The Horned Man

Goodreads' description is a little over the top, but this is definitely a dark book with many layers. Unsettling and alarming things start happening to the main character. He sets out to try to understand what is going on, but in a secretive way that seems designed to make things worse. His thinking is skewed. More alarming things happen and things do get worse. The world in this book is a barren, wet, polluted place. I liked that there was no big reveal at the end, like in old-fashioned mysteries where all the perplexing details get explained to the mystified innocents.

This dreamlike, Kafka-esque tale of a college professor's descent into madness may be the best “unreliable narrator” book of all time. As the narrator's world disintegrates into a surreal, paranoid nightmare, The Horned Man is reminiscent of the best of Edgar Allan Poe. And like The Little Stranger, its final, lyrical and shiver-inducing sentences might melt your brain. Recommended to those who like a dose of masterfully crafted surrealism.