Alex Muto
If you're in college, you probably have a copy of one of Alex Muto's books, and it's more than likely to be The Inaugural Collapse. Alex Muto writes a lot of essays that show up in magazines that you don't buy, and it seems like other people consider him to be intelligent. He's sort of attractive, and teaches in some college that you're not sure if you've heard of or not, in a state you've never been to.
Sometimes he shows up on Jenny Lenda's late night talk show, often to promote a new book.
Drowned Refuges
It's placed in an era from American history that people don't think about very much. There's a scene where a herd of horses becomes caught in mire and drown. The cover image is striking.
The Comedy Committee
In The Comedy Committee, the author once more shows his fascination with politics, and main characters that suffer from depression. There's a basement that's described in a lot of detail; it will really feel familiar by the time you reach the end of the story.
The Inaugural Collapse
The book that started it all, the critically-acclaimed novel was deemed "impossible to film",(who said this?) a statement proudly featured on the book cover, which used gigantic red block letters for the title.
Welcome Evictions
There's a lot of family members to keep track of, and they all have neurotic problems and emotionally unhealthy relationships in this book that's only 388 pages long. You can read it in an afternoon, and even faster if you skip parts of it.
Baz Ganges
An author that a lot of people don't realize he was born in America. It's not clear what country they think that he's from. Pretty much all of his books have black and white covers for the hardcover versions, but colored glossy covers for the paperback editions. One time he did a collaboration with an industrial musical artist, and whatever they produced wasn't good enough to be very well-known, but it wasn't terrible either.
Black Babel
You can't figure out what Black Babel is about from looking at the cover. A lot of people remembered the part where the house sank into a swamp.
The Glutton Surgere
This one is pretty psychedelic. It gains a lot of layers of depth if you have an extensive background in 17th-century history relating to diplomatic traditions between European kingdoms. If you read it, you'll also have to look up a bunch of food-related terms, or just picture whatever you want in your head if you don't care that much.
Twenty-Four Mazes and their Minotaurs
This is definitely Baz Ganges' coolest book, and the author of Goodbye Strangers recommends that you give it a read, if you're able to get your hands on a copy. The international versions have better covers, but they're not always in English, so you should get a poster instead if you like the art.
Carrie Sands
A singer with a long career, who's popular enough that you can find her on a magnet, or as a plush doll, and more. She's never written a book, but she's written all her songs, and those for lots of others. Her life seems to have been marked by tragedy, culminating in an 'out of mind' episode -
▛▚▞▛▞ ▙▝▛▝▖▗ and in seeing the flash of red, had some kind of surreal experience beneath its glow. This was while your career was ▝▞▟▛▛▚ ▟▛▟▘ starting to wane. Obsessed with them, and starts to write love songs to them. ▞▛▞▛▞ ▙ during a time when you were very alone... in fact, destitute in your sadness.
And the next morning, the body was found murdered in the subway, chopped up into intricate dissembled pieces, as would be expected of the ▞ ▙▞▛▞ ▙▝▛
Baby, It's Only Me
It's a well-known song. Grandparents, parents, and children are all familiar with it. Most children know the song because it was re-mastered and sung by the sultry Pampiffy von Bomba in the merchandise franchise animated mega-hit, "One Billion Poodles".
Crybaby Blues
It's not as well known as some of the others, but it's been prominantly used in a partially animated movie that's popular among the "stoner cartoon" subset of film viewers. The record's rarity is not due to the cartoon, however; it was made out of an experimental plastic that turned out to be super breakable.
Good Friends
An instant classic, and one of the most iconic songs of her era. If you're at the mall, there are at least five stores you can go to if you want to get a hoodie with the album cover on the front.
Hollywood Endings
It's one of the darker songs in the Carrie Sands discography. Some people love it, and other people think it's a downer. You won't hear it on the radio, and it's never been used as anyone's wake-up alarm song.
Strange Saviors
This song in particular is a central point of discussion within the Carrie Sands conspiracy theory community. It brought a lot of attention towards the Goodbye Strangers narrative structure, due to a number of strikingly specific and otherwise cryptic lines.
The Wishing Game
It's a catchy song, although most people have no idea that there's an extra two verses that are only on the album version of the song. There are so many theories about the lyrics, and they all contradict one another.
Idilo Sonári
Originally, the Partisan-turned-cult-leader Idilo Sonári was vocal in her distaste of Goodbye Strangers and the fandom; later, she used her innate influence to rebrand herself as the "Idol Sonári", a newfound ▟▜▗▚▖▗ ▟▞▟▝▘▗ ▞▖▗▚ and the first of the so-called "Messiahs". Someone who decided that they were going to make themselves into a holy figure ▟▞▟ ▙▜▞▗ as they walked through the camps.ㆨ
ㆨ the mattress camps.
Ultimately, she was very anti-stranger.
Demiso
This book has a lot of sex scenes, and somehow it's still for sale if you're at an airport. In fact, it's mostly sex scenes. None of them are hot, though.
Dos Vorzego
The story centers around a serial killer, so it has a lot of violent content, and it even had a warning sticker in most chain stores. Though it wasn't the only book that spawned copycat killers, but it was definitely one of them.
Immigration Journals
It's pretty critical of western culture, and a few private schools banned it. None of those schools were in the same state as you, though. You don't really want to read it, but you probably shouldn't say that at a party where hors d'oeuvres are being served.
Last Armitage
This historical novel took thirteen years to write. The author's painstaking care in accurately depicting the setting is apparently impressive, but it's about an era and part of the world that's not usually covered in history class. Until you read the summary on the back cover, you hadn't heard about any of the major figures before.
Libero
It's not a very long book, and it received a recommendation from a well-known athletic aerobic dance celebrity. The setting is a religious institution, and it's not a happy story. It seems like the author was working out some of their own issues in a few parts.
Jackaly Troska
You can never remember if this author is supposed to be very progressive, or somehow problematic. She has a lot of doctorates in obscure creative writing sub-disciplines, and looks like someone's mom, but not one that is good at parenting. If you meet her, you'll hear her talk about her cats at least twice.
Crowns from Kozachi
This book is the first installment in a three book series. A lot of people thought it was a fantasy novel because of the cover, so it shows up at yard sales a lot. If you buy it at a yard sale, it's probably already been chewed on by an animal, maybe even a poodle.
Gezel
It was sort of a hit, but not as much as it could have been. The cover has a zebra on it. Whatever joke you can think of about the name has already been made by some late night show host.
Maid Marians and Uncle Toms
The main character is a woman whose last name is hard to pronounce. She dies halfway through, and a lot of readers are surprised by who takes over as the new protagonist. The author has never clarified what the title is in reference to. It's speculated that she might have been mis-remembering either song lyrics, or some poem from before anything you're interested in.
Roses from Hinzert
The third book of the three book series doesn't tie up all of the plot threads, but most readers were just grateful that it was finished. The protagonist had been a Mary Sue the whole time.
Songs from Blauez
Part two of a three book series. Most of it takes place in a mansion, where the main character is writing some kind of self-referencial work-within-a-work. It's by far the best book in the set, but if you try to read it by itself, a lot of plot elements aren't going to make a ton of sense.
Tangents
There's some compelling ideas in this collection of poems and short stories, but it doesn't really tie together very well. It doesn't matter what order you read things in, so it's perfect for the bathroom.
Jealous Fontaine
Notable for their creative streak, and penchant for dramatic eye makeup, this controversial member of the Partisans ▚▖▘▚ ▖▘▚▟▗ ▛▝ had a short and tragic life, but prolific output of work. Only a small percentage of her writing is actually any good, and ▘▜▛▗▞▖ ▞▖▛▗
▟▗ ▛▝ putting up a front, like it's a mask. So you're protected, it's something from behind which you can watch everyone else. They were in one of the darker cities, slow shady nights and neon that reflects. You had been keeping it ▛ ▚▖▘▚▟▗ in your apartment...
She had been quiet about her sensitive status, and inflicting a lot of torture on it, while telling others that it kept her from harming a real ▜▚▜ ▜▚▛▟▟▛ ▚▟▘▙ was not to be believed. This kind of sadism however, though not an ▞▛▝▛ ▚▖▘▚▟▗ ▛▝▞▛ influencer, nonetheless would have been present.
Cruel Love
Even if you hadn't already heard of the author, the cover design would catch your eye right away, and make you want to see what it was about. If someone tells you that this is their favorite book, it's probably because they idolize the central relationship, which they shouldn't do.
The Midnighted Varietie
Even though it was some people's "book of the year", it's sort of boring, and also hard to read. You get the feeling that when people say that they liked it, they're only trying to sound highbrow.
The Night-Manx Rezides
You can totally tell that the author was on a lot of drugs while writing this one. In interviews, she admits to having no memory of writing the final eight chapters. The editor did an astonishing job, and the cover design is awesome too.
The Velveteen Killer
Obviously, you've already heard the title, after the book's role in the notorious murder case. There was a big spike in book sales after that happened, but most people who bought it because of that only wanted to keep a copy on them to look edgy, and not actually read it.
X-O-X
This book has a lot of references to drugs, and prostitution. Teenaged girls everywhere think that they're just like the main character.
▛▝▘▜▞▖ ▞▖▛▗▞ found half-eaten by the train tracks ▘▜▞▖ ▞▘▜▞▖▛ and a mauling, a merciless and vicious, vicious mauling.
Ramirez Interiano
There's not much to say about this author. It's not clear what happened to them, or if they're still active. The average person pronounces either his first or last name incorrectly.
Guiltlands
It's really, really long. Having it on your bookshelf makes it clear that you care about literature, and you're waiting for the perfect time to read it. You've already got the bookmark picked out.
Zenno Harukatzi
This author has won a bunch of awards; most of the books have a round, gold medallion either embossed onto the book itself, or as a sticker. The stories that he writes about tend to be a bit hard to follow, unless you're already familiar with modern post-theoretical distortiofiction critique.
A Temporary Afterlife
There are a few quotes that are well-known. Many people have bought the book, and realized that the writing style wasn't what they expected. It's not that things are poorly written, but they're hard to follow since a lot of his work is sort of in a stream-of-consciousness style.
Brakes
There's a lot of really out-there imagery in nearly every single chapter, and the unexpected formatting works better than you'd think. What do you think your favorite scene will be? You won't find out unless you read it.
Branches In The Room
Although it's not explicitly political, this is where you start to see the author's focus upon environmental concerns. Even though it's in a speculative future, enough critics liked it that it's not classified as "science fiction".
Off to the Races
It's a bunch of short stories, and they're all set in the same dream-fantasy world. Some of them are better than others, though as a whole, they paint a mesmerizing vision of the distorted setting.
Sine Wave Sundown
The main character is an author, who has recurring dreams of a future world where animals are being replaced by animatronic versions of themselves one-by-one. A movie version came out a couple of years ago; it was okay.
The Electrocuted Dream
This short story was published in the Phenomenon Papers' memorial issue. Though it's not an explicit "horror", it's pretty creepy. The magazine itself is basically impossible to find, but you can probably find a text file online if you look around on illegal Scandinavian download websites.