100 books like Ficciones

The world of The Hunger Games is eerily similar to our own, making readers think about “just war” and the spectacle of violence through the eyes of a 16-year-old girl. While Katniss Everdeen is a teenager, I still pick up this book (more than) annually, and each time I revisit it, I come away with new insight into the real world.

Katniss is strong, caring, and resilient in the face of all the challenges of her environment. As an adult, I can learn from her strengths and even from her flaws. She inspires me to watch the world around me with a careful eye, to understand how the powers that be shape my experiences, and ultimately, to always watch out for my fellow human beings.

While the backbone of this time-bending tale is Jake Epping's quest to stop President John F. Kennedy's assassination, it was Jake’s unexpected romance with a woman from the past that truly grabbed me. Call me a hopeless romantic, but I’m drawn to narratives where the character must choose between personal happiness and duty, and on that front, this story delivers.

Additionally, King's depiction of 1960s America is so immersive that I felt as though I’d been transported right back to the era, sharing in the burden of Jake’s critical mission.

Maze Runner was a wild ride I couldn't put down. The plot's originality had me hooked with all its twists and turns, turning it into this page-turner I couldn't resist. Dashner's maze world? Pure genius.

Every mystery unfolding kept me racing through the pages, completely caught up in the characters' urgency and the need to unravel the maze's secrets. It felt like a personal challenge, a puzzle I just had to solve.

Dashner's talent for keeping the suspense alive made the whole experience immersive, and I couldn't help but appreciate the intricate plot. Maze Runner is a personal victory, and a story that grabbed me and held on tight until the very end.

This novel is impossible. Names, plots, generations, and vivid words all created hurdles for me to finish it. I honestly wanted to give up, but I always came back to the book.

The hurdles cast a spell that demanded me to continue. I wanted to know what happened to Macondo, the fictional town in the book. The magic elements and scents of the words left me spellbound for years. The reading experience elevated me to a colorful world, and I almost did not want to return to my reality.

This short novel is by a Mexican writer and takes place underground. At first, we cannot tell who is living and who is dead, but we eventually accept the fact that the characters are ghosts. 

The ghosts come and go, remembering their past lives together. They remind each other of the events of the Mexican Revolution that they lived through, and they especially remember the strongman in the village. Pedro Páramo runs things with an iron hand, and he also pines for a woman who is beyond his control—the only thing he wants that he can’t have.

The voices in this novel are like a chorus of whispers breathing the picture of a poor village. I love the beauty and mystery of the writing. Many Mexicans consider this their greatest novel, and for all readers, it is a small masterpiece. 

This is a wild, one-sitting read. At first you might not know where you are, but after a few pages, you’re completely hooked.

It’s creepy and visceral about what it means to be a mother when the world is turning more and more toxic. It might be considered an eco-horror book. This story works on your subconscious, leaving you with a sticky, unsettling feeling.

Also, it’s translated from Spanish. The title of the Spanish version is The Rescue Distance.    

I lived in Buenos Aires, Argentina, for a year in 1988, five years after the last military dictatorship ended. I remember seeing the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo holding vigils in front of the Casa Rosada presidential palace for los desaparecidos, their children who 'disappeared' during the last dictatorship. Enriquez creates strange, dense worlds of horror in these stories, with dark, unexplained, and sometimes magical undercurrents. The stories are not directly about the events, but reference them obliquely, only adding to the terror. Enriquez’s writing style blew me away, and her stories defy easy categorisation.

Dean Koontz has influenced my writing more than any other author. For decades, his books have been at the top of my reading list. Year after year, he consistently writes top-tier, inventive page-turners. His villains are evil. His heroes and heroines are likable and easy to relate to. He gets that one can’t traverse a frightening world without humor, and by analogy, neither can we. Elsewhere is one of his best in a long time. Equal parts bone-chilling, creepy, nerve-racking, and sinister, balanced by love, compassion, loyalty, and second chances, it doesn’t get better than this. 

Nazaré is a charming fable, showcasing the pursuit of justice in an authoritarian world. Kin, a young homeless boy, originally accused of sorcery and forced to flee, eventually leads a band of revolutionaries pitted against their oppressive dictator. His army is made up of delightful misfits, along with a variety of wild animals.

I love the rebels in this parable for the modern world. How could any writer or reader not appreciate revolutionaries who, while living rough in the countryside, impose a reading hour on their members. There is such beauty in the author’s language, unexpected humor throughout, and the most appealing charm.

If you believe in magic, as well as the the power of right to prevail against tyranny, despite impossible odds, this is the novel for you.

I still think about the setting of The Ash House all the time.

It is so vivid and so real. The eeriness and spookiness of this place starts from the first page, even the first sentence. We know something is off here in the ash house, and we watch as the main character starts being subsumed by the other kids here.

We worry as he starts losing his identity. But this is a powerful and haunting story about listening to yourself and remembering yourself no matter what else is going on around you, and no matter what anyone else believes.