Novels with a reality hidden in ours
March 20, 2015 6:28 AM Subscribe
A friend's high-school aged daughter is looking for a book for her English class. The story has to be set in the present day but where a different reality exists and is discovered by the main character.
They are thinking 'science fantastique' I think.
I suppose it's something like Harry Potter or The Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe. Any suggestions?
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman immediately springs to mind as does Alice in Wonderland and the Oz series, thought the latter two don't really bounce between the two realities very frequently.
posted by romakimmy at 6:34 AM on March 20, 2015 [7 favorites]
posted by romakimmy at 6:34 AM on March 20, 2015 [7 favorites]
Sophie's World.
posted by mchorn at 6:35 AM on March 20, 2015 [5 favorites]
posted by mchorn at 6:35 AM on March 20, 2015 [5 favorites]
She's probably at the perfect age for The Magicians to resonate, but it is straight up Narnia for assholes, so her MMV. Sex, drug abuse, depression, being a teenager and making awful choices, all there. But it's also really marvelous.
posted by Lemmy Caution at 6:43 AM on March 20, 2015 [6 favorites]
posted by Lemmy Caution at 6:43 AM on March 20, 2015 [6 favorites]
Ok, looking at my bookshelf Gaiman's got a few more in this vein - American Gods, Anansi Boys, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Good Omens. Lissey's Story by Stephen King, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams.
posted by romakimmy at 6:44 AM on March 20, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by romakimmy at 6:44 AM on March 20, 2015 [3 favorites]
Lev Grossman's The Magicians is like the dark angry-teenager Harry Potter, in that American teenagers go to an academy of magic that nobody outside that community knows about.
posted by aimedwander at 6:45 AM on March 20, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by aimedwander at 6:45 AM on March 20, 2015 [3 favorites]
They're older (I grew up on them, and I'm old) but John Bellairs' series starting with The House With a Clock In Its Walls is pretty great stuff, and age-appropriate.
posted by xingcat at 6:46 AM on March 20, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by xingcat at 6:46 AM on March 20, 2015 [3 favorites]
Diana Wynne Jones' Deep Secret was marketed for adults but is a YA book. There's a couple of mildly suggestive passages in it - I mean there's an orgy of sorts if you read between the (tasteful) lines. It's set in Bristol.
From the same author, Fire and Hemlock, which is a strange dreamy book about adolescence based on the Ballad of Tam Lin. No sex this time.
posted by glasseyes at 6:48 AM on March 20, 2015 [2 favorites]
From the same author, Fire and Hemlock, which is a strange dreamy book about adolescence based on the Ballad of Tam Lin. No sex this time.
posted by glasseyes at 6:48 AM on March 20, 2015 [2 favorites]
China Mieville's UnLunDun
posted by Acheman at 6:49 AM on March 20, 2015 [7 favorites]
posted by Acheman at 6:49 AM on March 20, 2015 [7 favorites]
The two I could only remember by plotlines (had to search for "reversed ketchup tastes amazing"...) turn out to be by the same author, William Sleator:
The Boy Who Reversed Himself
and
Singularity.
Good for proto-physics nerds, anyhow; might be better for someone at the beginning of high school rather than the end, I seem to recall them written kind of young.
posted by nat at 6:49 AM on March 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
The Boy Who Reversed Himself
and
Singularity.
Good for proto-physics nerds, anyhow; might be better for someone at the beginning of high school rather than the end, I seem to recall them written kind of young.
posted by nat at 6:49 AM on March 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
K.A. Applegate's Everworld (less "discovers" and more "is periodically thrust into", but the protagonists are high school students, which they might like)
Tad Williams' The War of the Flowers
posted by teremala at 6:50 AM on March 20, 2015
Tad Williams' The War of the Flowers
posted by teremala at 6:50 AM on March 20, 2015
Tam Lin by Pamela Dean.
posted by hought20 at 6:53 AM on March 20, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by hought20 at 6:53 AM on March 20, 2015 [2 favorites]
Is it "secret world hidden in our own world" (Harry Potter) or "secret world accessible from our world" (Narnia)? The Magicians -- which I absolutely do not recommend -- has both.
Victoria Schwab, the excellent Skyscraper Throne trilogy, the Mortal Instruments, a bunch of Sarah Beth Durst's book do it, Terri Windling's The Wood Wife, the Daughter of Smoke and Bone books.
China Mieville's The City & The City does a sort of take on this. You could make an argument for the Thursday Next books.
posted by jeather at 6:53 AM on March 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
Victoria Schwab, the excellent Skyscraper Throne trilogy, the Mortal Instruments, a bunch of Sarah Beth Durst's book do it, Terri Windling's The Wood Wife, the Daughter of Smoke and Bone books.
China Mieville's The City & The City does a sort of take on this. You could make an argument for the Thursday Next books.
posted by jeather at 6:53 AM on March 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
The TV Tropes article on 'Layered Worlds' may be helpful. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a Portal Fantasy, which is a specific subset of the genre where you are taken to another place entirely, not one that underlies or intersects with our own reality directly.
posted by Happy Dave at 6:54 AM on March 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Happy Dave at 6:54 AM on March 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
I just read Michael Chabon's Summerland, and like it a lot.
posted by papayaninja at 6:55 AM on March 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by papayaninja at 6:55 AM on March 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
So You Want to Be a Wizard fits. His Dark Materials, while fantastic, doesn't fit well since it's almost the inverse of this topic where in the first book a young girl in an alternate universe discovers a hidden reality in her universe. The 2nd book in the series is basically spot on though and was the first book in the series I read, so you might start there.
posted by Green With You at 6:57 AM on March 20, 2015 [5 favorites]
posted by Green With You at 6:57 AM on March 20, 2015 [5 favorites]
I really disliked The Magicians. Everybody is depressing and terrible.
I read Sophie's World when I was in high school and I loved it. I think that's a great choice.
posted by phunniemee at 7:08 AM on March 20, 2015
I read Sophie's World when I was in high school and I loved it. I think that's a great choice.
posted by phunniemee at 7:08 AM on March 20, 2015
King Rat and Kraken are two other China Miéville possibilities.
posted by sevenless at 7:09 AM on March 20, 2015
posted by sevenless at 7:09 AM on March 20, 2015
Almost anything in the Urban Fantasy genre should do, really. That's pretty much the core definition of the genre. It's just a question of finding that particular flavor that most appeals to her.
Gaiman's Neverwhere, and American Gods are indeed very good examples. An awful lot of Tim Powers is very much like this. He plays a game of "hidden history," which is different from Alternate History in that he doesn't change established facts, he just comes up with weird backstories that connect the same dots into a very different picture. Last Call is a particularly good example of this.
A (sadly) more obscure one I would recommend is Lisa Goldstein's Tourists, set in a fictional middle eastern country where an American family comes on an academic exchange program and discovers that reality there isn't quite what it is for everyone else.
posted by Naberius at 7:10 AM on March 20, 2015 [2 favorites]
Gaiman's Neverwhere, and American Gods are indeed very good examples. An awful lot of Tim Powers is very much like this. He plays a game of "hidden history," which is different from Alternate History in that he doesn't change established facts, he just comes up with weird backstories that connect the same dots into a very different picture. Last Call is a particularly good example of this.
A (sadly) more obscure one I would recommend is Lisa Goldstein's Tourists, set in a fictional middle eastern country where an American family comes on an academic exchange program and discovers that reality there isn't quite what it is for everyone else.
posted by Naberius at 7:10 AM on March 20, 2015 [2 favorites]
House of Leaves by Mark Z Danielewski. There is LITERALLY a hidden reality:
"While working on the house one day, Navidson discovers that it measures three quarters of an inch longer on the inside than on the outside.
Navidson calls friends and borrows tools to try to eliminate the illusion, but it persists. And then, between two adjoining rooms, there opens up an impossible 10-foot hallway, black and icy. There is something very wrong. The Navidson Record becomes a vérité horror film as Will and his friends try to explore the anomalous space, which rearranges itself periodically with a roar, and expands into terrifying volumes of darkness."
posted by el_presidente at 7:14 AM on March 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
"While working on the house one day, Navidson discovers that it measures three quarters of an inch longer on the inside than on the outside.
Navidson calls friends and borrows tools to try to eliminate the illusion, but it persists. And then, between two adjoining rooms, there opens up an impossible 10-foot hallway, black and icy. There is something very wrong. The Navidson Record becomes a vérité horror film as Will and his friends try to explore the anomalous space, which rearranges itself periodically with a roar, and expands into terrifying volumes of darkness."
posted by el_presidente at 7:14 AM on March 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
The Magicians is miserable. It might be a bit too young for her but Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy from Mars is a great version of this.
posted by jessamyn at 7:17 AM on March 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by jessamyn at 7:17 AM on March 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
Europe in Autumn by Dave Hutchinson. One of my favourite books in the last year or so. Possibly a bit adult, there are a couple of (fairly desultory) sex scenes and some spy-combat violence , and it's set in the near future not the present day. However the long drawn out discovery of the hidden lands is magnificently done.
posted by el_presidente at 7:21 AM on March 20, 2015
posted by el_presidente at 7:21 AM on March 20, 2015
The Night Circus might hit the spot with a certain kind of high school student.
The Ghost Bride is about a young woman who can pass back and forth into the afterlife.
posted by BibiRose at 7:32 AM on March 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
The Ghost Bride is about a young woman who can pass back and forth into the afterlife.
posted by BibiRose at 7:32 AM on March 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
John Crowley's Little, Big is a very good example, although the 'present day' part spans 100 years or so.
posted by pipeski at 7:53 AM on March 20, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by pipeski at 7:53 AM on March 20, 2015 [2 favorites]
I'll second So You Want to be a Wizard recommendation, though it's probably a little more appropriate for middle school students than high school students.
posted by Johnny Assay at 7:55 AM on March 20, 2015
posted by Johnny Assay at 7:55 AM on March 20, 2015
Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy From Mars. really is the greatest novel ever written in this genre. Younger kids can read it, but if she hasn't read it yet, it would be kind of a culture crime to let her grow up without it.
posted by escabeche at 8:04 AM on March 20, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by escabeche at 8:04 AM on March 20, 2015 [2 favorites]
Seconding Last Call so hard. That book and its followup, Expiration Date, are the best examples I've seen of this "occult history" genre. And Powers is an excellent writer.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 8:05 AM on March 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 8:05 AM on March 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
The Sinful Ones by Fritz Lieber. Nothing to do with Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.
posted by adamrice at 8:23 AM on March 20, 2015
posted by adamrice at 8:23 AM on March 20, 2015
Garth Nix's Keys to the Kingdom series. Mr. Monday is the first.
posted by that's candlepin at 8:30 AM on March 20, 2015
posted by that's candlepin at 8:30 AM on March 20, 2015
I'm also a Tim Powers fan (with Declare my favorite of the bunch followed by Last Call and The Anubis Gates, all of which fit the parameters. Diane Duane is also fabulous, although perhaps aimed at slightly younger kids, as is another beloved series of mine - Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising.
I admired The Magicians but didn't love it (aside from one scene) because it is indeed full of assholes.
posted by PussKillian at 8:33 AM on March 20, 2015
I admired The Magicians but didn't love it (aside from one scene) because it is indeed full of assholes.
posted by PussKillian at 8:33 AM on March 20, 2015
Naberius is right--if you search for urban fantasy, anything you find should fit. I really loved the novels and stories from Charles de Lint, although they didn't really stay with me like other books have. Recently, I've been reading Jim Butcher's Dresden Files novels, and I've enjoyed them, too. Another possibility (more pure fantasy than urban fantasy) is Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber, in which our reality is just one of many realities that exist between Amber and Chaos, the two fundamental poles of the universe. The main character begins in our reality and soon realizes that there is much more to the cosmos than this.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 8:41 AM on March 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Pater Aletheias at 8:41 AM on March 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
For something grown-up and very recent: The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell.
posted by tangerine at 9:10 AM on March 20, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by tangerine at 9:10 AM on March 20, 2015 [2 favorites]
The Universe Between by Alan E. Nourse. Out of print, but a Kindle edition is available. A comment about it, copied from the book's Good Reads page:
A sentimental favorite from my childhood. The story concerns the discovery of another dimension, another universe right next door to ours. It's mind-bending stuff, especially for a grade schooler.posted by Rash at 9:17 AM on March 20, 2015
Kiki Strike : Inside the Shadow City is about a group of teen girls who discover and protect an labyrinth under the city of New York. It's fun, modern and engaging. I don't know if that's "alternate reality" enough.
posted by Saminal at 9:17 AM on March 20, 2015
posted by Saminal at 9:17 AM on March 20, 2015
thirding Gaiman. Neverwhere and Anansi Boys are both terrific examples of the-universe-next-door. Neverwhere might be a bit of a challenge because so much of it relies on breaking or playing off of London/tube geography. But boy is it a ride.
posted by j_curiouser at 9:42 AM on March 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by j_curiouser at 9:42 AM on March 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
May be a tiny bit young (though I still enjoy it as a result), but what about Abarat? It's a really beautiful book.
posted by taltalim at 10:36 AM on March 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by taltalim at 10:36 AM on March 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
1Q84 by Haruki Marakumi would work. But it's 928 pages so may be too much if she has to read it. Most of his books are similar though.
posted by shesbenevolent at 10:41 AM on March 20, 2015
posted by shesbenevolent at 10:41 AM on March 20, 2015
The Night Watch books fit into that theme, while not YA I don't recall them being as heavy on adult themes as The Magicians (I seem to be the only one who really liked that here, so take my opinions with that in mind). I also think Cooper's classic The Dark is Rising books fit in as well. Ben Aaronovitch's series about a london police officer who becomes a wizard also explores those themes, though possibly with a bit more violence than you might be looking for. The Marbury Lens is YA and is actually about school kids going to another world (geez, violence again -- I'm beginning to question my taste). Or the Borribles which takes place in real-world London but with a fantasy underground. All the other stuff I would have suggested is named above already.
posted by palindromeisnotapalindrome at 10:42 AM on March 20, 2015
posted by palindromeisnotapalindrome at 10:42 AM on March 20, 2015
Any of the Dresden Files books.
More mature would be (mefi's own) Charles Stross's The Merchant Princes series (really well done alt-universe stuff).
Also by Charles Stross is the Laundry Files series. Very modern age and very engaging read.
posted by daq at 10:54 AM on March 20, 2015
More mature would be (mefi's own) Charles Stross's The Merchant Princes series (really well done alt-universe stuff).
Also by Charles Stross is the Laundry Files series. Very modern age and very engaging read.
posted by daq at 10:54 AM on March 20, 2015
Novels with a reality hidden in oursThis is pretty much the definition of Permutation City by Greg Egan. The characters create a universe on the dust of our own.
posted by books for weapons at 11:23 AM on March 20, 2015
More mature would be (mefi's own) Charles Stross's The Merchant Princes series (really well done alt-universe stuff).
I love me some C. Stross but do not recommend the Merchant Princes to a high school student. There's some problematic stuff related to sex done to the main character that I would not suggst putting in front of a group of 9th graders. But the Laundry Files are great. Neil Gaiman's Coraline is pretty much exactly this, and Neverwhere, American Gods and Anansi boys all do this well. Amulet is a graphic novel that counts for this, but doesn't spend much time in the real world. Fables would be another graphic novel that does this.
posted by edbles at 11:45 AM on March 20, 2015 [2 favorites]
I love me some C. Stross but do not recommend the Merchant Princes to a high school student. There's some problematic stuff related to sex done to the main character that I would not suggst putting in front of a group of 9th graders. But the Laundry Files are great. Neil Gaiman's Coraline is pretty much exactly this, and Neverwhere, American Gods and Anansi boys all do this well. Amulet is a graphic novel that counts for this, but doesn't spend much time in the real world. Fables would be another graphic novel that does this.
posted by edbles at 11:45 AM on March 20, 2015 [2 favorites]
The Magicians plays on this theme by having the Narnia-type world be a fiction at first, introducing another fantasy world and then having the two intersect. The next two books take this interplay between worlds even further and maybe too far. It is almost a post-fantasy setting or maybe a metafantasy? I don't know if someone new to fantasy would appreciate the world-building Grossman does. Then there is the very real issue of the characters not being likeable, some describe them as whiny or entitled and some say they are just jerks. I enjoyed the series anyway.
posted by soelo at 11:51 AM on March 20, 2015
posted by soelo at 11:51 AM on March 20, 2015
Check out Pat O'Shea's The Hounds of the Morrigan.
posted by littlegreen at 12:12 PM on March 20, 2015
posted by littlegreen at 12:12 PM on March 20, 2015
All of Gaiman's books probably. Sandman, Graveyard book, Neverwhere especially, American Gods...
Simon R Green's Nightside series.
posted by Jacen at 12:58 PM on March 20, 2015
Simon R Green's Nightside series.
posted by Jacen at 12:58 PM on March 20, 2015
I loved The Magicians, partly because all the characters were struggling with their own various flavors of youthful unhappiness--I said this in a previous thread, but it bears repeating: It's a character novel, not a heavily plot-driven fantasy novel (although it certainly does have a great plot).
But I also think it's kind of mature--it is absolutely not YA. So if she's after YA, it won't fit the bill.
posted by yellowcandy at 1:15 PM on March 20, 2015 [3 favorites]
But I also think it's kind of mature--it is absolutely not YA. So if she's after YA, it won't fit the bill.
posted by yellowcandy at 1:15 PM on March 20, 2015 [3 favorites]
Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson
Set in the modern Middle East, with chat rooms and modems and genii.
posted by mibo at 2:50 PM on March 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
Set in the modern Middle East, with chat rooms and modems and genii.
posted by mibo at 2:50 PM on March 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
Suzanne Collins, who wrote the Hunger Games series, has an earlier one - the Underland series. Young boy finds a passage to an underground world that he gets involved with. Science-y side too, with the effects of humans growing up for generations without sunlight, how they've managed to grow food, and how other animals are different too - rats and bats and quite a few others are much bigger than in our world. I loved the Underland saga - there are five books, though there's a decent resolution at the end of each.
posted by lemniskate at 3:01 PM on March 20, 2015
posted by lemniskate at 3:01 PM on March 20, 2015
AAAH! I saw this question when I was at work and couldn't answer it until now. I would recommend The Girl Who Never Was by Skylar Dorset. (Full disclosure: the author is a friend of mine.) But it's really great, age appropriate (it's YA), and is absolutely about the main character discovering a hidden world.
posted by Aquifer at 5:01 PM on March 20, 2015
posted by Aquifer at 5:01 PM on March 20, 2015
a lot of Haruki Murakami's books are like this (and awesome). I think you want to search for magical realism.
posted by J. Wilson at 5:21 PM on March 20, 2015
posted by J. Wilson at 5:21 PM on March 20, 2015
War for the Oaks by Emma Bull is an early (80s) take on urban fantasy, and as I remember it, goofy fun, with a love interest clearly inspired by Prince.
For Murakami, I might go with Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World.
posted by Squeak Attack at 5:39 PM on March 20, 2015 [3 favorites]
For Murakami, I might go with Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World.
posted by Squeak Attack at 5:39 PM on March 20, 2015 [3 favorites]
Another Murakami option is 1Q84
Another idea is Connie Willis's Passage. The alternate reality is an historical one, but I'm sure the teacher wouldn't object.
posted by colin_l at 8:43 PM on March 20, 2015
Another idea is Connie Willis's Passage. The alternate reality is an historical one, but I'm sure the teacher wouldn't object.
posted by colin_l at 8:43 PM on March 20, 2015
The Shadow Society by Marie Rutkoski fits this theme very well.
posted by SisterHavana at 11:52 PM on March 20, 2015
posted by SisterHavana at 11:52 PM on March 20, 2015
The Thin Veil is a trilogy by Jodi McIsaac about a modern Canadian mother and daughter who learn that the Irish tales were true and the mystical beings still live among us. And the daughter can open portals to other places... It's great. :)
posted by heatherann at 9:10 AM on March 21, 2015
posted by heatherann at 9:10 AM on March 21, 2015
Try searching for magic realism or fantastic realism.
The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov.
posted by cephalopodcast at 5:19 PM on March 24, 2015
The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov.
posted by cephalopodcast at 5:19 PM on March 24, 2015
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Is this for just her to read or the whole class? The class might run into some anti-religion/sex/etc. issues from some parents with these books. But they are incredible.
posted by nakedmolerats at 6:31 AM on March 20, 2015 [12 favorites]