This Week's Weird Novels ¬

What's Newish ¬

Carrie Unleashed: Unraveling a Mixed Media Masterpiece

Carrie is not just a compelling exploration of the horrors that can result from unchecked bullying and religious fanaticism. It’s also a fascinating study of the epistolary form, nested perspectives, and the use of mixed media in storytelling.
Typesetting as a Tool for Storytelling in House of Leaves

House of Leaves is polarizing not because of its plot, but because of its deliberately difficult structure. But that structure affords it an ability to engage its readers in ways that traditional novels cannot.
You Are Experiencing 'If on a Winter's Night a Traveler'

You are complicit in dazzlingly inventive dialogue between writer, and reader, and author, and audience. And also you are reading about Italo Calvino’s ‘If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler’.

Typesetting as a Tool for Storytelling in House of Leaves

House of Leaves is polarizing not because of its plot, but because of its deliberately difficult structure. But that structure affords it an ability to engage its readers in ways that traditional novels cannot.
Anne Carson's 'Nox' and the (Dis)comfort of Reifying Absence

Nox is a profound exploration of loss, mourning, and the process of translation, which is printed on a forty-foot-long scroll that unfolds like an accordion to mimic the non-linear, disjointed process of grief.
On Free Verse and Werewolves: Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow

If you loved the furrier halves of Twilight and True Blood and you’re tired of reading prose, Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow is everything you never knew you wanted.
Ergodic Literature: What It Is and Why It Matters

Let’s discuss a subgenre of literature where words don’t just sit on the page—but instead celebrate inconvenience and upend the very fabric of storytelling itself.