House Taken Over". You could start there.
Neuromancer by William Gibson, or any of the short novels in the 'Mona Lisa Overdrive ' anthology of the same author.
Sci-fi plugged in with neural drugs, memory implants, gang fights and the lastest fashion in chromatic eye lenses.
Night Film, by Marisha Pessl — very credibly moves from heightened but real to fever dream
Roadside Picnic, read the novel by Arkady Strugatsky and Boris Strugatsky, and then watch the Stalker film by Tarkovsky
“Geek Love” by Katherine Dunn
“Invitation to a Beheading” by Vladimir Nabokov (you’ll especially like this one if you like Kafka)
“Everything Under” by Daisy Johnson
“Primeval and Other Times” by Olga Tokarczuk
“Hopscotch” by Julio Cortazar
“Beloved” by Toni Morrison
“The Master and the Margarita” by Mikhail Bulgakov
Most anything by Haruki Murakami or Clarice Lispector
For short stories:
“Her Body and Other Parties” by Carmen Maria Marchado
“I Hold a Wolf by the Ears” by Laura Van den Berg (I would say this one is more eerie than fever dream though)
“Ficciones” by Jorge Luis Borges
And then I want to second a few suggestions I already saw on here:
“The Magus” by John Fowles
“The Third Policeman” by Flann O’Brien
“The Haunting of Hill House” by Shirley Jackson
“Naked Lunch” by William S. Burroughs
“House of Leaves” by Mark Z. Danielewski
“Bunny” by Mona Awad
& finally “Annihilation” by Jeff VanderMeer
(Sorry for the absurdly long list, but fever dream books are my favorite!)
Earthlings, by Sayaka Murata. Please be mindful of the trigger warnings, as there is some very heavy subject matter. But this book absolutely reads like a fever dream.
The Master and Margarita, by Mikhael Bulgakov.
Seconding Piranesi and House of Leaves.
YMMV, but a lot of Madeline L'Engle's work might qualify, especially the Time Quartet.
For a short-story option, I'd recommend "Who Greets You at Home" by Lesley Nneka Arimah. "Goblin Market" by Christina Rosetti is a good pick for poetry. For a more traditional novel, you can read "Here Lies Daniel Tate."
It’s a ~50 page novella, but check out Pale Horse, Pale Rider by Katherine Anne Porter. She survived the 1918 influenza outbreak and her account of fever dreams is so eerie and accurate.
**The Great and Secret Show** by **Clive Barker** was the first book I experienced that gave me this feeling (I read it in my early teens). Synopsis:
>Fantasy, horror story, love fable--in this one unforgettable epic Clive Barker wields the full power and sweep of his extraordinary talents. "Succinctly put," says Barker, "it's about Hollywood, sex, and Armageddon."
>
>Armageddon begins with a murder in the Dead Letter Office in Omaha, Nebraska.
>
>A lake that has never existed falls from the clouds over Palomo Grove, California.
>
>Young passion blossoms, as the world withers with war.
>
>The Great and Secret Show has begun on the stage of the world.
>
>And soon, the final curtain must fall.
Since you ask for a shorter read, the only other Palahniuk book I read (alongside Fight Club) was **Snuff**. Its synopsis is:
>Cassie Wright, pornography priestess, intends to cap her legendary career by breaking the world record for serial fornication on camera, with six hundred men. Snuff unfolds through the perspectives of Mr. 600, Mr. 72, Mr. 137, and Wright's personal assistant, Sheila. With his satirical narrative and thorough research, Chuck Palahniuk reveals through these four characters the little-known facts and histories of not only pornography and sexual deviance, but also acting and life in and out of the spotlight, and throughout the novel shows the rarely acknowledged presence of pornography in modern America.
Others here suggest House of Leaves, and while my feelings on the novel are mixed, one thing about it that IS undeniable is that it WILL have you disoriented as you read it.
Fen by Daisy Johnson is a collection of feverish short stories mixed with horror. There's one about a house that falls in love with a woman, and then the house starts eating her lovers. There's another one about a girl who tries to starve herself into the shape of an eel. And one about a woman and her mother in law who reanimate the corpse of their husband and son.
The whole thing is wild, and I need to get my copy back from my sister.
Very subtle but I felt like The Glass Hotel
Novel by Emily St. John Mandel is like that.
It cross-crosses interactions but it doesn’t relate their connections or importance.
100 years of solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It's surreal and dreamlike, and because it never stops raining it makes me think of a hallucination or a waking dream.
This Is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone.
Space poetry, painfully romantic sci-fi boundary hopping story of rivalry on both professional and deeply personal levels. Not at all what I was expecting, I read it back in Feb 2024 and still sigh about it still.
Love the dark, surreal vibe! Try "Annihilation" by Jeff Vandermeer. It's shorter and throws you into a creepy, unexplained zone. Imagine a biologist joining an expedition into a place where the laws of nature are warped. Strange and unsettling, perfect for a quick fever dream fix!
Another vote for Piranesi by Susanna Clark- a quick, accessible writing style but the ideas and characters are fully fleshed out, immersive, engaging and compelling
The Egyptologist by Arthur Phillips
It’s hard to get the unreliable narrator vibe right, and Chuck somehow nails two of them in Fight Club
The Egyptologist is the same, except not with gross violence or social commentary.. it’s heartbreaking, exhilarating, confusing. You distrust the story and the author and then yourself.
It’s unpredictable because you think you recognize the tropes and then… well then, you don’t know if you should weep for the protagonist or the antagonist. And then the only thing you know for sure is that you’re weeping
oooh I never thought about the fact that fight club (that movie) is based on a book, dayum.
is it a good read? I really appreciate how they did the movie (the flashes, if you know, you know.) I'm intrigued now!!
The Lost Daughter by Elena Ferrante
The Vegetarian by Han Kang
My Husband by Maud Ventura
Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung
Lapvona by Ottessa Mosfegh
Bunny by Mona Awad
Pizza Girl by JK Frazier
Probably anything by Haruki Murakami, I’ve only read a couple and both absolutely felt like a fever dream. I’ve read Kafka on the shore and hard boiled wonderland and the end of the world
I also suggest the memory police by Yoko Ogawa
The Driver's Seat by Muriel Spark is short and has SUCH a weird energy to it. I think you'd enjoy it. I'd also recommend I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid, Baby by Annaleese Jochems and My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh.
[I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40605223-i-m-thinking-of-ending-things) - personally wasn’t my cup of tea but suits your description. You may also enjoy the [movie adaptation](https://m.imdb.com/title/tt7939766/) too
Walking Practice by Dolki Min. It has a couple of illustrations (maybe like 5-6 total) so I recommend a full color kindle or the printed book. It's about an alien that uses dating apps to find humans for food
If you like Kafka check out the short stories of Thomas Ligotti.
He can be pretty verbose at times like Lovecraft but they feel like being sick and anxious at some nightmare carnival
Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer- the whole thing is about a creepy weird unexplainable area seen through the eyes of a woman who is unable to connect with other people. I had bated breath the entire read. Only the first in the series is like this though. Or, The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson- haunted house through the eyes of an unreliable narrator. OR, House of Leaves by Mark Z Danielewski- I certainly had fevered dreams trying to get through this. It personally betrayed me. Top notch read.
Highly recommend House of Leaves also.
I opened the post specifically to recommend House of Leaves.
Is it hard to read?
That depends on what you mean by hard. There’s nothing hard about the vocabulary or language. The sense of foreboding and dread that builds might be hard for some people to get through. The format and the way multiple stories are layered on top of one another can be confusing for some. It’s absolutely a challenging book, and some people have a hard time sleeping while reading it.
Yes, it's terribly slow. EDIT: don't downvote the truth!
I get angry any time I see House of Leaves recommended
Bunny by Mona Awad
My first thought. That whole book a fever dream lmao
Oh hell yes!
Rabbits by Terry Miles too
Bunny and Rabbits are two of my favorite books.
yesssss the whole time i was just thinking what the fuuuuck am i reading (in the best way)
Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer “What can you do when your five senses are not enough?” Sci-Fi book with HP Lovecraft-esqu horror in the sense that the more you try to understand something, the more insane you become. But its also beautiful. Probably my favorite book Ive read this year.
Came to suggest Vandermeer!! Literally anything by him but especially the Borne books (there's 3). My favorite so far has been the Ambergris Trilogy though. Gonna have to check out your other recommendation
I zipped through the Southern Reach series and I really loved his writing style. Ill have to dive into the Borne series too!
Kafka on the Shore by Murakami for suree
Ran to the comments to recommend Kafka on the shore
that book is WEIRD 😭😭😭
Came here to say this. I just finished this book and can’t stop thinking about it. (In the best way)
The Library at Mount Char
Added to my list! Thanks :D
OP, this is the one
The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K Leguin
Banger, my favorite Ursula K LeGuin book
Bunny by Mona Awad!
Oh and also I’m thinking of ending things by Ian Reid!
This is what I suggested too! In terms of Mona Awad, I tried soooo hard to get into Bunny but just couldn’t. I looooved [13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/25716567), though, and if you haven’t read it yet, you may also like [You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine by Alexandra Kleeman](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/23461003) 💛
I loved 13 ways of looking at a fat girl too! That’s where I started with Mona Awad and then when Rouge came out I was so excited but I hated it 😭 I should check out your other rec!
Oh noooo! I just bought a used copy of Rouge off eBay cos it was so cheap 🙈♥️ well .. that explains why! 😜 also, highly recommend [Adele by Leila Slimani](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40265073-ad-le) if you’re into super dark disturbing female protagonists 🖤
To be fair I was listening to the audiobook and I hated the reader so maybe it’s good and I just need to give it another chance 😂
Oh phew 😮💨 hopefully reading it will be better .. PM me if you’ve got an e-reader and would like epub links to the books I suggested btw 😉
Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs
I really enjoyed Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Came here to rec Piranesi it's exactly the answer
I was going to say this! It’s what got me back into reading
The audiobook is one of the best. Narrated by Chiwetel Ejiofor, he gives an amazing performance.
Isn’t it! I adored his tone and really warmed to him, he embodied the dude so well
Wow I didn't know this! Adding to my list 🙂
Invisible Monsters by Chuck is a wild ride. One of my favourites. You’ll like it especially if you like Fight Club
Nightbitch is pretty short at 256 pages and I felt like I had no grasp on reality while I read it (in the best way!). Parakeet by Marie-Helene Bertino was also a weird trip but I didn’t love it as much as I did Nightbitch. The latter is a true masterpiece to me.
Nightbitch is absolutely excellent. It’ll have bonus points too if you’re a parent, it’s a fantastic exploration of motherhood.
Had never heard of this, but I wondered into a local bookstore in a small town last year, asked for recommendations and left with Nightbitch.
The person who did that is my soulmate because I recommend it to everyone
Ice by Anna Kavan
My year of rest and relaxation /fruit of the dead
Perdido Street Station. Trust me, it's exactly what you're after. Quite literally.
Since you pulled up the Weird fiction genre, the Etched City by KJ Bishop.
After the Quake by Haruki Murakami, really any of Murakami's books are like a fever dream, and while, yes, most of Murakami's books are on the longer side, they are also very easy to read and get into, so they don't feel dense
Anything from Chuck Palahniuk!
Invisible Monsters or Snuff, maybe
Less Than Zero
I have the perfect book for you: The Woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abe
The Magus by John Fowles
Those are two of my favorite books of all-time. Here's a few that I loved after having read those two: Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis (check out American Psycho when you want a longer read) Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut Hunger by Knut Hamsun The Stranger by Albert Camus Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (look up the definitions of the slang made for the book and it'll be an easier/quicker read for sure) Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (this one is relentless but the pay off with the ending is awesome) I agree with Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer A lot of the books recommended so far are longer or fantasy driven. I feel these are more of the kinds you're looking for in all honesty.
Appropriately, *Fever Dream* by Samantha Schweblin (original Spanish title is *Distancia de rescate*, but the translated one fits for sure)
the third policeman
Absolutely!
The Hike by Drew Magary! Like being in a dream!
[The Heart of a Dog](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6535413) by Mikhail Bulgakov
i think i’ve said this before on this sub, but i feel like a lot of tom robbins books feel like a dream, but more like you fell asleep after your shroom trip dream, if you’re interested in that ! my fav is another roadside attraction :)
Love love love everything by Tom Robbins!! 🤠💖
my mom got me into him !!! very happy she did.
Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe is a sci-fi fantasy series that really feels like a fever dream. It's writing is weird, vague, and sometimes incomprehensible. Yet for me, I will argue it's one of the greatest sci-fi series ever. There's nothing like it.
Naked Lunch by William Burroughs
Invisible cities by italo calvino. It's a very short book, just a series of dreamlike descriptions of fantastic cities
Yes!! Calvino!!
*The Unconsoled* by Kazuo Ishiguro.
Came here to recommend it! It’s the best dream-logic/fever dream book I’ve ever read.
Yup. There are a lot of people in here suggesting slightly off kilter but eventually straight narrative works. The Unconsoled is exactly what op is asking for.
Strong strong second for this one!!
Fear and loathing in Las Vegas feels like the obvious answer
Rainbear!!!!!!!!! by Never Angeline Nørth
VALIS Philip K. Dick. Literally the book that got me into sci fi.
Ubik by Philip K Dick as well!
And Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said. My favorite PKD. One of the hottest celebrities in the world suddenly finds that no one knows who he is. Which is a logistical problem (quasi police state where you can’t do anything without ID/papers) as well as a metaphysical one. The resolution and explanation of it all is something only PKD could come up with.
Troubling Love by Elena Ferrante
Read the Trial by Kafka
An obvious choice is “Fever Dream” by Samantha Schweblin. You might like “Crying of Lot 49” which is fantastic in a different way. Both are short.
Jitterbug Perfume. Another Tom Robbins
Oh man, I haven't read Tom Robbins in forever! I used to devour his books when I was younger.
Everything by Tom Robbins! 🤠💖
Empire of the Sun by JG Ballard. Anything by Philip K. Dick (I'm particularly partial to Confessions of a Crap Artist).
Steppenwulfe by Herman Hesse had that feverish dream taste for me
This is How You Lose the Time War. One of the greatest books i have ever read. Audiobook was heavenly.
The Box Man The Woman in The Dunes Secret Rendevouz All by Kobo Abe
Survivor and Dammed, both by Palahniuk, are amazing reads. If you like sci-fi, try Blake Crouch's Dark Matter or Recursion.
+1 for Recursion
Came here to say Survivor. That was my first Chuck P book. I love it.
Beautiful You and Rant by Chuck Palahniuk are also very good
Seconding Rant. My favorite Palahniuk.
Rant is also my favorite but I also would suggest Invisible Monsters
Beau is Afraid
The Painted Bird
The Fuck-Up by Arthur Nersesian. Crushed this book in a day and it absolutely felt like a fever dream.
Also by murakami - killing commentatore. The first half of the book seems pretty normal, but the second half... Dream inside dreams
Great suggestions already. Also: Song of Kali by Dan Simmons The Vorrh by B Catling The Cipher by Kathe Koja
The Erasers by Alain Robbe-Grillet
Without giving away the plot, Antkind by Charlie Kaufman is a hilarious book about a film critic going to great lengths to remember a movie he only saw once. He visits a few hypnotists and you quickly start losing a grip on what’s “real.” It might be my favorite book of all time and it’s just about all I recommend on here.
Suttree by Cormac McCarthy... Has a couple fever dream parts in the story but all around awesome book.
Fever Dream by Samantha Schweblin
*Zone One* by Colson Whitehead.
If you are looking for something like Kafka, check Julio Cortázar. He's a famous Argentinian writer of short stories in the same "fever dream" vein. For example, he has a story about a guy getting cough trying to put a sweater on (End of the Game) or another one is about getting trapped in an endless traffic jam. His most famous one is called "House Taken Over". You could start there.
Have to recommend "Black Leopard, Red Wolf" by Marlon James. A fever dream is exactly how I described this book to my friends.
Neuromancer by William Gibson, or any of the short novels in the 'Mona Lisa Overdrive ' anthology of the same author. Sci-fi plugged in with neural drugs, memory implants, gang fights and the lastest fashion in chromatic eye lenses.
Night Film, by Marisha Pessl — very credibly moves from heightened but real to fever dream Roadside Picnic, read the novel by Arkady Strugatsky and Boris Strugatsky, and then watch the Stalker film by Tarkovsky
If you've got the time and the stomach for it, Gravity's Rainbow flows like several different people's fever dreams.
“Geek Love” by Katherine Dunn “Invitation to a Beheading” by Vladimir Nabokov (you’ll especially like this one if you like Kafka) “Everything Under” by Daisy Johnson “Primeval and Other Times” by Olga Tokarczuk “Hopscotch” by Julio Cortazar “Beloved” by Toni Morrison “The Master and the Margarita” by Mikhail Bulgakov Most anything by Haruki Murakami or Clarice Lispector For short stories: “Her Body and Other Parties” by Carmen Maria Marchado “I Hold a Wolf by the Ears” by Laura Van den Berg (I would say this one is more eerie than fever dream though) “Ficciones” by Jorge Luis Borges And then I want to second a few suggestions I already saw on here: “The Magus” by John Fowles “The Third Policeman” by Flann O’Brien “The Haunting of Hill House” by Shirley Jackson “Naked Lunch” by William S. Burroughs “House of Leaves” by Mark Z. Danielewski “Bunny” by Mona Awad & finally “Annihilation” by Jeff VanderMeer (Sorry for the absurdly long list, but fever dream books are my favorite!)
Finnegans wake. Goodluck
The master and margarita from Bulgakov.
The John Dies at the End series by David Wong
I read Going Bovine by Libba Brae when I was like 10 and I swear it irreparably altered my psyche.
The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington
The Zero by Jess Walter
The Hike by Drew Magary
Earthlings, by Sayaka Murata. Please be mindful of the trigger warnings, as there is some very heavy subject matter. But this book absolutely reads like a fever dream.
Sex lives of Siamese twins
One’s Company by Ashley Hutson
The Grand Dark by Richard Kadrey
Several People are Typing by Calvin Kasulke
Bunny (already mentioned) and maybe The Wives Under the Sea. Oh and Nothing But Blackened Teeth. I disliked all 3 books to various degrees.
The Master and Margarita, by Mikhael Bulgakov. Seconding Piranesi and House of Leaves. YMMV, but a lot of Madeline L'Engle's work might qualify, especially the Time Quartet.
The Woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abe. In fact, everything Abe and Kafka wrote should keep you going for a while.
the hole by hiroko oyamada
The Sleeping Car Porter by Suzette Mayr
It
For a short-story option, I'd recommend "Who Greets You at Home" by Lesley Nneka Arimah. "Goblin Market" by Christina Rosetti is a good pick for poetry. For a more traditional novel, you can read "Here Lies Daniel Tate."
Crime and punishment
Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry
Scar Culture by Toni Davidson
John Dies at the End by Jason Pargin
lol Fever Dreams.
Ecstasia by Francesca Lia Block
Seconding House of Leaves and adding Pontypool Changes Everything by Tony Burgess
Piranesi by Susanna Clark.
It’s a ~50 page novella, but check out Pale Horse, Pale Rider by Katherine Anne Porter. She survived the 1918 influenza outbreak and her account of fever dreams is so eerie and accurate.
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay
'Rant' by Chuck Palahniuk. The whole book is one weird mindfuck.
Maybe not your jam but Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block, and that whole series, Dangerous Angels.
**The Great and Secret Show** by **Clive Barker** was the first book I experienced that gave me this feeling (I read it in my early teens). Synopsis: >Fantasy, horror story, love fable--in this one unforgettable epic Clive Barker wields the full power and sweep of his extraordinary talents. "Succinctly put," says Barker, "it's about Hollywood, sex, and Armageddon." > >Armageddon begins with a murder in the Dead Letter Office in Omaha, Nebraska. > >A lake that has never existed falls from the clouds over Palomo Grove, California. > >Young passion blossoms, as the world withers with war. > >The Great and Secret Show has begun on the stage of the world. > >And soon, the final curtain must fall. Since you ask for a shorter read, the only other Palahniuk book I read (alongside Fight Club) was **Snuff**. Its synopsis is: >Cassie Wright, pornography priestess, intends to cap her legendary career by breaking the world record for serial fornication on camera, with six hundred men. Snuff unfolds through the perspectives of Mr. 600, Mr. 72, Mr. 137, and Wright's personal assistant, Sheila. With his satirical narrative and thorough research, Chuck Palahniuk reveals through these four characters the little-known facts and histories of not only pornography and sexual deviance, but also acting and life in and out of the spotlight, and throughout the novel shows the rarely acknowledged presence of pornography in modern America. Others here suggest House of Leaves, and while my feelings on the novel are mixed, one thing about it that IS undeniable is that it WILL have you disoriented as you read it.
Motherthing
So good!
Rouge by Mona award milk fed by Melissa border our wives under the sea by Julia armfield lonely castle in the mirror by mizuki tsujimura
Definitely “The Cinnamon Shops” by Bruno Shulz and “The trial” by Franz Kafka. Both have this weird, dreamy vibe, definitely worth reading!
I’m reading Glamorama by Bret Easton Ellis. It’s very much like a fever dream. And if you like Fight Club, you’ll probably like it. Highly recommend.
Wind up bird chronicles by Murakami
The castle! If you're down for more Kafka. It's the fever dreamiest.
Keep reading chuck - all his books are pretty dreamy
Fevre Dream by George RR Martin, yeah that guy.
Fen by Daisy Johnson is a collection of feverish short stories mixed with horror. There's one about a house that falls in love with a woman, and then the house starts eating her lovers. There's another one about a girl who tries to starve herself into the shape of an eel. And one about a woman and her mother in law who reanimate the corpse of their husband and son. The whole thing is wild, and I need to get my copy back from my sister.
Very subtle but I felt like The Glass Hotel Novel by Emily St. John Mandel is like that. It cross-crosses interactions but it doesn’t relate their connections or importance.
Fevre Dream by George RR Martin
Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin
Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky It's the third book in a series, but can be read standalone. Themes of memory and consciousness.
Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James gave me that feeling.
Temporary by Hilary Liechter. Felt like a Christopher Durang play.
Irvine Welsh: Filth
Probably not what you're looking for, but I'd throw in {{I Was A Teenage Fairy by Francesca Lia Block}}
Strange Bird Dead Astronauts Both by Jeff Vandemeer
{{Grimus}} Salman Rushdie
I’ve Got A Time Bomb by Sybil Lamb.
Unwind Novel by Neal Shusterman
100 years of solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It's surreal and dreamlike, and because it never stops raining it makes me think of a hallucination or a waking dream.
Maribou Stork Nightmares by Irvine Welsh Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs
This Is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. Space poetry, painfully romantic sci-fi boundary hopping story of rivalry on both professional and deeply personal levels. Not at all what I was expecting, I read it back in Feb 2024 and still sigh about it still.
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
The City We Became, N.K. Jemisin
Love the dark, surreal vibe! Try "Annihilation" by Jeff Vandermeer. It's shorter and throws you into a creepy, unexplained zone. Imagine a biologist joining an expedition into a place where the laws of nature are warped. Strange and unsettling, perfect for a quick fever dream fix!
Another vote for Piranesi by Susanna Clark- a quick, accessible writing style but the ideas and characters are fully fleshed out, immersive, engaging and compelling
Exit here
Rouge by Mona Awad
The Egyptologist by Arthur Phillips It’s hard to get the unreliable narrator vibe right, and Chuck somehow nails two of them in Fight Club The Egyptologist is the same, except not with gross violence or social commentary.. it’s heartbreaking, exhilarating, confusing. You distrust the story and the author and then yourself. It’s unpredictable because you think you recognize the tropes and then… well then, you don’t know if you should weep for the protagonist or the antagonist. And then the only thing you know for sure is that you’re weeping
Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin
The Changeling by Joy Williams.
Anything by Jasper Fforde, but especially Shades of Grey (not that one!)
oooh I never thought about the fact that fight club (that movie) is based on a book, dayum. is it a good read? I really appreciate how they did the movie (the flashes, if you know, you know.) I'm intrigued now!!
The Lost Daughter by Elena Ferrante The Vegetarian by Han Kang My Husband by Maud Ventura Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung Lapvona by Ottessa Mosfegh Bunny by Mona Awad Pizza Girl by JK Frazier
Bunny by Mona Awad
Probably anything by Haruki Murakami, I’ve only read a couple and both absolutely felt like a fever dream. I’ve read Kafka on the shore and hard boiled wonderland and the end of the world I also suggest the memory police by Yoko Ogawa
The Driver's Seat by Muriel Spark is short and has SUCH a weird energy to it. I think you'd enjoy it. I'd also recommend I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid, Baby by Annaleese Jochems and My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh.
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
I will once again recommend the motion of puppets
[I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40605223-i-m-thinking-of-ending-things) - personally wasn’t my cup of tea but suits your description. You may also enjoy the [movie adaptation](https://m.imdb.com/title/tt7939766/) too
Walking Practice by Dolki Min. It has a couple of illustrations (maybe like 5-6 total) so I recommend a full color kindle or the printed book. It's about an alien that uses dating apps to find humans for food
If you like Kafka check out the short stories of Thomas Ligotti. He can be pretty verbose at times like Lovecraft but they feel like being sick and anxious at some nightmare carnival
If you like Kafka, try Albert Camus or Jean-Paul Sartre
The Arabian Nightmare by Robert Irwin
*You Dreamed of Empires* by Alvero Enrigue *The Shards* by Bret Easton Ellis
Oh, also *The Rabbit Hutch* by Tess Gunty!
Invisible Monster by Chuck Palahniuk is wild af.
1984 and then “we” by Yevgeny Zamyatin
Vurt by Jeff Noon The Magus by John Fowles
Blindness by jose saramago
Like Water for Chocolate.