Weird Books |
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- čas přidán 8. 07. 2024
- welcome to my overly specific book recommendations for speculative/light magic/fabulist books.
these are all books you've heard me talk about before, but I thought it could be valuable to have them all in one spot, especially for anyone new here!
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Can we just talk about how good Kayla's hair looks
“They also like bury people in their yard.. as part of the healing process… sometime for many months.”
Me: Add to TBR
My thoughts exactly! 😂😂😂🤪
Same lol 😆
Let’s get into the weird books!!
Kayla: "Apparently Katherine is a very ominous, spooky name"
Me: Kat @paperbackdreams
👀💀
🤣 My bff told me i should watch this vlog. It's all in the name. Catherine's are bad ass 😜💪
“If you want a book that is weird... and plotless..” you’re damn right I do! 😂
This video is very interesting to me because although you're one of my favourite youtubers, we have pretty different taste in books. I am a very science and logic-based person so I really like a magic system that is clearly explained and makes sense. However, every single time I watch one of your recommendation videos, I always want to try the books you recommended anyway. Every single thing you described in this video are things that I definitely know I usually don't like, but magically you made me want to try the books anyway! It's such a weird but amazing superpower that you have.
I KNOW! She talks about plotless books and I think to myself “I hate that, it sounds awful”, but I also think “Kayla mentioned it, so I have try it”.
‘Weird’ definitely needs to be a genre. Also, did anyone else add every book from this video to their TBR? 🙋♀️
“Piranesi” is a weird book that was just released that I think you might like. It looks like it’s a historical novel, but it’s not.
The timing of this couldn't be more perfect. My chronic pain has been a force to be reckoned with lately and I needed this pick me up. Thanks Kayla!
You need to pick up “Things in Jars” by Jess Kidd. A murder, a ghost, a bearded lady, and mermaid-like creatures. Enough said. :)
I agree! I was actually wondering while reading it if this is what Kayla always means when she says a books is “weird.” 😅
Brittany Jenkins it certainly was weird! 😉
@@madison8867 Yay! I think that means I like weird books too! I am enjoying "Catherine House" so far. This is going to skyrocket some of these other books higher up my TBR! :-)
thank you lala as always for recommending underrated and under-read books! nice to finally see some new weird books aside from the commonly recommended ones :)
Kayla: "Weird is not a genre"
Wikipedia: "Weird fiction is a subgenre of speculative fiction originating in the late 19th and early 20th centuries."
But I get that for these books it is more like your own category.
I love me some weird books and your descriptions helped me to filter out which ones of these I think will work for me too, thank you!
Have you heard about The Book of X? I couldn't find it one your Goodreads but I think it could work for you
My favorite “weird book” author is definitely Helen Oyeyemi. The magical realism, shifting timelines, and African lore in her books make for beautiful stories even if I have no idea what I’ve actually read when I’m finished.
100% same!!!
This is the best book rec video I’ve ever gotten, this “genre” is like my comfort genre 💞
Mexican Gothic is the perfect autumn read. Some magic, lots of atmosphere and creepiness. Starts a bit slow but well worth the time. Enjoy!
I just finished it this weekend! It was so creepy and good!
I also just read it. Top marks.
this is exactly what i needed!! i love “weird” books. i love all of the ones i’ve read in the past that have been recommended by you. a lot of these are already on my tbr, but now i gotta bump them up to read them sooner.
I highly recommend the movies The Lobster and The Killing of a Sacred Deer directed by Yorgos Lanthimos to anyone who's into this weird stuff
you have great taste in movies
Such Small Hands by Andrés Barba is a book that I found randomly in a book store a couple years ago. It's short, listed as horror, and I've never heard anyone else talk about it. It was on the shelf as an employee favorite, and I can't thank that employee enough. It's so weird and has become a favorite of mine. I think you would really like it.
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka -- It has a super bizarre, unexplained premise, the characters are wildly unlikeable (intentionally), and it will hurt you in the best way possible. There's a reason that one's a classic, I highly recommend it.
All the points you brought up are pretty much the reason I avoid reviews at all costs, they’re not usually very accurate and I too have such specific varied tastes. I’m in such a mood where all I’m craving is weird, so this is perfect and probably going to pick up a few of these next. Slow and no plot doesn’t always scream 5 star but sometimes it really is just chef’s kiss
I liked Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson. The children catch fire when they get upset and it’s never explained. It’s a pretty quick read.
Love this video! I think you’d also love Borne, The Strange Bird, and Dead Astronauts by Jeff Vandermeer and The Need by Helen Phillips. They fall into the weird science category.
This is EXACTLY my cup of tea. The exact genre I like to read and write. Bless you for these specific recommendations!
The Binding by Bridget Collins is one that I would recommend.
Your pervious recommendations of Bunny and Wilder Girls helped me realize that I really like weirdness in my stories. So many of these grabbed my interest and I can't wait to get to them!
My own recommendation is not a book and also leans more towards horror/supernatural, but if anyone wants a podcast to get into I'd highly recommend The Magnus Archives! Each episode seems to be a stand alone account of some weird thing a person experienced, but certain names keep popping up and you realize there's something bigger going on. I'm not even caught up with it yet but it's super good and I'm eager to see where it goes!
Thank you so much! I’ve read your previously read weird books and I loved them. I’ve been searching for more and this is great timing!
Thank you so much for this video!! Whenever I explain the types of books I like (which you described PERFECTLY) ppl always just look at me weird or just straight up tell me that I just explain the most weird/boring book ever. So excited to read your recs!
i love open endings so the fact that you mentioned that in the beginning i’m definitely going to look out for these books when i’m book shopping.
You don’t understand how excited I get every time you post a video!
Weird *is* a genre! it includes authors like Jeff VanderMeer, Ann VanderMeer, Alistair Rennie, and others! Its one of my favorite newly-discovered genres for me. It's based on the 'weird' genre from the 50s or something that was started by authors like HP Lovecraft, HG Wells, and others like them. The New Weird is one of my favorite new discoveries.
I cannot explain how happy I am this video exists. I read Wilder Girls, Bunny and Follow Me To Ground because of your recommendations and I absolutely adored every single one. I am constantly looking for “weird” books and the only one whose recommendations I trust for being truly weird is you!!
I have never been this early and I’m soooo excited!!! I love your recommendations
Feels like this video was made for me!! Some of the books you mentioned are new to me so I'll definitely be checking um out. Magical Realism has always been my jam and fall is the perfect time for some weird/spooky books!
KAYLA. thank you for this. i gasped when this came up on my home page, i just finished catherine house and i’ve been desperately searching for more books that give me the same vibe
So pumped for this!! These seem like they will be great recs for me to add to my fall TBR💕
the audiobook for and the trees crept in is DEFINITELY SCARY!!!
i listened to it last fall while driving in the dark and it freaked me out so much lmao
finally. my favorite genre. absolute absurdist batshit craziness
I've read The Rattled Bones a couple of years ago and I absolutely loved it! It's a shame it's underrated, you're the only person on booktube I know that read it too.
And thank you for all of the "weird" recommendations! :) I added most of them to my tbr list as I love magical realism and I really crave darker reads now. I can't wait to try them!
this is the exact genre i've been looking for since i read (and loved) Annihilation and I'm still so thrown you didn't like that one. it's so hard to describe this type of stuff on like book rec sites so thanks for this video!!
You should read The Starless Sea, especially since you loved Addie LaRue!
These recommendations are SO perfect ❤️ I’m glad you mentioned house of leaves already because I’m always so scared to recommend it! Instead I would recommend the work of Max Porter; Grief is the Thing with Feathers, and Lanny. Lyrical and beautiful writing, surreal, and both are quite short which kind of works well for the weird stuff! ❤️ (also if you ever chose to do the weird sci fi/horror recs I would be so here for that!)
I love hearing you try to explain weird books without giving it all away. Thanks for talking about stuff that you love (even if it’s weird)
Weird books with Kayla. This is a dream! Love all the recommendations. Definitely adding so many to my tbr. Also cannot wait to see you read House of Leaves!
I want you to read Son of A Trickster by Eden Robinson so dang bad. It's weird. It's got magical realism. It's Canadian (B.C. if I remember correctly). It's Indigenous. It's own voices. Its. Right. Up. Your. Alley. Also, it's INSANE to me that her books aren't talked about on book tube more...or at all really.
I am so so glad that you've done this video. I keep calling it "new weird" but ever since I played Control and What Remains of Edith Finch I've been obsessed with this horror/fantasy/contemporary ish "genre"
I love this genre! Thanks for this video. Have definitely added The Rattled Bones to my list.
I haven't read her stuff yet but I've heard Kelly Link writes in this sort of genre. The book I'm reading now, Tropic of Orange by Karen Tei Yamashita, is a sort of genre-busting type novel (I accidentally wrote "movie" at first because it takes a lot of cues from movies lol, especially Pulp Fiction) that I think fits in here. I'll confess that I'm kind of struggling to get through it even though it's not very long, but other people may like it better.
A YA book I read that was kind of like this was All The Bad Apples by Moira Fowley-Doyle, more on the "light" side of weirdness with cultural/historical influences.
fever dream by samanta schweblin and revenge by yōko ogawa! :)
I just finished Bunny and loved it, so glad I found this video! I think "weird" is my favorite genre.
Listen, literally yesterday I told my friend that I've apparently decided to be into weird books (having read a few weird books and really enjoyed them this year, I simply have to accept that I like weird books lol) so thank you for posting this! It hits just the right spot :D
I think that you would really like Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. It has a lot of these themes you’re describing. When I finished it I thought to myself “well, that was weird.”
I am SO excited to read this one! Glad to know it's sufficiently weird!
I’m halfway through and still don’t understand but I’m loving it!
Love this video. And you had me at "mysterious island" I'll be looking for several of these!
My fave booktuber! Keep the recs coming- much love from Boston, Ma!
I LOVE this list!! I have You Must Not Miss, Follow Me to Ground, and Catherine House on my TBR already - added In The House In The Dark of the Woods. I love weird surreal books where I don't know what's going on
you just mentioned some books ive Loved in here so im excited😭❤ these sort of weird books are always very hit or miss with me but i always enjoy reading them and im curious about them!!
here's some recommendations, not sure if they actually fit with what you are looking for but oh well:
-the strange and beautiful sorrows of ava lavender
-all the bad apples
-the stars and the blackness between them
also these two i personally didnt really liked but i think you might:
-other words for smoke
-the lost coast
❤❤❤
never been sooo early! im so excited, love your channel!
You need to read Moira Fowley-Doyle. Her books are phenomenal and weird. Highly recommend starting with The Accident Season!
I'm really excited to read Blanca & Roja this October (part of my witchy/magical TBR)! Thanks for introducing me to Anna-Marie McLemore!
Whaaaa... I didn't know that ending for And the trees crept is polarizing?! I thought the ending was one of the most satisfying ending ever, especially in a horror book. Everything is explained, you get to know all the answers. I loved it.
I LOVED this video! I like "weird" books too. They can be so unpredictable and maybe leave me hanging but the thinking about those ending have me spinning and leave my brain in this confused happy book dance. Haha!
I'd recommend Freshwater and Pet by Akwaeke Emezi :)
I've never heard my reading taste explained so clearly in the begining. I always just said "magical realism" but it's more than that! To add these to my TBR
my goodreads is so excited and so is my soul!!! i love weird books but i despised house of leaves !! bunny and catherine house are two of my favorites though! thanks for the recommendations! 💗
I love these kinds of books! Quite a few are available on my state's overdrive library, so I"m super stoked..and I may have ordered 4 of the others. Haha. Thanks for all the recs!
I would recommend Earthlings by Sayaka Murata
Wierd books are my jam!! I'm always searching for new ones but almost no one talks about them. I have found just a handful of videos listing wierd books. That's why i like watching booktubers who read a lot of obscure titles because i have found many wierd books on their channels. I recently discovered one that is called the beauty by aliyah whitely (haven't read it yet but hopefully will soon).
Girl you are speaking my language!! I LOVE And the Trees Crept In along with others, I have added ALL the books I haven’t heard of, I like your weirdness ❤️
Not sure if it constitutes as "weird" enough but I love Bone Gap so much and that definitely has some unexplained magicalness.
Horrid is one of my new favorite books and was also my first Katrina Leno, so now I definitely need to get You Must Not Miss. It sounds so good!
Love these recommendations! I recently read The Vegetarian, loved it, and was looking for something similar! thank you!
mexican gothic hits so many of your boxes: slowness + creepy house + unexplained magic/science + horror. i hope you'll like it! also, i'm interested in weird books because of your channel so i'm excited to dive into a few of these recs!
I just finished Bunny on your recommendation today. Loved it. Can't wait to pick up some more of these books.
Bunny is BRILLIANT! It was the first book I read based on your recommendations and now I blindly trust your "weird" books recommendations 💜
As you were talking about books that people are disappointed in because they are misclassified in the wrong genre I immediately thought of We Have Always Lived in the Castle. So people go into that book thinking it's horror and then don't like it. Yes Shirley Jackson does write more classically horror novels (ie The Haunting of Hill House) but We Have Always Lived in the Castle is much more just a strange novel but some dark elements, and I love it, and I hate that people get let down because they're led astray by the description.
I just finished reading and the trees crept in yesterday! Loved it! But that was the first book I thought about when you started this video lo and behold it’s your first book!
I have been waiting for this video for forever!
This might be my favorite video you’ve ever done!!! I love me some weird books 🙋🏼♀️
I love Bunny! I usually love the same weird books you do, even though there are some I couldn’t get down with. I will have to pick up the ones you’ve mentioned that I haven’t read yet. Thanks Kayla!!!! 🔮🔮🔮
All i can think now is a weird lalathon... and you just demolished my tbr AGAIN 💜
Oohhh I really needed this book recs video!! And I don't know if you've read it yet or not, but I really loved Vassa in the Night by Sarah Porter which definitely fits in the "weird" category.
Can't believe I'm early for my favorite booktuber!!! So excited :)
I have a book on my tbr I think you would love! It’s called bats of the republic. I picked it up because it looked so weird. I think alternate dimension? It’s full of graphs, pages of diaries, drawings,maps, etc. but that’s not even the weirdest part.
On the flap there’s the synopsis (as normal) and it ends with “OPEN IT NOW” but on the inside of the dust jacket there’s a different dark version of the cover and a different synopsis written backwards. It ends with “DO NOT OPEN”
Also just to note: the book only has 500+ reviews on goodreads and I found the book brand new in a used bookshop. The bookshop is actually close to where the author lives and I kinda have the feeling that he put it there himself 😂
That's been on my TBR forever, thank you for the reminder!
I've read Pan's Labyrinth, which is a novelizaiton of the movie. I enjoyed it lots more than I thought I would! It was that weird/fairy tale-esque feel with some neat Hispanic cultural elements!
Kayla, a book I think you would LOVE is The Summer That Melted Everything by Tiffany McDaniel. It has a little bit of weirdness that I know you would really like and it’s also very atmospheric.
Ahhh I need to read Catherine House! Especially after the comparison to Bunny now I’m even more excited 😍
PERFECT, THIS IS PERFECT. perfect weird list of books in one place to go back to
These recommendations are perfect for me. Thank you!
I think "Welcome to the Night Vale" (the novels, the podcast, the podcast episodes books) fit nicely into the genre of "weird books".
Welcome to night vale is one of the weirdest books I’ve ever read... I added some rec’s above and didn’t even think of this one. It was so weird though that I hesitate continuing on with the series. After reading that book I felt tired, like I’d just walked 20 miles and needed to rest lol
ughh i love that podcast so much!! i haven't read the books but they are on my tbr.
i’ve never been so early to a booksandlala video and i can’t wait🤪
I bought Follow Me To Ground recently because of you recommending it. It's not the kind of thing I would normally pick up, but I thought it was written so well. Really immersive. Definitely weird! I found the ending a little abrupt, I wished it had been longer, but I want to reread it now you've talked about it again! I also loved This is How You Lose the Time War, again bought because of you! I'm quite tempted by Beautiful Broken Girls... Did not like Catherine House though, seems to be very polarising!
I love weird books. Thank you for this video. I added so many books to my want-to-read list.
May I humbly recommend 'The last days of Jack Sparks'! It's got an unreliable narrator, dark humor, Reality Tv-Show kinda vibes, a bit of mixed media with interview, email and blogging snippets. Supernatural horror but with a nice little twist. Never saw anyone on CZcams talk about it, but it's seriously sooo good.
Kayla I am going to use this video as my TBR for next year. They are all just pulling me in.
Early and always ready for more Lala content!!!
I feel like a book I’ve almost never seen mentioned that could kind of fit this weird vibe (it may be a middle grade book) but it’s called The Thief of Always
It fits the weird house vibe with the loneliness kind of thing
Such an awesome children’s book, that doesn’t read like a children’s book. It was a read aloud for our 5th grade class.
The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell is a weird house book set in the Victorian era, potentially edges a bit more towards horror, but definitely weird. I loved it.
the strange and beautiful sorrows of ava lavender is kind of magical realism but also pretty weird
very summer of salt vibes
Will there be a part 2 in the future? I love this. Some of these books are already on the TBR, but some, I've never even heard of. Thank you.
I've only read one of the (main) books in this video, so I'm excited to try some of the others.
My suggestions are Revenge by Yoko Ogawa, Lanny by Max Porter and Here There Are Monsters by Amelinda Berube!
A weird and unexplained ride with something to say (? Not everyone may like or understand that “something”) with dark elements is The Need. Still catch myself thinking about it at random with slight heart palpitations...
I recommend Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. It is 4 short stories about a time travelling cafe in Tokyo. It is very slow and the time travel is very specific. So good!