the monsters live inside of us. we make the monsters.

Something truly unsettling is hovering just on the periphery. Don't blink.


Jeff VanderMeer's Borne looks at the aftermath of the Company's biotechnical destruction. Rachel and Wick manage to make a life in this place in which everything's at the whim of some giant flying bear named Mord. On a scavenging mission, Rachel finds a little blob - plant or animal? - and takes it home. Its name is Borne, and Borne is "like a person" but "a weapon, too." What does it mean to be a person? What responsiblities do we have to another person we've decided to care for?


Don't read this while you're eating. "Maibe opens a gummy hatch in the corridior; it comes away from the sticky surface like pulling off a scab." Everything is alive, goopy, bloody, visceral. Hurley categorized this as womb-punk in a tweet. The Legion on world ships battle for the right to space and existence, and Zan has been recycled (rebirthed with her memory wiped) over and over to lead a battle against the Mokshi. She doesn't remember how or why she must do this task, but throughout her current lifecycle, she has little epiphanies and remembers bits and pieces of before. Someone asked what I was reading, and I told them about this and how much I was enjoying it, and all I got in return was, "You read some weird fucking shit, Neil."


What do you do when you're sent off on a single-manned mission to space and find a huge spider-like alien hovering in the corner of your ship? What do you do when the spider-alien eats your Nutella? Ruminate on life, love, and the untapped potential life has to offer, of course.


During the twelfth expedition to Area X, the four explorers discover that something is truly weird in that sealed off place. As the expedition continues, the four of them keep secrets, discover things, and realize the true meaning of the word annihilation. "What can you do when your five senses are not enough? Because I still couldn't truly see it here, any more than I had seen it under the microscope, and that's what scared me the most. Why couldn't I see it?"


Donnie Darko came before Hollywood fell in love again with the 80s, and it seems weird not to include this. Is Donnie a time-traveling teen who must sacrifice himself to save the entire universe, a dying kid having an elaborate dream during his final moments, or just a garden-variety schizophrenic? "I just hope, that when the world comes to an end, I can breathe a sigh of relief...because there will be so much to look forward to."


Who killed Laura Palmer? A surreal crime drama that plays on campy American horror and soap operas, yet still somehow defies convention. How do you talk about weird TV without bringing up Twin Peaks? The show also served as some inspiration for 1993's video game The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening.