Books like 'Blood Test: A Comedy'
Readers who enjoyed Blood Test: A Comedy by Charles Baxter also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary sc-fi horror humor literary-fiction family
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Survival Logbook: An AFK Book by Scott Cawthon
Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsFive Nights at Freddy's fans won't want to miss this Survival Logbook packed with prompts, quizzes, and lists--the perfect way to unwind after a thrilling night shift at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza... -
![Fever by Deon Meyer]()
Fever by Deon Meyer
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsNico Storm and his father Willem drive a truck filled with essential supplies through a desolate land. They are among the few in South Africa--and the world, as far as they know--to have survived a devastating virus which has swept through the country...Categorized as:
family literary-fiction action-adventure adult apocalyptic audiobook book coming-of-age -
![The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh]()
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 One by J.K. Accinni]()
The One by J.K. Accinni
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn The One, the sixth book in the Alien Species Intervention #6609 series, almost a hundred years have passed since Armageddon. The Earth is ready for habitation but it is a far different Earth from the one last seen so long ago. Alongside the original wildlife and generations of their offspring, new plants and forms of wildlife from different worlds populate the planet as chosen by the Womb... -
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![I Am Not a Number by Lisa Heathfield]()
I Am Not a Number by Lisa Heathfield
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe powerful and heart-wrenching new novel from Lisa Heathfield, award-winning author of Seed and Paper Butterflies. Perfect for fans of Sarah Crossan, Louise O'Neill and Lisa Williamson.The Traditionals have been voted to lead the country, winning people over with talks of healing a broken society, of stronger families and safer streets. They promised a happier future for everyone... -
![The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway]()
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:
family humor literary-fiction 21st-century action-adventure adult alternate-history apocalyptic -
![Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.]()
Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsIt is the year 2081. Because of Amendments 211, 212, and 213 to the Constitution, every American is fully equal, meaning that no one is stupider, uglier, weaker, or slower than anyone else. The Handicapper General and a team of agents ensure that the laws of equality are enforced.One April, fourteen-year-old Harrison Bergeron is taken away from his parents, George and Hazel, by the government... -
![The Semplica-Girl Diaries (short story) by George Saunders]()
The Semplica-Girl Diaries (short story) by George Saunders
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsNovelette, Free online fiction.From newyorker.com“The Semplica-Girl Diaries” deals with a family in a not-too-distant future (or perhaps an alternate present or past?) that is struggling to keep up with the Joneses—which, in this society, means leasing some unusual garden ornaments... -
![Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah]()
Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIn the stories of Adjei-Brenyah’s debut, an amusement park lets players enter augmented reality to hunt terrorists or shoot intruders played by minority actors, a school shooting results in both the victim and gunman stuck in a shared purgatory, and an author sells his soul to a many-tongued god.Adjei-Brenyah's writing will grab you, haunt you, enrage, and invigorate you...Categorized as:
family humor literary-fiction 21st-century adult afrofuturism anthologies apocalyptic -
![Last One at the Party by Bethany Clift]()
Last One at the Party by Bethany Clift
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsTHE END OF EVERYTHING WAS HER BEGINNINGIt's November 2023. The human race has been wiped out by the 6DM virus (Six Days Maximum - the longest you've got before your body destroys itself). The end of the world as we know it.Yet someone is still alive. Alone in a new world of burning cities, rotting corpses and ravenous rats, one woman has survived... -
![Found by Imogen Keeper]()
Found by Imogen Keeper
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsKILLING A PERSON changes you. Killing your little brother destroys you. I should know. His name was Carl. When he was a kid, he always ate the blue M&Ms first and then the green. He dreamed of going to go to the moon. I didn't hesitate. I didn’t even blink...Categorized as:
family humor action-adventure adult alternate-history apocalyptic book coming-of-age -
![Over the Edge/An Edge in My Voice by Harlan Ellison]()
Over the Edge/An Edge in My Voice by Harlan Ellison
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratings"Razor Sharp Beyond the Edge. Harlan Ellison's stories and essays have been on the cutting edge of contemporary American Literature for over 40 years, but he stubbornly refuses to abandon the use of a manual typewriter. He's involved in every medium from television drama to comic books, and his works have been translated into 26 languages... -
![Of Mice and Mooshaber by Ladislav Fuks, Mark Corner]()
Of Mice and Mooshaber by Ladislav Fuks, Mark Corner
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsLadislav Fuks (1923-94) was an outstanding Czech writer whose work, consisting primarily of psychological fiction, explores themes of anxiety and life in totalitarian systems... -
![Memoirs of an Invisible Man by H.F. Saint]()
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... -
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![Hacker by Ted Dekker]()
Hacker by Ted Dekker
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratings"My name is Nyah and I'm a hacker. I know things most people would never believe. Things that shouldn't exist, but do." Seventeen-year-old Nyah Parks is a genius hacker who makes a living by cracking the firewalls of the world's largest corporations...Categorized as:
literary-fiction action-adventure book christian contemporary fiction horror mystery -
![Dreamland by Rosa Rankin-Gee]()
Dreamland by Rosa Rankin-Gee
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratings'You said that you would come back. You looked me in the eye and said that. Well, if you had, this is what you would have seen: soft wood, black cracks, fridges in the road. The broken spines of old rides at Dreamland.'In the coastal resort of Margate, hotels lie empty and sun-faded 'For Sale' signs line the streets. The sea is higher - it's higher everywhere - and those who can are moving inland... -
![Divided by Evangeline Anderson]()
Divided by Evangeline Anderson
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsHow does a girl who's about to take her vows as a nun wind up with two hot warriors to pick from?That's Becca Malone's problem. After eating a piece of bonding fruit cake, she wound up with Far and Truth, Twin Kindred warriors who were separated at birth and never formed a proper Twin bond. Because the twins hate each other, Becca feels free to choose between them.. -
![Pastoralia by George Saunders]()
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:
humor literary-fiction 20th-century 21st-century adult anthologies audiobook classics -
![The Divine Farce by Michael S.A. Graziano]()
The Divine Farce by Michael S.A. Graziano
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratings“A Dante/Beckett reduction of human struggle to its lowest common denominator.”— Michael Mirolla, author of The Formal Logic of Emotion and Berlin“One of the most original and thought-provoking stories I have ever read...true literary art...Not a word is wasted in this masterpiece. Yes, I call it that... -
![Zombie by Chuck Palahniuk]()
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... -
![John Dies at the End by David Wong, Jason Pargin]()
John Dies at the End by David Wong, Jason Pargin
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsJohn Dies at the End is a genre-bending, humorous account of two college drop-outs inadvertently charged with saving their small town—and the world—from a host of supernatural and paranormal invasions... -
![氣球人 by Chan Ho-Kei, 陳浩基]()
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![Shadows of Death by H.P. Lovecraft]()
Shadows of Death by H.P. Lovecraft
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsDescend into the nerve-shattering realm of America’s master of horror, H. P. Lovecraft–to a dank place where gloomy maelstroms await the unwary, where the unnatural is surpassed only by the unspeakable, and where all pleasure is perverse. Take a chance. . . . All you can lose is your sanity...Categorized as:
family literary-fiction adult anthologies classics contemporary cosmic-horror fiction -
![EVER by Blake Butler]()
EVER by Blake Butler
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFiction. Within the psychic architecture that is EVER, Blake Butler explores the way bodies swell and contract, going from skin to house and back again. And the way houses too shrink to fit us first like clothing and then like skin and then tighter still. The result is a strange, visionary ontological dismemberment that takes you well beyond what you'd ever expect--Brian Evenson... -
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![Camp Sylvania by Julie Murphy]()
Camp Sylvania by Julie Murphy
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFrom the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Dumplin’ and Dear Sweet Pea comes a hilarious and spooky middle grade summer-camp story that takes a bite out of fat camp.Magnolia “Maggie” Hagen is determined to be in the spotlight...if she can just get over her stage fright... -
![Through the Night Like a Snake: Latin American Horror Stories by Tomás Downey, Mariana Enriquez]()
Through the Night Like a Snake: Latin American Horror Stories by Tomás Downey, Mariana Enriquez
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA boy explores the abandoned house of a dead fascist…A leaked sex tape pushes a woman to the brink…A sex worker discovers a dark secret among the nuns of the pampas…The mountain fog is not what it seems…Kermit the Frog dreams of murder…In ten chilling stories from an ensemble cast of contemporary Latin American writers, including Mariana Enriquez (tr. Megan McDowell), Camila Sosa Villlada (tr...Categorized as:
literary-fiction horror fiction anthologies contemporary paranormal latinx-mc spooky -
![V. by Thomas Pynchon]()
V. by Thomas Pynchon
Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsThe wild, macabre tale of the twentieth century and of two men—one looking for something he has lost, the other with nothing much to lose—and "V.," the unknown woman of the title...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult anthologies classics contemporary -
![Good Night, Sleep Tight by Brian Evenson]()
Good Night, Sleep Tight by Brian Evenson
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratings“PERHAPS TOMORROW I WILL WAKE UP ANOTHER PERSON. PERHAPS TOMORROW I WILL WAKE UP NOT A PERSON AT ALL.”From the “master of literary horror” (GQ) comes a collection of new stories tracing the limits and consequences of artificial intelligence and “post-human” relationships... -
![The Morning Star by Karl Ove Knausgård]()
The Morning Star by Karl Ove Knausgård
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsIt's a normal night in August. Literature professor Arne and artist Tove are with their children at the resort in southern Norway. Their friend, Egil, a driver by day, is staying in a cabin nearby. Kathrine, a priest, is on her way home from a seminar, the journalist Jostein is out on the town, and his wife Turid, who is an assistant nurse, has a night shift... -
![Angel Dust Apocalypse by Jeremy Robert Johnson]()
Angel Dust Apocalypse by Jeremy Robert Johnson
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsMeth-heads, man-made monsters, and murderous Neo-Nazis. Blissed out club kids dying at the speed of sound. The un-dead and the very soon-to-be-dead. They're all here, trying to claw their way free...Categorized as:
literary-fiction adult anthologies apocalyptic contemporary fiction graphic-violence horror -
![Dusty's Diary: One Frustrated Man's Zombie Apocalypse Story by Bobby Adair]()
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... -
![Last Another Day by Baileigh Higgins]()
Last Another Day by Baileigh Higgins
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsHumanity falls...Trapped in the shower by her undead husband, Morgan prays for rescue but quickly realizes she's on her own. She escapes, only to find that the horror has spread and now threatens everything she holds dear. With each passing moment, death becomes more certain.Logan returns to his childhood home and teams up with Max, an army deserter racing against the clock to save his family...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction action-adventure alternate-history apocalyptic audiobook book contemporary -
![One of the Boys by Jayne Cowie]()
One of the Boys by Jayne Cowie
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIf you could test your son for a gene that predicts violence, would you do it?Antonia and Bea are sisters, and doting mothers to their sons. But that is where their similarities end.Antonia had her son tested to make sure he didn’t possess the "violent" M gene.Bea refuses to let her son take the test. His life should not be determined by a positive or negative result... -
![Uncanny by Sarah Fine]()
Uncanny by Sarah Fine
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsTwo sisters. One death. No memories.Cora should remember every detail about the night her stepsister, Hannah, fell down a flight of stairs to her death, especially since her Cerepin—a sophisticated brain-computer interface—may have recorded each horrifying moment. But when she awakens after that night, her memories gone, Cora is left with only questions—and dread of what the answers might mean... -
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![A Better World by Sarah Langan]()
A Better World by Sarah Langan
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe author of Good Neighbors , “one of the creepiest, most unnerving deconstructions of American suburbia” (NPR), returns with a provocative and disconcerting novel about a woman questioning her new home in an exclusive company town after a night out goes terribly wrong.Welcome to Plymouth Valley... -
![How Best to Avoid Dying by Owen Egerton]()
How Best to Avoid Dying by Owen Egerton
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratings[i]Lazarus Dying[/i]: the man Jesus raised from the dead is alive and living in New York City. [i]The Fecalist[/i]: an author whose best selling work is his latest poop. [i]Christmas[/i]: she loves you, you love her, she has a gun in your mouth. Welcome to the award-winning short fiction of Owen Egerton... -
![Road Seven by Keith Rosson]()
Road Seven by Keith Rosson
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratings2021 IPPY Award Bronze Medalist - Best Fantasy NovelMark Sandoval—resolutely arrogant, covered head to foot in precise geometric scarring, and still marginally famous after Hollywood made an Oscar-winner based off his memoir years before—has been strongly advised by his lawyer to leave the country following a drunken and potentially fatal hit and run... -
![The Things That Keep Us Here by Carla Buckley]()
The Things That Keep Us Here by Carla Buckley
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsHow far would you go to protect your family?Ann Brooks never thought she’d have to answer that question. Then she found her limits tested by a crisis no one could prevent. Now, as her neighborhood descends into panic, she must make tough choices to protect everyone she loves from a threat she cannot even see...Categorized as:
family literary-fiction action-adventure apocalyptic audiobook book contemporary disaster -
![The Monkey's Paw by Diane Mowat, W.W. Jacobs]()
The Monkey's Paw by Diane Mowat, W.W. Jacobs
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsWithout, the night was cold and wet, but in the small parlour of Laburnam Villa the blinds were drawn and the fire burned brightly. Father and son were at chess, the former, who possessed ideas about the game involving radical changes, putting his king into such sharp and unnecessary perils that it even provoked comment from the white-haired old lady knitting placidly by the fire... -
![Good Morning, Midnight by Lily Brooks-Dalton]()
Good Morning, Midnight by Lily Brooks-Dalton
Rated: 3.91 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsAugustine, a brilliant, aging astronomer, is consumed by the stars. For years he has lived in remote outposts, studying the sky for evidence of how the universe began. At his latest posting, in a research center in the Arctic, rumors of war arrive. The scientists are forced to evacuate, but Augustine stubbornly refuses to abandon his work...Categorized as:
family literary-fiction 21st-century action-adventure adult apocalyptic audiobook book -
![Spider Kiss by Harlan Ellison]()
Spider Kiss by Harlan Ellison
Rated: 3.80 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsHe claims he's not a fan of rock-and-roll, but somehow Harlan Ellison's seminal novel based on the career of Jerry Lee Lewis ended up in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. One of the first -- and still one of the best -- dissections of the wildly destructive rock-and-roll lifestyle, Spider Kiss isn't about giant cockroaches that attack Detroit or space invaders that smell like chicken soup... -
![Empty Space: A Haunting by M. John Harrison]()
Empty Space: A Haunting by M. John Harrison
Rated: 3.80 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThis space adventure begins with the following dream: An alien research tool the size of a brown dwarf star hangs in the middle of nowhere, as a result of an attempt to place it equidistant from everything else in every possible universe... -
![Extinction Journals by Jeremy Robert Johnson]()
Extinction Journals by Jeremy Robert Johnson
Rated: 3.80 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsYou can survive a nuclear blast. All you need is some luck, and maybe a customized business suit coated in cockroaches. It could work. At least that's what Dean believed before the bombs actually dropped and his suit led him to murder a Very Important Man at the foot of a blackened obelisk. Now D.C. is looking awfully empty. Life on Earth is pretty much coming to an end...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction action-adventure adult apocalyptic book contemporary dystopia -
![Mars by Asja Bakić]()
Mars by Asja Bakić
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsMars showcases a series of unique and twisted universes, where every character is tasked with making sense of their strange reality. One woman will be freed from purgatory once she writes the perfect book; another abides in a world devoid of physical contact. With wry prose and skewed humor, an emerging feminist writer explores post-Soviet promises of knowledge, freedom, and power...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction 21st-century action-adventure adult anthologies contemporary dystopia -
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![2 B R 0 2 B by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.]()
2 B R 0 2 B by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 37 ratingsThis Seedbox Classics edition of 2 B R 0 2 B or 2BR02B includes illustrations.2 B R 0 2 B by Kurt Vonnegut is a science fiction story that focuses on a society where individuals have an indefinite lifespan and the population of the United States is limited to forty million. In order for a new birth to take place, someone else must die...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies audiobook classics contemporary -
![Omon Ra by Victor Pelevin]()
Omon Ra by Victor Pelevin
Rated: 3.89 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsVictor Pelevin's novel Omon Ra has been widely praised for its poetry and its wickedness, a novel in line with the great works of Gogol and Bulgakov. Omon is chosen to be trained in the Soviet space program the fulfillment of his lifelong dream...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction 20th-century 21st-century action-adventure adult audiobook book -
![Severance by Ling Ma]()
Severance by Ling Ma
Rated: 3.89 of 5 stars · 49 ratingsCandace Chen, a millennial drone self-sequestered in a Manhattan office tower, is devoted to routine. So she barely notices when a plague of biblical proportions sweeps New York. Then Shen Fever spreads. Families flee. Companies halt operations. The subways squeak to a halt. Soon entirely alone, still unfevered, she photographs the eerie, abandoned city as the anonymous blogger NY Ghost...Categorized as:
family humor literary-fiction 21st-century action-adventure adult alternate-history apocalyptic -
![Fourth World by Kate Thompson]()
Fourth World by Kate Thompson
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe first book in a trilogy about terrifying genetic experiments. Danny is different. He's slower than other kids his age, and prone to violent outbursts. But when Danny runs off to find his biological mother, his older stepbrother Christie impulsively follows him. Along the way the two boys are joined by a runaway girl, a bird, and a dog that can speak to humans... -
![The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil: *Includes The In Persuasion Nation Collection by George Saunders]()
The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil: *Includes The In Persuasion Nation Collection by George Saunders
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsBook Description Welcome to Inner Horner, a nation so small it can only accommodate one citizen at a time. The other six citizens must wait their turns in the Short-Term Residency Zone of the surrounding country of Outer Horner. It's a long-standing arrangement between the fantastical, not-exactly-human citizens of the two countries... -
![The Cranes That Build The Cranes by Jeremy Dyson]()
The Cranes That Build The Cranes by Jeremy Dyson
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsJeremy Dyson is a master of the macabre, of stories brimming with black humour and the promise of something sinister just around the corner. In this collection he explores the dark depths of the human condition, offering tales of death, disaster and - just occasionally - redemption...
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