More like The Affirmation
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- Dhalgren
Samuel R. Delanystandalone novel1975
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Dhalgren is a 1975 science fiction novel by American writer Samuel R. Delany. It features an extended trip to and through Bellona, a fictional city in the American Midwest cut off from the rest of the world by an unknown catastrophe. It is number 33 on the 20th Century's Greatest Hits: 100 English-Language Books of Fiction list.
- Fire and Hemlock
Diana Wynne Jonesstandalone novel1984
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At nineteen, Polly has two sets of sometimes overlapping, sometimes conflicting memories, the real-life ones of school days and her parents' divorce, and the heroic adventure ones that began the day she accidentally gate-crashed a funeral and met the cellist Thomas Lynn.
- Death in Her Hands
Ottessa Moshfeghstandalone novel2020
similar bymysteriouscontemporaryidentitymadnessliterary & generaleerieunreliable narrator
Death in Her Hands is a 2020 novel by Ottessa Moshfegh.
- The End of Mr. Y
Scarlett Thomasstandalone novel2006
similar bymysteriousbritish islescontemporaryidentityscience fictionliterary & general
The End of Mr. Y is a novel by British author Scarlett Thomas. The book tells the story of Ariel Manto, a PhD student who has been researching the 19th century writer Thomas Lumas. She finds an extremely rare copy of Lumas' novel The End of Mr. Y in a second-hand bookshop. The book is rumoured to be cursed - everyone who has read it has died not long afterwards.
- Thrice Upon a Time
James P. Hoganstandalone novel1980
similar bymysteriousbritish islescontemporaryscience fictionidentity
Amazon: When Murdoch was summoned to his grandfather's isolated Scottish castle, he had no idea of the old man's latest discovery -- nor where it would lead him. Sir Charles, a genius in far-out physics, had found a flaw in the law of conservation of energy; in any process, an incredibly tiny increment of energy escaped -- back through time! Using this "tau" radiation, he could send messages into the past. But Murdoch discovered records of messages he knew he had never sent. Were many futures possible? Could a message from Future X alter the past -- and thus wipe out Future X? But who would be foolish enough to send a message that could eliminate his own existence?
- The Rift
Nina Allanstandalone novel2017
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The Rift is a 2017 literary science fiction novel by English writer Nina Allan. It was first published in July 2017 in the United Kingdom as a trade paperback by Titan Books. It is the second book of a two-book deal Allan signed with Titan in 2015; the first is the second edition of her debut novel, The Race, published in 2016.
- The Mind Game
Norman Spinradstandalone novel1980
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Amazon: Down on his luck Hollywood director's down on her luck actress wife gets taken over by a mind game cult like Est or Scientology called Transformationalism. She disappears into the bowels of Transformationalism, he's determined to "rescue" her to the point where pretends to be taken over too. Is he or isn't he? As he delves deeper and deeper (or higher and higher depending on what who believes), he's no longer sure either. A novel about the power of cults, show biz and cults, and just maybe the nature of "reality" assuming there is one.
- Southern Reach Trilogy
series4 books2014
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The Southern Reach Series is a series of novels by the American author Jeff VanderMeer first published in 2014—Annihilation, Authority, Acceptance, and Absolution. The series takes its name from the secret agency that is central to the plot. In 2013, Paramount Pictures bought the movie rights for the series, and a film adaptation of Annihilation was made with Alex Garland as writer-director. The film was released in 2018. The most recent book in the series, Absolution, was released on 22 October 2024.
- Time Out of Joint
Philip K. Dickstandalone novel1959
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Time Out of Joint is a science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick, first published in novel form in the United States in 1959. An abridged version was also serialised in the British science fiction magazine New Worlds Science Fiction in several installments from December 1959 to February 1960.
- The Blue Ant Trilogy
series3 books2003
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Hubertus Bigend is a fictional character appearing in the third trilogy of novels of science fiction and literary author William Gibson. Bigend is the antihero of Gibson's Pattern Recognition (2003), Spook Country (2007) and Zero History (2010). In an interview Gibson says "I've always had a sense of Bigend as someone who presents himself as though he knows what's going on, but who in fact doesn't. It's just my sense of the subtext of the character: he's bullshitting himself, at the same time as he's bullshitting all of us."
- The Prestige
Christopher Prieststandalone novel1995
similar bymysteriousidentitybritish islesliterary & generalunreliable narrator
A magician called Borden (at least in private) writes his own version of his life as a magician. There's a lot of focus on a trick, where he seems to move across any width of stage in an instant, and on a feud with another magician, Angier. The account includes passages, where he can't decide what exactly to write, arguing with himself. 3 generations later a Borden (at least biologically) learns about his ancestor. He's also convinced, he somehow has a twin brother, who's happy about this development.
- Before I Go to Sleep
S. J. Watsonstandalone novel2011
similar bymysteriousbritish islescontemporaryidentityunreliable narrator
Before I Go to Sleep is the first novel by S. J. Watson, published in the spring of 2011. It became both a Sunday Times and The New York Times bestseller and has been translated into over 40 languages. It has become a bestseller in France, Canada, Bulgaria and the Netherlands. It reached number 7 on the U.S. bestseller list, the highest position for a debut novel by a British author since J. K. Rowling. The New York Times described the author as an "out-of-nowhere literary sensation". He wrote the novel between shifts whilst working as a National Health Service (NHS) audiologist.
- Legion / Stephen Leeds
series5 books2012
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Legion, or the Stephen Leeds series, is a series of science fiction novellas created by American author Brandon Sanderson. Sanderson authored the first three stories : Legion, first published on August 31, 2012, Legion: Skin Deep in November 2014, and Legion: Lies of the Beholder in September 2018. Death and Faxes, co-authored by Max Epstein, David Pace, and Michael Harkins, was released in June 2022. The books have received favorable reviews.
- The Unlimited Dream Company
J. G. Ballardstandalone novel1979
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The Unlimited Dream Company is a novel by British writer J. G. Ballard, first published in 1979. It was nominated for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award in 1980. It won the British Science Fiction Association Award in the same year.
- The Time of the Ghost
Diana Wynne Jonesstandalone novel1981
similar bymysteriousbritish islescontemporaryidentityeerie
The Time of the Ghost is a supernatural English-language children's novel by Diana Wynne Jones, published by Macmillan in 1981. Set in the English countryside, it features a teenage ghost who is one of four sisters, and observes the family, unable to remember which one she is. She is from seven years in the future, in the aftermath of her "accident", so it is a kind of a time slip story, but she has no memories of those seven years.
- Freddie Montgomery
series1 book1989
similar bybritish islescontemporaryidentitymadnessliterary & generalunreliable narrator
- Chocky
series2 books1968
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Chocky (1968) is John Wyndham's science fiction novel about an eleven-year-old boy, Matthew, whose parents grow alarmed by his conversations with an unseen presence that feeds him unsettling insights into mathematics and human progress, building toward the reveal of what, or who, Chocky really is. Mark Daniel's Chocky's Challenge (1986), published after Wyndham's death, is an authorized continuation that carries the story forward.
- HARM
Brian W. Aldissstandalone novel2007
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"... a young writer of light fiction with a Muslim heritage has been arrested for no compelling reason. He is held as Prisoner B, in HARM ... and isolated. To evade this misery Prisoner B escapes - through his split personality - to a science fiction-like planet ruled by insects. But gradually the two worlds start to converge ..."
- Red Shift
Alan Garnerstandalone novel1973
similar bymysteriousbritish islesidentitycontemporaryliterary & general
Quoting that 1978 review article by Brian Lee: Red Shift [after The Owl Service] was again about the relationship between two adolescents, but interwoven in their love story were two other strands: one about a group of Roman legionaires 'going tribal' among warring factions of the British (the parallel and the brutal language are obviously those of the Americans among the Viet Cong and the Viet Minh); the other strand is about the massacre of a village on the Welsh border during the Civil War.{{BREAK}} Undoubtedly, Red Shift is a brilliantly written and gripping book. The difficulty about it is that Garner makes no concessions to his readers (and on the book jacket he makes it clear that it is for children). It is told almost entirely in cryptic conversation with minimal clues to the identity of the speakers. He switches from strand to strand of the story without warning. The book cannot be understood and appreciated at one hasty reading. It is worth serious study, but will children persevere? In her introduction to the 1973 edition of Children's Books of the Year, critic and reviewer Elaine Moss says: Spurred on by the publication of Alan Garner's literary crossword puzzle Red Shift ... many of us asked ourselves where children's publishing should end and adult begin? For Children's Books of the Year I have drawn the line below Red Shift and excluded it ... Alan Garner, in deliberately choosing an avant-garde form, is also choosing an advanced, sophisticated audience for his book. Alan Garner himself seems to have come around to this view. This year a television adaptation of Red Shift was screened at peak viewing time with no mention of the fact that it was originally published as a children's novel. [end quotation from the review article; ellipses by Lee]
- Free Live Free
Gene Wolfestandalone novel1984
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Free Live Free is a novel by American writer Gene Wolfe, first published in 1984.
- The Thirteenth Tale
Diane Setterfieldstandalone novel2006
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The Thirteenth Tale (2006) by Diane Setterfield is a gothic suspense novel; it was the author's debut book.
- The Extremes
Christopher Prieststandalone novel1998
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The Extremes is a 1998 science fiction novel by the English writer Christopher Priest. The novel received the BSFA Award.
- Crash
J. G. Ballardstandalone novel1973
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Crash is a novel by J. G. Ballard, first published in 1973 with a cover designed by Bill Botten. It follows a group of car-crash fetishists who, inspired by the famous crashes of celebrities, become sexually aroused by staging and participating in car accidents.
- The Sacred Fount
Henry Jamesstandalone novel1901
similar bymysteriousbritish islesidentitymadnessliterary & generalunreliable narrator
The Sacred Fount (1901) has for its scene a weekend party at the great English country house Newmarch. Here James leads the reader down a bizarre garden path. The Sacred Fount--his only novel to employ a first-person narrator--places us in the hands of an obsessive novelist (never named and never described, but perhaps familiar), who detects alarming changes in his acquaintances. A woman known for her élan vital has lost her poise, a dull man is charming; a friend is suddenly aged, a plain woman sparkles. Where one improves, another seems to suffer. With "plunges of insight," "as noiseless and guarded as if I were trapping a bird," the narrator stalks his fellow guests through the weekend, avidly trying to make sense of what he comes to believe are actual exchanges of life force. "The Sacred Fount," as R.P. Blackmur noted, "is the mystery of the power that passes amnong us, depleting or restoring us, in friendship, in love, even in more public relations... [Here] is the beautiful, the critical job of making that mystery manifest."
