Was it only a dream?
Books have the remarkable ability to transport us to other worlds, but some narratives defy conventional reality altogether. These books feel like fever dreams— where the boundaries blur into a mesmerizing tapestry of imagination. Check out this selection that challenges our perceptions and leaves us questioning what is real.
House of Cotton by Monica Brashears
Magnolia Brown is nineteen years old, broke, and effectively an orphan. She feels stuck and haunted by her overdrawn bank account, her predatory landlord, and the ghost of her late grandmother, Mama Brown. One night, while working at her dead-end gas station job, a mysterious, slick stranger named Cotton offers to turn Magnolia’s luck around with a lucrative “modeling” job at his family’s funeral home. She accepts. But despite things looking up, Magnolia’s problems fatten along with her wallet. When Cotton’s requests become increasingly weird, Magnolia discovers there’s much more at stake than just her rent.
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The Extinction of Irena Rey by Jennifer Croft
Eight sophisticated literary translators, initially identified only by their respective target languages, convene at a remote cabin near the Belarussian border to collaborate on reverent translations of a significant new work by Irena Rey. But something seems off with the world-renowned novelist, and when she disappears, perhaps into the vast Bialowieza forest or perhaps into some other life form altogether, the group searches for clues and descends into disarray.
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Vampires of el Norte by Isabel Canas
When the US attacks Mexico in 1846, Nena, a healer striving to prove her worth, and Néstor, a member of the auxiliary cavalry of ranchers and vaqueros, find their reunion overshadowed by the appearance of a nightmare made flesh.
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Ghost Station by S.A. Barnes
While part of a small space exploration crew on an abandoned planet, a psychologist confronts a gruesome murder and twisted secrets as she races to prevent history from repeating itself in the form of a space-borne madness.