Dear A24, if you’re reading this, boy do I have an idea for you. Ten of them, in fact. Looking for your next feature? Want something to really knock the movie-goer socks off your devoted following of cinephiles? These ten fantasy books could be your next feature length haymaker punch to separate your adoring audience from their footwear. Weird, dark, cerebral, and sexy in a slightly uncomfortable sort of way, these 10 fantasy books are perfect for your next Oscar bait theatrical endeavor. Just make sure you credit me as an executive producer, these recommendations don’t come free.
The Buried Giant
Looking for the spiritual successor to The Green Knight? Your redux Arthurian legend about a rather unchivalrous warrior of olde? A24, allow me to direct your attention to Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Buried Giant, the book that the bards wish they could have referenced to inspire their songs of King Arthur’s court. The story is set in mythical England, where a fog of forgetfulness has settled upon the land – and I don’t mean that figuratively. A literal dementia inducing miasma hangs about the kingdom, and a doddering old couple has just set out on a quest to find their son – who they can’t quite seem to remember having. An elegiac Odyssey through mist-drenched hill and dales, The Buried Giant is an Arthurian legend that the historians forgot – probably because they were huffing the mist themselves.
Piranesi
Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi is the story of a man who spends his days living at home, which seems uneventful, but not when you consider the fact that his home is a continent sized labyrinth of hallways that open up to rooms large enough to contain oceans. Piranesi spends his days cataloging the various statues that haunt the halls, all the while awaiting infrequent visits from “The Other” – a mysterious man who tells Piranesi that his work is essential. What’s the A24 connection? This story is a lot like I Saw The TV Glow – uncovering the existentially dreadful mystery behind an equally dreary mundane.
The Raven Tower
Narrated by an omnipotent god that also happens to be a rock, Ann Leckie’s The Raven Tower is peak A24 weird. The Strength and Patience of the Hill, being the rock that it is, has been around for untold eons, and has witnessed humanity’s slow ascent from the intellectual darkness of prehistory to the empire-building era of today. Set in a kingdom in a divine covenant with a raven god, a trans-masc protagonist has to figure out why the corvidian divinity’s relationship to humanity appears to be weakening – all while navigating The Favorite levels of courtly drama. It’s The Green Knight mixed with a little bit of The Lighthouse cosmic nonsense, A24 studio execs, I promise you won’t be able to put it down.
The Devourers
What happens when you take Under The Skin, set it in mythological historical India, and swap out its man-eating alien protagonist for equally flesh-hungry werewolves? You get an A24 hit called The Devourers is what! Indra Das’ novel is a story within a story – a lonely professor from Kolkata crosses paths with a man claiming to be a shapeshifter. After the mysterious stranger gifts him some scrolls bound in human skin, the professor is captivated by the lycanthropic tale recorded on the gross pages. The story within the story is written in blood – the violent history of a pair of werewolves whose human hunting exploits now serve as reading material for an academic misanthrope. The story doubles as a tale of bodily transformation not unlike I Saw The TV Glow, rife with themes of queer repression that explode under pressure – showering everyone in gay gore.
Sorrowland
Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon is horrifying enough to give Hereditary a run for its money. It’s the story of Vern, a teenager who is currently both pregnant and on the run from a Southern cult that dabbles in genetic experimentation – lethal combo. After giving birth in the woods, Vern struggles to raise a pair of twins, attempting to shield them from cultists and her rabidly changing body – which is mutating due to residual effects from the cult’s shady practices. In order to secure a future for herself and her own, Vern will have to uncover the long buried the secrets of her past – now clawing their way to the surface (and through her own skin) like the risen dead.
The Drowning Girl
Looking for a narrator as infinitely charismatic as she is woefully unreliable? Caitlín R. Kiernan’s The Drowning Girl is the second coming of Pearl. It’s the tale of India Morgan Phelps, a schizophrenic woman writing her life’s memoirs – which include her encounter with a mermaid-like entity. Seduced by a siren’s call, India is drawn to the seaside in order to seek out an aqueous connection that’s both cerebral and sexy. The mermaid/ghost/siren might just be in her head, or it might be a very real sneaky-link with whom India is having increasingly bizarre and horny encounters. It’s all the sensual, salt-smelling longing of The Lighthouse told from the point of view of character not unlike a certain ax-wielding farm girl that we all know and love.
Slewfoot
Written by the mysteriously-monikered author Brom, Slewfoot is a The Witch style tale about a Purtian woman’s close encounter with the demonic kind. After she’s widowed and accused of witchcraft, the ostracized young Abitha finds an ally in the unlikeliest in places: the middle of the woods. After a chance encounter with a recently awoken forest spirit known as Slewfoot, the pair form an alliance against their oppressive surroundings, striving off on a dark quest to find their own individuality. Worried about having to design the creature yourself, A24? Don’t be. The novel comes complete with full color illustrations of the characters! It’s an adult picture book for those who wish to live deliciously, those who firmly desire the finer things in life – the taste of butter, for instance
The Fisherman
John Langan’s The Fisherman is The Lighthouse stuffed into a tackle box and hauled off to the remote rivers of upstate New York. Reeling from the deaths of their wives (no pun intended) two fishermen set off for the Dutchman’s creek in order to cast their troubles away. When they arrive, they begin to hear whispers that the creek may harbor an ancient power – the power to raise the dead. Of course, such mysterious power comes at an equally Lovecraftian cost. The Fisherman baits the reader with the promise of cosmic horror, and then hooks them with an unexpectedly touching story of grief – and is sure to reel in Oscar if A24 gets around to adapting it.
The Great God Pan
A little known classic of cosmic horror, Arthur Machen’s The Great God Pan is a 19th century psychosexual tale begging for a modern reinterpretation. The story begins with a doctor’s attempt to gaze into the realm of the gods – which involves subjecting a young woman to experimental brain surgery so she can see through to the other side. After the woman is left mentally scarred and the experimental fails, the scientist hangs up his lab coat. Years later, London society is rocked by a string of bizarre suicides, all sexually connected to a mysterious woman named Helen Vaughan – who herself bears a tie to the aforementioned doctor’s long forgotten experiments. If A24 wanted to make a body horror romp that could stand up against The Substance, The Great God Pan is their best option.
Mexican Gothic
Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Gothic is the story of Noemí Taboada, a Mexican socialite who receives a paranoid letter from her cousin begging for help. Noemí leaves her glamorous life to travel to High Place – a decaying countryside mansion inhabited by her cousin and the Doyles – her creepy English in-laws. Something is wrong with this menacing manor and its inhabitants, Noemí sleep is disturbed by nightmares, and something sinister lurks behind the seemingly refined gaze of wealthy Doyle clan. As Noemí digs deeper, she uncovers horrors buried in the distant colonial past, horrors that will come back to haunt her if she doesn’t turn and run soon. When it comes to screwed up family history, the Doyles could give Hereditary‘s Graham family a run for their money.
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