Stories that break the rules or attempt ambitious stunts have always intrigued me. Characters who break the fourth wall, non-traditional structures, winking nods to pop culture, hidden messages, silly wordplay, or good old-fashioned WTF moments nobody saw coming. My second novel L Extreme turns my favorite album into a fantastical song by song, chapter by chapter origin story for the record starring a fictionalized version of the musician who created it. Asking “what happens if I pretend this album is the soundtrack to a book?” took me on a long, strange trip in the spirit of these other bizarrely brilliant books that broke the mold for the better.
I wrote...
L Extreme: A Novel Based on the Songs of Benji Hughes
Benji Hughes is a songwriter with a bad case of writer’s block and a secret past he’s not allowed to talk about—but does anyways. A little woman lives in your brain. She wants to meet the man in your heart.
These two tales come together salmon-style to create the best double debut album you’ve never heard of—but really should! A novel based on an album is a book with a killer soundtrack.
Unlike anything I've ever read, yet still familiar and comfortable at the same time. Starts out normal, goes off the rails absurdist crazy for one heck of a fun ride, and somehow manages to stick the landing of a perfect ending with a lot of emotional weight to it. The Hike proves anything goes in fiction. It pulls off that delicate balance between goofy and sincere so well, which was an inspirational motivator as I found the story hidden in the songs that became L Extreme.
“The Hike just works. It’s like early, good Chuck Palahniuk. . . . Magary underhands a twist in at the end that hits you like a sharp jab at the bell. . . . It’s just that good.” —NPR.org
From the author of The Night the Lights Went Out and The Postmortal, a fantasy saga unlike any you’ve read before, weaving elements of folk tales and video games into a riveting, unforgettable adventure of what a man will endure to return to his family
My wife will frequently finish a book, close the cover, exhale deeply--then open it again and start over, diving straight in to a second read. For the longest time, I didn't understand it and she could never quite articulate why she did this. It was good or she wasn't ready to leave the characters behind or that classic spousal response of "just because." When I finished I'm Thinking of Ending Things it finally clicked. I closed the cover, exhaled deeply, and thought "I'm pulling a Jessica" as I dove right back in.
NOW A NETFLIX ORIGINAL FILM DIRECTED BY CHARLIE KAUFMAN AN NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR 2016
“I’m Thinking of Ending Things is one of the best debut novels I’ve ever read. Iain Reid has crafted a tight, ferocious little book, with a persistent tenor of suspense that tightens and mounts toward its visionary, harrowing final pages” (Scott Heim, award-winning author of Mysterious Skin and We Disappear).
I’m thinking of ending things. Once this thought arrives, it stays. It sticks. It lingers. It’s always there. Always.
Jake once said, “Sometimes a thought is closer to truth, to reality, than an…
Quantum Leap is my favorite television show of all time. I loved the time travel premise in an otherwise not very sci-fi program, the anthology format allowing for completely different stories week to week, and the way it could teach different perspectives while (mostly) avoiding a heavy hand. Why do I bring this up while recommending The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle? Pretend Quantum Leap is back as a limited 6 episode miniseries where Sam Beckett has to solve a murder and that's pretty much this book. I don't know if that was the author's intent, but it doesn't matter. An awesome read made even better if you go into it with a leaper’s mindset.
"Pop your favorite Agatha Christie whodunnit into a blender with a scoop of Downton Abbey, a dash of Quantum Leap, and a liberal sprinkling of Groundhog Day and you'll get this unique murder mystery." ―Harper's Bazaar
The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is a breathlessly addictive mystery that follows one man's race to find a killer, with an astonishing time-turning twist that means nothing and no one are quite what they seem.
Aiden Bishop knows the rules. Evelyn Hardcastle will die every day until he can identify her killer and break the cycle. But every time the day begins again,…
I had three reactions upon learning this very strange graphic novel crossover between two very famous (but very different) pop-culture classics existed: 1) This is ridiculous. 2) Are you telling me you built a time machine out of a Transformer? 3) I can’t wait to read it! The story collected here has no business working--but amazingly manages to pull it off using the best both franchises have to offer. I literally laughed out loud with giddy excitement when I saw the plot twist/cliffhanger at the end of part three. Amusing if you enjoy either property; must-read if you dig both.
Great Scott! Pop-culture juggernauts collide in the ultimate 1980s (and 1950s and 2010s) showdown! Things are getting heavy--and nothing's as heavy as a Cybertronian!
Marty McFly has just returned from the adventure of a lifetime to a new, better Hill Valley--everything's looking up for him! That is, until Marty and his friend Doc Brown's time machine attracts the attention of the Decepticons! With one small mistake, Marty finds himself once again thrust into adventure to stop the Decepticon plot in the past, present, and future... all with the help of a new time machine... the Autobot Gigawatt!
A short, eerie, and mysterious fever dream of a novella with a secret you may not realize your first time through--hidden messages in the text! I won't spoil what they are or how to find them here, but I will say that ever since reading this book I may or may not try to crack similar codes in nearly every book I pick up. (I may or may not have also done something similar in my own writing; hat tip to Mr. Garland for the inspiration.)
From the internationally-known author of The Beach, a gripping mystery and stylistic tour de force that delves into the subconscious mind, with brilliantly disturbing results. A young man is brutally assaulted late at night in an underground train by a gang of thugs. Beaten unconscious, he lies for days in a hospital bed - but appears to make a full recovery. On discharge from hospital, Carl picks up the threads of his daily life, visiting friends, seeing his girlfriend - until he starts to notice strange leaps in his perception of time, distortions in his experience. Is he truly reacting…
My life and work have been profoundly affected by the central circumstance of my existence: I was born into a very large military Catholic family in the United States of America. As a child surrounded by many others in the 60s, I wrote, performed, and directed family plays with my numerous brothers and sisters. Although I fell in love with a Canadian and moved to Canada, my family of origin still exerts considerable personal influence. My central struggle, coming from that place of chaos, order, and conformity, is to have the courage to live an authentic life based on my own experience of connectedness and individuality, to speak and be heard.
Trapped in her enormous, devout Catholic family in 1963, Annie creates a hilarious campaign of lies when the pope dies and their family friend, Cardinal Stefanucci, is unexpectedly on the shortlist to be elected the first American pope.
Driven to elevate her family to the holiest of holy rollers in the parish, Annie is tortured by her own dishonesty. But when “The Hands” visits her in her bed and when her sister finds herself facing a scandal, Annie discovers her parents will do almost anything to uphold their reputation and keep their secrets safe.
Questioning all she has believed and torn between her own gut instinct and years of Catholic guilt, Annie takes courageous risks to wrest salvation from the tragic sequence of events set in motion by her parents’ betrayal.
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