In my last year of A Levels, I approached my English teacher in search of a book recommendation.
Expecting a novel I had seen plastered across bookstores or one that had gone viral on social media, I wasn’t entirely convinced I would be given anything special.
That is when she looked at me and asked whether I wanted to read something she described as “strange and slightly disturbing” – but in a good way. To me, in a good way was intriguing. So when she placed the one hundred and sixty page novel Paradise Rot by Jenny Hval in my hands, I began reading it as soon as I got home.
With no summary of the plot, although the one on the back could hardly have prepared me for the novel, I read it in one sitting.
Plot: Paradise Rot follows Jo, the novel’s protagonist, as she navigates living with an older woman in a bizarre, almost privacy-free environment. Hval places particular emphasis on Jo’s heightened awareness of her own body, especially the excretion of bodily fluids, and her senses, creating an atmosphere that is deeply personal, intimate, and unsettling. With elements of biblical imagery, suggested by the title’s reference to Paradise Lost – the novel, although very short, has a long-lasting impact.
When I got to university, as part of my Modes of Writing class, we were asked to write a poem in the style of “Found in…”, taking phrases and words from a text and shaping them into a poem. Naturally, I chose the one text that had the most interesting imagery and visual language.
To this day, this is the poem I show anyone who asks me for a “strange and slightly disturbing” book recommendation.
Found in Paradise Rot, by Jenny Hval
Ladders and plasterboard walls
Skeleton of an apartment
Thick beams, iron post, runs like a spine
Raw and porous
No paint,
No wallpaper anywhere
Naked.
Filling out the silence,
noises took over
Yawning, chewing, shattering, shutting
Taking a bite
Teeth met resistance in the flesh
Push in further
‘a worm that eats apple cores,
sometimes drowns in the juice’
Concrete walls
‘So far, I’m good’
Bubbling between her teeth
Fruit flesh dissolving
Foam begins.
We are readers, although we might not like to admit it, who tend to judge a book by its cover. With modern cover art, whether illustrations or photography, the aesthetics of books can draw us in, making us pick one up and run to the counter to buy it.
Hval’s covers, whether the US or UK editions, are instantly enticing, often featuring rotting fruit or plants hidden in shadows.
Once I had finished Hval’s work, I came across Brat by Gabriel Smith. To my delight, this was another novel I would add to my “strange and slightly disturbing” genre.
Gabriel Smith’s Brat is another novel that I simply could not stop thinking about after reading it. Like Hval, Smith focuses a lot on body imagery—particularly the peeling of skin as the narrative unfolds. The novel is deliberately constructed in a way that makes you question the reliability of the protagonist, Gabriel, his mother, and your own perception of what everything means or might symbolise.
Plot: Tasked with clearing out the old family home by his cruel brother, Gabriel’s psychological state of mind begins to deteriorate. As he reads the manuscripts that keep changing, and encounters the terrifying man who appears in his garden, nothing seems quite right.
Now, I love an unlikeable character. I have always found flawed characters to be the most unforgettable because of how human they feel.
Which brings me to Ottessa Moshfegh and her wonderfully “strange and slightly disturbing” novel My Year of Rest and Relaxation.
To put it bluntly, I loved this novel. It was something I had never read before and made me rethink how a protagonist can be constructed: someone so unlikeable, and at times insufferable, yet still completely fascinating.
“Oh, sleep. Nothing else could ever bring me such pleasure, such freedom, the power to feel and move and think and imagine, safe from the miseries of my waking
consciousness.” – My Year of Rest and Relaxtion
Plot: The novel follows an unnamed woman living in New York City who uses a mix of drug prescriptions in an attempt to sleep for a year. However, it turns out that we cannot run from our trauma, and she is eventually forced to confront a darker truth when reality finally catches up with her.
Sometimes the books that disturb us the most are also the ones that leave the strongest, most lasting impact.
Disclaimer: Make sure to check any trigger warnings before reading the texts mentioned above.
