Books like 'Earthlings'
Readers who enjoyed Earthlings by Sayaka Murata also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary fantasy horror mystery asia east-asia japan magical-realism literary-fiction poc-mc
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The Great Glowing Coils of the Universe by Joseph Fink, Jeffrey Cranor
Rated: 4.55 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsFrom the authors of the New York Times bestselling novel Welcome to Night Vale and the creators of the #1 international podcast of the same name, comes a collection of episodes from Season Two of their hit podcast, featuring a foreword by the authors, behind-the-scenes commentary, and original illustrations... -
Global University Entrance Examination 全球高考 by Mu Su Li, 木苏里
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsOne day, You Huo and his famiIy was puIIed into an exam caIIed the GIobaI University Entrance Examination. Going through exams together with other unfortunate examinees, their Iives are put at stake and they can only Iive by passing each exam... -
Mostly Void, Partially Stars by Joseph Fink, Jeffrey Cranor
Rated: 4.47 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsFrom the authors of the New York Times bestselling novel Welcome to Night Vale and the creators of the #1 international podcast of the same name, comes a collection of episodes from Season One of their hit podcast, featuring an introduction by the authors, behind-the-scenes commentary, and original illustrations... -
Franz Kafka: The Complete Stories by Franz Kafka, John Updike
Rated: 4.34 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsThe only available collection that brings together all of Kafka's storiesthose published during his lifetime and those released after his death...Categorized as:
drama dystopia literary-fiction magical-realism satire 20th-century adult anthologies -
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Only Ashes Remain by Rebecca Schaeffer
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsAfter escaping her kidnappers and destroying the black market where she was held captive, all Nita wants is to find a way to live her life without looking over her shoulder. But with a video of her ability to self-heal all over the dark web, Nita knows she’s still a prime target on the black market.There’s only one way to keep herself safe... -
Set This House in Order by Matt Ruff
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAndy Gage was born in 1965 and murdered not long after by his stepfather. . . . It was no ordinary murder. Though the torture and abuse that killed him were real, Andy Gage's death wasn't. Only his soul actually died, and when it died, it broke in pieces. Then the pieces became souls in their own right, coinheritors of Andy Gage's life. . . -
Del tiempo y sus demonios by Diego Armando Arciniegas Malagón
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsDEL TIEMPO Y SUS DEMONIOS: PERSIGUIENDO LA VERDADEsta novela se desarrolla en un pequeño y misterioso pueblo. En un territorio hermoso, inhóspito a la luz de aquellas certezas que las mayorías consideran irrefutables. Lejos del tiempo que, arbitrariamente, tomara la sabia decisión de separar el bien del mal... -
Hades by Mark Z. Danielewski
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWhen a viral video puts twelve-year-old Xanther under a spotlight of scrutiny at school, her little white cat—still slumbering, still unnamed—offers the only escape, though it comes at a price. Not even Xanther’ parents can deny the strange currents now shuddering around their eldest, touching off inexplicable happenings. Entities troubling the dreams of the twins seem to have singled out Freya... -
Pet by Akwaeke Emezi
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 37 ratingsA thought-provoking and haunting novel about a creature that escapes from an artist's canvas, whose talent is sniffing out monsters in a world that claims they don't exist anymore. Perfect for fans of Akata Witch and Shadowshaper . There are no monsters anymore, or so the children in the city of Lucille are taught... -
Into the Light by Mark Oshiro
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 7 ratingsKEEP YOUR SECRETS CLOSE TO HOMEIt’s been one year since Manny was cast out of his family and driven into the wilderness of the American Southwest. Since then, Manny lives by self-taught rules that keep him moving―and keep him alive. Now, he’s taking a chance on a traveling situation with the Varela family, whose attractive but surly son, Carlos, seems to promise a new future... -
Dance Dance Dance by Haruki Murakami
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsIn this propulsive novel by the author of Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World and The Elephant Vanishes, one of the most idiosyncratically brilliant writers at work in any language fuses science fiction, the hard-boiled thriller and white-hot satire into a new element of the literary periodic table... -
1Q84 BOOK2〈7月‐9月〉後編 by Haruki Murakami, 村上 春樹
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 39 ratings1Q84, by Haruki Murakami, is a near-past story inspired by Orwells futuristic 1984. It is told through the bizarre experiences of two protagonists searching for each other: a woman who descends into an alternate universe in 1984, and a passive college entrance exam prep instructor who is also an unfulfilled novelist. However the world they exist in is more bizarre than they are... -
Foreshadow: Stories to Celebrate The Magic of Reading & Writing YA by Emily X.R. Pan, Nova Ren Suma
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThirteen Short Stories from Bold New YA Voices & Writing Advice from YA IconsCreated by New York Times bestselling authors Emily X. R. Pan and Nova Ren Suma, Foreshadow is so much more than a short story collection...Categorized as:
dystopia lgbtq magical-realism action-adventure anthologies contemporary fiction horror -
The Lake: Short Story by Ray Bradbury
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe Lake is a short story by American author Ray Bradbury. It was first published in the May 1944 edition of Weird Tales, and later collected in Bradbury's collections Dark Carnival, The October Country, and The Stories of Ray Bradbury. Bradbury believed it was one of the finest stories he'd ever written... -
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Never Have I Ever by Isabel Yap
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratings“Am I dead?”Mebuyen sighs. She was hoping the girl would not ask.Spells and stories, urban legends and immigrant tales: the magic in Isabel Yap’s debut collection jumps right off the page, from the joy in her new novella, 'A Spell for Foolish Hearts' to the terrifying tension of the urban legend 'Have You Heard the One About Anamaria Marquez'... -
The China Garden by Liz Berry
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsWhen Clare moves with her mother from London to Ravensmere, an historic English estate, she can't shake the feeling that the residents already know her, especially Mark, a maddeningly attractive biker. Clare also feels compelled to take midnight walks in Ravensmere's abandoned China Garden. Then her mother reveals that their own past is tragically linked to the estate... -
Lanny by Max Porter
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsThere’s a village sixty miles outside London. It’s no different from many other villages in England: one pub, one church, red-brick cottages, council cottages and a few bigger houses dotted about. Voices rise up, as they might do anywhere, speaking of loving and needing and working and dying and walking the dogs... -
Terms May Apply by Keith A. Pearson
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsWhat would you give for a wish to come true? Your left arm? Your most cherished possession? Your last crumb of integrity?Kyle Hammond is suffering a surprise birthday party he really didn’t want. As he blows out the candles on his cake, he makes a token wish. Three days later, to his utter astonishment, that wish comes true... -
Vita Nostra by Marina Dyachenko, Sergey Dyachenko
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsThe definitive English language translation of the internationally bestselling Ukrainian novel—a brilliant dark fantasy with "the potential to be a modern classic" (Lev Grossman), combining psychological suspense, enchantment, and terror that makes us consider human existence in a fresh and provocative way.Our life is brief . .Categorized as:
coming-of-age dark dystopia journey literary-fiction magical-realism 21st-century action-adventure -
The Metamorphosis and Other Stories by Franz Kafka
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 50 ratingsThe Metamorphosis and Other Stories, by Franz Kafka, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras... -
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
Rated: 4.01 of 5 stars · 85 ratingsSussex, England. A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother...Categorized as:
coming-of-age dark family literary-fiction magical-realism 21st-century action-adventure audiobook -
Monkey Beach by Eden Robinson
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsLisamarie Hill, the protagonist of Eden Robinson's coming-of-age novel Monkey Beach, is a terror. She'll run out of an evacuating car to get a better view of a tidal wave. She'll drag you unconscious to a deserted island with nothing but cigarettes, marshmallows, and the need to get you talking. Whatever her age, she'll ask awkward questions...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama family journey literary-fiction magical-realism poc-mc 21st-century -
Margaret and the Mystery of the Missing Body by Megan Milks
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsMeet Margaret. At age twelve, she was head detective of the mystery club Girls Can Solve Anything. Margaret and her three best friends led exciting lives solving crimes, having adventures, and laughing a lot. But now that she's entered high school, the club has disbanded, and Margaret is unmoored--she doesn't want to grow up, and she wishes her friends wouldn't either...Categorized as:
lgbtq coming-of-age magical-realism literary-fiction dark fiction mystery young-adult -
Passenger by Andrew Smith
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsBest friends Jack and Conner can’t stay away from Marbury. It’s partly because of their obsession with this alternate world and the unresolved war that still wages there. But it’s also because forces in Marbury—including the darkest of the dark, who were not revealed in The Marbury Lens—are beckoning the boys back in order to save their friends . . . and themselves... -
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A Tiny Upward Shove by Melissa Chadburn
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratings“Wild and ambitious . . . [with] something ablaze at its core. It burns.” ― The New York Times Book ReviewA Tiny Upward Shove is inspired by Melissa Chadburn's Filipino heritage and its folklore, as it traces the too-short life of a young, cast-off woman transformed by death into an agent of justice―or mercy.Marina Salles’s life does not end the day she wakes up dead... -
A History of Wild Places by Shea Ernshaw
Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsTravis Wren has an unusual talent for locating missing people. Hired by families as a last resort, he requires only a single object to find the person who has vanished. When he takes on the case of Maggie St. James—a well-known author of dark, macabre children’s books—he’s led to a place many believed to be only a legend... -
Idle Hands by Cassondra Windwalker
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsYou can call me Ella. You generally assign me a whole host of other preposterous monikers. I think the least imaginative name I’ve heard is “the devil”, but I’ll answer to it if I must. After making the courageous decision to leave her abusive husband, Perdie and her three young children start over and finally find the safety and love they deserve... -
Salt Slow by Julia Armfield
Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsThis collection of stories is about women and their experiences in society, about bodies and the bodily, mapping the skin and bones of its characters through their experiences of isolation, obsession and love. Throughout the collection, women become insects, men turn to stone, a city becomes insomniac and bodies are picked apart to make up better ones... -
Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo, Susan Sontag
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 49 ratingsA classic of Mexican modern literature about a haunted village.As one enters Juan Rulfo's legendary novel, one follows a dusty road to a town of death. Time shifts from one consciousness to another in a hypnotic flow of dreams, desires, and memories, a world of ghosts dominated by the figure of Pedro Páramo - lover, overlord, murderer...Categorized as:
drama family journey literary-fiction magical-realism poc-mc 20th-century action-adventure -
The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina by Zoraida Córdova
Rated: 3.99 of 5 stars · 37 ratingsThe Montoyas are used to a life without explanations. They know better than to ask why the pantry never seems to run low or empty, or why their matriarch won’t ever leave their home in Four Rivers—even for graduations, weddings, or baptisms...Categorized as:
family lgbtq literary-fiction magical-realism poc-mc action-adventure audiobook book -
The Honeys by Ryan La Sala
Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsFrom Ryan La Sala, the wildly popular author of Reverie, comes a twisted and tantalizing horror novel set amidst the bucolic splendor of a secluded summer retreat.Mars has always been the lesser twin, the shadow to his sister Caroline's radiance... -
Cursed Daughters by Oyinkan Braithwaite
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA young woman must shake off a family curse and the widely held belief that she is the reincarnation of her dead cousin in this wickedly funny, brilliantly perceptive novel about love, female rivalry, and superstition from the author of the smash hit My Sister, the Serial Killer (“A bombshell of a book.. -
A Luminous Republic by Andrés Barba
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA new novel from a Spanish literary star about the arrival of feral children to a tropical city in Argentina, and the quest to stop them from pulling the place into chaos.San Cristóbal was an unremarkable city—small, newly prosperous, contained by rain forest and river. But then the children arrived...Categorized as:
coming-of-age drama dystopia journey literary-fiction poc-mc 21st-century action-adventure -
Things We Say in the Dark by Kirsty Logan
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 15 ratings'Gripping . . . You won't put it down' Sunday TelegraphA shocking collection of dark stories, ranging from chilling contemporary fairytales to disturbing supernatural fiction.Alone in a remote house in Iceland a woman is unnerved by her isolation; another can only find respite from the clinging ghost that follows her by submerging herself in an overgrown pool... -
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The Summer that Melted Everything by Tiffany McDaniel
Rated: 3.98 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsFielding Bliss has never forgotten the summer of 1984:the year a heatwave scorched the small town of Breathed, Ohio.The year he became friends with the devil.When local prosecutor Autopsy Bliss publishes an invitation to the devil to come to the country town of Breathed, Ohio, nobody quite expected that he would turn up... -
Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 53 ratingsGeek Love is the story of the Binewskis, a carny family whose mater- and paterfamilias set out—with the help of amphetamine, arsenic, and radioisotopes—to breed their own exhibit of human oddities. There’s Arturo the Aquaboy, who has flippers for limbs and a megalomaniac ambition worthy of Genghis Khan . . . Iphy and Elly, the lissome Siamese twins . .Categorized as:
coming-of-age dark drama family literary-fiction magical-realism 20th-century audiobook -
The Final Rule by Adrienne Wilder
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThis is the last book in this trilogy. All books are full-length novels and must be read in order. All books are available now. The My Brother's Keeper Trilogy The town of Gilford has a Big and Terrible secret hidden in the ground. Infecting those it touches. Exploiting their darkness. Consuming their souls. It’s hungry. It’s vile. It’s evil. And it wants out... -
Switch Bitch by Roald Dahl
Rated: 3.97 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsIn Switch Bitch four tales of seduction and suspense are told by the grand master of the short story, Roald Dahl.Topping and tailing this collection are The Visitor and Bitch, stories featuring Dahl's notorious hedonist Oswald Hendryks Cornelius (or plain old Uncle Oswald) whose exploits are frequently as extraordinary as they are scandalous...Categorized as:
dark drama literary-fiction magical-realism satire 20th-century action-adventure adult -
The Wicker King by K. Ancrum
Rated: 3.98 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsWhen August learns that his best friend, Jack, shows signs of degenerative hallucinatory disorder, he is determined to help Jack cope. Jack’s vivid and long-term visions take the form of an elaborate fantasy world layered over our own—a world ruled by the Wicker King... -
Bad Cree by Jessica Johns
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsIn this gripping debut tinged with supernatural horror, a young Cree woman's dreams lead her on a perilous journey of self-discovery that ultimately forces her to confront the toll of a legacy of violence on her family, her community and the land they call home.When Mackenzie wakes up with a severed crow's head in her hands, she panics... -
The Lost by Sarah Beth Durst
Rated: 3.98 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsIt was only meant to be a brief detour. But then Lauren finds herself trapped in a town called Lost on the edge of a desert, filled with things abandoned, broken and thrown away. And when she tries to escape, impassable dust storms and something unexplainable lead her back to Lost again and again...Categorized as:
dystopia family journey literary-fiction magical-realism action-adventure audiobook book -
The Double by José Saramago
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsTertuliano Maximo Afonso is a history teacher in a secondary school. He is divorced, involved in a rather one-sided relationship with a bank clerk, and he is depressed. To lift his depression, a colleague suggests he rent a certain video. Tertuliano watches the film and is unimpressed. During the night, noises in his apartment wake him...Categorized as:
drama journey literary-fiction magical-realism 20th-century 21st-century action-adventure adult -
Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsA spellbinding and darkly humorous coming-of-age story about an unusual boy whose family lives on the fringes of society and struggles to survive in a hostile world that shuns and fears them.He was born an outsider, like the rest of his family...Categorized as:
coming-of-age dark family journey literary-fiction magical-realism poc-mc 21st-century -
Headhunter by Timothy Findley
Rated: 3.86 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIt all starts when Lilah Kemp - librarian, spiritualist, schizophrenic - inadvertantly lets Kurtz out of page 92 of Heart of Darkness and is unable to get him back in.While Kurtz is stalking the streets of Toronto, Lilah frantically begins her search for Marlow to help her deal with the literary villainMeanwhile, the city is becoming increasingly chaotic and terrifying... -
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The Woman in the Wall by Patrice Kindl
Rated: 3.86 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAnd hide is what Anna does throughout the course of this amazing book. She retreats into the fabric of a big old house, building a series of passageways and secondary walls that allow her to share the life of the house unseen by her mother and sisters. As Anna says, her family is not observant. But Anna herself is a quirky and perceptive witness to the life she has chosen to escape... -
1Q84: Book Three by Haruki Murakami
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsBook Two of 1Q84 ended with Aomame standing on the Metropolitan Expressway with a gun between her lips. She knows she is being hunted, and that she has put herself in terrible danger in order to save the man she loves. But things are moving forward, and Aomame does not yet know that she and Tengo are more closely bound than ever... -
The Last Tale of the Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi
Rated: 3.82 of 5 stars · 11 ratingsA sumptuous, gothic-infused story about a marriage that is unraveled by dark secrets, a friendship cursed to end in tragedy, and the danger of believing in fairy tales--the breathtaking adult debut from New York Times bestselling author Roshani Chokshi.Once upon a time, a man who believed in fairy tales married a beautiful, mysterious woman named Indigo Maxwell-Casteñada... -
The Glamour by Christopher Priest
Rated: 3.80 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsCameraman Richard Grey's memory has blanked out the few weeks before he was injured in a car bomb explosion. When he is visited by a girl who seems to have been his lover, his attempts to recall the forgotten period produce an odyssey through France and conflicting accounts of what happened...Categorized as:
drama literary-fiction magical-realism unreliable-narrator 20th-century 21st-century adult amnesia -
Perfect Circle by Sean Stewart
Rated: 3.80 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWilliam ""Dead"" Kennedy has problems. He's haunted by family, by dead people with unfinished business, and by those perfect pop songs that you can't get out of your head. He's a 32-year-old Texan still in love with his ex-wife. He just lost his job at Pet-Co for eating cat food. His air-conditioning is broken, there's no good music on the radio, and he's been dreaming about ghost roads... -
Immaculate Conception by Ling Ling Huang
Rated: 3.89 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWhat if you could enter the mind of the person you love the most? Enka meets Mathilde in art school and is instantly drawn to her. Mathilde makes art that feels truly original, and Enka—trying hard to prove herself in this fiercely competitive world—pours everything into their friendship...
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