Books like 'May We Shed These Human Bodies'
Readers who enjoyed May We Shed These Human Bodies by Amber Sparks also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
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The Houseplant by Jeremy Ray
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsGeorge, a fern, doesn’t appreciate being bought by Brenda at Garden Palace.And he certainly doesn’t appreciate being trapped in her house of humans. He yearns to be with the plants outside in the garden. With time, George learns to trust Brenda and think of her as his human. Then one day, tragedy strikes and George’s life will never be the same...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism adult anthologies audiobook contemporary fiction found-family -
Cronopios and Famas by Julio Cortázar
Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars · 25 ratings"The Instruction Manual," the first chapter, is an absurd assortment of tasks and items dissected in an instruction-manual format. "Unusual Occupations," the second chapter, describes the obsessions and predilections of the narrator's family, including the lodging of a tiger-just one tiger- "for the sole purpose of seeing the mechanism at work in all its complexity...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism 20th-century adult anthologies classics contemporary fiction -
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... -
The Oversoul Seven Trilogy: The Education of Oversoul Seven, The Further Education of Oversoul Seven, Oversoul Seven and the Museum of Time by Jane Roberts, Robert F. Butts
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsJane Roberts has contributed to The Oversoul Seven Trilogy as an author.Roberts was considered one of the most important psychics of the twentieth century...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism adult anthologies contemporary fiction low-fantasy philosophy -
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Joe Nuthin's Guide to Life by Helen Fisher
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA thoroughly uplifting novel about a neurodivergent young man who unexpectedly builds a community and saves a friend in need by following—in a way only he can—his mother’s words of wisdom.Joe-Nathan likes the two parts of his name separate, just like dinner and dessert. Mean Charlie at work sometimes calls him Joe-Nuthin. But Joe is far from nothing...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism fiction contemporary audiobook fantasy friendship female-mc -
Silver Threads by Bette Lee Crosby
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsOn the day Jennifer Green was born a pile of stones was placed alongside her scale of life. A few were the dark gray of sorrow, but most were a pale blush color. The largest stone was the rose hue of a sunrise. That one would be placed on the scale the day she married Drew Bishop. Even more brilliant but a wee bit smaller was the pink stone glistening with specs of silver... -
Collected Stories by Gabriel García Márquez
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsCollected here are twenty-six of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's most brilliant and enchanting short stories, presented in the chronological order of their publication in Spanish from three volumes: Eyes of a Blue Dog, Big Mama's Funeral, and The Incredible and Sad Tale of lnnocent Eréndira and Her Heartless Grandmother...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism 20th-century adult anthologies classics colombia contemporary -
Your Absence is Darkness by Jón Kalman Stefánsson
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA spellbinding saga about the inhabitants and inheritors of one rural community, by one of Iceland's most beloved novelists. A man comes to awareness in a church in rural Iceland, not knowing why he’s there or how he arrived... -
The Shiver by Jakub Małecki
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsONLY ONE CHAPTER - 1938-1969 One of the most renowned books of 2015.Polish bestseller.The book compared to the works of Johnatan Carroll, Fiodor Dostojewski, Andy Weir and Jurij Andruchowycz.The novel has been recommended by the best Polish Wiesław Myśliwski, Jacek Dukaj, Szczepan Twardoch, Wit Szostak.Masterly prose wrapped in magical realism...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism fiction contemporary audiobook historical-fiction fantasy drama -
Unlikely Animals by Annie Hartnett
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratings"A lost young woman returns to small-town New Hampshire under the strangest of circumstances in this one-of-a-kind novel of life, death, and whatever comes after from the acclaimed author of Rabbit Cake. The Starlings live in Everton, an ordinary enough New Hampshire town... -
Three Scenarios In Which Hana Sasaki Grows A Tail by Kelly Luce
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThree Scenarios in Which Hana Sasaki Grows a Tail is a debut collection of stories from Kelly Luce. Hana Sasaki will introduce you to many things—among them, an oracular toaster, a woman who grows a tail, and an extraordinary sex-change operation. Set in Japan, these stories tip into the fantastical, plumb the power of memory, and measure the human capacity to love... -
What We Fed to the Manticore by Talia Lakshmi Kolluri
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThrough nine emotionally vivid stories, all narrated from animal perspectives, Talia Lakshmi Kolluri’s debut collection explores themes of environmentalism, conservation, identity, belonging, loss, and family with resounding heart and deep tenderness. In Kolluri’s pages, a faithful hound mourns the loss of the endangered rhino he swore to protect...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism fiction fantasy animals outdoors anthologies contemporary -
The Plover by Brian Doyle
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA compelling, marvelous novel by the acclaimed author of Mink River Declan O Donnell has left Oregon aboard his boat, the Plover, to escape the life that’s so troubled him on land. He sets course west into the Pacific in search of solitude...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism action-adventure adult audiobook book contemporary fiction -
In a Thousand Different Ways by Cecelia Ahern
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFinding your way is never a simple journey…Alice sees the best in people.She also sees the worst.She sees a thousand different emotions and knows exactly what everyone around her is feeling.Every. Single. Day.But it’s the dark thoughts.The sadness. The rage.These are the things she can’t get out of her head. The things that overwhelm her...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism fiction contemporary fantasy audiobook family drama -
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Isaac and the Egg by Bobby Palmer
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsHeartbreaking and heart-stealing, this bestselling modern-day fable is an unforgettable novel about sorrow, joy, friendship and love.When Isaac Addy walks into the woods on the worst day of his life and finds something extraordinary there, he already knows he's going to take it home.A grieving Isaac and his curious new friend are unlikely companions. They don't even speak the same language...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism fiction contemporary fantasy sci-fi audiobook mystery -
The Little Snake by A.L. Kennedy
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsThis is the story of Mary, a young girl born in a beautiful city full of rose gardens and fluttering kites. When she is still very small, Mary meets Lanmo, a shining golden snake, who becomes her very best friend.The snake visits Mary many times, he sees her city change, become sadder as bombs drop and war creeps in...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism 21st-century animals audiobook book children-books contemporary -
That's All I Know by Elisa Levi
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsNineteen-year-old Little Lea lives in a rural town where life ends at the edge of the forest.When a stranger loses his dog on the first day after the end of the world, Little Lea warns him not to follow it into the forest, that people who enter never come out. Over a shared joint, she tells him about the burning in her gut, winding a tale of loss, desire, and conspiracies...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism fiction contemporary audiobook dystopia season-autumn fantasy -
Oração para Desaparecer by Socorro Acioli
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsPrimeiro romance de Socorro Acioli após A cabeça do santo, Oração para Desaparecer conta a história de uma mulher que, sem lembrança nenhuma de seu passado, precisa reconstruir a vida em um lugar completamente desconhecido, apenas com a língua portuguesa como porto seguro.Cida, uma mulher sem identidade nem memória, reconstrói pouco a pouco uma nova vida em um lugar completamente desconhecido...Categorized as:
magical-realism literary-fiction romance fiction fantasy contemporary audiobook book -
Portable Childhoods by Ellen Klages, Neil Gaiman
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsEmerging from a unique and powerful voice, this innovative collection offers a tantalizing glimpse of what lies hidden just beyond the ordinary, skirting the border between childhood and adulthood...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism anthologies contemporary fiction lgbtq low-fantasy magic -
Fifth Life of the Cat Woman by Kathleen Dexter
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsPart magical realism, part love story, this book is a vividly imagined (Jill Paton Walsh) allegory of prejudice, intolerance, and second chances...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism adult book contemporary female-author fiction historical-fiction -
Sleight of Hand by Peter S. Beagle
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAbundant with tales of quiet heroism, life-changing decisions, and determined searches for deep answers, this extraordinary collection of contemporary fantasy explores the realms between this world and the next. From the top of the Berlin Wall to the depths of the darkest seas, gods and monsters battle their enemies and innermost fears, yet mere mortals make the truly difficult choices...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism adult anthologies contemporary epic fiction low-fantasy -
Little Kingdoms by Steven Millhauser
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsCartoons that draw their creator into another world; demonic paintings that exert a sinister influence on our own. Fairy tales that express the secret losses and anxieties of their tellers... -
Safe as Houses by Marie-Helene Bertino
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsSafe as Houses, the debut story collection of Marie-Helene Bertino, proves that not all homes are shelters. The titular story revolves around an aging English professor who, mourning the loss of his wife, robs other people's homes of their sentimental knick-knacks. In "Free Ham," a young dropout wins a ham after her house burns down and refuses to accept it...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism adult anthologies contemporary female-author female-mc fiction -
Murphy’s Luck by Benjamin Laskin
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsSometimes rotten luck is better than no luck at all.Jinxed from birth with mystifying bad luck, Murphy Drummer hasn’t ventured beyond the safety of his backyard since he was a little boy. To remedy his loneliness, he became the master of a thousand hobbies and as amazing as his crazy luck... -
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Song of the Crocodile by Nardi Simpson
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsDarnmoor, The Gateway to Happiness. The sign taunts a fool into feeling some sense of achievement, some kind of end- that you have reached a destination in the very least. Yet as the sign states, Darnmoor is merely a gateway, a waypoint on the road to where you really want to be.Darnmoor is the home of the Billymil family, three generations who have lived in this 'gateway town'... -
Timeskipper by Stefano Benni
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFrom the author of Margherita Dolce Vita One late-winter morning as he is "hop-hiking" downhill toward his character-building destination, a vomit-yellow cube surrounded by a garden of barbarously unkempt weeds known as the Bisacconi elementary school, Stefano Benni's young hero encounters a peculiar man--as big as a mountain and as filthy as a garbage dump, with a vast beard the color of a...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism adult book coming-of-age contemporary fiction humor -
Harvey by Mary Chase
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsWhen Elwood P. Dowd starts to introduce his imaginary friend Harvey, a six and a half foot rabbit, to guests at a dinner party, his sister, Veta, has seen as much of his eccentric behavior as she can tolerate. She decides to have him committed to a sanitarium to spare her daughter, Myrtle Mae, and their family, from future embarrassment... -
L'assassinio del Commendatore. Libro primo: Idee che affiorano by Haruki Murakami
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsUna borsa con qualche vestito e le matite per disegnare. Quando la moglie gli dice che lo lascia, il protagonista di questa storia non prende altro: carica tutto in macchina e se ne va di casa... -
The Lantern of Lost Memories by Sanaka Hiiragi
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsOne photograph, one treasured memory, one chance to go back . . . In a cosy photography studio in the mountains between this world and the next, someone is waking up as if from a dream. A kind man will hand them a hot cup of tea and gently explain that, having reached the end of their life, they have one final task...Categorized as:
magical-realism literary-fiction fiction fantasy contemporary audiobook cozy low-fantasy -
The View from the Seventh Layer by Kevin Brockmeier
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsKevin Brockmeier--award -winning author of The Brief History of the Dead--has been widely praised for the richness of his imagination, the lyrical grace and playfulness of his language, and the empathic emotional complexity of his storytelling. And this dazzling collection once again affirms his place as one of the most creative and compassionate writers of his generation...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism anthologies audiobook contemporary fiction low-fantasy magic -
The Knife Thrower and Other Stories by Steven Millhauser
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe Knife Thrower introduces a series of distinctively Millhauserian worlds: tiny, fabulous, self-enclosed, like Fabergé eggs or like the short-story genre itself...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism adult anthologies audiobook contemporary fiction low-fantasy -
Daydreams of Angels by Heather O'Neill
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsInventive, outlandish, and tender fairy tales from a bestselling authorThe fantastic has always been at the edges of Heather O'Neill's work. In her bestselling novels Lullabies for Little Criminals and The Girl Who Was Saturday Night, she transformed the shabbiest streets of Montreal with her beautiful, freewheeling metaphors...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism adult anthologies contemporary fairy-tale female-author fiction -
The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories by Jamil Jan Kochai
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA luminous meditation on sons and fathers, ghosts of war, and living history that moves between modern-day Afghanistan and the Afghan diaspora...Categorized as:
magical-realism literary-fiction fiction horror war contemporary audiobook anthologies -
We Never Talk about My Brother by Peter S. Beagle
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsModern parables of love, death, and transformation are peppered with melancholy in this extraordinary collection of contemporary fantasy. Each short story cultivates a whimsical sense of imagination and reveals a mature, darker voice than previously experienced from this legendary author...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism adult angels anthologies contemporary fiction grief -
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Vintage Murakami by Haruki Murakami
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsNot since Yukio Mishima and Yasunari Kawabata has a Japanese writer won the international acclaim enjoyed hy Haruki Murakami. His genre- busting novels, short stones, and repodage, which have been translated into thirty-four languages, meld the surreal and the hard-boiled, deadpan comedy and delicate introspection...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism action-adventure angst anthologies asian-mc classics contemporary -
The Wrong Heaven by Amy Bonnaffons
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratings"In her amazing, wildly inventive collection, Amy Bonnaffons writes about transformation, each story further complicating the world as we know it. With a style that blends humor and sincerity in such strange, perfect ratios, Bonnaffons reveals the mysteries inside of us, just waiting to make themselves known. The Wrong Heaven, so wondrous, will alter you in all the necessary ways...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism adult anthologies audiobook contemporary feminism fiction -
Before You Go by Tommy Butler
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn this “dazzling debut” (Publishers Weekly), the moving story of one man’s quest for happiness is interwoven with speculative tales of the Before and After, resulting in a profound yet playful literary journey into the ache and wonder of being human.In the Before, humankind is created with a hole in its heart, the designers not realizing their mistake—if it was a mistake—until too late...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism adult audiobook book coming-of-age contemporary fiction -
Darling Girl: A Novel of Peter Pan by Liz Michalski
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn this beautiful, grounded, and darkly magical modern-day reimagining of J. M. Barrie's classic, to save her daughter's life one woman must take on the infamous Peter Pan--who is not the innocent adventurer the fairy tales make him out to be . . . Life is looking up for Holly Darling, granddaughter of Wendy--yes, that Wendy...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism adult audiobook book contemporary fairy-tale female-mc -
1997 by Kirsty McManus
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAnna Matthews is moving on. After a tumultuous year where her life took an unexpected turn, she is now looking to the future with the help of a few old friends. Everything gets off to a great start with Anna and her high school friend Kelsey planning a new business together... -
Catastrophe: And Other Stories by Dino Buzzati
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIn Catastrophe, the renowned Italian short story writer Dino Buzzati brings vividly to life the slow and quietly terrifying collapse of our known, everyday world. In stories touched by the fantastical and the strange, and filled with humor, irony, and menace, Buzzati illuminates the nightmarish side of our ordinary existence...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism 20th-century adult anthologies classics contemporary fiction -
Blinding by Mircea Cărtărescu
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsPart visceral dream-memoir, part fictive journey through a hallucinatory Bucharest, Mircea Cărtărescu's BLINDING was one of the most widely heralded literary sensations in contemporary Romania, and a bestseller from the day of its release...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism 20th-century adult book contemporary family fiction -
The Love We Share Without Knowing by Christopher Barzak
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsOn a train filled with quietly sleeping passengers, a young man’s life is forever altered when he is miraculously seen by a blind man. In a quiet town an American teacher who has lost her Japanese lover to death begins to lose her own self. On a remote road amid fallow rice fields, four young friends carefully take their own lives—and in that moment they become almost as one...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism adult anthologies coming-of-age contemporary epic fiction -
In the Penny Arcade by Steven Millhauser
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe seven stories of In the Penny Arcade blend both the real and the fantastic in a seductive mix that illuminates the full range of Steven Millhauser's gifts, from 'August Eschenburg', the story of a clockmaker's son whose extraordinary talent for creating animated figures is lost on a world whose taste for the perverse and crude supersedes that of the refined and beautiful, to 'Cathay', a...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism 20th-century adult anthologies contemporary fiction horror -
Smart Ovens for Lonely People by Elizabeth Tan
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsConspiracies, memes, and therapies of various efficacy underpin this beguiling short-story collection from Elizabeth Tan.In the titular story, a cat-shaped oven tells a depressed woman she doesn’t have to be sorry anymore. A Yourtopia Bespoke Terraria employee becomes paranoid about the mounting coincidences in her life...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism 21st-century adult anthologies comedy contemporary dystopia -
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The Jade Cabinet by Rikki Ducornet
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsMade speechless by her eccentric father, the beautiful Etheria is traded for a piece of precious jade. Memory, her sister, tells her story, that of a childhood enlivened by Lewis Carroll and an orangutan named Dr. Johnson and envenomed by the pernicious courtship of Radulph Tubbs, Queen Victoria's own Dragon of Industry...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism 20th-century adult book contemporary female-author fiction -
Girl Like a Bomb by Autumn Christian
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAutumn Christian's third novel is a dark journey of self-discovery. An existential labyrinth of love, sex, and self-actualization where the only way out is through. When high schooler Beverly Sykes finally has sex, her whole life changes. She feels an explosion inside of her that feels like her DNA is being rearranged, and she discovers a strange power within...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism adult audiobook book contemporary female-author female-mc -
Verdigris by Michele Mari
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAt the tail end of the 1960s, the thirteen-year-old Michelino spends his summers at his grandparents’ modest estate in Nasca, near Lake Maggiore, losing himself in the tales of horror, adventure, and mystery shelved in his grandfather’s library... -
Man Seeking Woman by Simon Rich
Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars · 19 ratings"No matter how zany things get, there's an endearing simplicity at the heart of these inventive tales.... Love doesn't always conquer all, but these stories suggest Rich thinks its certainly ought to."--Daily Beast Love can be messy, painful, and even tragic. When seen through the eyes of Simon Rich it can also be hilarious...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism 21st-century anthologies audiobook comedy contemporary fiction -
The Last Pomegranate Tree by Bachtyar Ali
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAn extraordinary chronicle of war and an occult story of love between a father and his son from one of Iraq’s most celebrated contemporary writers“Whenever he told lies, the birds would fly away. It had been that way since he was a child. Whenever he told a lie, something strange would happen...Categorized as:
magical-realism literary-fiction fiction historical-fiction war fantasy contemporary audiobook -
A Child Across the Sky by Jonathan Carroll
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsLibrarian's Note: this is an alternate cover edition for ISBN 071263441X / 9780712634410.Just as the the word "weird" has many implications and shades of meaning, so too does the latest--weird--work by this gifted and perplexing writer. As Carroll ( Bones of the Moon ; Sleeping in Flame ) himself says, "Life has a habit of turning dark corners...
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