Specifically, I mean, they make you the personification of this gif:
Because sometimes that’s what you want from a book, right? You want it to make you feel ever so slightly (or maybe not slightly at all) insane. Well I have good news for you! Each of the 10 books here will provide just that. So, enjoy!
And hey, a lot of those titles are available on Scribd, so if you want to check out that service but don’t have an account yet, use my invite code to get 2 months for free! (This also gives me one free month.)
There Is a Light
Ban Gilmartin
Goodreads
Rep: biracial Indian Scottish gay mc with depression and anxiety, bi mc, Black trans side character, nonbinary side character
CWs: alcoholism, past drug use, past suicide, suicidal ideation
Why Should I Read It?
If you didn’t expect to see a Ban Gilmartin book on here, well I don’t know what to tell you. I haven’t, on some level, stopped thinking about this book ever since I read it about 3 months ago. It lives rent free in my mind. It’s a book that makes you want to gnaw your own arm off, and if that’s not the definition of “makes you feel feral”, I don’t know what is.
The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps
Kai Ashante Wilson
Goodreads
Bookshop UK
Rep: Black mcs, bi mc, gay li
CWs: casual homophobia, descriptions of gore
Why Should I Read It?
Normally, I am not a fan of open endings. Or, I’m an occasional fan of open endings, and this book is entirely proof of why. The ending is what elevates my feelings about this book to feral status. I mean, it’s a great book all round, but then… By which I mean, read it.
Devotion
Hannah Kent
Goodreads
Bookshop UK
Rep: lesbian mc, lesbian li
Why Should I Read It?
I knew this book would drive me insane from the first page of it. Nay, the first line of it. I mean, Thea, if love were a thing, it would be the sinew of a hand stretched in anticipation of grasping. See, my hands, they reach for you. My heart is a hand reaching. Who writes those words just like that? Who?
Beautiful World, Where Are You
Sally Rooney
Goodreads
Bookshop UK
Rep: bi mcs
CWs: mentions of self harm, depression
Why Should I Read It?
On the whole, Sally Rooney’s books have the ability to drive you up the wall in that specific kind of way, but Beautiful World, to me, is the one that does the most in that regard. I do not know how to describe this book, and I definitely don’t know how to describe it and do it justice. Honestly, you just have to read this one.
This is How You Lose the Time War
Amal el-Mohtar & Max Gladstone
Goodreads
Bookshop UK
Rep: sapphic mcs
Why Should I Read It?
What a surprise here we are, the original insanity inducing book. I’ve read this one four times (which reminds me, I’m probably due a reread), and each time it makes me want to scream even more. I know what’s going to happen and yet I still feel this way. That’s the sign of a great book.
Southernmost
Silas House
Goodreads
Bookshop UK
Rep: gay characters, lesbian character
CWs: homophobia
Why Should I Read It?
For this one, I offer just this one quote: (…) he has no idea how he might explain to a nine-year-old boy what it’s like to be convinced your whole life that your purpose is to judge others instead of being kind to them. How can he tell his son that one day he awoke, but this awakening took years? That living like that for so long nearly made him into a hollow thing? That the hollowing out caused him to collapse? Please. Just read this one.
The Clothesline Swing
Danny Ramadan
Goodreads
Rep: Syrian gay mc with seasonal depression, Syrian gay li, Syrian lesbian side character
CWs: homophobic language, homophobic violence, domestic abuse, suicide of side characters, antisemitic violence, rape, torture
Why Should I Read It?
There’s something specifically about poetic books that seems designed to drive you insane. Or maybe that’s just me. Or maybe that’s this book. Frankly, this book is gorgeous. This book should be considered a classic. If you don’t read this book, we cannot be friends, not even acquaintances.
The Thirty Names of Night
Zeyn Joukhadar
Goodreads
Rep: Syrian American trans gay mc, Syrian American gay li, Syrian sapphic mc, Syrian trans li, Syrian sapphic li, Black nonbinary character
CWs: Islamophobia, homophobia, transphobia, violence, death, blood
Why Should I Read It?
This is a novel about pain & grief, but at the same time it’s one about love & joy. it’s so very full of hope! There are two main romances (three, even), and all of them will make your heart ache. Not in a traumatising way, but in a “gay people truly always love the hardest” way.
The Traitor Baru Cormorant
Seth Dickinson
Goodreads
Bookshop UK
Rep: lesbian mc, bi side characters, side polyamory
CWs: colonial violence, homophobia
Why Should I Read It?
Unlike the rest of the books on here, this book makes you feel feral in a wholly different way. A way that I will not elaborate on in case of spoilers, but really, it’s just. A whole lot. The entire series is a whole lot. But so so brilliant and so so worth every atom of pain you experience.
She Who Became the Sun
Shelley Parker-Chan
Goodreads
Bookshop UK
Rep: Chinese & Mongolian cast, nonbinary lesbian mc, lesbian mc, gay mc, bi mc
CWs: violence
Why Should I Read It?
Remember when, in another post, I described this book like so: This is the kind of book where it’s a complete understatement to say it wrecked me. This book does not just wreck you. This book pulls out your heart with a pair of tweezers, stomps all over it, sets it on fire and, when it’s done, hands it back to you and says come back for the sequel!! And all you can do is say thank you. Yeah…
In conclusion:
What would you rec?
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