11 Captivating Books That Blur Reality

In Devil Is Fine, John Vercher delivers a stunning novel about fatherhood that tests the limits of reality as it explores family, racial identity, and loss. The novel centers on an unnamed biracial narrator as he grapples with the death of his son. In the midst of his grief, a second shock arrives: The narrator discovers he’s inherited a former slave plantation from the white side of his family. Moving across time and between characters both living and dead, the book explores the mind of the grieving father as he grapples with his identity and his family history in light of losing his progeny. In addition to blurring the boundaries that separate past and present, life and death, Devil Is Fine also skillfully blends humor with grief and the supernatural in a way that makes it deeply moving and immensely readable.

No space is more liminal than a Denny’s between midnight and dawn — the opening setting of Haruki Murakami’s surreal novel. After Dark unfolds over the course of a single night in Tokyo, where 19-year-old Mari meets a young musician who claims to know her older sister. The pair embark on a nocturnal journey through the neon city, meeting an intriguing cast of fellow city dwellers who live in the spaces between night and day, fantasy and reality.

Another book that blurs the line between the living and the dead, Book of Love by Kelly Link illustrates how love has the power to transcend death. Laura, Daniel, and Mo, three teenagers that died a year ago, mysteriously find themselves back in their high school in Lovesend, Massachusetts. Standing before them is their old music teacher, who offers the trio a chance to win back their lives if they complete a series of magical tasks — so long as they tell no one that they’re here. Chillingly, their return has attracted the attention of other supernatural beings with intentions that are far from benign. 

Stephen King recommended David Mitchell’s award-winning fantasy as one of the best books of 2014, and you’ll soon see why when you pick up this reality-bending, time-jumping epic. Comprised of interconnected storylines that leap back and forth through the years, The Bone Clocks centers on Holly, a teenager with the ability to see visions and convene with mysterious forces. Holly’s powers catch the attention of a dangerously magical group, setting off a mystery that reverberates through her family tree and into the future.

A mystery, crime thriller, and fantasy all in one, China Miéville’s extraordinary speculative fiction novel is not to be missed. A murder in the fictional European city of Beszel attracts the attention of detectives Tyador Borlú of the Extreme Crime Squad and Qussim Dhatt of the neighboring rival city of Ul Qoma. Together, the investigators search for clues across borders both physical and metaphysical: between cities, between the tangible and the psychic, between the real and the fantastical. The power of Miéville’s The City & The City, in addition to the author’s dazzling storytelling, lies in its blending of urban fantasy and the police procedural to explore complex issues of cultural identity, marginalization, and autonomy.

An award-winning dark fairy tale and now an Apple TV+ series starring LaKeith Stanfield, The Changeling by Victor LaValle centers on Apollo Kagwa, a new father whose own dad mysteriously disappeared when he was a child. When Apollo first notices that his wife, Emma, is acting strangely, he attributes her behavior to the stress and exhaustion of new parenthood. Then Emma lashes out violently and vanishes, leaving Apollo alone. Desperate to untangle the mystery, Apollo embarks on a mystical journey through New York City to find his lost family.

Compared to Susanna Clarke’s towering debut fantasy Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Piranesi is, as The Guardian puts it, “economical almost to the point of austerity.” Lest you think this is a criticism, be assured that Clarke’s compact novel, set in an endless labyrinth that contains two characters, packs quite a mysterious punch as it probes the limits of knowledge and reality. Title character Piranesi’s days consist of exploring the unending corridors of his home and helping The Other conduct research on secret and powerful knowledge. Piranesi, however, soon discovers the possibility of a third person living in the house, triggering a cascade of mysterious events that threaten to unravel the world he thought he knew.

Han Kang delivers a haunting exploration of identity, gender, and bodily autonomy in this Booker Prize–winning novel of intense transformation. The Vegetarian begins as violent dreams disrupt Yeong-hye’s seemingly normal life with her husband, prompting her to give up meat. This seemingly small act of personal choice throws her marriage into disarray and sends Yeong-hye into a dangerous spiral as her family fight to reassert their control over her and her increasingly violent ways.

Set in a medieval realm both realistic and otherworldly, Ottessa Moshfegh’s Lapvona is a bleak, brutal, and funny book about humanity’s capacity for ignorance and depravity. The novel tells the story of Marek, a shepherd’s son who falls in with the ruling family of the place his family calls home. As the town’s citizens become disillusioned by the corruption of their rulers, the lines between spirits, nature, life, and death break down, ushering in a strange new reality.

We love a book about books, and Helen Oyeyemi spins a beautiful story that brings to life the magic of the writing process. An uncommon, charming, and often philosophical romance, Mr. Fox tells the story (in fact, many stories!) of a writer who joins his magical muse Mary in the pages of the books he writes. In her attempt to make him better understand the ways in which his writing falls short, Mary guides Mr. Fox into a fairy tale where they learn what it means to form a lifelong bond. But when Mr. Fox’s real-life partner, Mrs. Daphne Fox, suspects her husband of having an affair with his fictional muse, Mr. Fox must choose between what’s real and what’s fantasy.

We conclude our trip to the outer limits of literature with a master of speculative fiction. Neil Gaiman’s 2019 bestseller The Ocean at the End of the Lane is a wondrous examination of the dark messiness that makes us human. The book centers on a middle-aged protagonist who returns home for a funeral. While there, he’s drawn to sites of his childhood and soon plunges into the memories of his youth — and all the innocence and terror that they contain.