Books › Under the skin › Books like it
If you loved
Books like Under the skin
A masterclass in creeping dread that slowly peels back the mundane to reveal something profoundly alien and devastating. These 12 books are the closest matches in mood, pace and themes, with what each one shares with Under the skin.
- unsettling
- dread-soaked
- claustrophobic
- alienating
- 01
The book of strange new things
Michel Faber
A contemplative sci-fi journey that balances the quiet awe of an alien world with the heavy dread of a collapsing home.
- 02
The driver's seat
Muriel Spark · 1970
A razor-sharp, deeply unsettling descent into the mind of a woman seizing terrifying control of her own destruction.
- 03
Annihilation
Jeff VanderMeer
A hypnotic descent into an alien ecology where the landscape rewrites both the body and the mind.
- 04
Spares
Michael Marshall Smith · 1997
A breathless, surreal sprint through a disturbing near-future where human life is the ultimate commodity.
- 05
The Accidental
Ali Smith · 2005
A linguistic kaleidoscope that gleefully shatters the polite, repressed facade of a middle-class family holiday.
- 06
Matter
Banks, Iain M.
A sprawling, awe-inspiring space opera that plunges you into the dizzying depths of an artificial world where feudal politics collide with god-like technology.
- 07
The Wasp Factory
Iain Banks
A chilling, darkly comic descent into the meticulously ordered mind of an isolated teenage psychopath.
- 08
The Crimson Petal and the White
Michel Faber
A sprawling, sensory plunge into the mud and perfume of Victorian London, guided by a narrator who refuses to let you look away.
- 09
I'm Thinking of Ending Things
Iain Reid
A claustrophobic road trip into the darkest, most surreal corners of the human psyche, where every thought feels like a trap.
- 10
Whit
Iain Banks
A wry, culture-clash journey of a sheltered cult member navigating the bewildering landscape of Nineties Britain while her worldview slowly unravels.
- 11
Poor things
Alasdair Gray · 1992
A darkly hilarious, feminist funhouse mirror held up to the Victorian gothic, where the monster is the most rational person in the room.
- 12
The Shock of the Fall
Nathan Filer
A raw, immersive plunge into the turbulent and spinning reality of mental illness.
