If you enjoy reading books by Carmen Maria Machado then you might also like the following authors:
Kelly Link writes quirky, imaginative stories that blend fantasy with reality in unexpected ways. Her style mixes humor, darkness, and myth to create thought-provoking narratives where the ordinary world meets magic and strangeness.
In her collection Get in Trouble, Link explores unsettling ideas about relationships and personal identity through fantastical and mysterious storytelling. Readers who enjoyed Machado's ability to blur genre boundaries are sure to appreciate Link's imaginative tales.
Karen Russell's fiction is vivid, magical, and often haunting. She sets unusual, supernatural events within the real world, creating characters who confront strange and eerie situations.
Her novel Swamplandia! is an atmospheric story about a family struggling to keep their bizarre Floridian amusement park open while their lives slowly unravel, blending realism with surreal and Gothic elements.
Fans of Carmen Maria Machado will connect with Russell's talent for mixing dark fantasy and emotional intensity.
Angela Carter is a powerful storyteller known for rewriting traditional fairy tales and myths from feminist perspectives. Her stories combine lush, descriptive prose with gothic darkness and feminist themes.
In her collection The Bloody Chamber, Carter puts her signature twist on classic tales, highlighting the complexities of women's desires, fears, and survival.
Readers who admire Carmen Maria Machado's exploration of feminism, horror, and fantasy will find Carter's work deeply rewarding.
Shirley Jackson crafts unsettling stories that expose hidden terror beneath the surface of everyday life. Her writing often examines isolation, psychological fear, and the dark side of human nature.
In her classic novel We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Jackson tells an eerie tale of sisters living apart from a hostile community, gradually revealing layers of paranoia, trauma, and dark secrets.
Like Machado, Jackson excels at capturing psychological tension and subtle darkness lurking within the familiar.
Mariana Enriquez builds unsettling narratives grounded in contemporary life, exploring dark corners of Argentina's recent history and social issues through the lens of horror and supernatural phenomena.
Her short story collection The Things We Lost in the Fire exposes the horrors hidden beneath the surface of everyday existence, tackling subjects like violence, sexuality, and inequality.
Readers who enjoy Machado's mixture of realism, darkness, and social commentary will be drawn to Enriquez's powerful prose and disturbing scenarios.
Samanta Schweblin writes atmospheric and unsettling stories, often blurring the line between reality and nightmare. Her narratives feel tense and surreal, exploring fear, loss, and the unsettling undercurrents of ordinary life.
Her short novel, Fever Dream, captures this perfectly with a tense, mysterious conversation between a dying woman and a young boy, weaving environmental issues and personal tragedy.
Helen Oyeyemi mixes fairy tales, magical realism, and contemporary stories, creating narratives full of unexpected twists, humor, and mystery. She digs into identity, childhood nostalgia, and the oddities of modern life with imagination and wit.
Her book Gingerbread focuses on family bonds, storytelling, and surreal dread, all through a fresh, modern lens.
Rivers Solomon writes fiction that combines speculative elements—science fiction, fantasy—with real-world emotional depth. Solomon's books explore identity, trauma, gender, race, and social injustice with powerful, imaginative storytelling.
The Deep is a notable example, about an underwater society built by descendants of enslaved pregnant women thrown overboard, highlighting memory, pain, and strength.
Julia Armfield writes fiction filled with quiet dread, gothic atmosphere, and emotional intensity. Her work focuses on relationships, bodies, and identity through a strange, unsettling lens, reminding readers of life's weirdness and vulnerability.
Her novel Our Wives Under the Sea delves into love, grief, and isolation, following a couple affected by a deep-sea expedition gone wrong, blending realism and underwater horror beautifully.
Daisy Johnson creates stories rich in evocative language, dark emotion, and haunting imagery. Her writing frequently tackles family secrets, psychological anxiety, and the blurred edges between myth and reality.
Everything Under retells the Oedipus myth in a modern setting, combining folklore, family estrangement, and the haunting landscape of memory.
If you like Carmen Maria Machado for unsettling stories with sharp psychological insight, you might enjoy Ottessa Moshfegh. Her characters are often outsiders who live lonely, strange, even grotesque lives.
In My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Moshfegh explores isolation and mental health with dark humor and a disturbing yet somehow relatable narrative.
Fans of Machado who love genre-blending and vibrant, unique voices should give Tamsyn Muir a chance. Her novel Gideon the Ninth combines fantasy, horror, and science fiction, all with a refreshing dose of dark humor.
Her storytelling is energetic and witty, with imaginative world-building and intriguing characters.
If you're interested in Machado's frank and fearless exploration of taboo topics, Alissa Nutting might be another author you'll appreciate. Nutting's work is provocative and darkly humorous, taking unsettling risks to explore human desires and dysfunctions.
Her novel Tampa pushes boundaries with a disturbing yet insightful examination of obsession and power dynamics.
Readers drawn to Machado's surreal, unsettling scenarios and lyrical style might connect with Amelia Gray's work. In Gutshot, Gray delivers a striking collection of vivid, surreal short stories.
She examines dark complexities of human behavior and includes absurdity that feels alive and captivating.
If you enjoy Machado's skillful fusion of speculative fiction and literary sensibility, Jeff VanderMeer might be a good match. Known especially for his novel Annihilation, VanderMeer crafts atmospheric stories that envelope readers into fascinatingly weird worlds.
Like Machado, he often blurs reality and imagination, using mysterious, eerie elements to explore deeper human themes.