11 Novels So Amazing, You Can’t Tell What Genre They Are

Some of the most muscular reading experience are the ones that turn away to fit into just one pigeonhole . They defy categorization , because they ’re both spirit - change and label - breaking . Do n’t believe me ? Here are 11 Bible that are so fantastically good , they ca n’t be constrained to just one writing style .

When I was first begin to think about writing scientific discipline fable and phantasy myself , I stumble ona tilt that Bruce Sterling had publish of “ Slipstream ” novels . I printed it out , hurry down to the used bookstall , and bought as many of them as I could happen . Then I observe a stack of them by my layer , so I could learn the next one as shortly as I was finished with the last .

The conception of “ slipstream ” fiction — Holy Writ that have genre trappings but literary aspirations , or Book that refuse musical genre categories — has gone out the window at this point . ( Althoughthere are some very good anthologies out there if you want to see what it was about . ) But book that do n’t fit neatly into one genre , or even two genres , are still among the things most probable to get my pulsation racing . And these book are some of the greatest .

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1. The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell

Okay , so most people would probably put Cloud Atlas on this list , because Cloud Atlas is the poster nestling for the “ what the heck do we call this ” novel . But The Bone Clocks isequally enchant and almost as class - busting , despite having one cohesive tale that all get along together in the end . The Bone Clocks is a do - of - age story , a dark Tom Sharpe - esque comedy about a writer whose career is ending , a dark illusion about a young man seek power at all costs , and a whole bunch of other matter , and the ending result is richer and more of a full characterization of life in all its weirdness .

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2. The Four-Gated City by Doris Lessing

Doris Lessing ’s best - known speculation into science fable is the Canopus in Argus serial , beginning with Shikasta . But the Nobel Prize - winning source ’s most emblematic study might really be the Children of Violence series , another five - Good Book composition . These Bible are semi - autobiographical , until the fourth bulk , when things start to get a snatch uncanny and more off track . But the 5th and final volume is when Lessing gets seriously weird — of a sudden it ’s the nigh future , people have mutant tycoon and the world is ending . And Lessing ’s heroine still seek to find where she belongs and who she really is , and what on the nose we call justice . This leger had a immense impact on me , and I often palpate like everything I write is just a weakly endeavour at Doris Lessing fanfic .

3. Geek Love by Katharine Dunn

Every now and then , the rumor goes around that Dunn has finally written a mark novel novel , and everybody face up in expectancy , as if it might just fall on us suddenly . Because everybody who ’s study Geek Love remembers how potently it strike them . This is the story of a family of carnival freaks — the Logos “ geek ” in the claim refers to the guy wire who bite the head off a chicken in the circus , not the more common usage . And the family experiments with using foreign chemicals to develop more interesting mutant young , leading to a fille with a pig ’s tail … and Arty . Who is one of the most captivating characters in book history . This book is literary fabrication , it ’s sorcerous realism , it ’s dystopian fiction … but at long last it ’s more than any of those thing .

4. VALIS by Philip K. Dick

Like Doris Lessing ’s Martha Quest novel , this record book is autobiographic and contains a muckle of details from Dick ’s real life … but also has a good deal of other bizarre stuff thrown in the mixing , that only gets foreign as it goes along . Even for the legendarily weird PKD , this is a new story of weirdness , in part because it feels as though Dick is telling you about the events he experience in the most honest way he can . The plot is kind of difficult to sum up , but there ’s an alien news and a magic nipper and a rock star , and two different versions of Dick himself . This book ’s very title has become a synonym for “ trippy reality - bust weirdness . ”

5. Boy Genius by Yongsoo Park

6. Empire of the Senseless by Kathy Acker

Acker ’s Good Book are such a huge , upsetting burst of creativeness and outlandishness , they will mess you up in a seriously fundamental room . And Empire of the Senseless is one of the most scientific discipline - fictional , but also the hardest to pin down in terms of genre . Influenced by everybody from Fielding and Sterne to Burroughs , Acker create a weird and un - pin - down - able narrative that followsa boy identify Thivai and his half - automaton lover , as they research a reasonably post - apocalyptical near futureand hunt for drug and making love . But Empire of the Senseless is much uncanny , and darker , than that take a leak it sound . you could read a self-aggrandizing excerpt here .

7. Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut

This inclination could have been all metafictional works , in which reality and fable collide and the author becomes a character in the book — something about metafiction often make music genre distinctions to go blooey . But I ’ve seek to pick just the most interesting and genre - warping metafictions , and Vonnegut ’s seventh novel is definitely up there . Not only is Vonnegut ’s alter ego , science fiction author Kilgore Trout , in this ledger , but also Vonnegut ’s narrative articulation is the chattiest it ’s ever been , holding forth on all sorts of weird subjects . This is the account book that contains a draught of Vonnegut ’s anus ( it ’s a cock-a-hoop asterisk ) and that ’s just part and parcel of how Vonnegut ’s approach to genre make the conversant both more strange and more simple .

8. Giles Goat-Boy by John Barth

I think this is one of the script I discovered thanks to Sterling ’s listing of “ Slipstream ” titles . This is sort of a coming - of - age novel as well as a dystopian adventure , but it ’s also just hella weird . Barth ’s chef-d’oeuvre takes place in a world that ’s sort of a huge university campus , and everybody is expect for the arriver of the Grand Tutor , a messianic number . The main fictional character is raised as a goat , but then goes on an super silly , parodic version of the Hero ’s Journey . Oh , and there are pinch that this playscript may actually have been write by a self - aware electronic computer .

9. Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

Could n’t really impart this one off the list — Infinite Jest gave me goosebumps and nightmares , and kind of frustrated as well as obsessed me . The story of a family that run a lawn tennis academy , and a video tape with seriously dangerous properties , this is sort of a taradiddle about addiction in many unlike forms . But there ’s so much weirdness , and so much detailed discussion of tennis , in Infinite Jest , that it disgust any effort at categorization . And it ’s just insanely fun , when it ’s not being dreadfully creepy .

10. Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter

And here ’s another circus novel ! Angela Carter is one of those author who always comes up in treatment about literary trends like “ fabulism ” and “ charming realism , ” but her oeuvre stands alone . This story of a circus traveling across Europe includes an aerialist who may or may not have been incubate from an egg , and the structure and a lot of the grain reflect Carter ’s obsession with fairy tale .

11. Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

Ca n’t really lecture about book that refuse literary genre category without institute up this one , right ? Canterbury Tales has urge on so much skill fiction and fantasy , but it ’s also a glow exemplar of a book that ca n’t settle on a genre to carry through its life . From fib of valorous knights to unearthly humorous stories of cheating millers to the bluff and weird Wife of Bath , this book goes in some in earnest foreign direction and just keeps go .

Bonus: Love and Information by Caryl Churchill

This is n’t actually a novel , though it is usable in book form . Rather , it ’s a stage romp , in which 100 part , played by 15 actors , go through a huge number of tiny vignettes on everything from witnessing a tsunami to falling in love with a computer . And each of these bantam playlet adds up to a huge kaleidoscope , which break not just genre but identity and meaning . You should really see Love and Information staged if you may , but like all of Churchill ’s play it ’s also implausibly rewarding to record it on the Thomas Nelson Page .

I ’m sure you have your own favorite genre - defying , mind - blowing books . Plus I kind of by design leave out some of the “ common suspect ” and books that have shown up on io9 ’s book lists a bunch in the yesteryear . Please share your own favorites below !

Top epitome by the amazingMaggie Tokuda - Hall . hold back outher Youtube channelfull of “ doodle brushup ” of books , and other delicacy . dear and Information image from Sydney Theatre Company , viaConcrete Playground .

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