Can anyone suggest an uncommon book to read?

Question

I'd like a book with an original plot, a story where the end is unexpected.

Answer 1

The Rainsong by Phyllis A Whitney.
t seems like a musical romance until the hero and the heroine.... Well it was a decent book.

TW K

Answer 2

Try "Greenwillow" by B. J. Chute. It is a funny, warm book with wonderful characters and threads of fantasy and religion that inform the book without dominating it. There is nothing weird, no attempt to evangelize the reader, but yes, it is a one-of-a-kind book with a surprise at the end.

Few people own this book, because they insist on giving it to friends to read, and those friends either keep it or pass it on to other friends in return.

A Broadway musical starring Anthony Hopkins was based on it, but it escaped being made into a movie, which could not have done it justice.

Used hardback copies are available for less than $5 from Abebooks. You may find it in your library. Enjoy!

LATER

Another answer recommends "Saki." Saki was an author (H. H. Munro), who was killed in World War I, and his short stories are very good indeed. I don't recommend his longer works. The short stories can be downloaded from Gutenberg.

Answer 3

Hmmm... an original plot *and* an unexpected ending. These two do not often meet.

scifi - Journey to the Center of the Earth - free online and a relatively easy read. It really is original, and I was *very* surprised by the ending.

War of the Worlds - ditto the above. Shorter but more advanced (adult) writing style than Journey.

mystery - Sherlock Holmes stories. Also free online, and many have quite surprising outcomes (you know Holmes is going to solve the crime, but the solution is often surprising). Of course, these are (excepting "La Rue Morgue") the original classic detective stories, so by definition original. Think of them as "CSI: London 1890"

fantasy - "The Sword in the Stone". My 2nd favorite fantasy book, and the ending surprised the bejesus out of me.

"A Spell for Chameleon" - also very original and quite a doubly-surprising conclusion.

Reviews of the fantasy recommendations here:
Jim, http://www.life-after-harry-potter.com

Answer 4

You have already got some interesting suggestions.
I would like to add one more.
The author is Michel Faber, and the book "Under the Skin". I have read it through several times, and although I know how it ends, there is so much in it. All of Faber's books are excellent, but for me "Under the Skin" stands out.
If you want something more traditional, but still out of the ordinary Michel Faber's "The Crimson Petal and the White" is a different look at the Victorian novel.

Answer 5

Maximum Ride by James Patterson
Alex rider by Anthony Horowitz
Varjack Paw by S.F. Said
H.I.V.E. by Mark Alden
The Shapeshifter by Ali Sparkes
CHERUB by Robert Muchamore
Call of the wild by Jack London
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck ( this book is so good )
Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
The Roman Mysteries by Caroline Lawrence
The Power of Five by Anthony Horowitz
Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
Young Bond by Charlie Higson
Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan
Shade's Children by Garth Nix
The Inheritance Trilogy by Christopher Paolini
The Inkheart Trilogy by Cornelia Funke

Answer 6

*The Job* by Irene Dische. It's about a Kurdish assassin under cover as a New York cab driver. It's a thriller, but it's also funny, and touching, and quite unlike anything else I've ever read.

The end is so unexpected I had to go back and read the final chapter again to make sure I'd got it.

It's lovely.

Answer 7

The Children of Hurin has recently been published by J R R Tolkien's son Christopher. It is a posthumously re-edited story that already appears briefly in, I think, The Silmarillion, but is now a standalone book. Don't expect them to live happily ever after.

Answer 8

This one FLIPS the genre upside-down. Nonfiction is exposed as fiction, and Fictional characters end up delivering the nonfiction. Fun and informative as well.

A free Read,
Gospel Enigma: and the Young Heretics.
Find at New Free Books.

Answer 9

werl....the Discworld books (T Pratchett) don't have unexpected ends, but they make fun of all the books with formula plots, and the rest of society along the way.
or, fantasy-fiction-wise, the Robin Hobb books don't have an exactly *happy* ending, and though parts may seem predictable, they're good books.

Answer 10

James Herbert, Creed

George Orwell, Animal farm