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Weird fiction and horror that'll mess with your head
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items Strange stories are my whole thing. Weird horror, cosmic dread, cyberpunk, and horror-comedy that'll make you laugh and check the locks. If you like what I write, start here.
A house that's bigger on the inside than the outside, told through footnotes, sideways text, and a narrator coming apart. Not a book you read so much as get lost in.
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
Horror-comedy done right. Two slackers, a drug that lets you see the things crawling around just out of sight, and jokes in the middle of genuine dread. Gross, funny, and weirdly profound.
John Dies at the End by David Wong
Four scientists walk into Area X, a stretch of coast where nature has gone wrong in a way nobody can explain. Creeping, beautiful, and deeply unsettling. Way better than the movie.
Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
A group of kids raised by a god-like ‘Father’ in a library holding all the knowledge of the universe. Then he goes missing. Brutal, funny, and wildly original.
The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins
The book that invented cyberpunk and basically predicted the internet. A burned-out hacker gets one last job. Still sharp as a razor forty years later.
Neuromancer by William Gibson
A pizza-delivering hacker named Hiro Protagonist, a virtual world called the Metaverse, and a language virus from ancient Sumer. Satire and cyberpunk at full speed.
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
Lovecraft's cosmic horror flipped on its head, set in 1920s Harlem. A short, sharp novella you can finish in one sitting and think about for a week.
The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle
A rotting mansion in the Mexican mountains, a creepy English family, and something wrong with the walls. Old-school gothic horror that gets genuinely weird in the back half.
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
The haunted house story every other one is chasing. No gore, just dread that creeps under your skin. Jackson does more with a door that won't stay shut than most writers do with a monster.
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
A man lives alone in an endless house of statues and tides, and slowly realizes something about his world is very wrong. Short, dreamy, and haunting. A liminal-space story before that was a thing.
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Charleston housewives in the '90s versus a charming new neighbor who is very much a vampire. Funny, Southern, and surprisingly vicious when it wants to be.
The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires
Not fiction, but it'll mess with your head harder than anything else here. Reality tunnels, the eight-circuit model of consciousness, and exercises that rewire how you see the world.
Prometheus Rising by Robert Anton Wilson
Every conspiracy theory is true, all at once, and it's hilarious. A psychedelic, rule-breaking cult classic about secret societies, chaos, and a golden submarine.
The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Shea & Wilson
First contact as pure cosmic horror. A crew of damaged humans, plus a vampire captain, meets something that might be intelligent without being conscious at all. Hard sci-fi that'll keep you up at night.
Blindsight by Peter Watts
A dark carnival rolls into a small town in October and grants wishes at a terrible price. Perfect fall read, written like poetry.
Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury