My friends daughter turns 16 next week and wants a book for her birthday - she says something 'dark and intruiging she can get lost in'.
I was thinking of 'Sleeping in Flames' by Jonathan Carroll 'cos i enjoyed it myself, any other ideas though?
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Help me choose a book
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Posted 7 months ago #
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Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Dracula by Bram StokerPosted 7 months ago # -
She's already got those
She doesn't read the regular teenagew fiction so need something more mature.
Posted 7 months ago # -
I recommend A Madness Of Angels, by Kate Griffin, then she can read The Midnight Mayor and The Neon Court. They are Urban Magic stories, set in London, and are very dark indeed, but with humour all the way through. Kate herself is only 25, and has eleven novels behind her, her first, Mirror Dreams a young adult book, was written when she was fourteen, under her real name of Catherine Webb. I think your friends daughter will really like her books, Kate is a very accomplished writer, and writes a very good blog as well; kategriffin.net
Posted 7 months ago # -
Travels With My Aunt by Graham Greene
The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad
Cannery Row and East of Eden by John Steinbeck. The first to introduce his style and the second because it's one of the finest books yet written IMO.
My Idea of Fun by Will Self, though that might be a bit twisted for a 16 year old!
Posted 7 months ago # -
I enjoyed Poison Study recently, might float her boat?
Posted 7 months ago # -
alistair reynolds- revelation space
china mieville- perdido street stationPosted 7 months ago # -
How dark?
Atomized?
Posted 7 months ago # -
Actually, what about some Neil Gaiman?
Neverwhere or American Gods
Also, Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger.
Posted 7 months ago # -
House of Leaves
Posted 7 months ago # -
Something by Iain (M) Banks?
The Wasp Factory?
Feersum Enjin?Posted 7 months ago # -
1984?
Posted 7 months ago # -
+1 kimmbers, both great books.
Iain M Banks, has to be Player of Games or Use of Weapons. Proper dark screwed up books!
Posted 7 months ago # -
Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow by Peter Hoeg.
Posted 7 months ago # -
dark and intriguing she can get lost in
Trust me:
Posted 7 months ago # -
What about the 'Twilight' series? I understand they are very scary.
Alternatively the Iain M Banks novels are certainly dark. It just depends if she can get over the SciFi element. Some people have a mental block about things like that.
Posted 7 months ago # -
Another dark one (or three)...
The Gormenghast Trilogy, by Mervyn Peake
Posted 7 months ago # -
The Gargoyle - Andrew Davidson
Posted 7 months ago # -
Reckon this fits the bill
Properly dark. Quite disturbing too!
Posted 7 months ago # -
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
Both wide-ranging and dark.
Posted 7 months ago # -
I would recommended the Rum Diary if the film wasn't coming out and it didn't look like a cash in.
Posted 7 months ago # -
The Master And Margarita..possibly the best book that I've read.
Posted 7 months ago # -
Oh and Shantaram
Posted 7 months ago # -
Woppit is right, not least because by the time you realize what is happening you are already 'in' the story and are not so shocked - amazing piece of writing.
Alternatively how about 'the night watch' by Sergey Lukyanenko? Great story that you care about with decent pace but at the same time mixed up with themes of good and evil and a great portrait of Moscow
Posted 7 months ago # -
Posted 7 months ago # -
Northern Lights by Phillip Pullman would be my choice
Posted 7 months ago # -
tolstoy's anna karenina,kafka's the castle,selection of plays by chechov,or ibsen.
flannery o'connor is good too.or end of an affair by greene.
man in the high castle?Posted 7 months ago # -
thomas bernhard is pretty dark.
valeria and the week of wonders by nezval.nicely dark.
or maybe lighten her up a bit,my family and other animals,or apprenticeship of duddy kravitz, by richter.Posted 7 months ago # -
Silence of the Lambs?
Dorian Gray?Posted 7 months ago # -
I'm currently half way through the audiobook version of The Contortionists Handbook, a recommendation I noted down from a podcast a year ago but have only just got to starting. Cracking read.
Posted 7 months ago # -
Good suggestions there everyone, time for some 'net browsing!
Posted 7 months ago # -
lolita?
Posted 7 months ago # -
people's history of the us.howard zinn.
darkest book I've ever read.Posted 7 months ago # -
Lots of good books suggested, not sure how they would play with a 16 year old girl.
The Master and Margarita for example is a wonderful book, but slightly dense for a 16 year old in my opinion.
I would second A Madness of Angels, its excellent and would be very enjoyable for a teenage girl I would have thought.
Winters Bone is excellent if perhaps a little short. I gather it was recently made into a film as well.
If she is interested in Sci-Fi then the Culture series by Iain M Banks is excellent with the standouts being Excession, The Player of Games and Use of Weapons. The latter two having quite dark moments.
Another Sci-Fi great is The Forever War. Very dark and also very funny, its very much a war story first and Sci-fi second.Posted 7 months ago # -
Oh and Shantaram
+1 for this too. great book!
Posted 7 months ago #
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