Picking up a good book—whether we’re referring to blotter tabs or the written page—can kickstart a magical evening. Though reading and tripping may not go hand-in-hand, finishing a mind-twisting novel can feel just as psychedelic as dropping a hit or eating a cap or two.
Below, you’ll find a list of some of our favorite trippy novels. You don’t need to be elevated to enjoy these stories, but we hope you definitely feel like you got lifted sky high when reading them.
The Illuminatus! Trilogy (1975) by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea
At a time when conspiracy theories have tainted everything from presidential elections to Stevie Wonder, maybe the best remedy isn’t to always fight back. Maybe the best remedy — sometimes, anyway — is to simply laugh at it.
Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson’s The Illuminatus! Trilogy traverses the mainstays of popular conspiracy culture, whether it’s Bigfoot or psychic CIA projects. As detective Saul Goodman (no relation to the lawyer from Albuquerque) investigates the bombing of a leftist newspaper’s headquarters, he begins to uncover not just a wide-reaching conspiracy. He stumbles on the ultimate conspiracy, the one conspiracy which encapsulates everything within its slimy tendrils, from the JFK assassination to the Bermuda Triangle.
Although the setup may sound grave, the tone of the novels is anything but. This is, after all, a comedy. What else would you expect from an X-Files precursor that features killer porpoises, a devil-worshiping American Medical Association, and a rock band’s sacrificial plot to make Adolf Hitler immortal?
And in case you’re wondering: No, gay frogs do not make a guest appearance in this one.
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Vurt (1993) by Jeff Noon
The only tried-and-true sci-fi novel on this list (sorry, Phillip K. Dick fans), Vurt takes place in a neo-punk version of Manchester, where the world has been upended up by a psychedelic drug called Vurt. Here’s the kicker, though: Vurt isn’t just a drug, it’s also a shared, alternate reality where all of humanity’s dreams, myths, and legends come to life. To ingest Vurt, people suck on specially colored feathers.
The novel follows Scribble and his crew of Stash Riders as they search for his missing sister, Desdemona. (And yes, there are plenty of Shakespeare references in this one.) The key to finding her lies in tracking down a contraband version of the colored feather, which may not actually exist.
Like most of the novels listed here, Vurt questions the nature of what we consider real, and more importantly, why we consider something real in the first place.
House of Leaves (2000) by Mark Z. Danielewski
More than two decades after it hit the shelves, House of Leaves remains a testament to the power of postmodern fiction, even in a post-postmodern world. Centered on a married couple, things get unnerving when they realize the inside of their home is larger than the outside. After discovering a passageway leading into a mysterious void, the couple recruits a camera crew to descend into the house’s depths and confront whatever horror resides below.
House of Leaves weaves through an ever-winding maze of written media, from faux interviews with iconic celebrities to entire pages of narrative composed as concrete poetry. To give you some idea of what you’re getting into, part of this book requires a mirror to read it.
Although a film version of House of Leaves has never made it through production hell, there is a light-hearted parody which borrows from the novel called Dave Made a Maze.
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Life of Pi (2001) by Suraj Sharma
Although most folks may remember Life of Pi as an Academy Award-winning film (netting director Ang Lee his second Oscar for Best Director), the novel plunges much deeper than the movie, using every sentence to explore what’s real, what isn’t, and whether either really matters in the end. President Barack Obama described the novel as “an elegant proof of God.”
Life of Pi follows Pi Patel, a boy who’s lost at sea for 227 days in a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger he names Richard Parker. For an inkling of what’s in store, Pi’s adventure takes him to a deserted island which eats its inhabitants, a sea of glowing algae made up of meerkats, and seaside negotiations with a homicidal orangutan.
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake (2010) by Aimee Bender
Imagine a superpower where you could sense anyone’s true emotions by simply eating the food they made. That’s the premise of Aimee Bender’s The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, wherein a young girl named Rose possesses this ability.
Rather than spinning yet another action-adventure yarn about a young person with unique abilities, Fever Dream uses Rose’s supernatural ability to highlight how most of us hide what we truly feel. And, in the process, it explores how concealing emotions can inflict damage on those closest to us — or free us, when we finally let go of others’ expectations and choose to express ourselves honestly.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane (2013) by Neil Gaiman
Really, we could put any of Neil Gaiman’s novels on this list. However, The Ocean at the End of the Lane stands out for novelizing a story that has been nearly 40 years in the making. In fact, Henry Selick, the man who directed Gaiman’s Coraline, described it as the British author’s best work.
As for the four-decade old tale, Gaiman himself said The Ocean is the third part of a trilogy, which includes the graphic novels Violent Cases (1987) and The Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Mr. Punch (1994), both of which focus on the loss of innocence.
Without giving too much away, The Ocean starts with an unnamed man who returns to his hometown for a funeral. A lost memory triggers the presence of an otherworldly entity, which begins haunting the protagonist. And once that starts, you should definitely ensure that you’re not tripping as you read on.
Fever Dream (2014) by Samantha Schweblin
Originally published in Spanish as Distancia de rescate (“rescue distance”), Fever Dream is equal parts environmentalist screed and psychological suspense. The novel zeroes in on Amanda, a woman who’s being treated in a rural Argentine clinic for an unknown illness. During her stay, she befriends a strange boy, David, who’s been staying in the same hospital for years after drinking poisoned water.
The narrative fragments as it goes along, a blurry mess of Amanda’s hallucinations as the reader realizes agricultural pesticides are poisoning everyone in the community. Or are they? Like an earth-shattering trip, Fever Dream challenges notions of self, society, and, by the end of this story, what it really means to be a mother.
