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This is one of my favorite books and I do not talk about it enough. It's fascinating both in format and story. This one is told BACKWARDS chronologically. It all leads back to a horrible incident that disfigured main character, Sean. Sean created a mail-in role playing game that got taken too far. This book is absolutely stunning.
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House of Leaves is an experimental go-to and it's pretty brilliant. This literary horror novel is a book within a book about a documentary that doesn't exist in our reality or the novel's. It jumps around between the narrator's present, the narrator's past, and the manuscript that he found. Often all within one page. A frightening and labyrinthian read.
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Just a heads up, this is probably my favorite book of all time. And this one is pretty straight forward in its non-linearity. It jumps between albino dwarf hunchback Oly in the present time hunting down her daughter, and her past growing up in a freak show. It is a beautifully written and intense family tragedy with some heavy doses of strange.
The Shore by Sara Taylor MY REVIEW
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A lot of The Shore straight up feels like a collection of interlinked short stories. Every chapter, this book jumps to a completely different time and character. But all of these characters living on the Virginia coast and their stories are loosely connected. I'm someone who hates multi-generational sagas, but I ADORED this book and how the stories were told. Gritty, dark, and beautifully written.
MY REVIEW
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I can't go much into how this book is nonlinear, but all you need to know is this book is partially about a man who may or may not have created a time machine. But don't call it a time machine. He prefers "causality violation device." This novel represents the fluidity of time incredibly and covers a whole bunch of other important real life shit. Dexter Palmer is a clever guy.
The Blue Fox by Sjón MY REVIEW
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The Blue Fox was a close contender for my earlier list of Dream-like Reads. It certainly belongs there. But it's also interesting, because it starts with a weird fable-like story of a man hunting a magical blue fox (that talks??) and then moves to the story of another man and his friendship with a girl who has Down's syndrome. There wouldn't have been a better format in which to find out how these stories connect in this strange little novella.
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Claire Fuller's debut tells the startling tale of a girl who is taken into the woods by her survivalist father and made to live in a cabin for years. She is told that everyone, including the rest of her family, is dead. They live off the land and have nobody but each other. Until one day main character, Peggy, sees someone else. This novel switches between this story of her childhood and ten years later when she returns to civilization to find her mom. This is an incredible page turner.
All the Birds, Singing by Evie WyldADD TO GOODREADS
This favorite of mine was also featured on Weird Dream-like Reads, and part of what lends to that dreamy atmosphere is the format. It jumps back and forth every chapter from main character Jake's present (being told forward) and Jake's recent past (being told backward). As her present story where she's trying to find out who, or what, is killing her sheep on her isolated island is coming to a head, you're also finding out what led her to her drastically solitary lifestyle. Masterfully crafted, All the Birds, Singing delivers all the tension and atmosphere that you could ever desire.
MY REVIEW
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Another opportunity to talk about Mr. Splitfoot? Don't mind if I do. In this nonlinear novel, we follow a young woman named Ruth who lives in a foster home called Jesus Loves You! off the grid. She and her close friend talk to ghosts for money. Then we jump to the future with a woman named Cora, who is Ruth's niece. Ruth shows up, doesn't talk anymore, and takes Cora on a ridiculous journey on foot for many many miles. And Cora doesn't know why. Plus there's a cult. This book is my everything.
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell ADD TO GOODREADS
I'm going to be real, I like The Bone Clocks better than this David Mitchell book. But I'd be in big trouble if I didn't mention Cloud Atlas when talking about nonlinear narratives. How it's laid out is absolutely beautiful. The book features stories from drastically different time periods, jumping to new stories until finally we're in the future (at the middle of the book) and then we go back down the line to revisit the stories until we're at the one from the very beginning. And they're all linked to a composition called Cloud Atlas. Some of the sections are fairly slow, but I will love Robert Frobisher's story forever.
What are your favorite nonlinear novels?