Metafiction & playing with form
Books that play with the "book" as a medium or are otherwise self-reflexive/meta.
created by AFlockOfFuries
last updated January, 2026
Comments
oh how FUN! I wonder if Hopscotch (Rayuela) by Julio Cortázar would fit? It's kind of like the proto-CYOA, and according to my latin american literature professors it came about during the latin american boom and Cortázar was playing with the idea of like, democratizing the form of a book/novel itself
I also know of Mist (Niebla) by Miguel de Unamuno, which is what the author calls a "nivola" (as opposed to a "novela" or novel), where Unamuno literally writes himself appearing in the narrative to confront the MC lol. I'm not really an expert on this, but the wikipedia page is pretty illuminating!
Ooh, thanks for your comment, that's super interesting! I read up on your suggestions and both Hopscotch and Mist seem to qualify! I'll have to check them out someday, they sound really really interesting
ooo, Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall?
Ooh, thanks for the suggestion! Seems like it would fit! Added it
i love this list so much, thank you for taking the time to make it! i think Insurrecto & The Revolution According to Reymundo Mata (both by Gina Apostol) would be fantastic additions to the compilation if you’re taking suggestions! their meta-fictiveness is so unique :)
Thanks so much fur the suggestions! I went ahead and added them, plus a few more books. I put Insurrecto on my TBR as well - it sounds suuper cool and interesting!
Ooh Insurrecto was so good!
