Books reading recommendations Five Twisty, Reality-Bending SFF Books  Featuring some truly ingenious ways of messing with the fabric of reality… By Lorna Wallace | Published on April 30, 2026 Comment 0 Share New Share Exploring the nature of reality is a pursuit that’s central to human experience, driving physicists, philosophers, and artists alike to question every facet of our perception and interpretation of existence. In the realm of speculative fiction, authors have come up with countless creative ways to bend reality in their stories—from reality-altering weapons to memory-eating entities. Here are five science fiction, fantasy, and horror books that explore just a few of these reality-bending possibilities. Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee (2016) Ninefox Gambit is the kind of SFF story that throws you in at the deep end with its worldbuilding and expects you to learn how to swim on your own. As far as I understand it (and in very simplified terms!), in this world the laws of physics can be manipulated by mathematical formations and collective belief. This means that various weapons exist which can twist reality in some rather unusual and destructive ways. The story follows Captain Cheris, who has been tasked with reclaiming the Fortress of Scattered Needles—a star base that has been taken over by heretics. She’s not in it alone, though; along for the ride is the consciousness of Jedao, a disgraced general who has never lost a battle, but has possibly lost his mind (and has definitely lost his body). Although I found the mechanics of this world to be confusing early on (and, honestly, even by the end I’m still not sure I fully understood), I found the story and characters to be so compelling that I was happy to spend the time coming to grips with the more challenging aspects of the story. This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (2019) Arguably all time travel stories bend reality, but This Is How You Lose the Time War takes things to such an extreme that it also bends the reader’s mind. Red and Blue are agents on opposite sides of a war that is being fought via time travel. They’re both incredibly skilled at their jobs, which means the current reality is constantly being changed as they one-up each other to give their empire the victory. Each new timeline is only vaguely described (though in beautifully lyrical language) and feels completely different compared to the last, leaving the reader feeling forever unmoored. But the anchor of the story is the budding relationship between Red and Blue—kicked off in the first chapter by a letter intended to taunt a rival but which develops into an unlikely pen pal correspondence. Although the world is constantly changing around the time-traveling agents, their growing bond endures through it all. There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm (2020) The Antimemetics Division—which is part of a larger secretive organization—is tasked with destroying anomalous entities that are feasting on people’s memories. These entities also have the ability to delete themselves from memory, meaning that most people aren’t even aware that their reality is changing around them as things are forgotten and wiped from existence. But Marie Quinn is not most people. She’s the director of the Antimemetics Division and while she doesn’t have access to all of her memories, she at least knows that humanity is fighting this battle. The horrifying sci-fi concept at the heart of There Is No Antimemetics Division pulled me in instantly, and although I was initially concerned that I’d get frustrated with characters forgetting revelations that I could remember, I found that that dynamic actually served to make the story feel all the more tense and emotional. If the plot sounds familiar to you but you’re sure you haven’t read the book, it’s not because an antimemetic entity has eaten your memory. You might have stumbled across it when the story was first published online in serial form between 2015 and 2020. It was then traditionally published as a full novel in 2025. We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer (2024) We Used to Live Here is a little different from the other books on this list. While reality is definitively being altered in those stories, in We Used to Live Here the reader can’t help but question whether reality really is being changed or whether it’s just that the narrator, Eve, is losing her mind (I vote the former!). Eve and her girlfriend Charlie have recently moved into a house with the intention of fixing it up and flipping it for a profit. Eve is home alone one night when a family shows up on the doorstep; the father, Thomas, says that he used to live in the house and they ask to come in for a quick tour. Eve, being the people-pleaser that she is, can’t find it within herself to say no—a decision she quickly comes to regret. Once the family are inside, the night soon goes off the rails in a terrifying way that makes Eve question herself, the house, and eventually even reality itself. Lucky Day by Chuck Tingle (2025) May 23rd is a big day for statistics professor Vera. She’s celebrating the publication of her first book, but she’s also planning to tell her mom, with whom she has a difficult relationship, that not only is she bisexual, but she’s also engaged to Annie (meaning they aren’t just roommates…). And then everything goes wrong in the most improbably horrific ways possible—none of which I want to spoil—and around 8 million people end up dead. The disaster becomes known as the Low Probability Event and it launches Vera into a nihilistic depression. But she’s wrenched out of her wallowing by Layne, a government agent who needs her expertise because he has a hunch that the Low Probability Event—and the similar smaller disasters that have been popping up ever since—are tied to an unusual casino in Las Vegas. The gruesomely creative and comically unlikely horror scenarios in Lucky Day have the same delicious flavor of absurdity that is infused into the best Final Destination death scenes… but on a mass scale. And along with people dying in unique and unexpected ways, Lucky Day also delves into deeper, more serious subjects, including capitalistic greed and bi-erasure. This list has only covered a few of the SFF and horror books that feature reality bending, so if I’ve missed any of your favorites, feel free to leave them in the comments below.[end-mark] The post Five Twisty, Reality-Bending SFF Books  appeared first on Reactor.