Recs if you like The Seas...
Books that feel like an A24 film
Books that are atmospheric, emotionally unsettling, beautifully written, a little weird, and linger long after you finish them.
sea’s gay
assigned by frankie
almost every single book mentioned* on 🔗 Frankie's Shelf youtube channel because their taste is wild and i love it.
updated as frankie posts. *mentioned as in the book is the focus of the video, listed in the description, or offhandedly said.
Lucy Dacus Recommendations 💛
Books recommended by musician Lucy Dacus, a solo artist and member of the band boygenius. Pulled from her goodreads list.
Seaside Gothic
Inspired by the sea fog, whistling winds, and the dark sea crashing against the rocks in summer
uncanny interiority
🍃✨ books where the real setting is somebody’s unsettling brain/perspective (with exceptional prose quality)
Situationally Quirky and Questioning
Short-ish Novels inviting consideration of novel characters in novel situations. Are we on a war ship? An airplane? Dedicated to a niche passion? Practicing a little known, long-ago tradition? Choosing a seemingly reasonable path in life that is nonetheless judged “unconventional” by others? Curated through my ACE lens!
a plague o’ both your houses!
texts about generational curses within families, featuring a touch of strangeness/surrealism/wonder/magical realism.
weird love stories; literary monster-lovin
idek man. i love this genre and vibe though
Floating in a deprivation tank vibes 🛁
These are books that dissolve the edges of reality...quiet, uncanny, and often profound. You’ll find yourself suspended in dream logic, where time is slippery, identity flickers, and language floats like fog. Perfect for when you crave something liminal, lyrical, or just plain weird in the softest way. Read them when the world feels too loud and you want to disappear...but beautifully.
seaside gothic
or lakeside…or pondside…books that immerse us in a haunting, strange, beautiful, decadent, or unsettling coastal or waterside atmosphere
weird girlhood(s)
the books that are most interesting, inventive, and complex for the girlhood studies grad student in me. whose “girlhood” are we talking about? i’m thinking of girlhood as a liminal, queer, socially constructed, often traumatic, uncanny space.
Books to Read to Feel Well Adjusted
It’s always nice to feel like a normal person by reading about those more unhinged than you 😌 These are all women focused books. Some I’ve read and some I’m going to read. Apologies in advance if it gets long. Recommendations are absolutely welcome!! So please feel free.
I know a couple are written by men which might be taboo for some but I’ve included because I thought they were appropriate or the author has a track record of writing women well.
On grief, grieving, and loss
Ongoing. Fiction and non-fiction exploration of grief: anticipatory, grieving death of a loved one (including pets), loosing pregnancy, etc, and how to live with it.
water based fiction
a selection of literature that has somewhat an eerie vibe, that focuses on oceans, rivers, ... any bodies of water, really. Water as transformation tool, water as a home or water as the thing giving life or killing it off. Sometimes water is a main character, sometimes it's just a presence, sometimes it's the lover, the friend, the family member, but other times it's the dream that can never be reached.
dark fairytales & sumptuous myths
Water and Creatures and Grief
Books with themes of water, the sea, sea creatures, otherworldly creatures, grief, longing, loss.
delectable prose
when the prose is so achingly gorgeous it Hurts
the bad child
these are stories that feature children and their coming of age stories in which they are being treated like 'the bad child', as if they're bad seed, spoiled grain, or sometimes even as if they're of the devil. the horrors of childhood are a central theme.
i've decided to only feature literary fiction, some speculative fiction or autofictional titles, and against including horror or fantasy. recs always welcome!! ♥
grief
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