Comments

You must log in or register to comment.

mdthornb1 t1_jd2ldvz wrote

Dhalgren by Samuel Delaney is a good scifi example of this.

3

ivyfleur t1_jd31ijs wrote

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer (not entirely nonlinear but has flashbacks and includes LOTS of creepy). Also, as someone else already mentioned, House of Leaves.

14

oripeiwei t1_jd32wfe wrote

“Ninth House”. Not totally nonlinear but the MC has many flashbacks and it’s definitely creepy. Plus you get an overview of Yale university history, architecture, and it’s secret societies. The secret society occult happenings are fictional but the societies are real.

1

Theuglyfairy t1_jd36g7r wrote

I’m thinking of ending things by Iain Reid might fit the bill for you! so might « build your house around my body » by violet kuoersmith.

full disclosure, i wasn’t familiar with quite a few of your references so i might miss the mark.

5

Nodbot t1_jd36mrr wrote

I felt like this during the first chapter of John Hawkes' The Lime Twig, felt very reminiscent of The Sound and the Fury with a darker tone. His book The Cannibal would also fit here. I have not read more by him but I want to.

1

slowcancellation OP t1_jd3awbo wrote

Replying to Theuglyfairy (#2,291,256)

I'd definitely put film of I'm Thinking of Ending Things in this general category - I haven't read the book though because from what I could tell there wouldn't be much suspense to it if you knew where it was going. Hadn't heard of the Kupersmith one before now, but the "mysterious disappearances X years apart" subgenre usually has the feel I'm describing so I'm very intrigued!

2

Brrdock t1_jd3btdw wrote

The Invention of Morel is a fun short one. Also check out Jorge Louis Borges (Labyrinths).

The Body Artist by Don DeLillo is great, not strictly non-linear but deals heavily in non-linearity of time.

I love Virginia Woolf and I way preferred The Waves to The Lighthouse if you haven't read that one.

The Post Office Girl by Stefan Zweig is one of my favourites and has a cool backdrop of subjective impending doom, along with Beware of Pity (aka Impatience of the Heart) by the same author.

3

SemanticTableaux t1_jd3hea7 wrote

Great recs already in this thread, and while these are light on the creepiness they do satisfy the non-linearity part so you may be interested.

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. Take a look to make sure for yourself but it's a pretty short book written in an epistolary format and I hesitate to say more for spoiler reasons but it is non-linear. Great prose, quite poetic, interesting ideas as well.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel is another non-linear story about a global virus bringing the world to a halt (sounds very familiar eh but it was written pre-covid). Def more creepy than the first reco but still non-linear narrative that I enjoyed.

1

Mucking_Fuppets t1_jd3l94u wrote

The Third Policeman by Flan O’Brien. It’s a funny book, but there’s something ominous about it that sneaks up on you as you read.

3

furbylicious t1_jd3oauo wrote

The Box Man by Kobo Abe

Perdido Street Station by China Mieville, a little more linear but very surrealistic

There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm

2

rockrnger t1_jd3q92c wrote

The Unnamable by Samuel Beckett might do the trick.

More philosophical than some of the stuff you said tho

2

plastikmissile t1_jd3rxqw wrote

Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks has two narratives going in opposite directions in time, with both culminating with the same climax.

5

VagueSoul t1_jd3v4hc wrote

You might enjoy Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

2

TokarczukLover t1_jd3xogo wrote

Want something extremely weird? Check out Letters to Wendy's by Joe Wenderoth.

1

nizzery t1_jd45sy4 wrote

Marabou Stork Nightmares by Irvin Welsh

1

scooped88 t1_jd4762a wrote

The Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco has a main character with Amnesia and alternate personalities remembering his past. It has a pretty creepy effect

3

ZeMoose t1_jd4hzza wrote

Replying to ivyfleur (#2,290,848)

I would say the other two books in the trilogy apply here even moreso. And Dead Astronauts, also by Vandermeer, is too out there for me to even give a straight answer as to whether it's non-linear or not. But it definitely gives you a jigsaw puzzle of a story.

2

CascadianOperative t1_jd4jovr wrote

Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon. Its a long one, but it has a lot of what you've mentioned, and is a very uniquely structured story.

1

CrazyCatLady108 t1_jd58mv8 wrote

Hi there. Per rule 3.3, please post book recommendation requests in /r/SuggestMeABook or in our Weekly Recommendation Thread. Thank you!

1