I read “Tender is the Flesh” last summer and LOVED it. The ending floored me. I have been in search for another book/author that gives me those same feelings but haven’t found anything. Just finished “I’m thinking of ending things” by Iain Reid (Saw several recommendations for this one) and found it long, drawn out and the twist predictable. I was disappointed.
Not really into crime mysteries.
Not into vampires.
Not into any sci-fi but I think I like more dystopian.. like shocking but believable scenarios.
I love twists.
I feel hard to please but hoping someone has some good suggestions!
by llfretwell
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This description sounds like you might like
How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu. It’s both shocking and believable. I was floored by the depth of each scenario/story
Prophet Song by Paul Lynch is very realistic and is more about the slow boil of authoritarianism in one particular family.
So not a novel, but have you read Things We Lost In The Fire? It’s a collection of short horror stories. Some have a supernatural element but some due not, all are very grounded but dark and often sickening. You might enjoy.4
On The Road by Cormac McCarthy is also an extremely unsettling but grounded dystopian but not “hard sci fi” novel/novella length book which resembles Tender is the Flesh in many ways and is also similar in that it is very very well written– and even has some bonus cannibalism! I would definitely recommend.
I hated The Road honestly. You might like Cormac McCarthy’s writing, but I couldn’t get behind it. Same with the Handmaids Tale.
Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune (2052-2072) by M. E. O’Brian and Eman Abdelhadi is fun. It’s post apocalyptic but without much structure.
You’d probably like Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower, which is very dystopian. Think post capitalist hellscape-and it takes place today.