When was the last time you were fully immersed in a book? When you looked up from the page and took a moment to remember where you were, when the last time you drank water was, and wondered, since when had the sun gone down?
For a lot of us, it can be hard to balance our love for reading with the business of daily life. And in those times, it can be easy to reach for the books you feel like you can simply turn your brain off for. But while those books absolutely deserve their place on our bookshelves, there’s another side of the coin when it comes to some good old-fashioned escapism: a truly confusing, bewildering, disorienting read — the kind that makes you work for every plot point, the kind that makes you reach for the sticky notes for some frenzied annotating.
If you’re up to the challenge and looking for a book you can really sink your teeth into, these seven books are a great place to start. Spanning the length of what science fiction and fantasy have to offer, these secondary worlds are perfect for getting lost in, chock-full of deep lore and wild magic systems. All seven of these stories keep details close to the chest, taking one step above the “unreliable narrator” trope to become unreliable books themselves, proving to be as difficult as they are rewarding.
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
A World Fantasy Awards Finalist, the Winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction and New York Timesbestseller, Piranesi is as lauded as it is complex. The titular character’s entire identity is a mystery even to himself — he doubts that Piranesi is his true name, but doesn’t remember what else it could be. All Piranesi knows is the majestic building that he calls home, with its infinite rooms, its labyrinthine halls and the tides that ebb and flow through the house, flooding entire levels in mere hours. But Piranesi is happy to fulfill his duty as the explorer of the house, mapping out its levels at the behest of a person called “the Other.” But in this quest for “the Great and Secret Knowledge,” a scientific theory to immortality and other otherworldly powers, Piranesi notices some strange discrepancies to his beloved home. Why is there a shadowy figure on the edge of his vision? Why has he forgotten entire entries in the meticulous journals he’s kept over the course of his expeditions? The whole story only slowly reveals itself, just as the ebbing tide reveals more of the house for Piranesi to discover.
Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
The Locked Tomb series in and of itself is a difficult story to pin down. Described as a set of epic science fantasy novels, it pairs chivalric swordfighters with scientifically minded necromancers in a solar system made up of nine planet-Houses, all under the authority of a divine emperor. It would certainly be simpler to introduce to you the first book of the series, which explains at least a quarter of this. But for a set of books known for being confusing, the sequel is by far the one that takes the reader on the wildest ride — but also has the biggest payoff.
After a shocking end to the first book, Harrow the Ninth opens with a jarring shift to second person where it’s immediately clear that something is wrong with our new protagonist. In between Harrow’s present misadventures, the narrative also goes back to rewrite sections of the first book, with some pretty fundamental changes. The mystery here is twofold — why is the sequel looping back over the events of the first book, and why has Harrow seemingly forgotten her close companion of the first book, instead replacing her with a completely different individual? Exploring grief, the fallibility of memory, religious trauma and the pervasiveness of empire, Harrow the Ninth is a searing, unforgettable read that will leave you reeling.
The Archive Undying by Emma Mieko Candon
Confusion is imminent from the start when parts of the book’s opening glossary and dramatis personae are censored. Welcome to the world of The Archive Undying, where AI mech-gods tread the earth, each with their own patron city and priests. But when a god dies, it takes its city with it, and there’s no escaping their destruction — with one notable exception. Sunai, the book’s protagonist, has been wandering ever since the god of Khuon Mo granted him a second chance at life. Unchanged, unable to die or age, Sunai has fled from the religion he once held dear — a dense, intricate religion that readers must piece together in fits and starts. It’s a worship Sunai has sworn to stay away from, until he wakes up on a salvage rig headed towards some of the ruins of one of the AI gods he swore to leave behind. Interspersed through the narrative are passages from the perspective of Sunai’s now-dead patron deity, hinting at the details of the tragedy that befell the both of them. This book demands your time and concentration in order to truly grasp the gravity of its subject, making for a challenging but ultimately fulfilling read.
The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin
NK Jemisin’s brilliant, gut-wrenching novel is a book we’ve praised before, and for good reason. Part sci-fi, part environmental horror, part apocalyptic fiction, this unforgettable tale opens with the famous lines, “Let’s start with the end of the world, why don’t we? Get it over with and move on to more interesting things.” With such a strong introduction, the story hits the ground running and keeps going, always two steps ahead of the reader.
This winding second-person narrative follows a mother mourning the death of her young son and the kidnapping of her daughter, who she’s desperate to rescue amid the chaos of the end of the world. There’s an entirely unique, almost scientific magic system to keep track of, one with deeply political overtones and a slow, inescapable dread that permeates the text. This series is definitely not for the faint of heart, and checking content warnings is encouraged. But if you can, it’s well worth it to experience the serpentine plot and the dizzying main perspective that makes it clear all is not what it seems, right up to a twist that transforms the series entirely.
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
This political space opera follows Mahit, who’s just taken on the role of ambassador of the ever-expanding Teixcalaanli Empire to protect her own people from the threat of colonization. But as soon as she arrives on the Station, she discovers that her predecessor has died under suspicious circumstances. Even the Imago won’t reveal to her the truth — the Imago being a device implanted into the brains of ambassadors and other officials. These devices have recordings of the previous official’s memories and knowledge that can help future generations of the empire’s leaders to keep everything running. But by missing crucial parts of the late ambassador’s memories, Mahit must piece the mystery together on her own — all the while coming to the realization that she may be in danger of succumbing to the same fate.
Complex themes of consciousness and identity pervade the novel, as Mahit exists as both herself and the sum of the previous ambassador’s fractured memories. And amid this mind-tripping perspective, entries of various scholarly articles are interspersed throughout the text, adding to the intricate tapestry being woven by author Arkady Martine. The result is a rich text of nearly academic levels that casts an unflinching look at all the ways an empire can corrupt the culture of those it absorbs.
The Freeze-Frame Revolution by Peter Watts
While it may be just shy of 200 pages, this hard sci-fi novel makes every word count to pack one hell of a punch. Chock-full of intrigue, the story follows Sunday Ahzmundin, a worker on a trek through space to build interstellar wormholes — grueling work that spans the course of 66 million years. In order to live for that stretch of time, Sunday and the other workers are only awake for 1 day out of a million — which makes it pretty hard for them to stage a mutiny, despite Sunday’s best efforts. Then a crewmate goes missing, and another swears he witnessed an attack of demons who came through one of the newly opened wormholes.
This mind-bending novel throws just about everything at the reader, from sentient AI spaceships and a closed-door mystery to confounding philosophical quandaries and the plight of workers. As tension grows and suspicions heighten, the crew of the construction ship struggle to survive not only the dangers of their job but also the unknown terrors crawling out from the beyond. And amidst all this suspense, the book also includes the occasional red and bolded text — which, when put together, becomes a code for a storyline that supersedes the book itself and bleeds into some of Peter Watts’ other works of fiction.
Witch King by Martha Wells
You know things are about to get confusing when the book opens with the main character coming back from the dead. From the author of The Murderbot Diaries comes the story of Kai, a demon who was killed and imprisoned at the bottom of the sea for reasons he doesn’t remember. From the moment he awakens in his watery tomb, Kai is on a mission to fight against people who want to harness his magic and make him a subservient familiar, all while figuring out why exactly he was imprisoned, and who assassinated him in the first place. Described by the previously mentioned NK Jemisin as “a wildly original and complex fantasy,” this book demands readers work backward to solve a cold case that has come alive once more, all while keeping up with Kai as he returns to a world that’s completely changed from the one he once knew. With her signature quick wit and sprawling worldbuilding, Martha Wells makes it clear to the reader that this book’s Locus Award is well-earned.
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