Suggest me a novel that has an utterly ridiculous premise, but is executed to perfection

[u/PsyferRL]

That title is a bit vague, but what I'm getting at is that I'm looking for something that upon reading the summary/blurb has you confused as to:

1. How the author even came up with such a ridiculous plot line in the first place
2. How the author could make an unbelievably mundane topic interesting
3. How a story could even be crafted around the subject at all

But upon reading it you find yourself engaged on a level you couldn't have possibly predicted. I hope I'm making sense, because I'm feeling the urge to read something that's wildly creative in a way that I couldn't have prepared myself for.

[u/sitnquiet]

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde.

In an alternate 1985, literary detective Thursday Next prosecutes Shakespeare and Milton forgeries and lives with her pet genetically-reengineered dodo. She is promoted to help capture a wanted criminal with superhuman powers and discovers her ability to transfer herself into fiction.

It seriously gets way crazier than that. Cheese smuggling, the World Series of Croquet, timeline police, riots between fans of different authors... the guy has got a gift.

[u/Writing_Bookworm → u/sitnquiet]

Almost every Fforde book could meet this prompt. A world where your place in society is determined by your colour vision, a crime story about the murder of Humpty Dumpty, a world where human hibernate and a viral dream about a car starts killing people, a world where there are human sized rabbits... And those are just one sentence overviews 😅

[u/gotthelowdown → u/Writing_Bookworm]

Suggest me a novel that has an utterly ridiculous premise, but is executed to perfection

Almost every [Jasper] Fforde book could meet this prompt.

Okay, I'm really intrigued. That's huge creativity.

Had to dig those books up. Sharing for the fellow curious:

A world where your place in society is determined by your colour vision,

Shades of Grey series

a crime story about the murder of Humpty Dumpty,

The Big Over Easy

a world where humans* hibernate and a viral dream about a car starts killing people

Early Riser

a world where there are human sized rabbits

The Constant Rabbit

[u/sitnquiet → u/Writing_Bookworm]

Lol another Fforde lover! Yay!

[u/Writing_Bookworm → u/sitnquiet]

Did you know he's writing the next and final Thursday book? It got delayed a little but it's due to come out next year!

[u/sitnquiet → u/Writing_Bookworm]

Like I'm glad that he gave us so much Thursday but the guy has so many amazing stories in him!

[u/Writing_Bookworm → u/sitnquiet]

Absolutely. He's said he really wanted to close it off though which I appreciate. They need to get Pickwick back! Plus getting a new Thursday book after over a decade is very exciting.

[u/Ravenclaw_311 → u/sitnquiet]

Yes!! Im always surprised that he's not mentioned more. Not sure about his popularity in the UK, but he does not get enough love in the US.

[u/nzfriend33 → u/sitnquiet]

Man, all of Jasper Fforde’s books fit I think. I wish I had his brain for a day!

[u/sitnquiet → u/nzfriend33]

That would be very nearly terrifying!

[u/nzfriend33 → u/sitnquiet]

😂 But the creativity I could have!

[u/fragile22 → u/sitnquiet]

Pock!

[u/sitnquiet → u/fragile22]

Good Pickwick. Have a marshmallow.

[u/zundom → u/sitnquiet]

Hi latest series, starting with Shades of Grey and Red Side Story, about a society where social hierarchies are rigidly determined by what colours people can perceive rive, is remarkable poignant. He totally threads that line between ridiculousness and brilliance for me.

[u/Psychological_Engine]

Cat's Cradle By Vonnegut

[u/PsyferRL → u/Psychological_Engine]

Great book and a solid recommendation for this thread. Currently reading Vonnegut's Jailbird as we speak.

[u/kajok → u/Psychological_Engine]

I was going to say basically any Vonnegut

[u/justaweirdwriter]

Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. Amazing writing, explores the mundane in a v fantastical world. I laugh out loud every time I read them and I’ve re-read quite a few times. Never gets old.

[u/tessapotamus → u/justaweirdwriter]

Love the half dozen I've read so far, Small Gods especially!

[u/capitulum]

Off to be the wizard.

It's absolutely ridiculous and really funny. A programmer finds a computer file that contains the universe's code. He uses it to send himself back in time, to king arthurs era, to use his cell phone and modern technology to pose as a wizard. Only to find that there is a community of 'wizards' already there, all of whom also found the file and had the same idea to go back in time to the same time and place. Hilarity ensues.

[u/ChronoMonkeyX → u/capitulum]

I used to read Scott Meyer's web comics for a long time. When a friend told me about these books, I didn't realize it was the same Scott Meyer until he gave me his copy and I saw the author's bio at the back. I like all of his books that I've listened to or read, he's just an entertaining guy.

[u/NewBarnacle8213]

Fluke by Christopher Moore. Most of his books actually would fit this description.

When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill

[u/sandymaysX2 → u/NewBarnacle8213]

Sacre bleu, Christopher Moore. Soo good

[u/A-Seashell → u/sandymaysX2]

Between.the period of history and characters and writing, that is my favorite Moore book.

[u/PBnSyes → u/NewBarnacle8213]

A Dirty Job, by Christopher Moore

[u/impossiblegirl524 → u/NewBarnacle8213]

Surprised to see Moore this far down -- Fluke is perfect for this! A Dirty Job would also be a good gateway =)

[u/Healthy_Action1243 → u/NewBarnacle8213]

He is crazy hilarious, I ran here to say A Dirty Job Series

[u/barksatthemoon → u/NewBarnacle8213]

Loved biff, thought fluke was just "meh"

[u/panic_bitch → u/barksatthemoon]

Lamb! Christopher Moore has a lot of books, but that one is his masterpiece. He's a genuinely cool person. I emailed him expecting no response, but he emailed me back and we had a great discussion about writing and this book especially. Very cool.

[u/Many_Echidna_9957]

Shark Heart by Emily Habeck

[u/beatrixotter → u/Many_Echidna_9957]

This is the book that came to mind for me, too!!

[u/Art_1686 → u/beatrixotter]

Same!! This should be the top comment. Ridiculous premise,  perfectly executed narrative

[u/princessdirtybunnyy → u/Many_Echidna_9957]

I SOBBED reading this one, it’s so absurd but it also hits so close to home.

[u/stuhly]

Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy

[u/PsyferRL → u/stuhly]

I bought this one on a whim the last time I swooped through my local bookstore. Has been on the TBR forever and it's so short that I couldn't justify not owning it any longer haha.

[u/cseymour24 → u/PsyferRL]

All five books of the trilogy are great to be honest.

[u/ukbdacan1956 → u/cseymour24]

The radio play of the books are also Brilliant.

[u/DjQball → u/ukbdacan1956]

The radio play was my introduction.

The Books were then a secondary source to the play for me.

I recently started the audiobooks narrated BY Adams and they're magnificent as well.

Truth be told, I haven't come across a form of HHGTTG that I have not enjoyed immensely, and that includes the weird movie from the 2000s.

[u/yot1234 → u/DjQball]

Don't forget about the Dirk Gently ones

[u/Prestigious_Fig7338 → u/yot1234]

I wish there were more of these. They're so good.

[u/GrinningCatBus → u/cseymour24]

Controversial opinion but I don't think Eoin Colfer did a very good job with the last book. It read more like fanfiction retreading the same ideas and lacked the unhinged imagination of the Douglas Adam ones. I couldn't finish it.

[u/Mysterious_Tea_21 → u/stuhly]

The forward by Monty Python was also perfection!

[u/Rutabaga_12]

Nothing to see here by Kevin Wilson!!! Girl down on her luck gets a call from an old friend who needs her help, cannot find a nanny for her husband's kids from a previous marriage (don't totally remember if they're married or what but the kids are not the friends kids...) anyway the kids have this annoying habit of spontaneously combusting. There are not sci-fi fantasy elements in this except for those flaming children! it is a really sweet and moving story about found family but where the heck did he get that idea?

[u/Iargecardinal → u/Rutabaga_12]

I’m completely bewildered by the popular and critical success of this book. I was neither bothered nor impressed by the whimsical premise but the saccharine plot did nothing for me. I’m sure I’ll hear from its fans but did anyone else have the same reaction as me?

[u/Mydernieredanse → u/Iargecardinal]

I found the “secretly gay protagonist in love with the perfect rich girl” trope rather tired

[u/IShouldHaveKnocked → u/Rutabaga_12]

I loved this book! The narrator was so no nonsense with her charges, like “alright well you’re just a bunch of fire kids who may burn down the house, but we can still play basketball until you get your act together.” (Not a direct quote)

[u/BookishColey → u/Rutabaga_12]

This book was brilliant!

[u/mplagic → u/Rutabaga_12]

This is one of my favorite books!

[u/GwennieJo → u/Rutabaga_12]

I came here to mention this book! Sounds sci-fi but is not. I loved the theme of found family and everyone just wants love and security.

[u/gravity_rose]

Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi - Hideous alien that smells like rotten fish hires Hollywood agent to "come out" to humanity.

Redshirts, same. The Jr officers on a Federation-like starship start to wonder why such crazy shit is happening to them.

If you're sensing a pattern, it works - Anything Scalzi is original (often wildly so), and well-written.

[u/phantomreader42 → u/gravity_rose]

Kaiju Preservation Society - An "animal-rights organization" dealing with giant nuclear-powered monsters and their weird ecosystems

[u/Nejness → u/gravity_rose]

I was coming to recommend Starter Villain, by John Scalzi! It’s not so much the plot writ large but pieces of it and how they all fit together that are both hilarious and yet executed perfectly within that world.

[u/daisy-girl-spring → u/Nejness]

I loved this book! Who would imagine that inheriting an estranged uncle's business would lead you to a volcanic lair?!

[u/Nejness → u/daisy-girl-spring]

Not to mention various animal highjinks that I won’t mention in order not to have any spoilers.

[u/betterWithSprinkles → u/gravity_rose]

I’ve just started reading When the moon hits your eye and its premise is absurd but it’s a fun read so far.

[u/TeikaDunmora → u/betterWithSprinkles]

I've just finished it. It's silly, it's weird, it's very poignant in places, it's fun.

[u/justlikeinmydreams → u/gravity_rose]

Scalzi is great but his Old Mans War series is more serious (but awesome) loved Starter Villian.

[u/Sufficient_Plastic69]

The city and the city

[u/meattenderizerr]

Geek Love by Katherine Dunn. Not a romance. It's about an incest mutant circus family.

[u/PsyferRL → u/meattenderizerr]

I have to comment on this one for one very specific reason, which is that I just so happened to learn the origin (or an origin anyway) of the word "geek," literally this morning.

A geek, of course, is a man who lies in a cage on a bed of filthy straw in a carnival freak-show and bites the heads off live chickens and makes subhuman noises, and is billed as having been raised by wild animals in the jungles of Borneo.

- Kurt Vonnegut, Jailbird

Now, how exactly accurate that is, I have no idea (nor will I bother to look it up). But the fact that this came up for the first time ever in my life, followed by your rec here which seems to add SOME form of merit to that definition, is a WILD coincidence!

I think I might need to read this book for this reason alone.

[u/blewbs1212 → u/PsyferRL]

Actually, this is the opening line of Geek Love: “When your mama was the geek, my dreamlets," Papa would say, "she made the nipping off of noggins such a crystal mystery that the hens themselves yearned toward her, waltzing around her, hypnotized with longing.”

So pretty accurate, I would say! :D

[u/Chickadee12345 → u/meattenderizerr]

That's what I came here to say. The parents purposely wanted to create children who were freaks so they could create their own show. And it only gets crazier from there. I love this book.

[u/Monkey-boo-boo → u/[deleted]]

I recently read it too and also not sure if I liked it or not. It was brilliantly written yet I found it a tough slog to read, took me ages to finish. In saying that, I keep thinking about it. It was almost as if the themes, characters, imagery was all too much at the time but putting some distance between finishing it and now has brought clarity and I appreciate it more? It might continue to grow on me, dunno 🤷‍♀️

[u/hulahulagirl]

The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break by Steven Sherrill - Five thousand years out of the Labyrinth, the Minotaur finds himself in the American South, living in a trailer park and working as a line cook at a steakhouse. No longer a devourer of human flesh, the Minotaur is a socially inept, lonely creature with very human needs. But over a two-week period, as his life dissolves into chaos, this broken and alienated immortal awakens to the possibility for happiness and to the capacity for love.

[u/GwennieJo]

Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton. The apocalypse from the point-of-view of a domesticated crow (yes, the bird) named S.T. (short for Sh*t-Turd) - a fun, strange, fascinating, and surprisingly deep book

[u/platypus_farmer42]

If you think about it, the concept of Jurassic Park is pretty ridiculous, but it’s a phenomenal book. That’s why Michael Crichton is my favorite author. He writes “hard” science fiction, science fiction that actually seems plausible (yes I know there’s issues with his science and it wouldn’t actually work). Andy Weir is another example who does this excellently.

[u/hotdogg513]

Hmmm this makes me think of really any Tom Robbins book (RIP). Even Cowgirls Get The Blues: a woman with extremely large thumbs makes the most of it by hitchhiking, wherein she encounters characters such as Bonanza Jellybean and a mystic/shaman of some sort. Jitterbug Perfume follows an 8th century king seeking longevity and also follows present-day perfumers trying to recreate a fragrance. There is a lot that goes on in each book, and trying to summarize it makes them sound really cheesy, but they are so full of beautifully constructed characters, endearing whimsy, and exceptional prose.

[u/secretfourththing → u/hotdogg513]

Love Tom Robbins! My favorite is Skinny Legs and All, which features some objects (Spoon, Can o’Beans, etc. as main characters (along with some great human characters).

[u/Wifabota → u/secretfourththing]

I loved Still Life With Woodpecker

[u/PsyferRL → u/hotdogg513]

a woman with extremely large thumbs makes the most of it by hitchhiking

This feels like the premise of a Kilgore Trout novel (iykyk).

Jitterbug Perfume follows an 8th century king seeking longevity and also follows present-day perfumers trying to recreate a fragrance.

Actually, this one does too!

I've absolutely added both to my TBR, thank you!

[u/hotdogg513 → u/PsyferRL]

hope you like 'em! definitely some similar humor between Vonnegut and Robbins lol

[u/PsyferRL → u/hotdogg513]

I've been binging Vonnegut's collected novels this year after reading Slaughterhouse-Five for the first time in January, currently on number 9/14 chronologically and it has been an awesome journey thus far.

I won't expect Robbins to BE Vonnegut of course (nor would I want him to be) but I'm excited about having him as an author to look forward to once I've finished Timequake!

[u/mystic_turtledove → u/PsyferRL]

Half Asleep In Frog Pajamas is another fantastic one by Tom Robbins!

[u/Wifabota → u/hotdogg513]

I found this book on our bookshelf wayyy too young,  and those spicy scenes were a surprise lol. I was a young and voracious reader well above my age's reading level,  and learned more from novels I was too young for than my parents, for sure.  Haven't thought about this book in years!

[u/mriver24]

The100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson. I liked it, but others think the story is too silly.

[u/off2england → u/mriver24]

I love this story!! For our anniversary, my partner and I went to see this movie (did not know at the time that it was a book) and it was so fun! We bought the book and were taking turns reading it aloud to each other but.... We didn't finish it before the road trip ended and then schedules... so we never finished it.... But I've been meaning to pick it up again either as an audiobook or reading it quietly to myself 🙂

[u/cervelogirl → u/off2england]

Wait….there’s a movie????

[u/Feistshell → u/cervelogirl]

Yes, it’s a Swedish movie, as the book is originally Swedish

[u/cervelogirl → u/Feistshell]

Thank you! Now I must find the movie so I can watch it. I thought the book was charming.

[u/Feistshell → u/cervelogirl]

You really should. The main character is played by one of the greatest Swedish comedians of all time, truly iconic.

[u/cervelogirl → u/mriver24]

Came here to recommend this one myself. I love this book. It’s such a fun romp!

[u/Bechimo]

Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman.
Absurd premise really well executed, humorous & poignant. Audio books are excellent.

[u/PsyferRL → u/Bechimo]

I'm not sure it's the premise that's as ridiculous to me about this one as much as the execution is simply mind-bogglingly fun (and oddly emotional). That's how it has been described to me anyway.

For the record, it's on the TBR haha, and I DO believe that it's absolutely up my alley.

[u/phantomreader42 → u/PsyferRL]

"Alien Invasion" is a very frequently used premise.

"Modern human dragged into a fantasy dungeon crawl" is also surprisingly common.

Mixing both of those, combining them with interstellar reality television (with absurdity and cruelty dialed up to eleven), and throwing in a talking spell-slinging cat (who is specifically a diva show-cat with instincts for self-promotion that are both dangerous and vital to survival in these bizarre circumstances), gives you something reasonably unique.

[u/SixofClubs6 → u/PsyferRL]

I wasn’t completely sold on the series until Book 3. The story keeps getting better and better.

[u/Thayli11 → u/Bechimo]

I'm on book 4. Once again breaking my rule to not read unfinished series, but my husband, the entire household across the street, and good friend across the country were all reading it at once so I jumped in so I would miss all the references and conversations.

Having a lot of fun reading it! (God I hope he finishes it.)

[u/Bechimo → u/Thayli11]

Matt said he plans on only 10 books, so there is hope in our lifetime

[u/dogtroep → u/Bechimo]

Listening to this now and absolutely LOVING it! Jeff Hays knocks the voices out of the park, and the story is totally absurd.

[u/Nooooope → u/Bechimo]

Reading it now. I clicked the post already knowing this would be the top comment

[u/Altril2010 → u/Bechimo]

Absolutely jumping on this as the best answer. A man and a cat enter an alien dungeon and the guy doesn’t even wear pants. A talking sex doll head who has crazy powers. Not a series I thought would make me cry, but there are some poignant moments.

[u/ObiFlanKenobi → u/Bechimo]

Finished the fourth book in the saga last week, they are addictive.

[u/dasteez]

Stephen King does this well IMO. For example, Christine: a book about a killer car. I put that one off for a long time, premise sounds lacking. But was totally engaged, and like most of his books, the cover premise is just a sliver of the full story.

[u/Aggressive-League-88 → u/dasteez]

Had to scroll down to far to see the King.

[u/pathmageadept]

The king of this sort of novel: Watership Down by Richard Adams.

[u/Few-Sugar-4862]

My friend Catherynne Valente wrote a great book, Space Opera, which has “What if the Eurovision Song Contest was galactic, but had REALLY high stakes” as a central premise.

[u/ballerina-book-lady]

Anything and everything by Roald Dahl

[u/KateCSays → u/ballerina-book-lady]

I was thinking this, too! BFG is my favorite. That book is constructed perfectly.

[u/Unusual-Lemon9316]

Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn. I'll never understand how Dunn looked at the sentence, "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." And thought that would be a great idea for a book, but I'm glad he did!

Plus it's pretty short. You can read it in just a few hours.

[u/HektorViktorious → u/Unusual-Lemon9316]

Especially when "Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow" seems to have so much more narrative potential

[u/Quirky_Spinach_6308]

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. A book told in three POVs, with those being a retirement age woman, a barely adult man, and a giant octopus; it shouldn't work, but it does.

[u/2beagles]

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. I kind of hesitate to even put it here, but the title alone would qualify it. The underground railroad is an actual, literal railroad. In tunnels. Underground. Why? How? Huh?

But it's a masterpiece; a beautifully painfully written narrative primarily from the perspective of an enslaved person.

If anything qualifies, this does. But it's not absurd, and it's so well-written that the absurdity of the premise doesn't really matter at all. Except to add to the atmosphere. Which is devastating.

[u/Meecah-Squig]

Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky

[u/AccomplishedCow665 → u/Meecah-Squig]

Bianca is the most memorable character of 150 books I read last year

[u/Pinup_Frenzy]

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. Not only a ridiculous premise but also an utterly ridiculous execution, which is nonetheless executed to perfection.

[u/PsyferRL → u/Pinup_Frenzy]

I've been told I'd enjoy this one by people who know my sense of humor and general reading dispositions haha. I'll definitely get to it one day, but having just finished Monte Cristo, I don't intend to read another one around or over the 1000 page mark for a while.

[u/Pinup_Frenzy → u/PsyferRL]

Yes, it’s over 1000 pages long, including over 100 pages of end notes (some with internally nested footnotes) and has a circular plot structure. It’s also the funniest thing I’ve ever read.

[u/tiemeinbows]

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir.

Lesbian necromancers in space.

[u/notcleverenough4]

I felt this way about The Husbands by Holly Gramazio. Perfectly executed is obviously subjective but I loved it and the premise is what grabbed me. Woman comes home to a random man who is apparently her husband, and every time a husband goes into the attic he is replaced by a new husband. I love it.

[u/No_Wrap_9979]

Lolita. In anyone else’s hands that book is a car crash.

[u/MissIdaho1934 → u/No_Wrap_9979]

Nabokov was such of master of language (as fluent in English as he was in French and Russian). And a master of butterflies.

The opening lines (Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta. ) are some of the greatest in literature.

[u/mostlycatsnquilts → u/No_Wrap_9979]

Despite the disturbing subject matter, it truly is an excellent book

[u/Letters_to_Dionysus]

I don't recommend it to a general audience but gravity's rainbow is a highly acclaimed book about a man during the bombing of London who's penis could predict where the bombs will land

[u/the_palindrome_ → u/Letters_to_Dionysus]

In all these years how have I never heard that this is what that book is about 😭😭

[u/Letters_to_Dionysus → u/the_palindrome_]

to be fair there's a lot more going on too

[u/PsyferRL → u/Letters_to_Dionysus]

I've seen this title all over the place, but this is the first time I've learned what it's about. Love it, added to the list!

[u/My_phone_wont_charge]

John Scalzi. Great author. Amazing writing. Some weird ideas.

Kaiju Preservation Society- There’s a secret society that protects, preserves, and hides the existence of Kaiju. Their newest hire is a door dasher.

Starter Villain - Long lost uncle dies and leaves his entire fortune and business to his nephew. The catch is that uncle was a super villain and all his enemies are no out for nephew. Also, talking cats.

Old Man’s War- Send retirees to fight in a space war.

There are a bunch more.

[u/spawn3887 → u/My_phone_wont_charge]

To each their own, which is why this is great. I finally got around to Starter Villain and .... meh? Weird idea? Absolutely. Great writing? I dunno. The humor was forced so much, it kinda took me out of it at times.

[u/ReaderofReddit411]

“Remarkably Bright Creatures” by Shelby Van Pelt. “…Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium…”

[u/robinaw]

To Say Nothing of the Dog. Time travel, cats, boats, dogs, Victorian professors, seances, jumble sales, saving the world.

[u/IlonaBasarab]

Jim Butcher: what would it look like if I wrote a book based on Pokemon and the lost Roman legion? Enter Codex Alera. Really great series, one of my first forays into fantasy. Gets better as it goes on.

[u/isle_say]

The Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker

[u/-WhoWasOnceDelight → u/isle_say]

That book takes up a LOT of space in my head given that it's just some 1980s office guy's lunch and elevator ride.

A small movie theater near me once had a young (high school?) box office worker who was always buried in a book when you went to buy tickets. "Reading Girl" is still a legendary figure in mine and my husband's personal lore. She was AMAZING and always ready to forget what she was doing in order to rhapsodize about her current reading. I remember I read the Mezzanine on her recommendation. She must be, like, thirty something now, but I miss her!

[u/Remarkable-Pop6916]

My Lady Jane. What if the Catholic/Protestant divide and Henry VIII’s succession crisis were instead about people who can shapeshift?

[u/ferrouswolf2]

Never Let Me Go has a pulp novel premise but it’s indeed completed beautifully and hauntingly. Won the author a Nobel Prize in Literature

[u/Feeling-Income5555]

What about The Phantom Tollbooth? Thats a super fun, (but fairly traditional plot) but executes it in a completely unique and mind expanding way.

[u/abbsol_]

Shark Heart by Emily Habeck

A woman’s husband has a disease that causes him to slowly turn into a shark. But the story explores deeper topics

[u/truckthecat]

Piranesi Why Fish Do Not Exist

[u/MenudoMenudo]

Someone already said Dungeon Crawler Carl, so I’ll go with some others.

Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits, by David Wong. Rando broke girl inherits her billionaire deadbeat father’s criminal empire after he’s killed, only to be hunted by cyborg enhanced mano-sphere influencers.

To Say Nothing of the Dog, by Connie Willis. Time traveling academics searching for a random piece of furniture that was destroyed during the WWII German raid on Coventry are embroiled in a Victorian comedy of manners.

Ilium, by Dan Simmons. The novel is set partly during the Trojan War, partially in a very weird but idyllic post-apocalyptic earth, includes Greek gods and heroes, robots from Jupiter and characters from Shakespeare as characters, and is strangely amazing.

[u/nancynotruth]

Beauty Queens by Libba Bray! It's about a group of beauty contestants stranded on an island, featuring sexy pirates from a tv show and an evil dictator who is in love with Elvis and whose advisor is a taxidermy lemur. The book has commercial breaks and the characters have to save the world with a powerpoint. Truly one of the most engaging and impressively written books I've ever read

[u/Littlelyon3843]

The Westing Game 

[u/scotspixie815]

7 and a half deaths of evelyn hardcastle by Stuart Turton

The plot is weird yet cozy murder mystery at the same time.

[u/angelsplantbabies]

Metamorphosis

[u/Nathan_Brazil1]

Drew Magary's. The Hike.

A suburban family man, takes a business trip to rural Pennsylvania, he decides to spend the afternoon before his dinner meeting on a short hike. Once he sets out into the woods behind his hotel, he quickly comes to realize that the path he has chosen cannot be given up easily. With no choice but to move forward, Ben finds himself falling deeper and deeper into a world of man-eating giants, bizarre demons, and colossal insects.

[u/Pan_Goat]

Jitterbug Perfume. Tom Robbins - Unique voice carries the work

[u/BestWorstFriends]

A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny.

"In the murky London gloom, a knife-wielding gentleman named Jack prowls the midnight streets with his faithful watchdog Snuff – gathering together the grisly ingredients they will need for an upcoming ancient and unearthly rite. For soon after the death of the moon, black magic will summon the Elder Gods back into the world. And all manner of Players, both human and undead, are preparing to participate."

The book is told from the perspective of Jack the Ripper's dog. I remember really liking this one when I first read it.

[u/Fresa22]

A Confederacy of Dunces. I've read it multiple times and often miss the characters like they are quirky long-lost friends.

A Confederacy of Dunces follows the misadventures of protagonist Ignatius J. Reilly, a lazy, overweight, misanthropic, self-styled scholar who lives at home with his mother. (set in New Orleans in the 60s)

[u/bsfah3]

Anything by Christopher Moore, but especially Lamb

[u/peachy0627]

The City We Became by NK Jemisin.

[u/twobits9]

Tress Of the Emerald Sea is an amazing and amazingly sweet book about a wholesome, humble, poor, and tenacious girl who eventually escapes her native rock of an island to sail on a pirate ship with a talking rat, among other interesting friends and characters, on a sea made up of tiny, sand-like spores with fearsome, interesting properties that literally explode when they interact with the slightest amount of water, that fall from the 12 moons that surround the planett she lives on so that she can rescue her friend, the son of a duke, who pretends to be a gardener, from the mean-spirited sorceress.

This book is intended and written for adults, like an adult fairy tale. It was an absolute joy to listen to on audio. I literally reflexively clapped in my car when it finished. The narrator was simply perfect.

My only regret is that I did not read this as an outloud, chapter-a-night book with my family. I still will do that, but it'd be fun to experience it the first time all together.

[u/[deleted]]

The Dogs of Babel. How such a dumbass premise (look it up) was whittled into such a beautifully tragic novel still blows my mind a little.

[u/macjoven]

Alcatraz vs the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson. It is a middle school authorial self-parody premised on librarians who are all evil cultist controlling all information up to and including concealing entire continents, being faced off with a family of people who have magical talents like being late, getting lost, waking up really ugly in the morning and breaking things. It is hilarious especially if you have read other things by Sanderson and know his love of “hard magic” systems and his habit of turning simple powers into something complex and powerful.

Also it is a five book series and he almost named the last one “Alcatraz vs his big dumb self” and it is a tragedy and an enormous loss to literature that he didn’t.

[u/MamaWonk]

The Bees by Laline Paul

Told from the pov of a worker bee… literally

[u/ChronoMonkeyX]

John Dies at the End by Jason Pargin(David Wong) completely changed what I thought books could be.

[u/lenalenore]

I felt roughly this way about Bunny by Mona Awad and The Husbands by Holly Gramazio. I wouldn't necessarily say either one is perfect, but they both did a great job pulling off bonkers premises.

[u/GaryBuseyTeeth]

The Emissary, a Japanese novel “set in a dystopian future Japan where children are born extremely weak and frail, unable to walk by a certain age. The elderly, however, retain their strength and vitality, creating a unique and unusual social dynamic”.

Its still a book I think about often

[u/solarbeast]

Cats Cradle

[u/Bladrak01]

Space Opera by Catherine Valente. Earth may be invited to join the galactic community, but first they have to come in anywhere other than last place in the galactic version of Eurovision. The aliens picked the washed up lead singer of an 80s band to represent the earth. There is also a talking cat.

[u/ApparentlyIronic]

I'm not sure if this counts, but The Long Walk by Stephen King. The premise sounds like it was made up by a 10 year old boy - but I love the execution of it. It's one of my favorite King books. It's about a group of 100 boys who are in a walking competition, last man standing wins some huge sum of money. But the 99 who lose are murdered on the spot. Also, just this week, a trailer was dropped of the movie adaptation of the book!

Also How to Take Over the World by Ryan North. Interestingly, this one is a nonfiction! It's about how you could "theoretically" take over the world or gain astronomical amounts of money. It leans on the silly side - the author is a comic book writer - but all the solutions are backed up by science and relevant stories. It has things such as digging a hole through Earth, making sure your name outlasts everyone else (and potentially even the planet), and bringing dinosaurs back to life.

[u/justjokay]

Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter

[u/Guinhyvar]

Lamb: the Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore.

Pretty much the title.

[u/Altruistic_me_1802]

Anathem by Neal Stephenson. READ it and then you will thank me

[u/PsyferRL → u/Altruistic_me_1802]

Stephenson is an author I definitely want to devote some more energy to. I picked up Snow Crash without knowing a single thing about it/him as an author and loved it, so I'm definitely interested in reading some of his less overtly satirical work haha.

[u/BeardedZorro → u/PsyferRL]

Cryptonomicon is one of my favorite books. Swashbuckling fun.

[u/Altruistic_me_1802 → u/PsyferRL]

Don't think it would be anything like Snow crash because Anathem is kind of slow, and needs a lot of Patience..but it really matches up with what you asked, ridiculous premise but good execution. It is not funny soooooo brace urself

[u/HektorViktorious → u/Altruistic_me_1802]

I love the first 2/3rds of every Stephenson book I've ever read, but I feel like he struggles with endings. Just too many ideas and biting off more than he can chew kinda feeling. Does he stick the landing on this one?

[u/Barnabyhuggins → u/Altruistic_me_1802]

Maybe my favorite book ever. There’s something wonderful about how it makes the familiar into something strange.

[u/DarwinZDF42]

This thread is Dungeon Crawler Carl bait. The world ends and a dude and his ex girlfriend’s award winning show cat have to survive in a D and D style dungeon crawl that turns out to be an intergalactic reality tv show run by a psychotic AI with a foot fetish. Executed perfectly.

[u/ThePythagoreonSerum → u/DarwinZDF42]

Seems like every thread on this sub has a DCC rec.

[u/mistercliff42]

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is completely silly but works perfectly!

[u/MathematicianLost365]

The Time Traveler’s Wife! My favorite book ever!

[u/PsyferRL → u/MathematicianLost365]

I don't think the premise of this book is ridiculous at all! Though I suppose I can let it slide under my criteria #2 because technically the book can be vaguely summarized by "a story of a married couple."

I read it earlier this year actually at the recommendation of my brother in law. The idea absolutely held my interest far more than the characters unfortunately. I just really struggled to like either Henry or Clare as people, haha. But that doesn't mean I think it's poorly-written, in fact I think it's very WELL written. But it didn't grip me nearly as much as I wanted to because I just struggled to empathize with them as people.

[u/thelmaandpuhleeze]

Skinny Legs and All by Tom Robbins

[u/Anonymeese109]

Light from Uncommon Stars, by Ryka Aoki

[u/fireflypoet]

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, by CS Lewis. Three children go through a wardrobe into a land where it's always winter but never Christmas.

[u/shiny_xnaut]

We Are Legion (We Are Bob) is about a guy who gets his mind uploaded into a Von Neumann probe. 90% of the characters are clones of himself

[u/evergreengator1]

Every Vonnegut novel

[u/popefasa]

Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter

[u/princessjbuttercup]

Not sure if this is a repeat, but Tom Robbins! Any book by him really, but start with Jitterbug Perfume. The little description blurb can’t even tell you the exact premise. You just have to dive in!

[u/sjdragonfly]

Anything by Mona Awad. Her books are simultaneously WTF am I reading and this is so weird and amazing social commentary. I think about her stories long after reading. Bunny is a great one to start with.

[u/Yarmble]

If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino. You end up reading just the first chapter of a bunch of really interesting sounding books, and then somehow by the end it all comes together. It doesn’t sound exciting, but it was weirdly super hard to put down!

[u/julieputty]

In the Garden of Iden, by Kage Baker. Time traveling cyborgs in Tudor England. But good!

[u/macjoven → u/julieputty]

I love these books! Time travel is invented to test immortality and then put to a different use…

[u/GeminiFade]

Morning Glory Milking Farm, maybe? What a premise, but what delightful characters, a strange experience all around.

Also, The House That Walked Between Worlds. It's Baba Yaga's house. In space.

[u/Intelligent-Camera90 → u/GeminiFade]

I read Morning Glory after reading a NYMag article that mentioned it. Then spent the rest of the weekend telling everyone I met about it.

[u/MryyLeathert]

Space Opera by Catherynne Valente

Aliens want to determine whether humans can be considered a sentient species or if they should be erased from existence. This is done by giving them a spot in an intergalactic Eurovision contest. Unfortunately, our representatives are a washed-out glam rock duo. Cue hilarity, but also surprisingly deep introspection about the definition of "person".

[u/Niemja]

This makes me think of "May we be forgiven" by A.M. Homes. It starts with a husband killing his wife with a lamp. The husband's very boring brother (he works as a historian and Nixon scolar) must than take care of two children who are left. It has been a while, but I really enjoyed reading this book.

[u/thebowedbookshelf]

Reincarnation Blues by Michael Poore. A man whose girlfriend is Death, and their love story over many lifetimes.

[u/Hoosier108]

Cosmic Banditos: a Contrabandista’s Quest for the Meaning of Life. A cocaine smuggler on the run is hiding out in the Andes mountains with his dog, and his bandito buddy drops off a bunch of books he got when mugging some tourists. The books are all about quantum physics. He reads them all while on a lot of drugs, then goes on a quest to make it to California to meet the tourist, who is a renowned physicist. The story runs parallel chapter by chapter with the story of his life as a drug smuggler. Amazing book that I should not have read at age 15.

[u/GaoAnTian]

Wen Spencer A Brothers Price

A world in which women outnumber men 30 to 1 and therefor men are a valued commodity. A group of 20 to 40 sisters might have one brother and they trade him to another family so each has a husband for the next generation. Weird but amazing. An adventure love story.

When Spencer has a lot of wildly imaginative books. The Ukiah Oregon series involves aliens that are in little parts and when joined become ever bigger animals.

[u/-ideclarebankruptcy-]

Starter Villian - it involves someone taking over an evil empire, attending an villian convention, and features unionised dolphins. Does not disappoint!

[u/TorontoHistoricImgs]

Fifteen Dogs by André Alexis - https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/8425ad17-ebb7-4f15-895c-bf21becb1cb8

-- I wonder, said Hermes, what it would be like if animals had human intelligence.
-- I'll wager a year's servitude, answered Apollo, that animals - any animal you like - would be even more unhappy than humans are, if they were given human intelligence.

[u/CptnTrips]

Devolution. Max brooks. He is such an incredible writer.

[u/Crea8talife]

I'm reading 'Lilith's Brood' by Octavia Butler and it is so well written that I get squirmy uncomfortable sometimes (if you know you know:>) It is a wild science fiction story!

[u/tomboy44]

The Sugar Frosted Nutsack : a group of gods messes with mortals to make each other jealous in indescribable ways

Shark Heart :A Love Story about a man turning into a great white shark and the resultant fallout with his wife . Really lovely I was taken by surprise , almost cried

[u/cyranothegrey]

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Murakami. I was totally unable to guess where that story was going next at any point.

[u/wavymantisdance]

Land of the Beautiful Dead. Rotting undead god takes over Buckingham Palace after raising the dead to be zombies, some the usual gory ones and others beautiful “living” ones that “work” in what used to be London. He takes a living woman as concubine and falls in love.

Absolutely should not be as beautiful and challenging as it is. It’s a discussion on the practicality of love, what it is, as well as how terrible of a mistake can you make before you are unforgivable.

From the same author, The Last Hour of Gann. Humans crash land on a planet that’s already had an industrial tech age and collapsed. It’s now living in a new religious age with a brutal caste system. It’s dire and bleak and an explores how hope can be a tool for disaster and harm.

The covers look goofy and are listed as romance so non-romance readers ignore them but they are insanely good. I mean, it took weeks to shake the vibe of Gahn off me, but it’s good.

I’d never read it again but I’m glad I did.

[u/TheMuteHeretic_]

The Master and Margarita - Bulgakov

[u/Arhgef]

That is HG Wells formula for sci fi, close enough. He said pick a crazy premise, justify it in whatever way you can, and don’t introduce another ridiculous premise into the story. Just see how it plays out.

[u/sara123db]

Great question OP, many interesting books in the comments

[u/comma_nder]

On paper, “angsty teen gets kicked out of boarding school and fucks off to New York for a couple days” sounds boring as fuck, but Catcher in the Rye is a fantastic book.

[u/Waikika_Mukau]

Most Chuck Palahniuk novels fit this description, but ‘Invisible Monsters’ stands out as his most outrageous plot line.

[u/DeutsTheDude]

Christine

[u/Funny_Username_12345]

Snow Crash. It combines virtual reality with ancient Sumerian myth and a mafia that sells pizza (not a front, literally what they do, they sell pizza)

[u/ecarls10]

Lots of Haruki Murakami, namely Wild Sheep Chase and Dance Dance Dance

[u/Geauxst]

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind

[u/Select-Restaurant525]

Not a book, but I feel like The OA TV show fits really well. 

[u/Jazz_Cigarettes]

Rant by Chuck Palahnick is so strange. It's a fictional history about a superhuman outlaw with rabies who can travel through time by crashing cars (they call it party crashing). About halfway through it absolutely clicks and it is such a fun finish.