Here are 100 books that Cursed Bunny fans have personally recommended if you like
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When I started writing The Majesties, I wanted the narrative to be a continual excavation of secrets, one after the other. This sort of multi-layered story has always intrigued me and my fascination with it has influenced all my written work so far. I am particularly fascinated by books where characters unconsciously keep secrets from themselves, and where the line between the “real” and the fantastic is blurred beyond recognition. Sometimes it’s not just about solving a mystery, but articulating its mysteriousness—giving it flesh and bone, stitching its parts together, and bringing it to life through words.
A multi-level work of genius. On the surface, this book is about someone trying to solve a murder. But Ilustrado is so much more than just your usual murder mystery. The book does more than use Philippine colonial and contemporary history as the backdrop; it weaves this history into the fabric of the narrative itself. As the protagonist uncovers buried facts about his late mentor and as well as his own past, he also discovers just how inseparable Art is from the political intrigue and social violence in which it is birthed. And the twist at the end explodes the whole book.
'A dazzling and virtuosic adventure' Joseph O'Connor, author of Star of the Sea
Internationally Bestselling Winner of the Man Asian Literary Prize 2008
'With Ilustrado, Miguel Syjuco obliges us to remake the canons of our great classics of contemporary literature. Ilustrado is, literally, a masterpiece' Alberto Manguel
It begins with a body. One anonymous winter day, the corpse of Crispin Salvador is pulled from the Hudson River. Gone is the controversial giant of Asian literature. And missing is the only manuscript of his final book, an expose of the corrupt roots of the ruling Filipino families, meant to restore his…
When I started writing The Majesties, I wanted the narrative to be a continual excavation of secrets, one after the other. This sort of multi-layered story has always intrigued me and my fascination with it has influenced all my written work so far. I am particularly fascinated by books where characters unconsciously keep secrets from themselves, and where the line between the “real” and the fantastic is blurred beyond recognition. Sometimes it’s not just about solving a mystery, but articulating its mysteriousness—giving it flesh and bone, stitching its parts together, and bringing it to life through words.
This haunting collection of short stories left a faint chill in my bones for weeks—very aptly, given its name. None of the seven tales are conclusive, or wrapped up neatly. It feels as if there is always a kernel inside each one that remains tucked out of sight, no matter how many outer layers are peeled off—or in the case of one of the stories, no matter how much hide is flayed away.
Visual and performance artist, and winner of the inaugural Kill Your Darlings Manuscript Award, SJ Norman turns their hand to fiction with spectacular results. Permafrost explores the shifting spaces of desire, loss and longing. Inverting and queering the gothic and romantic traditions, each story represents a different take on the concept of a haunting or the haunted. Though it ranges across themes and locations – from small-town Australia to Hokkaido to rural England – this collection is united by the power of the narratorial voice, with its auto-fictional resonances, dark wit and swagger. Whether recounting the confusion of a child…
When I started writing The Majesties, I wanted the narrative to be a continual excavation of secrets, one after the other. This sort of multi-layered story has always intrigued me and my fascination with it has influenced all my written work so far. I am particularly fascinated by books where characters unconsciously keep secrets from themselves, and where the line between the “real” and the fantastic is blurred beyond recognition. Sometimes it’s not just about solving a mystery, but articulating its mysteriousness—giving it flesh and bone, stitching its parts together, and bringing it to life through words.
This novel starts out in an almostMrs. Dallowayish way—Lovely has gone out for the day to buy something. Then you realise that Lovely at the age of forty has never gone out by herself for a day. Then, as the day unfolds, the novel brings you backward into the past as you find out about Lovely and Beauty’s paranoid and controlling mother, the oppressiveness of their home life, the dark secret at the heart of their parents’ marriage…
When I started writing The Majesties, I wanted the narrative to be a continual excavation of secrets, one after the other. This sort of multi-layered story has always intrigued me and my fascination with it has influenced all my written work so far. I am particularly fascinated by books where characters unconsciously keep secrets from themselves, and where the line between the “real” and the fantastic is blurred beyond recognition. Sometimes it’s not just about solving a mystery, but articulating its mysteriousness—giving it flesh and bone, stitching its parts together, and bringing it to life through words.
I picked up Transmutationwhen it was very difficult for any book to hold my interest—during the constant low-level depression that colored the seemingly endless extended lockdown in Sydney in 2021. It held me spellbound. I had an inkling it would: I adored DiFrancesco’s earlier work, Psychopomps, which I read in 2019.The stories of Transmutation are electric and warm and sad. Like the other stories and novels on this list, they never fully answered my questions, never wrapped anything up in a neat bow. They left me immensely satisfied.
Transgressive, transformative short stories that explore the margins of trans lives.
Building on the success of All City, here is a wry, and at the same time dark and risk-taking, story collection from author (and baker) Alex DiFrancesco that pushes the boundaries of transgender awareness and filial bonds. Here is the hate between 16-year-old Junie, who is transitioning, and their mom's boyfriend Chad when the family moves into Chad's house on Lake Erie. And here is the love being tested between Sawyer and his dad, who named his boat after his child and resists changing it from Sara to Sawyer…
I am an award-winning writer based in Southern California who creates internationally published horror, fantasy, science fiction, and weird West stories. Dozens of my short stories have appeared in podcasts, magazines, games, and Stoker-nominated anthologies, and I’ve authored several books. I am the co-chair and founder of the Horror Writers Association San Diego chapter, a short story instructor, co-creator of the Monster Gunslingers game, and member of writing organizations, including the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association. I find speculative horror a fascinating lens by which to view challenges faced by underrepresented groups and women. I hope you enjoy these tales.
I loved these unique takes and eerie, complex stories around women’s bodies, violence, and society. Powerful, strange, and haunting, these short stories left me with a lot to contemplate. I especially appreciated the homage to certain cultural references; for example, The Husband Stitch is a brilliant retelling of The Green Ribbon, a classic tale from In A Dark, Dark Room And Other Scary Stories.
I needed to sit and think about some of these stories afterward, as many are more experimental, layered with meaning, and open to interpretation. This original, powerful collection is a heavy read but undoubtedly worth it.
SHORTLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FICTION PRIZE 2017 SHORTLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE 2018
'Brilliantly inventive and blazingly smart' Garth Greenwell
'Impossible, imperfect, unforgettable' Roxane Gay
'A wild thing ... covered in sequins and scales, blazing with the influence of fabulists from Angela Carter to Kelly Link and Helen Oyeyemi' New York Times
In her provocative debut, Carmen Maria Machado demolishes the borders between magical realism and science fiction, comedy and horror, fantasy and fabulism. Startling narratives map the realities of women's lives and the violence visited on their bodies, both in myth and in practice.
In 2017, I was laid off from my first job out of college, an experience that I think more young people are going through as we move further into an uncertain economic future. That experience formed the basis of my novel, which was published earlier this year. Afterwards, I met a lot of people, most of whom I didn’t know, who told me they’d resonated with the feeling of malaise captured by those first few chapters: of working jobs that seem to be dead ends, wondering if you’ll be here, at this desk, twenty years from now. It’s something most everybody can relate to but doesn't appear in novels nearly as much as it should.
Molly McGhee’s debut novel centers around a wayward young man who accepts a new job auditing the dreams of unsuspecting middle class workers.
I found it crushing and poignant—all things one would expect from a workplace novel that hits far too close to home—but more surprisingly, I found it immensely funny. We spend a great deal of our lives faced with a choice between laughing and crying about the state of our existence. I choose the former.
"The novel is a magical-realist office drama infused with millennial anomie, and McGhee's canny, often bittersweetly hilarious prose reads as if George Saunders infiltrated the Severance writers' room." -Rafael Frumkin, Washington Post
"This laugh-out-loud debut is a wildly imaginative, tender and piercing critique of the squeeze of capitalism." -Xochitl Gonzalez, Good Morning America
"A scathing critique of capitalism that holds onto the humanity of its characters." -Laura Zornosa, TIME
Jonathan Abernathy is a self-proclaimed loser. . . he's behind on his debts, has no prospects, no friends, and no ambitions. But when a government loan forgiveness program offers him a…
I was born in a stable close to the Himalayas in India. The family farm was buzzing with animals and one of the most wonderful was a wild monkey called Oma who adopted our family and insisted on living with us. This is where the magic in my life began. My Grandmother was the storyteller in my family, so even after we emigrated to England when I was only 18 months old, our house was filled with magical stories, many with roots in India. So when I became a children’s author it was this magic that I wanted to bring to my stories and it was this magic that drew me to reading.
Imagine if you could meet someone from the past without realising? This is what drew me to this magical book. When you are young there are things you just don’t question and this is what I was like. I saw things that adults would have said weren’t there. But I didn’t believe them. I only believed in the power of my imagination. For me anything could appear; a small creature under a tree in the garden or Santa’s sleigh flying through the sky at Christmas – it was all so real I could reach out and touch it. In Darkling Wood is one of those stories that wrap themselves around you and whisk you away, where you’ll leave believing in magic!
For fans of Kelly Barnhill’s The Girl Who Drank the Moon and Jack Cheng’s See You in the Cosmos, here is “a haunting and poignant exploration of family, loss, and redemption” (Booklist, Starred Review).
When Alice is suddenly bundled off to her estranged grandmother Nell’s house, there’s nothing good about it, except the beautiful Darkling Wood at the end of the garden—but Nell wants to have it cut down. Alice feels at home there, at peace. She even finds a friend, a girl named Flo. But Flo doesn’t go to the local school, and no one in town has heard…
I write strange, emotional novels from my book-filled apartment in Vancouver, a short walk from the ocean. This may be why I’m obsessed with islands. Or perhaps it’s because they evoke the feeling of being apart from the world, adrift, of protecting something rare. Whatever the reason, my novel takes place on an uncanny island off the coast of Mexico, where the locals drink tea in the afternoon and pray to skeletons hidden in caves. The story that unfolds on this island could not have taken place on the mainland, and I believe the same goes for the books on my list.
This novel brings together the past and present experiences of Asian Canadians in a story that’s bursting with light and energy. Much of the book depicts the discrimination faced by Chinese immigrants in Newfoundland in the early 20th century, and I loved how humour was interspersed between moments that stirred feelings of intense anger and sadness.
Throw in a cheeky, time-travelling spirit named Mo and the privileged millennial who learns about the hardship that’s granted him the life he leads, and we’ve got a fresh take on a tragic history from an exciting new literary voice.
NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE TELEGRAM AND WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
The hilarious and heartbreaking story of two William Pings in Newfoundland—the lost millennial and the grandfather he knows nothing about
William Ping’s millennial life revolves around eating at restaurants, posting online about eating at restaurants, then overanalyzing it. This changes unexpectedly when a dinner with his Chinese girlfriend’s family goes sideways and his insecurity about his biracial identity and his ignorance of his own Chinese heritage overflow. During a much-needed break from the…
For me, games have always been a way of playing mathematics. Every game has a hidden piece of mathematics behind it, and if you can understand that mathematics, I’ve found that it gives you a real edge in playing the game. I travel a lot for my work as a mathematician, and I love to ask about the games they play when I visit a new country. Games tell me a lot about the culture and people I am visiting. My book is my way of sharing my passion for games and mathematics with my readers.
This book is Hogwarts meets The Glass Bead Game meets The Handmaid's Tale. I was recommended it when I talked about my games book at a local bookshop. I must admit that I was initially very nervous about a book riffing on one of my favorite books of all time (The Glass Bead Game), but I really enjoyed it.
It is set in a school that trains students to play the game against a political backdrop that Margaret Atwood could easily have conjured up. It helped to give another perspective on Hesse’s fictional game that, as I said in my first recommendation, I’ve been obsessed with ever since reading about it as a student.
'BEAUTIFUL' JOANNA CANNON
'MESMERISING' ERIN KELLY
'TOTALLY ADDICTIVE' JOANNA GLEN
'SUMPTUOUS' OBSERVER
'DIZZYINGLY WONDERFUL' THE TIMES
WINNING WAS EVERYTHING...
UNTIL IT DESTROYED THEM
Two young men, Leo and Carfax, close friends and fierce rivals. A family ripped apart by madness and tragedy. One woman, her life built upon a lie, with a mysterious connection to them all...
'INGENIOUS' GUARDIAN
'A STORYTELLER OF RARE IMAGINATION' MAIL ON SUNDAY
'BRILLIANT' WOMAN & HOME
'A RICH DELIGHT' SANDRA NEWMAN
'CAPTIVATING' DAILY MIRROR
'AN IMMERSIVE, IMAGINATIVE SLICE OF STORYTELLING' DAILY EXPRESS
'MAGICAL' IRISH INDEPENDENT
As a free man of flesh-and-blood I trust in time-tested verities and traditions; as a spiritual entity I am a man of faith; and as a thinking being I explore in my writing the malleability of consciousness and reality. Through a broad range of experiences I offer images for the minds of readers in novels of a twisted magical realism. I seek the mysteries of God, the beauty of poetry, and the freedom to explore all and everything. I am an American State National who critiques modern society, culture, and politics as an independent scholar who will not be silenced. Awaken, oh human beans, from normative conditioning and screen-gazing complacency!
Besides having one of the best book titles ever, this novel immediately draws readers in and is hard to put down; the action is matched by its intelligence. In it, freedom-seekers create a fast-growing, virtual society on the Internet that grows so fast it terrifies governments and their “security.” With no possibility of oversight and control, the System fights to co-opt this cyber-society before it undermines and overwhelms the dominance of corruptocrat governing elites. The free souls in this novel lead us through a clever plot wherein principles of economic freedom, individuality, and justice lead to a free market uncontrolled by tax-hungry government lackeys. Profiled here are a group of individuals determined to transcend paradigmsthat the human psyche often forms for us, almost autonomically, as a reaction to fear.
Instantly named Freedom Book of The Month and a major influence in the Cyber-underground, A Lodging of Wayfaring Men is the story of freedom-seekers who create an alternative society on the Internet - a virtual society, with no possibility of oversight or control. It grows so fast that governments and “leaders” are terrified, and fight to co-opt this cyber-society before it undermines the power of the governing elite.
The main body of the book is followed by a set of essays and a supplemental narrative that were composed as the book was being written.
