We’re well past the midpoint of summer, so I am perfectly comfortable declaring that spooky season has begun. It is a perfect time to get a jump-start on your fall horror reading, though I will argue that it is always a perfect time to get to know some new-to-you horror writers. One way to get to know even more authors is to seek out the kinds of horror written in unique formats.
These nine horror novels written in unique formats will not only creep you out but will also make you think. They show how horror can creep in on the edges of the mundane — a catalog, a screenplay, a chilling message on the radio. Horror isn’t just a haunted house or a literal monster. Sometimes horror is much closer.
Many of these books take time and patience to reveal their secrets. Some of them question the nature not only of reality, but of what a book actually is. Can you tell a story that’s actually formatted as a screenplay for a movie that will never be made? Can you follow characters over years or even over lifetimes using nothing but their ephemera?
From a furniture store to a video game that should have never existed, the protagonists in these stories must use their resources to survive — or not. In horror, survival is not a given. It might actually be the less likely scenario.
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
House of Leaves is perhaps the book that everyone thinks of first when it comes to horror in unusual forms. It’s long, it’s a little intimidating, but it is, I am told, worth the ride. (I am still in the ‘too intimidated to begin’ stage, though it has been sitting on my shelf for several years). A couple’s children disappear in their new home, which seems bigger on the inside than on the outside. That is only the beginning of this tale that will literally have you turning the book inside out to try to figure out what is really going on.
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You Should Have Left by Daniel Kehlmann
Continuing on the theme of houses not behaving in the way that they typically do, this short read follows a screenwriter and his family who rent a house in Germany that seems to have trouble keeping its rooms where they’re supposed to be. As the screenwriter reviews his notes, he finds words he never wrote.
Experimental Film by Gemma Files
A film teacher discovers lost footage from a woman she believes to be Canada’s first female filmmaker, who disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Her research brings her to a place of fairy tales that have become flesh. It’s here that she is brought face-to-face with the demon that might have caused the filmmaker’s disappearance.
Demon Theory by Stephen Graham Jones
It’s Halloween night. Hale and six of his med school classmates return to the location of his sister’s disappearance. This novel is written as a literary film treatment, and it’s full of obscure references and footnotes that amplify the story’s horror.
Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix
Another oldie but a goodie — this one takes the format of a catalog for a store that resembles a certain Scandinavian furniture giant with excellent meatballs. I’m sure it’s a coincidence. I’m sure those meatballs are what they say they are, but something is definitely amiss at Orsk.
Nefando by Mónica Ojeda
What was Nefando? A controversial cult video game? A poetic exercise? An experiment? Six roommates in Barcelona are connected to the obscure game in different ways, and as their stories intersect, so do the digital and physical worlds they inhabit.
Build Your House Around My Body by Violet Kupersmith
Two women go missing decades apart. Their fates are linked to one another and linked also to colonial Vietnam, ghosts, ancestors, and a cast of characters that brings the reader closer to understanding what binds the two women together.
Rakesfall by Vajra Chandrasekera
Annelid and Leveret follow each other across lifetimes in this book, which traces their journey ever farther into the future. This may be a book for more experienced experimental fiction readers, as many readers note that the book’s unconventional writing style rewards multiple reads to unravel its many layers.
This Thing Between Us by Gus Moreno
Thiago’s wife, Vera, wanted the smart speaker. Their house was already full of cold spots and something scratching at the walls. So how could it get worse? It did. This book is written as a letter addressed to Vera, as Thiago tries to escape his grief, his rage, and the evil that still haunts him even after he has left their home.
I hope that some of these books stay with you–and I mean that in a fun way, not a haunting “stalks you across lifetimes way.”
Or do I?
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