Hello everyone, I’m looking for a story that involves the main character their body or transformation into somethinf unimaginable or shocking by the end of the book.
“Rhinocéros” by Eugène Ionesco (a play) & “Her Fearful Symmetry” by Audrey Niffenegger
Knerdian on
“Wilder Girls” by Rory Power might suit you. It’s a more prolonged transformation throughout the book and isn’t necessarily completed, though.
And definitely the graphic novel “Black Hole” by Charles Burns
robinaw on
Who Goes There?
Aseekra on
Thank you everyone for the recommendations thus far! Without your help I wouldn’t have found anything.
avidliver21 on
Shark Heart by Emily Habeck
Ok_Carrot4385 on
The Vegetarian, Han Kang
liquoricetea123 on
The Merry Spinster by Daniel Lavery is a compilation with some short stories that meet that description. (Note, it was previously published under the name Mallory Ortberg so you may see that on older copies.)
SweetHermitress on
It’s not a perfect fit, but if you don’t mind YA, there’s The Host by Stephanie Meyers. Yes, the author of Twilight. This is a standalone book and better, in my own opinion.
meatwhisper on
*Our Wives Under The Sea* is a creepy atmospheric book about a woman whose wife returns from a Deep Sea Expedition. A very satisfying read that grows more strange as you read it.
freerangelibrarian on
Call Me Joe by Poul Anderson.
Manta’s Gift by Timothy Zahn.
Both sci-fi, not horror.
yawningtigger on
We Are Legion (We are Bob). Main character, a human nerd named Bob, becomes a disembodied controlling AI in an interstellar probe looking for habitable planets. Fun, light series about a regular but generally good guy who suddenly has to deal with… a lot. Audiobook version was great!
port_okali on
*A Thousand Steps into Night* by Traci Chee – although it happens quite early in the book and remains the main struggle throughout the story.
ommaandnugs on
Hunter by James Byron Huggins
Hunter is the ultimate tracker, the world’s best. If you’re lost, Hunter can find you — whether you want him to or not. Still, Hunter is particular about the searches he takes on. So when the military men seeking his help are very secretive about the mission they’re recruiting him for, Hunter’s instincts tell him to refuse. But there is a beast loose somewhere north of the Arctic Circle and it’s already charged through a secret research facility, wiping out the elite military squad that had been guarding it. And this raging superhuman monster is headed south for civilization, ready to wreak bloody devastation. It’s a job that Hunter can’t turn down, but what he discovers here in the wilderness is that terror has a form, that a renegade agency has let a half-human abomination escape into the wild. This almost invulnerable creature was created through a series of outlawed genetic experiments that have left it with a hunger for human blood. And may have made it immortal.
originalsibling on
_Blood Music_ by Greg Bear
Jack L. Chalker wrote tons of body horror fantasy, notably the Well World series and the Four Lords of the Diamond series.
BoringImplement8699 on
Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder
gupibagha on
Khagam by Satyajit Ray. It’s a short story that just feels ominous in Bengali, the original language. You’ll need to search for an English translation
stella3books on
“Queen of Teeth” by Hailey Piper is a novella about turning into a monster vagina-first.
22 Comments
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
Middlesex.
Was also going to suggest Metamorphosis by Kafka – I think that was 9th or 10th grade english required reading 🙂
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Stephen King has a short story in Night Shift called “Grey Matter”
[https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/20749427](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/20749427)
later done in episode 1 of the creepshow TV series
[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9597124/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9597124/)
Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield
“Rhinocéros” by Eugène Ionesco (a play) & “Her Fearful Symmetry” by Audrey Niffenegger
“Wilder Girls” by Rory Power might suit you. It’s a more prolonged transformation throughout the book and isn’t necessarily completed, though.
And definitely the graphic novel “Black Hole” by Charles Burns
Who Goes There?
Thank you everyone for the recommendations thus far! Without your help I wouldn’t have found anything.
Shark Heart by Emily Habeck
The Vegetarian, Han Kang
The Merry Spinster by Daniel Lavery is a compilation with some short stories that meet that description. (Note, it was previously published under the name Mallory Ortberg so you may see that on older copies.)
It’s not a perfect fit, but if you don’t mind YA, there’s The Host by Stephanie Meyers. Yes, the author of Twilight. This is a standalone book and better, in my own opinion.
*Our Wives Under The Sea* is a creepy atmospheric book about a woman whose wife returns from a Deep Sea Expedition. A very satisfying read that grows more strange as you read it.
Call Me Joe by Poul Anderson.
Manta’s Gift by Timothy Zahn.
Both sci-fi, not horror.
We Are Legion (We are Bob). Main character, a human nerd named Bob, becomes a disembodied controlling AI in an interstellar probe looking for habitable planets. Fun, light series about a regular but generally good guy who suddenly has to deal with… a lot. Audiobook version was great!
*A Thousand Steps into Night* by Traci Chee – although it happens quite early in the book and remains the main struggle throughout the story.
Hunter by James Byron Huggins
Hunter is the ultimate tracker, the world’s best. If you’re lost, Hunter can find you — whether you want him to or not. Still, Hunter is particular about the searches he takes on. So when the military men seeking his help are very secretive about the mission they’re recruiting him for, Hunter’s instincts tell him to refuse. But there is a beast loose somewhere north of the Arctic Circle and it’s already charged through a secret research facility, wiping out the elite military squad that had been guarding it. And this raging superhuman monster is headed south for civilization, ready to wreak bloody devastation. It’s a job that Hunter can’t turn down, but what he discovers here in the wilderness is that terror has a form, that a renegade agency has let a half-human abomination escape into the wild. This almost invulnerable creature was created through a series of outlawed genetic experiments that have left it with a hunger for human blood. And may have made it immortal.
_Blood Music_ by Greg Bear
Jack L. Chalker wrote tons of body horror fantasy, notably the Well World series and the Four Lords of the Diamond series.
Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder
Khagam by Satyajit Ray. It’s a short story that just feels ominous in Bengali, the original language. You’ll need to search for an English translation
“Queen of Teeth” by Hailey Piper is a novella about turning into a monster vagina-first.