The best novels that give reality a supernatural twist

I loved this book because it combined unexpected things. New York City in 1899 is full of immigrants from all over the world, living in communities that rub together in crowded, often impoverished situations. In that realistic setting the story places a female golem and a male jinni. Reading about two non-human creatures from Jewish and Arab cultures figuring out how to exist in the human world made me think about what it means to be human and how communities work. Plus there's interesting stuff about Kabbalistic magic, baking, and life in the desert.

One reviewer has described this book as "oddly weird," and I agree. There's enough reality to keep you grounded, with creeping weirdness to make you wonder. A 21st-century woman is dealing with recognizable life stresses—job loss and an autistic child—but at the same time she's obsessed with tracking down the work of an early 20th-century woman filmmaker. What is actually happening on a short segment of silver nitrate film? Is it a ceremony carried out by people belonging to an obscure ethnic group of Central Europe? Or is a supernatural entity present? In time, the subject of the investigation intrudes disturbingly into the investigator's real life. I loved the sneaky creepiness!

At first, I thought this was a historical mystery similar to the Sherlock Holmes stories. Nineteenth-century city, maybe in Russia? But what about the weird Bone Forest and the house on stilts? The detective, Konrad Savast, carries out his investigations in distinctly unorthodox ways. Then there are his spirit-serpent helpers, Eetapi and Ootapi. Sherlock never had anything like them! And in addition to the four mysteries to be solved in this book, there's the question of Konrad's relationship with apothecary Irinanda Falenia. Will it ever develop into something more than friendship?

This isn't a happy book, but it's intensely atmospheric and intriguing. I loved the depiction of a family trying to keep up appearances while their once-beautiful house crumbles. Small details of clothing and things like riveted teacups (which I had to look up) show an inevitable decline that goes from gradual to catastrophic. The reader sees everything over the shoulder of the narrator, a doctor who has his own history with the family and the house. When strange and terrible things happen, he steps in to help, but it's not clear if he's telling the truth. Is the evil supernatural or human?

I've re-read this book several times, trying to figure out if there was something I missed that would answer the questions raised in the final chapters. An English ceramics expert who values his orderly life meets a woman while on a business trip. He falls in love and marries her. Suddenly his life is delightfully disorderly, except for small, disturbing details. Strange things appear in or near the pleasant country home he's known all his life—a black dog, a child's toy, a voice on the telephone. All this builds up to a terrible revelation. I loved this book for its vivid evocation of atmosphere and emotion, from the idyllic to the erotic to terrifying.