Loved itThe Need was just so perfectly weird. It has a really low average rating. Something shows up in her house that like messes with her mind.
The Need (2019)
Others: Positive From LA Times Book Prize finalist and author of The Beautiful Bureaucrat comes a subversive speculative thriller about a mother of two young children who, by confronting a masked intruder in her home, slips into an existential rabbit hole where she grapples with the dualities of motherhood--joy and dread, longing and suffocation--in blazing, arresting prose. "When Molly, home alone with her two young children, hears footsteps in the living room, she tries to convince herself it's the sleep deprivation. She's been hearing things these days. Startling at loud noises. Imagining the worst-case scenario. It's what mothers do, she knows. But then the footsteps come again, and she catches a glimpse of movement. Suddenly Molly finds herself face-to-face with an intruder who knows far too much about her and her family. As she attempts to protect those she loves most, Molly must also acknowledge her own frailty. Molly slips down an existential rabbit hole where she must confront the dualities of motherhood: the ecstasy and the dread; the languor and the ferocity; the banality and the transcendence as the book hurtles toward a mind-bending conclusion. In The Need, Helen Phillips has created a subversive, speculative thriller that comes to life through blazing, arresting prose and gorgeous, haunting imagery. Helen Phillips has been anointed as one of the most exciting fiction writers working today, and The Need is a glorious celebration of the bizarre and beautiful nature of our everyday lives"--FantasticFiction.com. Molly, home alone with her two young children, hears footsteps in the living room. She's been hearing things these days, but then the footsteps come again, and she catches a glimpse of movement. Face-to-face with an intruder, prepared to protect those she loves most, Molly must also acknowledge her own frailty. She slips down an existential rabbit hole where she must confront the dualities of motherhood: the ecstasy and the dread; the languor and the ferocity; the banality and the transcendence. -- adapted from jacket
- ISBN:
- 9781643583198
- Length:
- 272 pages
Genres: fantasy, science fiction, thriller, literary fiction
Lists: …
Similar books
1 of 6
Mrs Death Misses Death
Salena Godden
2021 · 264 pages · 8 reviews
Others: Mostly positive"Mrs Death has had enough. She is exhausted from spending eternity doing her job and now she seeks someone to unburden her conscience to. Wolf Willeford, a troubled young writer, is well acquainted with death, but until now hadn't met Death in person - a black, working-class woman who shape-shifts and does her work unseen. Enthralled by her stories, Wolf becomes Mrs Death's scribe, and begins to write her memoirs. Using their desk as a vessel and conduit, Wolf travels across time and place with Mrs Death to witness deaths of past and present and discuss what the future holds for humanity. As the two reflect on the losses they have experienced - or, in the case of Mrs Death, facilitated - their friendship grows into a surprising affirmation of hope, resilience and love. All the while, despite her world-weariness, Death must continue to hold humans' fates in her hands, appearing in our lives when we least expect her . . ."--Publisher.
Why?
What made the match, strongest first
On the same reading list61%Also fantasy and literary fiction28%BooksandLala loved bothPersonalize your recommendations11%Sign Here
Claudia Lux
2022 · 404 pages · 1 review
Others: PositiveThe devils, they have a plan, but they needn’t stir the pot, they need only skim the fat.
Why?
What made the match, strongest first
On the same reading list64%Also fantasy and thriller24%BooksandLala loved bothPersonalize your recommendations12%The Hacienda
Isabel Cañas
2022 · 315 pages · 14 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positiveMexican Gothic meets Rebecca in this debut supernatural suspense novel, set in the aftermath of the Mexican War of Independence, about a remote house, a sinister haunting, and the woman pulled into their clutches... In the overthrow of the Mexican government, Beatriz’s father is executed and her home destroyed. When handsome Don Rodolfo Solórzano proposes, Beatriz ignores the rumors surrounding his first wife’s sudden demise, choosing instead to seize the security his estate in the countryside provides. She will have her own home again, no matter the cost. But Hacienda San Isidro is not the sanctuary she imagined. When Rodolfo returns to work in the capital, visions and voices invade Beatriz’s sleep. The weight of invisible eyes follows her every move. Rodolfo’s sister, Juana, scoffs at Beatriz’s fears—but why does she refuse to enter the house at night? Why does the cook burn copal incense at the edge of the kitchen and mark its doorway with strange symbols? What really happened to the first Doña Solórzano? Beatriz only knows two things for certain: Something is wrong with the hacienda. And no one there will help her. Desperate for help, she clings to the young priest, Padre Andrés, as an ally. No ordinary priest, Andrés will have to rely on his skills as a witch to fight off the malevolent presence haunting the hacienda and protect the woman for whom he feels a powerful, forbidden attraction. But even he might not be enough to battle the darkness. Far from a refuge, San Isidro may be Beatriz’s doom.
Why?
What made the match, strongest first
On 2 of the same lists66%Also fantasy and thriller21%BooksandLala loved bothPersonalize your recommendations13%The Dreamers
Karen Thompson Walker
2019 · 320 pages · 2 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positiveIn an isolated college town in the hills of Southern California, a freshman girl stumbles into her dorm room, falls asleep—and doesn’t wake up. She sleeps through the morning, into the evening. Her roommate, Mei, cannot rouse her. Neither can the paramedics who carry her away, nor the perplexed doctors at the hospital. Then a second girl falls asleep, and then another, and panic takes hold of the college and spreads to the town. As the number of cases multiplies, classes are canceled, and stores begin to run out of supplies. A quarantine is established. The National Guard is summoned. Mei, an outsider in the cliquish hierarchy of dorm life, finds herself thrust together with an eccentric, idealistic classmate. Two visiting professors try to protect their newborn baby as the once-quiet streets descend into chaos. A father succumbs to the illness, leaving his daughters to fend for themselves. And at the hospital, a new life grows within a college girl, unbeknownst to her—even as she sleeps. A psychiatrist, summoned from Los Angeles, attempts to make sense of the illness as it spreads through the town. Those infected are displaying unusual levels of brain activity, more than has ever been recorded. They are dreaming heightened dreams—but of what?
Why?
What made the match, strongest first
On 2 of the same lists69%Also literary fiction19%BooksandLala loved bothPersonalize your recommendations12%Beautyland
Marie-Helene Bertino
2024 · 336 pages · 11 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positiveFrom the acclaimed author of Parakeet, Marie-Helene Bertino’s Beautyland is a wise, tender novel about a woman who doesn’t feel at home on Earth. At the moment when Voyager 1 is launched into space carrying its famous golden record, a baby of unusual perception is born to a single mother in Philadelphia. Adina Giorno is tiny and jaundiced, but she reaches for warmth and light. As a child, she recognizes that she is different: She possesses knowledge of a faraway planet. The arrival of a fax machine enables her to contact her extraterrestrial relatives, beings who have sent her to report on the oddities of Earthlings. For years, as she moves through the world and makes a life for herself among humans, she dispatches transmissions on the terrors and surprising joys of their existence. Then, at a precarious moment, a beloved friend urges Adina to share her messages with the world. Is there a chance she is not alone? Marie-Helene Bertino’s Beautyland is a novel of startling originality about the fragility and resilience of life on our Earth and in our universe. It is a remarkable evocation of the feeling of being in exile at home, and it introduces a gentle, unforgettable alien for our times.
Why?
What made the match, strongest first
Also fantasy and literary fiction57%On the same reading list31%BooksandLala loved bothPersonalize your recommendations12%The Hollow Places
T. Kingfisher
2020 · 352 pages · 6 reviews
Others: Leaning positivePray they are hungry. Kara finds the words in the mysterious bunker that she’s discovered behind a hole in the wall of her uncle’s house. Freshly divorced and living back at home, Kara now becomes obsessed with these cryptic words and starts exploring this peculiar area—only to discover that it holds portals to countless alternate realities. But these places are haunted by creatures that seem to hear thoughts…and the more one fears them, the stronger they become. (https://www.redwombatstudio.com/)
Why?
What made the match, strongest first
On 2 of the same lists46%Also fantasy and science fiction40%BooksandLala loved bothPersonalize your recommendations14%
Loved it