24 Unknown Books That Readers Think Deserve Way More Attention

"Found it in a donation bin, gave it a shot, and it's one of the best books I've ever read."

Is it just me, or does BookTook keep recommending the same ten books?

CBS

And while I appreciate BookTok recommendations (The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo was the perfect beach read), I get a bit bored of seeing the same titles over and over again. 

So, when u/ragebeeflord asked r/suggestmeabook, "What’s a more unknown book but you think is a 10/10?", I knew I had to share the replies.

1. The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey.

Simon & Schuster. / Via Amazon

"A modern police inspector tries to prove the crimes of King Richard III."`

– u/prazmowska

" I have gifted this one to so many crime fiction fans and have never heard a bad review."– u/KochuKuruvi

2. Signs Preceding the End of the World by Yuri Herrera

‎And Other Stories

"It’s originally written in Spanish and even in the translation, is so beautifully and interestingly crafted around language, borders, transition, journey, and life cycles. The story follows a Mexican woman who needs to get a message to her brother who has left for America but whose location and status of well-being is unknown. Yuri references Aztec mythology and the story of Quetzalcoatl descending to the underworld to restore humanity through the woman’s journey. This short but poignant book examines an astounding number of deep topics quite well within so few pages and completely caught me off guard with it’s genius, prose, and reworking of Aztec folklore into modern Mexican literature."

– u/winelips23

3. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fford

Hodder Paperbacks

"Picked up the book because the plot piqued my interest. When I was done with it I wanted to live in that reality and have a pet Dodo."

– u/hippolicious4

4. The Neanderthal Parallax trilogy by Robert J. Sawyer

Tor

"A quantum accident opens a rift between our universe and one in which Neanderthals became the dominant species instead of Homo Sapiens, and a neanderthal scientist is accidentally brought to ours. I absolutely love the author's world building skill and his dedication to doing the research so his science and history are accurate. I also find it interesting that he predicted social media twenty years ago."

– u/purpleRN

5. The Star Diaries by Stanislav Lem

Iskry

"Utterly funny, wise, intelligent. Like anything from this author you will enjoy yourself immensely."

– u/Doberkind

6. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North

Orbit Books

"Found it in a donation bin, gave it a shot, and it's one of the best books I've ever read."

– u/TraditionalDetail617

7. Walkaway by Cory Doctorow

Head of Zeus

"I feel like I’m the only one who talks about Cory Doctorow. He writes realistic tech thrillers. My favorite is Walkaway. Society has developed to a point where basically anything can be cheaply 3d printed so people choose to walk away from society and build their own."

SirZacharia

8. Life’s That Way by Jim Beaver

Penguin Publishing Group

"A heart-wrenching memoir of the last six months of his wife’s life and the six months after she died of cancer."

– u/bibliophile563

9. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons

Penguin Classics

"It’s a very English/ British upper class book, but imagine Emma from the Jane Austen book accidentally ending up in a D. H. Lawrence novel, and sorting everything out. It’s hilarious."

– u/NiobeTonks

10. The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton

Raven Books

"Amazing characters, interesting story, and some excellent prose."

– u/M_REM27

11. Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

‎Redhook

"It is beautiful and lyrical and full of adventures! It's about a little girl who discovers door to other worlds."

– u/hjg95

12. Perla by Carolina De Robertis

Haus Publishing

"An absolutely wonderful book."

– u/Pretty_Fairy_Queen

13. The Wolf's Hour by Robert McCammon

Pocket Books

"I thought it would be the dumbest book I ever read. Until I read it, and it was amazing."

– u/stoickthevast88

14. Still Life by Sarah Winman

‎G.P. Putnam's Sons

"The characters are so well crafted it feels like you know them. It’s witty and sweet and sad and just a beautiful book about friendship and connection."

– u/Pithyname8

15. Cursed is the Blood by Jordyn A. Moretti

Jordyn A. Moretti

"It’s a high, dark fantasy novel with loads of lore, plot, and characters. It touches on many different creatures regarding fantasy (vampires, fae, deities, and so on) and has high stakes. Just finished the second novel and it was incredible."

– u/eternaldaydream

16. In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune

‎Tor

"Beautifully written. Funny, witty. WALL-E meets Pinnochio? It’s just so good. I’ve only given five stars to two books this year, and that was one of them."

– u/DelphiDrinkwater

17. The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty

Harper Voyager

"An incredible fantasy about a retired female pirate that goes on 'one last mission.' So nice to read a fantasy about a female that’s over 40 AND is a mother. First book in a series but it’s the only one out so far. Looking forward to the next one!"

– u/DelphiDrinkwater

18. Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

Macmillan

"I've always enjoyed that book. I get lost in it every time I read it."

– Rebeladywolf

19. Like a Hole in the Head by Jen Banbury

Mysterious Press

"Long out of print and a forgotten Gen X relic of the 1990s, the novel follows a female detective through a rather entertaining and convoluted mystery involving a first-edition Jack London novel and the seedy underbelly of Hollywood. It reads like a comic David Lynch / Elmore Leonard /Cohen Brothers fever dream. Jen Banbury would go on to do some excellent reporting on the Iraq War for Salon. I don't believe she ever wrote another novel."

– u/ZombieInDC

20. Among The Thugs by Bill Buford

Secker & Warburg

"If you like nonfiction, Among The Thugs by Bill Buford left me absolutely floored. He spent a year participating in football riots, and examines the mob mentality that produces them. In the end, he gets the crap beat out of him by Italian cops. I know this doesn’t sound like 10/10 material, but I’ve never read anything else like it, and it is a really interesting, entertaining read."

– u/Rjs617

21. Vita Nostra by Maryna and Serhiy Dyachenko

Harper Voyager

"A really amazing book that is a better metaphor for growing up and discovering yourself than anything I've seen."

– u/doubtinggull

22. The City of the Uncommon Thief by Lynne Bertrand

Penguin Young Readers Group

"Beautiful prose, incredible characterisation, heartbreaking, exciting, just fully weird."

– u/doubtinggull

23. The Lost Steps by Alejo Carpentier

Penguin Publishing Group

"It‘s about a man attempting to flee his empty existence by accepting an offer to travel to the Amazon and seek out primitive communities to study their instruments. As he travels down the river, he kind of travels back in time, encountering communities more and more primitive/close to the origins of men. And all the duration of his trip, he reflects on questions regarding the nature of art and its meaning for the artist, and if humans have strayed too far from their origins, becoming empty worker bees roaming anonymous cities. The prose is mesmerising, and it‘s one of those books where I just want to have it tattoo‘d on me in its entirety to keep with me forever:

'A day will come when men will discover an alphabet in the eyes of chalcedonies, in the markings of the moth, and will learn in astonishment that every spotted snail has always been a poem.'

Carpentier is also the man who coined the term magical realism, and this book is choke-full of its earlier form. An absolutely magnificent piece of literature."

– Beiez

24. Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde

Hodder & Stoughton

"Weird is understatement. This book is just on different wavelength."

 – u/WinterFirstDay

"10/10, would recommend! Our book club loved it!"

– u/AroundTheHouses

Note: submissions have been edited for length/clarity.

Thanks to u/ragebeeflord and everyone who shared thir book recs in r/suggestmebook. Which books do you think are missing from this list? Tell us about them in the comments below.