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If you loved
Books like The odd number
A masterclass in irony and atmosphere, where ordinary lives are unspooled by cruel twists of fate and quiet madness. These 12 books are the closest matches in mood, pace and themes, with what each one shares with The odd number.
- melancholic
- eerie
- tense
- bleak
- 01
Short stories
Guy de Maupassant
A masterclass in cynical observation that peels back the polite veneer of society to reveal the tragic and absurd realities beneath.
- 02
The necklace
Guy de Maupassant
A sharp, elegant descent from fleeting glamour into a lifetime of grinding, ironic regret.
- 03
The last day of a condemned man
Victor Hugo
A claustrophobic and dread-soaked exploration of a mind ticking down to its final moments.
- 04
The Power of Darkness
Edith Nesbit
A collection of elegant, creeping nightmares where grief and superstition bleed into the waking world.
- 05
Homesick For Another World
Ottessa Moshfegh
A delightfully repulsive and darkly funny plunge into the grimiest corners of the human condition.
- 06
Pig Tales
Marie Darrieussecq
A grotesque and darkly hilarious feminist fable about escaping the crushing weight of the male gaze through feral metamorphosis.
- 07
The Diary of a Madman and Other Stories
Nikolaĭ Vasilʹevich Gogolʹ · 1961
An intimate, unsettling glimpse into a mind where mundane daily routines slowly give way to idiosyncratic logic.
- 08
The Works of Edgar Allan Poe in Five Volumes - Volume One (Balloon-Hoax / Four Beasts in One / Gold-Bug / Ms. Found in a Bottle / Murders in the Rue Morgue / Mystery of Marie Roget / Oval Portrait / Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall)
Edgar Allan Poe · 2003
A descent into the foundational shadows of American horror and mystery, wrapped in the ornate prose of the nineteenth century.
- 09
La Cousine Bette
Honore de Balzac
A masterclass in patient, venomous revenge set against the glittering, corrupt backdrop of 19th-century Paris.
- 10
Histoire d'O
Reage, Pauline · 1954
A hypnotic, elegantly brutal exploration of absolute surrender and the erasure of the self.
- 11
Kwaidan
Lafcadio Hearn
A delicate, shadow-draped journey into the eerie and sorrowful realms of Japanese folklore.
- 12
The Eight Strokes of the Clock
Maurice Leblanc
A charming, episodic romp through northern France filled with dazzling logic, gentlemanly thievery, and romantic intrigue.
