Reality is overrated! These surreal and absurd fiction books remove logic to reveal their truths. Here the impossible is inevitable, the strange is necessary, and Kafkaesque is only the beginning.

This Quest was inspired by the List "Lady knights who like other ladies," winner of Q1 2026 community voting.

This Quest was inspired by the List "Black Fantasy, Sci-Fi, and Speculative Fiction", winner of Q1 2026 community voting.

Forced into unending sleep or perilous insomnia, repeating tedious daily routines until your body rots, watching as your skin starts to glow or your hands sprout scales—these novels feature illnesses that are far from typical.

If you think real world societies are bad (you'd be right)... get a load of *these.*

From the provocative and challenging to the emotional and quiet, Japanese literary fiction tends to be nuanced, introspective, and minimalistic. These books contain layered cultural commentary and may lean on psychological, surreal, or fantastical elements to convey their message.

Come learn about the most common animals on our planet: insects, spiders, earthworms - all the critters and bugs who share our world! For this nonfiction quest, all you need is an open mind and a love for all things mini.

For those ready to dive deeper into the genre, these books offer a range of authors and topics. Brand new to this genre? Check out Volume I for the most popular texts.

Welcome to the wonderful world of Plants! Celebrate the leafy, fungal, flowering world with these non-fiction titles. Through science writing, memoirs, and essays (and more!), learn about the inner workings of plants, explore the interconnected nature of nature, and discover just how vast the mycelium network really is.

A true knight never turns down a Quest. Explore Medieval Europe with these genre-spanning books and earn your grail. Some titles are set in the transitional time from the Medieval to Early Modern period.

Creepy crawling vines, sentient mushrooms, or a killer forest; no matter what shape they take, plants and fungi play a main part in these horror novels.

This isn't Disney's little mermaid! A collection of horror, dark fiction, and gothic romances featuring mermaids.

This is an introduction to modern poetry, with a focus on breadth of voices and styles rather than depth. In the words of Leonard Cohen, "poetry is just the evidence of life...if your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash." This quest is for those who love poetry, hate poetry, want to write it, read it, or perhaps have nothing to do with it (or all of that at once)!

They’re bound by flame, united by flight. These books all have dragon riders as part of the plot. Only the first of a series will appear.

From psychedelic fever dreams to things that go bump in the night: all things queer and scary.

Magical empires, far-flung galaxies, robotic dystopias, haunted academies—queerness belongs in every world.

All of her groundbreaking works, exploring themes of Afrofuturism, power, and survival.