Books like 'How Best to Avoid Dying'
Readers who enjoyed How Best to Avoid Dying by Owen Egerton also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary sc-fi horror comedy suspense magical-realism humor dystopia satire female-mc
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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... -
死亡万花筒 Kaleidoscope of Death by Xi Zi Xu, 西子绪
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratings起初的异样,是家里的猫不让抱了。林秋石发现周围的一切都开始变得充满了不协调感。然后某一天,当他推开家中的门,却发现熟悉的楼道变成了长长的走廊。走廊的两头,是十二扇一模一样的铁门。故事由此开始。阮南烛对林秋石说,当你凝视深渊时,深渊也在凝视着你。林秋石听后陷入沉思,然后对着深渊拉下了裤子拉链……阮南烛:“……你把裤子给我好好穿上!”不皮会死病娇攻X一起皮的沉稳受,双皮奶组合,灵异风格升级流。"Kaleidoscope of Death"It started off peculiarly; first, his domestic cat refused to let him cuddle it... -
The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsA writer in a totalitarian state is interrogated about the gruesome content of his short stories and their similarities to a number of child-murders that are happening in his town.'Sometimes you don't even know what you've been craving until the real thing comes along.' New York Times'McDonagh is more than just a very clever theatrical stylist. His tricks and turns have a purpose... -
The Golden Apple by Robert Shea, Robert Anton Wilson
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsNausea, then microamnesia, then the laughing jag, then sex. Be patient. The clear light comes next. Then we can discuss Truth. As if we haven't been discussing it all along. -Hagbard Celine, The Golden Apple Illuminatus! Part II, from the original and genuine trilogy of conspiracies, is performed in all its unabridged brilliance by a full ensemble cast... -
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Tales from the Gas Station: Volume Four by Jack Townsend
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAs the new owner of the worst business in history, Jack has a lot on his plate. His self-appointed “biggest fan” wants to finally meet, and won’t take no for an answer. The annoying cultists are back and cultier than ever. Plus, there’s a creature living under the building's crawlspace that must be fed regularly (or else)... -
The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsThe Jorgmund Pipe is the backbone of the world, and it's on fire. Gonzo Lubitsch, professional hero and troubleshooter, is hired to put it out, but there's more to the fire, and the Pipe itself, than meets the eye. The job will take Gonzo and his best friend, our narrator, back to their own beginnings...Categorized as:
drama dystopia humor literary-fiction magical-realism satire 21st-century action-adventure -
The Monsters We Hunt by Katie May
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsLife hasn’t been kind to me. Combined with the world ending, storms ravaging the coast, and zombie-like creatures attacking, I’m not able to catch a break. But this time? The world took it too far. Separated from two of my men and grieving a third, I will stop at nothing to make our fractured team whole again... -
Leviathan by Robert Shea, Robert Anton Wilson
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe ultimate weapon isn't this plague out in Vegas, or any new super H-bomb. The ultimate weapon has always existed. Every man, every woman, and every child owns it. It's the ability to say No and take the consequences. - Hagbard Celine, LeviathanIlluminatus! Part III cheerfully ushers in the apocalyptic high-camp conclusion of the Illuminatus! Trilogy... -
Memoirs of an Invisible Man by H.F. Saint
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA freak accident renders an ordinary stock analyst invisible, and though invisibility has its pitfalls, he is able to eavesdrop his way into amassing a fortune in this side-splitting, tear-jerking mixture of fantasy and nightmare... -
Pastoralia by George Saunders
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsWith this new collection, George Saunders takes us even further into the shocking, uproarious and oddly familiar landscape of his imagination.The stories in Pastoralia are set in a slightly skewed version of America, where elements of contemporary life have been merged, twisted, and amplified, casting their absurdity-and our humanity-in a startling new light...Categorized as:
dystopia humor literary-fiction magical-realism satire 20th-century 21st-century adult -
Zombie by Chuck Palahniuk
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIn 'Zombies', the absurdity of both life and death are on full display as the best and brightest of a high school prep school become tragically addicted to the latest drug craze - electronic shocks from cardiac defibrillators.Funny, caustic, bizarre, poignant - this story represents everything listeners have come to love and expect from Chuck Palahniuk.©2015 Chuck Palahniuk (P)2016 W.F. Howes Ltd... -
The Jennifer Morgue by Charles Stross
Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsBob Howard, from The Laundry, secret UK agency against evil forces, narrates boarding yacht of Ellis Billington for Gravedust device that talks with dead. Ellis plans to raise Jennifer Morgue, monster from deep sea, rule world. U.S. Black Chamber sends lethal Ramona Random, in conflict with her bosses. Includes: Pimpf tale - Bob in virtual game; Afterword; Glossary... -
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Clowns Vs. Spiders by Jeff Strand
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsJaunty the Clown just wants to entertain families with lighthearted slapstick antics, but people think of clowns as terrifying, nightmarish creatures who hide in closets or under beds. When Jaunty, along with his fellow performers Guffaw, Wagon, Reginald The Pleasant Clown, and Bluehead are fired from the circus, they're told that the world just doesn't like clowns anymore... -
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Zombie Lake by Javan Bonds
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe world has gone to hell but Mo Collins and his shipmate, Crow, are still alive. Every night hordes of naked, blue, biting zombies flood the now dead Alabama lake town. While on board their replica pirate ship, the Viva Ancora, they fish and watch the monsters roam the night; seeking untainted flesh and leaving a disgusting mess in their wake…just like a horror show... -
I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom by Jason Pargin
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsA standalone darkly humorous thriller set in modern America's age of anxiety, by New York Times bestselling author Jason Pargin.Outside Los Angeles, a driver pulls up to find a young woman sitting on a large black box. She offers him $200,000 cash to transport her and that box across the country, to Washington, DC.But there are rules:He cannot look inside the box.He cannot ask questions... -
Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits by David Wong, Jason Pargin
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsNightmarish villains with superhuman enhancements.An all-seeing social network that tracks your every move.Mysterious, smooth-talking power players who lurk behind the scenes.A young woman from the trailer park.And her very smelly cat.Together, they will decide the future of mankind... -
Dusty's Diary: One Frustrated Man's Zombie Apocalypse Story by Bobby Adair
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsOne Frustrated Man's Zombie Apocalypse Story I played all those cool video games. I watched all those movies. I read all those books. In most of those, the hero of the story kills all the zombies, drives a sweet car, has plenty to eat, and always seems to get laid by the end. Yeah. Whatever... -
Overtime by Charles Stross
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIntroduced to readers in the novels The Atrocity Archive and The Jennifer Morgue, the Laundry is a secret British government agency charged with preventing dark interdimensional entities from destroying the human race... -
The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross
Rated: 3.91 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsNEVER VOLUNTEER FOR ACTIVE DUTY ...Bob Howard is a low-level techie working for a super-secret government agency. While his colleagues are out saving the world, Bob's under a desk restoring lost data. His world was dull and safe - but then he went and got Noticed... -
Night of the Living Trekkies by Kevin David Anderson, Sam Stall
Rated: 3.91 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsJim Pike, the disillusioned manager of a hotel that is hosting a Star Trek convention, finds himself leading a ragtag crew of survivors as a strange virus turns the convention-goers into zombies.. -
White Noise by Don DeLillo
Rated: 3.87 of 5 stars · 66 ratingsA brilliant satire of mass culture and the numbing effects of technology, White Noise tells the story of Jack Gladney, a teacher of Hitler studies at a liberal arts college in Middle America. Jack and his fourth wife, Babette, bound by their love, fear of death, and four ultramodern offspring, navigate the rocky passages of family life to the background babble of brand-name consumerism... -
Rant by Chuck Palahniuk
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 34 ratingsBuster “Rant” Casey just may be the most efficient serial killer of our time. A high school rebel, Rant Casey escapes from his small town home for the big city where he becomes the leader of an urban demolition derby called Party Crashing. Rant Casey will die a spectacular highway death, after which his friends gather the testimony needed to build an oral history of his short, violent life... -
God Is Dead by Ron Currie Jr.
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFrom a mind-blowing new talent, an audacious novel that imagines the world after God takes human form and diesWhen God descends to Earth as a Dinka woman from Sudan and subsequently dies in the Darfur desert, the result is a world both bizarrely new yet eerily familiar... -
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Deadeye Dick by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Rated: 3.82 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsDeadeye Dick is Kurt Vonnegut’s funny, chillingly satirical look at the death of innocence. Amid a true Vonnegutian host of horrors—a double murder, a fatal dose of radioactivity, a decapitation, an annihilation of a city by a neutron bomb—Rudy Waltz, aka Deadeye Dick, takes us along on a zany search for absolution and happiness... -
The Face of Another by Kōbō Abe
Rated: 3.77 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsLike an elegantly chilling postscript to The Metamorphosis, this classic of postwar Japanese literature describes a bizarre physical transformation that exposes the duplicities of an entire world. The narrator is a scientist hideously deformed in a laboratory accident–a man who has lost his face and, with it, his connection to other people. Even his wife is now repulsed by him... -
Allison Hewitt Is Trapped by Madeleine Roux
Rated: 3.72 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsOne woman's story as she blogs - and fights back - the zombie apocalypse"Allison Hewitt and her five colleagues at the Brooks and Peabody Bookstore are trapped together when the zombie outbreak hits. Allison reaches out for help through her blog, writing on her laptop and utilizing the military's emergency wireless network (SNET). It may also be her only chance to reach her mother... -
The Beautiful Land by Alan Averill
Rated: 3.69 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsTakahiro O’Leary has a very special job… …working for the Axon Corporation as an explorer of parallel timelines—as many and as varied as anyone could imagine. A great gig—until information he brought back gave Axon the means to maximize profits by changing the past, present, and future of this world...Categorized as:
dystopia humor suspense 21st-century action-adventure adult alternate-history anthologies -
Rabbit & Robot by Andrew Smith
Rated: 3.60 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsCager has been transported to the Tennessee, a giant lunar-cruise ship orbiting the moon that his dad owns, by Billy and Rowan to help him shake his Woz addiction. Meanwhile, Earth, in the midst of thirty simultaneous wars, burns to ash beneath them... -
Bimbos of the Death Sun by Sharyn McCrumb, Ruth Ann Phimister
Rated: 3.69 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsEdgar Award-winning author Sharyn McCrumb brings her storytelling talent and keen eye for satire to this hilarious spoof of the bizarre culture surrounding sci-fi/fantasy fandom. It all takes place at Rubicon, the science fiction and fantasy convention of your nightmares... -
My Teacher Is an Alien by Bruce Coville
Rated: 3.71 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsSixth grade is just out of this world!Susan Simmons can tell that her new substitute teacher is really weird. But she doesn't know how weird until she catches him peeling off his face -- and realizes that "Mr. Smith" is really an alien! At first no one will believe her except Peter Thompson, the class brain. When Peter and Susan discover Mr... -
Zodiac by Neal Stephenson
Rated: 3.73 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsSangamon Taylor's a New Age Sam Spade who sports a wet suit instead of a trench coat and prefers Jolt from the can to Scotch on the rocks. He knows about chemical sludge the way he knows about evil -- all too intimately. And the toxic trail he follows leads to some high and foul places...Categorized as:
dystopia humor literary-fiction suspense 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
Several People Are Typing by Calvin Kasulke
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA Good Morning America Book Club Pick! • A work-from-home comedy where WFH meets WTF. “An absurd, hilarious romp through the haunted house of late-stage capitalism.”—Carmen Maria Machado, author of In the Dream House Told entirely through clever and captivating Slack messages, this irresistible, relatable satire of both virtual work and contemporary life is The Office for a new world... -
Jam by Yahtzee Croshaw
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWe were prepared for an earthquake. We had a flood plan in place. We could even have dealt with zombies. Probably.But no one expected the end to be quite so . . . sticky . . . or strawberry scented...Categorized as:
dystopia humor literary-fiction satire suspense action-adventure apocalyptic audiobook -
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Machine Man by Max Barry
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsCharlie Neumann loses a leg in an industrial accident. He sees it as an opportunity. Charlie has always thought his body could be better. Stronger. With built-in wi-fi. The next leg to go is no accident. Neither is the hand. No one understands his love of upgrades, except for prosthetics expert Lola Shanks... -
Aisle Nine by Ian X. Cho
Rated: 3.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratings“It's Black Friday—and the apocalypse is on sale!Ever since the world filled with portals to hell and bloodthirsty demons started popping out on the reg, Jasper’s life has gotten worse and worse. A teenage nobody with no friends or family, he is plagued by the life he can’t remember and the person he’s sure he’s supposed to be... -
Shatnerquake by Jeff Burk
Rated: 3.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAfter a reality bomb goes off at the first ever ShatnerCon, all of the characters ever played by William Shatner are suddenly sucked into our world. Their mission: hunt down and destroy the real William Shatner. Featuring: Captain Kirk, TJ Hooker, Denny Crane, Priceline Shatner, Cartoon Kirk, Rescue 9-1-1 Shatner, singer Shatner, and many more... -
Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better World by Donald Antrim
Rated: 3.62 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsPete Robinson never meant to suggest the drawing-and-quartering of Mayor Kunkel, although he did mention that Toyotas and Subarus might make excellent substitutes for horses. But, after all, the fact that Mayor Jim Kunkel had first fired Stinger missiles into the Botanical Garden reflecting pool, massacring innocent picnickers, did require some kind of response... -
Awakened by James S. Murray, Darren Wearmouth
Rated: 3.65 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsAfter years of waiting, New York's newest subway line is finally ready -- an express train that connects the city with the burgeoning communities across the Hudson River. The shining jewel of this state-of-the-art line is a breathtaking visitors’ pavilion beneath the river... -
Alan Lennox and the Temp Job of Doom by Brian Olsen
Rated: 3.47 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsLibrarian's note: This is an alternate cover edition for ASIN: B00DLJDRU2Alan Lennox has been assigned yet another soul-crushing temp job, keeping him from his first loves – drinking, playing video games, and looking for a boyfriend. But Alan’s new job proves to be anything but boring when his co-workers start turning up dead... -
Go, Mutants! by Larry Doyle
Rated: 3.31 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsLarry Doyle, the author of I Love You, Beth Cooper, returns with Go, Mutants!, a hilariously outrageous novel of teenage angst and restlessness, populated with heroes and villains straight out of the classic sci-fi and teen movies of the ‘50s and ‘60s... -
Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith
Rated: 3.63 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsSixteen-year-old Austin Szerba interweaves the story of his Polish legacy with the story of how he and his best friend, Robby, brought about the end of humanity and the rise of an army of unstoppable, six-foot tall praying mantises in small-town Iowa...Categorized as:
dystopia humor magical-realism action-adventure animals apocalyptic audiobook bisexuality -
Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff
Rated: 3.62 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsJane Charlotte has been arrested for murder.She tells police that she is a member of a secret organization devoted to fighting evil; her division is called the Department for the Final Disposition of Irredeemable Persons—"Bad Monkeys" for short...Categorized as:
drama humor literary-fiction suspense 21st-century action-adventure assassinations audiobook -
Zylan Captive by Ravyn Wilde
Rated: 3.30 of 5 stars · 11 ratingsVanNyssa thought Alien Abductions were fiction. She discovered she was wrong when she woke one morning in a stranger’s bed, gold chains attached to certain…um-delicate parts of her body, on a planet ruled by a man now claiming to be her life-mate. Tar plans for her to be his quiet, un-assuming companion. Not! This earth-girl can never be called "easy... -
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Night Train by David Quantick
Rated: 3.17 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFrom Emmy-award winning author David Quantick, Night Train is a science-fiction horror story like no other.A woman wakes up, frightened and alone - with no idea where she is. She's in a room but it's shaking and jumping like it's alive. Stumbling through a door, she realizes she is in a train carriage. A carriage full of the dead.This is the Night Train... -
Rampaging Fuckers of Everything on the Crazy Shitting Planet of the Vomit Atmosphere by Mykle Hansen
Rated: 3.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsRampaging Fuckers of Everything on the Crazy Shitting Planet of the Vomit Atmosphere The Rampaging Fuckers of Everything on the Crazy Shitting Planet of the Vomit Atmosphere is a collection of three short novels by a master of satire. Mykle Hansen's subversive tales capture the smugness of mainstream culture... -
Made for Love by Alissa Nutting
Rated: 3.44 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsHazel has just moved into a trailer park of senior citizens, with her father and Diane--his sex doll companion. Life with Hazel's father is strained at best, but it's got to be better than her marriage to dominating tech billionaire, Byron Gogol. For over a decade, Hazel has been quarantining in Byron's family compound, her every movement and vital sign tracked... -
Spontaneous by Aaron Starmer
Rated: 3.41 of 5 stars · 17 ratings“Katelyn Ogden was a lot of things, but she wasn’t particularly explosive, in any sense of the word.” Mara Carlyle’s senior year at Covington High in suburban New Jersey is going on as normally as could be expected, until the day—wa-bam!—fellow senior Katelyn Ogden explodes during third period pre-calc... -
Thumped by Megan McCafferty
Rated: 3.37 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsIt’s been thirty-five weeks since twin sisters Harmony and Melody went their separate ways. And now their story has become irresistible: twins separated at birth, each due to deliver twins…on the same day!Married to Ram and living in Goodside, Harmony spends her time trying to fit back into the community she once believed in... -
Act of God by Jill Ciment
Rated: 3.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratings64-year-old twins, Edith and Kat, are starting to panic: an iridescent mushroom has appeared in the closet of their rent-controlled Brooklyn apartment.Upstairs, their wealthy landlady is ignoring their phonecalls. But when she discovers a Russian au pair living in her guest room closet, she is horrified to spot the same phosphorescent glow...
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