BCAN
  • Watch BCAN
  • About
    • Our Staff
      • Tim McMahon
      • Jordan Tomase
      • Allie Ray
      • Eric Oblander
      • Fayth Atkins
  • BCAN Shows
    • 419ByDesign
    • BCAN Pulse
    • Exposure
    • Four One Nosh
    • Inside Toledo
    • Rise Up
    • Rise Up LIVE
    • Trendy In Toledo
  • Classroom Heroes

BCAN

  • Watch BCAN
  • About
    • Our Staff
      • Tim McMahon
      • Jordan Tomase
      • Allie Ray
      • Eric Oblander
      • Fayth Atkins
  • BCAN Shows
    • 419ByDesign
    • BCAN Pulse
    • Exposure
    • Four One Nosh
    • Inside Toledo
    • Rise Up
    • Rise Up LIVE
    • Trendy In Toledo
  • Classroom Heroes

Weird But True: This Lesser Known Fiction Genre is Making A Comeback

by Toledo Lucas County Public Library February 19, 2018
ShareTweetPin

When it comes to your leisure reading, are you looking for something a little different? Perhaps you enjoy elements of the supernatural and fantastical but are tired of the same old clichรฉs of most genre fiction? Why not give Weird Fiction a try!

Weird fiction is characterized primarily by its blending of science fiction, fantasy, horror and just about every other fiction genre to create something entirely new. The name โ€œweird fictionโ€ was coined by H.P. Lovecraft in a 1927 essay titled โ€œSupernatural Horror in Literature,โ€ which sought a division between traditional horror at the time and Lovecraftโ€™s own work. The genre has since grown further apart from its close connection with horror and has become an umbrella term for books that canโ€™t easily be placed in any other category.

If you’re new to weird fiction, below you’ll find some great reads to get you started. Keep in mind that nearly all weird fiction still contains some elements of horror, so if you tend to be squeamish these may not be the books for you.

Weird Fiction Books

The Wine-Dark Sea by Robert Aickman (book)
The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All and Other Stories by Laird Barron
Weaveworld by Clive Barker
Fledgling by Octavia Butler
The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington / Leonora Carrington ; introduction by Kathyrn Davis ; translations from the French by Kathrine Talbot ; translations from the Spanish by Anthony Kerrigan

 

The Wine-Dark Sea by Robert Aickman

Amazon: 4.1 |ย Goodreads: 4.13

“In these 11 stories, the occasion may be a walking tour of Northern England, a birthday present of a Victorian dollhouse or a stay at a Swedish sanatorium for insomniacs, but it simultaneously traps the characters with dread and opens them up to a new awareness of a greater, deeper and more dangerous world. A remarkable collection by an author who deserves to be better known.” ~ Goodreads

 

The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All by Laird Barron

Amazon: 4.1 |ย Goodreads: 4.02

“Barron returns with his third collection, The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All. Collecting interlinking tales of sublime cosmic horror, including โ€œBlackwoodโ€™s Baby,โ€ โ€œThe Carrion Gods in Their Heaven,โ€ and the World Fantasy Awardโ€“nominated โ€œHand of Glory,โ€ The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All delivers enough spine-chilling horror to satisfy even the most jaded reader.” ~ Amazon

 

Weaveworld by Clive Barker

Amazon: 4.6 |ย Goodreads| 4.13

“Barker turns from his usual horror to epic-length fantasy for this account of the Fugue, a magical land inhabited by descendants of supernatural beings who once shared the earth with humans. The Fugue has been woven into a carpet for protection against those who would destroy it; the death of its guardian occasions a battle between good and particularly repulsive evil forces for control of the Fugue. Weaveworld is rich with memorable characters, exciting situations, and pockets of Barker’s trademark horror.” ~ Goodreads

 

Fledgling by Octavia Butler

Amazon: 4.2 |ย Goodreads: 3.9

“Fledgling, Octavia Butler’s new novel after a seven year break, is the story of an apparently young, amnesiac girl whose alarmingly inhuman needs and abilities lead her to a startling conclusion: She is in fact a genetically modified, 53-year-old vampire. Forced to discover what she can about her stolenย former life, she must at the same time learn who wanted – and still wants – to destroy her and those she cares for and how she can save herself. Fledgling is a captivating novel that tests the limits of “otherness” and questions what it means to be truly human.” ~ Goodreads

 

The Complete Stories of Lenora Carrington with an introduction by Kathyrn Davis

Amazon: 3.6 |ย Goodreads: 4.25

“Published to coincide with the centennial of her birth, The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington collects for the first time all of her stories, including several never before seen in print. With a startling range of styles, subjects, and even languages (several of the stories are translated from French or Spanish), The Complete Stories captures the genius and irrepressible spirit of an amazing artistโ€™s life.” ~ Goodreads

 

The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
Windeye by Brian Evenson
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
The Fisherman by John Langan

 

The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter

Amazon: 4.2 |ย Goodreads: 4.02

“From familiar fairy tales and legends โ€“ Red Riding Hood, Bluebeard, Puss-in-Boots, Beauty and the Beast, vampires, werewolves โ€“ Angela Carter has created an absorbing collection of dark, sensual, fantastic stories.” ~ Amazon

 

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

Amazon: 4.1 |ย Goodreads: 4.13

“House of Leaves is a multilayered intersection of wild ideas, ten years in the making, from Mark Danielewski. It is also the story of a seemingly normal house gone wild. The novel intertwines the narratives of two haunted individuals: Zampano, a blind man whose strange manuscript is found in his apartment when he dies, and Johnny Truant, the tome’s discoverer and narrator of House of Leaves.” ~ Fantastic Fiction

 

Windeye by Brian Evenson

Amazon: 4.3 |ย Goodreads: 4.03

“A woman falling out of sync with the world; a king’s servant hypnotized by his murderous horse; a transplanted ear with a mind of its own. The characters in these stories live as interlopers in a world shaped by mysterious disappearances and unfathomable discrepancies between the real and imagined. Brian Evenson, master of literary horror, presents his most far-ranging collection to date, exploring how humans can persist in an increasingly unreal world. Haunting, gripping, and psychologically fierce, these tales illuminate a dark and unsettling side of humanity.” ~ Goodreads

 

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

Amazon: 3.9 |ย Goodreads: 3.89

“First published in 1959, Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House has been hailed as a perfect work of unnerving terror. It is the story of four seekers who arrive at a notoriously unfriendly pile called Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of a “haunting”; Theodora, his lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the future heir of Hill House. At first, their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable phenomena. But Hill House is gathering its powersโ€”and soon it will choose one of them to make its own.” ~ Goodreads

 

The Fisherman by John Langan

Amazon: 4.2 | Goodreads: 4.01

“When Abe and Dan, two widowers who have found solace in each other’s company and a shared passion for fishing, hear rumors of the Creek, and what might be found there, the remedy to both their losses, they dismiss it as just another fish story. Soon, though, the men find themselves drawn into a tale as deep and old as the Reservoir. It’s a tale of dark pacts, of long-buried secrets, and of a mysterious figure known as Der Fisher: the Fisherman. It will bring Abe and Dan face to face with all that they have lost, and with the price they must pay to regain it.” ~ Goodreads

 

The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle
Perdido Street Station by China Miรฉville
The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami
Borne by Jeff VanderMeer

 

The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle

Amazon: 4.4 |ย Goodreads: 3.91

“People move to New York looking for magic and nothing will convince them it isn’t there. Charles Thomas Tester hustles to put food on the table, keep the roof over his father’s head, from Harlem to Flushing Meadows to Red Hook. . But when he delivers an occult tome to a reclusive sorceress in the heart of Queens, Tom opens a door to a deeper realm of magic, and earns the attention of things best left sleeping. A storm that might swallow the world is building in Brooklyn. Will Black Tom live to see it break?” ~ Amazon

 

Perdido Street Station by China Miรฉville

Amazon: 3.9 |ย Goodreads: 3.97

“A magnificent fantasy rife with scientific splendor, magical intrigue, and wonderfully realized characters, told in a storytelling style in which Charles Dickens meets Neal Stephenson, Perdido Street Station offers an eerie, voluptuously crafted world that will plumb the depths of every reader’s imagination.” ~ Amazon

 

The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami

Amazon: 3.9 |ย Goodreads: 3.55

“Opening the flaps on this unique little book, readers will find themselves immersed in the strange world of best-selling Haruki Murakami’s wild imagination. The story of a lonely boy, a mysterious girl, and a tormented sheep man plotting their escape from a nightmarish library, the book is like nothing else Murakami has written. Designed by Chip Kidd and fully illustrated, in full color, throughout, this small format, 96 page volume is a treat for book lovers of all ages.” ~ Goodreads

 

Borne by Jeff VanderMeer

Amazon: 4.1 |ย Goodreads: 3.94

“From the author of the Southern Reach Trilogy (aka: Area X) comes a story about two humans, and two creatures. The humans are Rachel and Wick – a scavenger and a drug dealer – both with too many secrets and fears, ready with traps to be set and sprung. The creatures are Mord and Borne – animal, perhaps plant, maybe company discard, biotech, cruel experiment, dinner, deity, or source of spare parts.” ~ Provided by the publisher

 

Still not sure where to start?

Weird fiction anthologies will give you the opportunity to sample the work of various weird fiction authors and see what most interests you.

If youโ€™re feeling brave, try the work of authors like Thomas Ligotti, Kathe Koja, Jon Padgett, Michael Cisco and so many others in the following collections.

 

The Year's Best Weird Fiction - Volume One edited by Laird Barron

The Year’s Best Weird Fiction: Volume One edited by Laird Barron

Amazon: 4.2 | Goodreads: 3.92

“Welcome to the weird! Acclaimed author and editor Laird Barron, one of weird fiction’s brightest exponents, brings his expert eye and editorial sense to the inaugural volume of the Year’s Best Weird Fiction.” ~ Goodreads

Also available in eBook (hoopla).

 

The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer

The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer

Amazon: 4.25 |ย Goodreads: 4.13

โ€œThe Weird features 110 stories by an all-star cast, from literary legends to international bestsellers to Booker Prize winners: including William Gibson, George R. R. Martin, Stephen King, Angela Carter, Kelly Link, Franz Kafka, China Miรฉville, Clive Barker, Haruki Murakami, M. R. James, Neil Gaiman, Mervyn Peake, and Michael Chabon. โ€œ ~ Goodreads

Jeff Vandermeer, author of the bestselling Area X Trilogy (which is being adapted to film in 2018) and editor of numerous Weird Fiction anthologies, describes what makes Weird Fiction a genre that is greater than the sum of its parts:

Here, in what is actually our infancy of understanding the worldโ€”this era in which we think we are older than we areโ€”it is cathartic to seek out and tell stories that do not seek to reconcile the illogical, the contradictory, and often instinctual way in which human beings perceive the world, but instead accentuate these elements as a way of showing us as we truly are. Unruly. Unruled. Superstitious. Absurd. Subject to a thousand destabilizing fears and hopes.


Want to learn more about Weird Fiction?

The Weird:ย An Introduction – Weird Fiction Review

Weird Fiction – Goodreads

A Beginner’s Guide to the New Weird Genre – Book Riot

Originally posted by Toledo Lucas County Public Library blogger Juliette H. at ToledoLibrary.org/blog/weird-but-true-this-lesser-known-fiction-genre-is-making-a-comeback.

previous post
Enter Now! 2018 Ode to the Zip Code
next post
A few simple changes from the Toledo Zoo to help the environment!

You may also like

Meal Plan To Save Time and Money

Happy Little Trees: A Playlist

Historical Images, Right in Your Twitter Feed

Preserve and Share Precious Family Memories

10 Best Fiction Books of 2018

Become a Part of Toledo’s History

Best Comics and Graphic Novels of 2018

Looking for an Outstanding, Holiday Appetizer? Create a...

Make Your Own Natural Homemade Gifts

Knowledge Wins: Highlighting TLCPL’s World War I Poster...

INSTAGRAM

bcanarts

The Buckeye Community Arts Network is a collaborative home for arts, culture, and humanities-related events from NW Ohio and surrounding areas.

BCAN
Special delivery! ๐Ÿค– Have your seen these little Special delivery! ๐Ÿค– Have your seen these little guys around @officialbgsu? We learn more about @starshiprobots this Sunday during BCAN Pulse! 
.
.
.
Special shoutout to our BCAN producer, Allie Ray for the sound effects. ๐Ÿคฃ
Learning about the art and craft of handmade jewel Learning about the art and craft of handmade jewelry! Tonight during 419 By Design, we meet with Jami Tammerine of @jupiteroakjewelry!
New Year, new you, new workout! If youโ€™ve never New Year, new you, new workout! If youโ€™ve never worked out before or youโ€™re a seasoned pro, @lbsgym is welcoming to everyone! ๐Ÿ’ช๐Ÿฝ
A hobby that turned into a worldwide phenomenon! O A hobby that turned into a worldwide phenomenon! On the next 419 By Design, we feature Jami from @jupiteroakjewelry!
"I want everyone to want to feel at home here." "I want everyone to want to feel at home here." 

Feeling inspired? Put your creativity to the test with classes at @paintyourplace!
Join us Monday, January 18th as we honor the life Join us Monday, January 18th as we honor the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King during the 20th annual MLK Unity Day Celebration!
The countdown is on, only โ˜๏ธ more day until BC The countdown is on, only โ˜๏ธ more day until BCAN Pulse!
We made it to Friday, cheers to that! ๐Ÿป This Su We made it to Friday, cheers to that! ๐Ÿป This Sunday during Four One Nosh, we're heading to Bowling Green to check out Arlyn's Good Beer!
Yum, it's #NationalBagelDay! You KNEAD to celebrat Yum, it's #NationalBagelDay! You KNEAD to celebrate with @bagelboxtoledo! ๐Ÿฅฏ
We're heating things up this Wednesday during 419 We're heating things up this Wednesday during 419 By Design as we check out @firenationgallery's glass blown art! ๐Ÿ”ฅ
No plans on Sunday? Come hang out with us during a No plans on Sunday? Come hang out with us during a brand new BCAN Pulse! ๐Ÿ™Œ
Cheers to the weekend! ๐Ÿป What's your favorite d Cheers to the weekend! ๐Ÿป What's your favorite drink at @toledospirits? We're going behind the bar at Toledo Spirits this Sunday during Four One Nosh!
Warm up with us this Sunday as we head inside the Warm up with us this Sunday as we head inside the igloos at @theheightstol and @blarneytoledo! Plus, we grab a bite at @shrmpbrgr and get behind the bar at @toledospirits. ๐Ÿฅ‚ 
.
.
.
#fouronenosh #eatlocal #supportlocal
Tonight is the night! We're kicking off our season Tonight is the night! We're kicking off our season premiere of 419 By Design with Ramsey Brothers Restorations! ๐Ÿšฃโ€โ™‚๏ธ โš’๏ธ
"No one comes to our pantry will be turned away." "No one comes to our pantry will be turned away." 

Dedicated to helping those in our community! EqualityToledo's pantry helps the LGBT+ community have resources if they are food insecure, and resources to mental health as well.
Feeling zen! Start the new year by having those ac Feeling zen! Start the new year by having those aches and pains eased at OZA Day Spa! We stopped by to learn more about their headache massage. 
.
.
.
See more Sunday during BCAN Pulse!
Best place to grab pizza in Toledo? GO! ๐Ÿ•๐Ÿ‘‡ Best place to grab pizza in Toledo? GO! ๐Ÿ•๐Ÿ‘‡ 
.
.
.
Don't miss our new season of Four One Nosh this Sunday at 7:30pm!
Real Toledo craftsmen, real Toledo projects! Our n Real Toledo craftsmen, real Toledo projects! Our new season of 419 By Design begins Wednesday, January 6th! โš’๏ธ
๐Ÿšจ Set your DVRs! We have a new season of Four O ๐Ÿšจ Set your DVRs! We have a new season of Four One Nosh coming your way Sunday, January 10th at 7:30pm!
New Year's Eve plans and you don't have to leave y New Year's Eve plans and you don't have to leave your couch? Cheers to that! ๐ŸŽ‰
Load More... Follow on Instagram

YarkAuto.com banner

Forte Music School banner
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram

© 2021 - Buckeye Broadband


Back To Top