"I'm not a regular book, I'm a cool book"
Books written in unconventional and experimental styles and formatting.
created by hannah
last updated August, 2026
Comments
This is exactly the list I've always wanted
Oye by Melissa Mogollon is told entirely through one-sided phone conversations!
I haven't read it myself yet so not sure if it definitely fits the theme of this list but I've been recommended Several People are Typing by Calvin Kasulke and I've heard it's written and formatted entirely in Slack messages! Like a modern day epistolary novel i guess haha.
hannahOP
I just checked it out and it defs fits the list! Thank you!
Would also recommend Widow's Point which is told through video/audio transcripts
hannahOP
I meant to add your suggestions a long time ago and forgot 🫣 thank you for these!
no worries!
I just started Little Blue Encyclopedia the other day and it fits the bill for sure. Most of the story is written as if it was an encyclopedia but with tidbits about the characters lives thrown in now and again as well. :)
This list is perfection. Thank you so much for making this!
I have read Murder in the Family, the Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels, and the Illuminae Files and have now been searching for more books that have a similarly creative writing style, so I will definitely have to give these a shot now!
This is exactly my shit, haha. Thank you for the list! Other additions:
- The first two of the Ambergris trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer. City of Saints and Madmen is stories about a weird city through various documents, walking tours, history books. Shriek is a "biography" with a second narrative on top of the first written in parenthetical.
- Basically everything else Mark Z. Danielewski has written, save his new one. I can't describe The Familiar, only that it has 11 narrators and they each tell their own story in a weird format. Seven Year Sword is a ghost story meant to be read by 5 different narrators.
- Possible Lincoln in the Bardo fits this, it's partially narrated by ghosts, partially showing Lincoln's feelings through excerpts of text from history books and accounts (that are not real).
- Trust by Herman is a fictional biography told four different ways by four different people
