I’ve recently narrowed down my favorite genre of books and it is:
Books that take a simply weird question and then logistically explore how events would escalate from there.
Or in short, books that make me think:
Here are three books that do this which I’ve developed a fondness for:
1. Death at Intervals by Jose Saramago
What if people stopped dying?
The premise: In a small unnamed country, people stop dying. They can die outside of the border of the country but within the country it’s an impossible act. Those elderly and sick remain in a constant limbo state hovering between life and death. Mafias form to shuttle family members on the verge of death across borders to die and the government tries to get a handle on things.
The first half of the book explores the consequences of the book, while in the second half we follow Death herself. It turns out, Death has grown tired of people hating her for doing her job so she decides to stop doing it. To her surprise, people are equally as upset. I don’t want to give too much of the second half away, but this book was so poetic and beautiful, and took turns that I was not expecting.
Another honorable mention Jose Saramago book is probably his most famous book: Blindness. I honestly don’t know if I would recommend this book because it was literally traumatizing. I call it traumatic because it was coincidentally the book I was reading in March 2020 when the pandemic began.
The book explores a mysterious disease which causes those who come into contact with it to turn blind. As people struggle to understand how it is spread, society and politics crumbles as fear around it erupts. So yeah… it was LITERALLY how things were playing out at the time with Covid.
2. Fifteen Dogs by André Alexis
What if dogs had human consciousness?
In Fifteen Dogs, Zeus’ sons Apollo and Hermes make a wager. Apollo believes that any animal afflicted with human consciousness cannot be happy, while Hermes believes that at least one of the animals would die happy. In a cruel bet, they decide to bestow human consciousness to fifteen unlucky dogs who are at a veterinary clinic nearby. What happens next to these fifteen dogs is pretty damn traumatic so definitely don’t read this if you can be triggered by animal violence!
I literally read this book in one night. My best friend Monica’s husband is an English teacher and he recommended his book and the next book to me. Every half an hour I’d recount what just happened to Adam with enthusiasm and disbelief. I don’t know if any of you also have partners who sit and listen to you enthusiastically explain a book but luckily Adam fills that role. When I finished this book I cried little tears and now I think it’s going to be a while before I can look at dogs the same way.
3. Scythe by Neal Schusterman
What if people stopped dying? (again)
Yes, another book about death. Can you tell I’m obsessed with it? This one runs a little differently than Jose Saramago’s novel.
Scythe is a YA science fiction and takes place in the future where humans have conquered death. An all powerful AI called the Thunderhead presides over all humanity and cares for us all. Humans can live forever so everything should be great right? Unfortunately overpopulation becomes an issue and thus the Scythes are birthed. The Scythes are humans who are recruited to become bearers of death. They have a quota to meet each month and their job is to essentially murder in whatever way they deem fit. So I guess humanity cures “death” but instead you’re in constant fear of being brutally or peacefully murdered?
Fun fact, before this book I had never pronounced the word “scythe” out loud and had only read it. Here is a reenactment of what happened when I said it out loud to Adam for the first time in my life:
And that’s all for book recommendations for now! If you have any recommendations that fall under this weird category of kind of dark and weird with sometimes a sense of humor dashed in, let me know.
And as always, if you haven’t already, make sure to:
Fun Fact:
This was actually one of the first posts I wrote for this newsletter in 2022. I never published it because the day it was scheduled to go out, Roe v. Casey was overturned and I ended up doing a post about that instead. I totally forgot about this post until a couple days ago while digging through my unfinished drafts folder! Anyways, I hope you still enjoy it even after two years.
Every time I am mentioned in passing in this newsletter one year is added to my life
I couldn't pronounce scythe either although it wasn't the c that caused me the issue. My fav book and I couldn't risk telling anyone about it.