Which books are told in the most interesting / creative/ mind bending ways? How does it add to the book overall?
My all time favourite is Ella Minnow Pea where the book is a series of letters. The characters have to think of more inventive ways to write their letters as an increasing number of letters are outlawed as the book progresses.
Honourable mentions include:
Maribou Stork Nightmares where the narrator is trying to suppress his dark past by allowing himself to slip into hallucinations of a whacky south African safari adventure.
Flowers for Algernon where the narrator becomes more articulate by taking part in a scientific experiment.
There was a very artistic book series published in the 90’s called Griffon & Sabine, by Nick Bantock, about two artists who never met and didn’t know each other, but could see what the other drew in their minds eye as the other was drawing. Each thought they were just vividly daydreaming until one of them came across a postcard that the other had illustrated, and immediately recognized it. The book is their correspondence as they make contact and then start to write to each other. The format is just the correspondence, so when they send a postcard, you get the front and back of the postcard on opposite pages, and when they send a letter, there’s an envelope glued to the page with a letter inside that you need to take out and read.
What makes it even more inventive and interesting is that there are clues that hint at unreliable narrators, and without spoilers, there’s more going on than flirtatious, artistic letters. The art is beautiful, and often is linked to the story in obvious and subtle ways, where instead of just illustration or decoration, it’s part of the narrative. It’s a sort of supernatural love story, and it’s very beautiful both in terms of the physical book and art, and in terms of the story.
It was out of print for a long time, but appears to be available again and if you can find a copy, it’s amazing. There were three books in the original series, Griffon & Sabine, Sabine’s Notebook and The Golden Mean, and then some follow up books that I never got a chance to read.
Came here to suggest the Griffon and Sabine books, there are at least 3, then the follow ups. Amazing artwork.
There is a final book published just a few years ago called the Pharos Gate if you’d care to have something like closure on this enigmatic couple. Griffin and Sabine has been a a hugely impactful book series on me.