Recommendations based on Make Something Up: Stories You Can't Unreadby Chuck Palahniuk

* statistically, based on millions of data-points provided by fellow humans

  1. Damned

    by Chuck Palahniuk
    A powerful satire of American culture, as a young woman confronts the absurdities of society.

    The novel opens with 13-year-old Madison "Maddy" Spencer waking in Hell , unsure of the details surrounding her death. She believes she died of a marijuana overdose while her celebrity parents were ... (Wikipedia)

  2. Beautiful You

    by Chuck Palahniuk
    A satire on the beauty industry, where a billionaire creates a line of sex toys that turn women into mindless sex slaves.

    "A billion husbands are about to be replaced." From the author of Fight Club , the classic portrait of the damaged contemporary male psyche, now comes this novel about the apocalyptic marketing ... (Goodreads)

  3. Diary

    by Chuck Palahniuk
    An exploration of the depths of human depravity, exposing the darkest aspects of society.

    Diary takes the form of a "coma diary" telling the story of Misty Marie Wilmot as her husband lies senseless in a hospital after a suicide attempt. The story is not exactly told by Misty but through ... (Wikipedia)

  4. Purity

    by Jonathan Franzen
    A young woman's quest to uncover her identity and family secrets.

    The novel tells the intersecting stories of several different people of widely diverging ages and backgrounds. Purity Tyler, who goes by the name "Pip" is 23 and has $130,000 in student loan debt. ... (Wikipedia)

  5. Empire Falls

    by Richard Russo
    A small town's citizens struggle to find meaning and find their place in a rapidly changing world.

    Set in the decaying, nearly bankrupt, small town of Empire Falls, Maine, this is the story of the unassuming manager of the Empire Grill, Miles Roby, who has spent his life in the town. The town, and ... (Wikipedia)

  6. How They Met, and Other Stories

    by David Levithan
    A collection of short stories about love, exploring the different ways people meet and fall in love.

    Just in time for Valentine’s Day comes a confection from David Levithan that is sure to appeal to fans of Boy Meets Boy. Here are 18 stories, all about love, and about all kinds of love. From the ... (Goodreads)

  7. Prom Nights from Hell

    by Meg Cabot
    A collection of supernatural prom stories featuring vampires, ghosts, and otherworldly creatures.

    In this exciting collection, bestselling authors Meg Cabot (How to Be Popular), Kim Harrison (A Fistful of Charms), Michele Jaffe (Bad Kitty), Stephenie Meyer (Twilight), and Lauren Myracle (ttyl) ... (Goodreads)

  8. Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage

    by Haruki Murakami
    A man's journey of self-reflection to address his past and understand his place in the world.

    A mesmerising mystery story about friendship from the internationally bestselling author of, Norwegian Wood, and, 1Q84, Tsukuru Tazaki had four best friends at school. By chance all of their names ... (Goodreads)

  9. 'Salem's Lot

    by Stephen King
    A small town is terrorized by a vampire, forcing its citizens to fight for survival.

    Ben Mears, a writer who spent part of his childhood in Jerusalem's Lot , Maine , has returned after 25 years. He quickly becomes friends with high-school teacher Matt Burke and strikes up a ... (Wikipedia)

  10. American Psycho

    by Bret Easton Ellis
    A corporate psychopath's descent into homicidal madness, exposing the dark side of 1980s New York.

    Set in Manhattan during the Wall Street boom of the late 1980s, American Psycho follows the life of wealthy young investment banker Patrick Bateman. Bateman, in his mid-20s when the story begins, ... (Wikipedia)

  11. We Are Called to Rise

    by Laura McBride
    A tragic event brings together four strangers in Las Vegas, revealing their interconnected lives and the power of compassion.

    Three lives are bound together by a split-second mistake, and a child’s fate hangs in the balance. What happens next will test—and restore—your faith in humanity. Far from the neon lights of the ... (Barnes & Noble)

  12. Riding the Bullet

    by Stephen King
    A young man hitchhikes to see his dying mother, encountering supernatural horrors along the way.

    Alan Parker is a student at the University of Maine who is trying to find himself. He gets a call from a neighbor in his hometown of Lewiston , telling him that his mother has been taken to the ... (Wikipedia)

  13. The Last

    by Hanna Jameson
    A group of strangers trapped in a hotel after a nuclear apocalypse must confront their own morality and survival instincts.

    For fans of high-concept thrillers such as, Annihilation, and, The Girl with All the Gifts, this breathtaking dystopian psychological thriller follows an American academic stranded at a Swiss hotel ... (Goodreads)

  14. The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley

    by Hannah Tinti
    A father-daughter journey of healing, as they confront the secrets of the past.

    A father protects his daughter from the legacy of his past and the truth about her mother's death in this thrilling new novel from the prize-winning author of, The Good Thief., After years spent ... (Goodreads)

  15. Notes from Underground

    by Fyodor Dostoevsky
    A portrait of the struggles of a troubled man, exploring his inner turmoil.

    The novel is divided into two parts. Serving as an introduction into the mind of the narrator, the first part of Notes from Underground is split into nine chapters: The narrator observes that utopian ... (Wikipedia)

  16. Sun Storm

    by Åsa Larsson
    A lawyer returns to her hometown to attend her childhood friend's funeral and gets entangled in a murder investigation. Dark secrets are uncovered.

    On the floor of a church in northern Sweden, the body of a man lies mutilated and defiled–and in the night sky, the aurora borealis dances as the snow begins to fall....So begins Åsa Larsson’s ... (Goodreads)

  17. Legion: The Many Lives of Stephen Leeds

    by Brandon Sanderson
    A genius with multiple personalities solves mysteries using his hallucinations. But what happens when his imaginary friends start to become real?

    Legion tells the story of Stephen Leeds, better known as 'Legion', a man whose unique mental condition allows him to generate multitude of personae. He is a brilliant problem solver, rich and quite ... (Wikipedia)

  18. Girl at War

    by Sara Nović
    A young girl's life is torn apart by the Yugoslav Wars, forcing her to flee and confront the trauma of her past.

    Zagreb, summer of 1991. Ten-year-old Ana Jurić is a carefree tomboy who runs the streets of Croatia's capital with her best friend, Luka, takes care of her baby sister, Rahela, and idolizes her ... (Goodreads)

  19. Phantom

    by Terry Goodkind
    Epic fantasy adventure, as a humble woods guide embarks on a quest to protect a magical kingdom.

    The story continues with Richard's quest to find his wife, Kahlan, and release her from the Chainfire spell. Kahlan still travels with the Sisters of the Dark Ulicia, Cecilia and Armina as they hurry ... (Wikipedia)

  20. City on Fire

    by Garth Risk Hallberg
    A mystery novel set in 1970s New York City, exploring the interconnected lives of its inhabitants leading up to a catastrophic event.

    New York City, 1976. Meet Regan and William Hamilton-Sweeney, estranged heirs to one of the city's great fortunes; Keith and Mercer, the men who, for better or worse, love them; Charlie and Samantha, ... (Goodreads)

  21. Zero K

    by Don DeLillo
    A billionaire funds a secret compound where people can undergo cryogenic freezing to achieve immortality. His son joins, but questions the morality of the process.

    The novel concerns a billionaire , Ross Lockhart, who is inspired by the terminal illness of his wife Artis to seek immortality for both of them through cryopreservation . The novel is narrated by ... (Wikipedia)

  22. Soul of the Fire

    by Terry Goodkind
    A daring adventure of facing the unknown to save the world from an ancient evil.

    Continuing on from, Temple of the Winds, the story begins after Richard and Kahlan's wedding in the village of the Mud People. Strange deaths and the appearance of a 'chicken-that-isn't-a-chicken' ... (Wikipedia)

  23. Well-Schooled in Murder

    by Elizabeth George
    Detective Lynley investigates a murder at an exclusive boarding school.

    Teacher John Corntel asks his former Eton schoolmate Lynley for help when the 13 year old schoolboy Matthew Whateley has disappeared. Initially Lynley refuses, until Deborah St James finds the naked ... (Wikipedia)

  24. 11/22/63

    by Stephen King
    A time-traveler attempts to prevent the assassination of JFK.

    Jake Epping is a recently divorced high school English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine , earning extra money teaching a GED class. Epping gives an assignment to his adult students, asking them to ... (Wikipedia)

  25. I Sing the Body Electric! & Other Stories

    by Ray Bradbury
    Collection of stories exploring humanity and its impact on the universe.

    The mind of Ray Bradbury is a wonder-filled carnival of delight and terror that stretches from the verdant Irish countryside to the coldest reaches of outer space. Yet all his work is united by one ... (Goodreads)

  26. The Subterraneans

    by Jack Kerouac
    A young man's search for love and acceptance in a world of cultural and racial tensions.

    Jack Kerouac, one of the great voices of the Beat generation and author of the classic On the Road , here continues his peregrinations in postwar, underground San Francisco. "The subterraneans" come ... (Goodreads)

  27. Hell Is Empty

    by Craig Johnson
    Sheriff Walt Longmire searches for a missing escaped convict in the wilderness of Wyoming's Absaroka County.

    Wyoming's favorite sheriff braves a frozen inferno as he races to capture an escaped murderer. , Well-read and world-weary, Sheriff Walt Longmire has been maintaing order in Wyoming's Absaroka County ... (Goodreads)

  28. One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories

    by B.J. Novak
    Collection of short stories, exploring the quirks of life with wit and humor.

    New York Times Bestseller , A startlingly original debut from the actor, writer, director, and executive producer hailed as “a gifted observer of the human condition and a very funny writer capable ... (Barnes & Noble)

  29. Deeply Odd

    by Dean Koontz
    Odd Thomas, a fry cook with supernatural abilities, must save a young boy from a sinister cult.

    About a month after the events detailed in Odd Apocalypse, Odd Thomas encounters a demented truck driver. During this encounter, when he touches the trucker, Odd suddenly has a vision of three ... (Wikipedia)

  30. Glamorama

    by Bret Easton Ellis
    A man's descent into a world of fame, glamour, and superficiality.

    The author of American Psycho and Less Than Zero continues to shock and haunt us with his incisive and brilliant dissection of the modern world.In his most ambitious and gripping book yet, Bret ... (Goodreads)