Books like the movie The Endless
August 8, 2023 8:48 AM Subscribe
Have you seen the movie The Endless? If not, you can watch if for free on youtube here, it's very very good. I would like book recommendations that are like The Endless in a specific way, so beware this question contains spoilers for that movie.
In The Endless, the protags are two brothers who escaped from a cult a decade earlier. They go back to visit, things are a bit weird, and you think it's going to be a movie about the nice and understandable worldly horror of normal human people doing cult things. But actually it's not a cult at all, it's a bunch of people stuck in a time loop controlled by a powerful and omniscient entity, and there are other people around the camp who are stuck in time loops of their own. THAT's what the brothers have to escape from, the cult is just a red herring.
I love this trope. And I love that this trope is the opposite of how I usually love this trope.
For example, I've always loved Rosemary's Baby, a story where the supernatural horror you think it's about (the devil worship, etc) is far overshadowed by the very real human horror (of a woman living with a controlling husband in a time where women have minimal rights). The Endless flops that trope by setting you up for a human horror, but actually that's not nearly as big a deal as the very very real supernatural thing that's after them. And that is what I'd like more of. In books to read please:
- A twist from being human-scary to supernatural-scary
- I also like that The Endless is sci fi adjacent, with the time loops and the physics and the atmospheric effects, and so prefer the nonhuman scary to be sci-fi-ish.
If you recommend a book, please tell me briefly why it fits this trope. For the purposes of this question I don't care at all about learning spoilers.
Back in the good old days before we had such severe character limits on titles this would have been called "What if the real horror were the metaphysical disturbances we encountered along the way?" Ok thank you.
In The Endless, the protags are two brothers who escaped from a cult a decade earlier. They go back to visit, things are a bit weird, and you think it's going to be a movie about the nice and understandable worldly horror of normal human people doing cult things. But actually it's not a cult at all, it's a bunch of people stuck in a time loop controlled by a powerful and omniscient entity, and there are other people around the camp who are stuck in time loops of their own. THAT's what the brothers have to escape from, the cult is just a red herring.
I love this trope. And I love that this trope is the opposite of how I usually love this trope.
For example, I've always loved Rosemary's Baby, a story where the supernatural horror you think it's about (the devil worship, etc) is far overshadowed by the very real human horror (of a woman living with a controlling husband in a time where women have minimal rights). The Endless flops that trope by setting you up for a human horror, but actually that's not nearly as big a deal as the very very real supernatural thing that's after them. And that is what I'd like more of. In books to read please:
- A twist from being human-scary to supernatural-scary
- I also like that The Endless is sci fi adjacent, with the time loops and the physics and the atmospheric effects, and so prefer the nonhuman scary to be sci-fi-ish.
If you recommend a book, please tell me briefly why it fits this trope. For the purposes of this question I don't care at all about learning spoilers.
Back in the good old days before we had such severe character limits on titles this would have been called "What if the real horror were the metaphysical disturbances we encountered along the way?" Ok thank you.
Would the Southern Reach trilogy, starting with Annihilation, perhaps suit? It's not really a bait and switch but definitely leans into the supernatural horror vibe.
posted by Alensin at 9:21 AM on August 8, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by Alensin at 9:21 AM on August 8, 2023 [3 favorites]
House of Leaves, maybe?
Just Like Home starts like a human horror, transitions into a supernatural horror and ends with what I can only describe in a spoiler-free way as a hybrid of both.
You may also appreciate the vibe of Limetown, which is the novelized prequel to the podcast miniseries but could probably be read as a standalone.
posted by fifthpocket at 9:54 AM on August 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
Just Like Home starts like a human horror, transitions into a supernatural horror and ends with what I can only describe in a spoiler-free way as a hybrid of both.
You may also appreciate the vibe of Limetown, which is the novelized prequel to the podcast miniseries but could probably be read as a standalone.
posted by fifthpocket at 9:54 AM on August 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
I also don't have a book in mind -- so feel free to skip if you are not interested in more film recommendations, but this immediately made me think of the 1991 Michael Tolkin film "The Rapture." It starts out like a film about a spiritually lost woman searching for meaning and becoming a born again Christian and a part of the sect actively awaiting the Rapture...and she believes that God is testing her and does something terrible because she believes God decrees her, and as a result loses her faith. It seems like a human drama for much of the movie. But then the Rapture actually happens...it's definitely NOT a religious/pro-Christian movie.
posted by virve at 10:08 AM on August 8, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by virve at 10:08 AM on August 8, 2023 [3 favorites]
Hmmm. Phil Rickman’s Merrily Watkins series, beginning with The Wine of Angels is about a woman who is a CoE cleric and a recently-trained exorcist who works in a rural parish on the boarder between England and Wales. She is constantly struggling with people who don’t like women priests, who think it’s crazy to have an exorcist in the modern age, with church hierarchy, and… maybe… a satanic conspiracy. The supernatural is pretty subtle, and there’s a big question whether there are any ghosts or demons or if it’s just all the ripples of really bad people doing bad things. There’s a lot of them, and, as of book 6, there’s no concrete proof of anything. Not sure if that slow a burn is what you want or not.
Adam Neville’s No One Gets Out Alive brings on the supernatural pretty early but swings back and forth between whether ghosts or being a woman in a desperate financial situation or predatory men are the worst danger. I want able to finish it, since the mundane dangers were so stressful that the ghosts seemed like a relief.
The film His House is both scary and heartbreaking, and maybe gets at what you’re looking for.
posted by GenjiandProust at 10:30 AM on August 8, 2023
Adam Neville’s No One Gets Out Alive brings on the supernatural pretty early but swings back and forth between whether ghosts or being a woman in a desperate financial situation or predatory men are the worst danger. I want able to finish it, since the mundane dangers were so stressful that the ghosts seemed like a relief.
The film His House is both scary and heartbreaking, and maybe gets at what you’re looking for.
posted by GenjiandProust at 10:30 AM on August 8, 2023
Oh, so it's been several years since I read this, but you might like Wayward Pines by Blake Crouch. The first book is called Pines.
It's best to go into it completely blank (there was a tv show as well so googling yields too much information, also the book is better). It begins with a government agent on assignment who wakes up in a hospital room in this impossibly perfect little town in the pacific northwest. He's injured, disoriented, suspicious. He tries to leave but something always stops him. There are strange and sinister things afoot that only get stranger and sinister-er.
(Amazon link)
posted by mochapickle at 10:31 AM on August 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
It's best to go into it completely blank (there was a tv show as well so googling yields too much information, also the book is better). It begins with a government agent on assignment who wakes up in a hospital room in this impossibly perfect little town in the pacific northwest. He's injured, disoriented, suspicious. He tries to leave but something always stops him. There are strange and sinister things afoot that only get stranger and sinister-er.
(Amazon link)
posted by mochapickle at 10:31 AM on August 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
(correction, I just checked and he doesn’t wake up in a hospital in the book, apparently it’s a park.)
posted by mochapickle at 10:46 AM on August 8, 2023
posted by mochapickle at 10:46 AM on August 8, 2023
Many spoilers ahead!
Victor LaValle's work in general is excellent at blending human-driven and supernatural horror in interesting ways. Not science-fiction leaning for the most part though, more in an anti-racist Lovecraftian tradition (I know that's an oxymoron but bear with me).
The Changeling - is a woman's struggle to connect with her baby and her turn toward violence post-partum depression or a supernatural horror? (It's supernatural horror.) It's apparently being made into a tv show now.
The Devil in Silver - a man winds up in a mental hospital mistakenly. Is he having a serious mental health breakdown or is the devil actually trapped in the institution with him? This one doesn't hit the trope quite as cleanly since a lot of the horror is our broken mental health system, but it's in the right ballpark and is just an excellent novel.
The Need by Helen Phillips may work -- a woman faces a danger that seems like a stalker/kidnapper but is actually herself from a parallel universe.
Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey -- a woman goes home to take care of her dying mother (from whom she's estranged) and an artist is living in the guesthouse and mooching off her mom. Things get weird, is it the artist? No, it's the house that is puppet-ing her mother's already-dead body.
Semiosis by Sue Burke - this is the most science fiction of all the recommendation. Colonists struggling to survive on a new planet - the plant life of the planet adapted to manage mammals for its own purposes so the narrative tension is whether the human civilization can survive with some semblance of free will intact.
posted by snaw at 11:04 AM on August 8, 2023 [2 favorites]
Victor LaValle's work in general is excellent at blending human-driven and supernatural horror in interesting ways. Not science-fiction leaning for the most part though, more in an anti-racist Lovecraftian tradition (I know that's an oxymoron but bear with me).
The Changeling - is a woman's struggle to connect with her baby and her turn toward violence post-partum depression or a supernatural horror? (It's supernatural horror.) It's apparently being made into a tv show now.
The Devil in Silver - a man winds up in a mental hospital mistakenly. Is he having a serious mental health breakdown or is the devil actually trapped in the institution with him? This one doesn't hit the trope quite as cleanly since a lot of the horror is our broken mental health system, but it's in the right ballpark and is just an excellent novel.
The Need by Helen Phillips may work -- a woman faces a danger that seems like a stalker/kidnapper but is actually herself from a parallel universe.
Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey -- a woman goes home to take care of her dying mother (from whom she's estranged) and an artist is living in the guesthouse and mooching off her mom. Things get weird, is it the artist? No, it's the house that is puppet-ing her mother's already-dead body.
Semiosis by Sue Burke - this is the most science fiction of all the recommendation. Colonists struggling to survive on a new planet - the plant life of the planet adapted to manage mammals for its own purposes so the narrative tension is whether the human civilization can survive with some semblance of free will intact.
posted by snaw at 11:04 AM on August 8, 2023 [2 favorites]
I recommend The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin (Wikipedia, Fanfare). It definitely gave me Endless vibes as I read it.
It starts with the very human horror of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and then in the present, a mystery about a cult-like organization possibly murdering scientists. Eventually the sci-fi mysteries ramp up to a horrifying cosmic revelation.
It’s the first in a trilogy, but I haven’t read the other two yet.
posted by ejs at 11:39 AM on August 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
It starts with the very human horror of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and then in the present, a mystery about a cult-like organization possibly murdering scientists. Eventually the sci-fi mysteries ramp up to a horrifying cosmic revelation.
It’s the first in a trilogy, but I haven’t read the other two yet.
posted by ejs at 11:39 AM on August 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
Providence by Max Barry is about a publicity-stunt space mission sending a state-of-the-art space destroyer against some scary aliens. The small crew is meant to fight the space monsters, liveblogging it to win hearts and minds back on Earth.
It quickly becomes apparent that stressed and dysfunctional people in a confined space is scarier than aliens. Other stuff happens too.
It's an impressively sinister book that wrongfooted me several times.
posted by Lorc at 11:44 AM on August 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
It quickly becomes apparent that stressed and dysfunctional people in a confined space is scarier than aliens. Other stuff happens too.
It's an impressively sinister book that wrongfooted me several times.
posted by Lorc at 11:44 AM on August 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: So funny. I am reading the Three Body Problem right now! And I checked my kindle, looks like I started reading Pines back when the series first got on TV but I never finished it. Definitely on the right track here!
posted by phunniemee at 11:45 AM on August 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by phunniemee at 11:45 AM on August 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
I can recommend Eifelheim by Michael Flynn. It's about aliens landing in 14th century Germany. From there, the plot does not follow the usual sci-fi tropes. Spoiler: the stranded aliens with a non-working space ship take the local Christian priest talking about "going to Heaven" very seriously and believe this is the way to get back to their home.
posted by gakiko at 10:21 AM on August 12, 2023
posted by gakiko at 10:21 AM on August 12, 2023
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posted by mrphancy at 9:11 AM on August 8, 2023 [2 favorites]