6 Books For When You Want To Feel Anything But Ordinary

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You know how sometimes you just want to shake life up and get a jolt of something, anything besides normal? These books are for those times: they’re unconventional – whether in style, format, characters, or just the way they make you feel. Read on for 6 of our favorites!

Hold Me Closer by David Levithan

This companion novel to New York Times bestseller Will Grayson, Will Grayson– co-authored by John Green and David Levithan–is told through the full script of a musical and filled with big, belty musical numbers. Plus, it stars Tiny Cooper (“the world’s largest person who is also really, really gay”) who stole readers’ hearts. Now Tiny finally gets to tell his story—from his fabulous birth and childhood to his quest for true love and his infamous parade of ex-boyfriends—the way he always intended: as a musical!

Original Fake by Kirstin Cronn-Mills

Most people “outgrow” illustrated books when they get to high school, right? OH. SO WRONG! Original Fake is a new YA illustrated novel that’s a blend of sibling rivalry, vengeance, and a street-art act of war.

Wink Poppy Midnight by April Genevieve Tucholke

Every story needs a villain, a hero, and a secret – but in Wink Poppy Midnight, you can’t be sure who is who and what is what. It’s the eerie, twisty atmosphere of this book that gives you shivers of a kind you’ve never known.

Where Futures End by Parker Peevyhouse

Perfect for fans of innovative storytelling, Where Futures End is a collection of five time-spanning, interconnected novellas that weave a subtly science-fictional web stretching out from the present into the future, presenting eerily plausible possibilities for social media, corporate sponsorship, and humanity, as our world collides with a mysterious alternate universe. Essentially like BBC’s Black Mirror, in literary form.

The Alex Crow by Andrew Smith

This one is truly a genre-bending literary exploration of the absurd. Grasshopper Jungle tells the story of 15-year-old Ariel, a refugee from the Middle East living with an adoptive family. The story of his summer at a boys’ camp for tech detox is told alongside those of a schizophrenic bomber and the diaries of a failed arctic expedition from the late nineteenth century.

Mosquitoland by David Arnold

If you’ve ever met someone with a personality as simultaneously quirky, brilliant, and hilarious as Mim Malone, we’d be shocked. Embark on a 1,000 mile road trip with her and get a bundle of musings that will surprise you and touch you at the same time.