There’s this little mountain town close to where I live in Colorado called Ward. When you approach the outskirts, you’re greeted with dozens of broken-down vehicles, decades old, scattered along the road, an implicit warning that those who arrive in Ward never leave. Once in the town—a ramshackle array of mountain shacks and churches and bars—you notice that most of the streets are marked with “Do Not Enter” signs no matter which side you want to enter from. Dozens of stray dogs and cats wander the streets, but people are hard to find (except for those eyes staring at you from behind cracked windows). Needless to say, Ward is my type of town, and I search for places like it in the real world—and in the books I read. I don’t think I’m alone. These uncanny settings provide a mood, a vibe, and take us out of our comfort zone. We’re pulled away from the mundanity of our local Target, and placed into a world of mystery and menace. We come face to face with our nightmares—and hopefully we escape in good standing.
These strange towns also pop up in my own novels. In Corrosion, the unsettling mountain town was modeled after Ward—with an extra dollop of madness added on for posterity’s sake. In Factory Town, I was inspired by the dying industrial towns in states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, filled with abandoned buildings and broken dreams. In Captain Clive’s Dreamworld, I imagined a company town with mysterious connections to a bizarre amusement park. In The Drive-Thru Crematorium, I focused on the buried secrets within a homogeneous suburb (yes, suburbs can be menacing, too).
Meanwhile, my latest novel, The Memory Ward, is set in an isolated desert town, a town that was once home to the scientists (and their families) who tested atomic bombs. You can almost taste the atomic residue of the 1950s, and even though the story takes place in the modern day, anachronistic elements provide a timeless and eerie quality. Here, our hapless protagonist, a thirty-something year old postal carrier, wanders through Bethlam, faintly curious as to some of the oddities he notices. Why, for example, do so many people seem to watch him from their kitchen windows? Why do so many people, in this safe and idyllic town, have concealed weapons? And so, when a strange woman knocks on his window one night and warns him not to trust anybody, including his wife, he feels compelled to begin an investigation into the dark secrets of the town…
So, yeah, I’m a sucker for these strange and disquieting towns and locations. Here are 8 novels set in strange unsettling towns that will haunt you.
Satantango by László Krasznahorkai
Satantango is set in an unnamed, rain-soaked Hungarian village where the despair becomes more and more overwhelming with each page turned. In the novel, a group of impoverished peasants have been waiting for a savior to rescue them from the misery of their existence, and when two men—believed to be dead—return to the town promising salvation, the villagers are filled with blind hope. The novel’s structure is like that of a tango—six steps forward and six steps back—and Krasznahorkai’s prose is long and winding and contributes to an almost comically bleak and apocalyptic atmosphere. But most interesting is the town itself, which seems to be disconnected from the laws of time and our own understanding of the world. No matter how desperately these poor villagers want to escape, the forces of this mysterious town draw them back.
The City and the City by China Miéville
This trippy and surreal novel explores two cities, Besźel and Ul Qoma, which somehow occupy the same geographical space. The citizens of each city are trained from birth to “unsee” the other city, which is difficult considering the space and architecture are identical. This conscious separation is enforced by an unseen but terrifying authority called Breach, who punishes those who violate the boundaries between the two cities. Although it was published fifteen years ago, the novel is particularly timely considering the dual narratives that spread across our politics.
High-Rise by J. G. Ballard
High-Rise doesn’t exactly take place in a city or town. But the high-rise houses a society inside a particularly stark and brutal environment. The unsettling and violent nature of this building is hinted at by the opening line: “Later, as he sat on his balcony eating the dog, Dr. Robert Laing reflected on the unusual events that had taken place within this huge apartment building during the previous three months.” This novel takes the concept of the gated community to a dystopian extreme. Instead of lovely flower beds and green lawns, these characters wander aimlessly through abandoned hallways, drained swimming pools, and trash-strewn vestibules. By keeping an imagined enemy out, they soon find the real enemy within.
The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro
In The Unconsoled, the reader is led through a disorienting labyrinth of an unnamed European city. The protagonist, Ryder, a famous pianist, is set to perform a major concert but Ryder keeps getting distracted by bizarre events and ridiculous demands. As Ryder’s own perception becomes more and more disjointed, so does the setting of the novel. Time and space seem to bend, mirroring Ryder’s internal confusion, and as he wanders through the city, the streets and buildings become more and more warped and mystifying. A haunting and surreal dive into our protagonist’s neurosis.
Pines by Blake Crouch
The town of Wayward Pines initially is presented as a picturesque small town nestled in the mountains of Idaho. However, it soon becomes evident that something ominous is happening. The people are friendly but refuse to talk about their pasts. Cameras and microphones are hidden everywhere. And, most importantly, the town is surrounded by a literal electrified fence. There is no doubt that something terrifying is happening behind the shiny veneers, but none of the townspeople seem to know what those dark secrets are. The novel has the menacing feel of 1984 meets The Stepford Wives.
The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin
Speaking of which, we couldn’t get through a list of weird towns without mentioning Stepford, Connecticut. Stepford is at first presented as an idyllic suburban town with domestic tranquility, but there is some serious sinisterness hidden beneath this idealized image of 1950s suburbia. All of the housewives are perfectly dressed, perfectly coiffed, perfectly mannered, and wholly committed to keeping their homes spotless and their husbands’ content. This behavior perplexes the protagonist and feminist, Joanna Eberhart, whose ambitions go beyond homemaking. Her investigation leads to one of the great reveals in fiction. Written in 1972, The Stepford Wives it holds up as biting satire and terrifying psychological horror and makes us question whether our societal ideals and pressures have changed at all over the last fifty years.
The Tenant by Roland Topor, translated by Francis K. Price
Like High-Rise, The Tenant doesn’t focus so much on a weird town (it takes place in Paris), but on an unsettling society within a single building. The protagonist, Trelkovsky, tries desperately to get in the good graces of this insider society, but the more he tries, the more he is rejected. Stung by this rejection, his behavior becomes more and more unacceptable and inexplicable as he copes with the idea that he is being persecuted for some undefined crime. He descends into paranoia and despair. The images of the apartment building and its tenants are bizarre and surreal, but the emotions of rejection are all-too realistic. Also, check out the great film based on the novel.
Honorable Mention: Twin Peaks
I know, I know. Twin Peaks isn’t a novel (although there were a few spin-off novels based on the TV show). But we can’t discuss weird, unsettling towns without mentioning David Lynch’s creation. A scenic town filled with quirky characters, Twin Peaks can turn on a dime and become foreboding, mysterious, and terrifying. With otherworldly locations (the Black Lodge, the White Lodge, the Red Room), cryptic visions, and a wholly unsettling soundtrack, Twin Peaks is the weird town that all weird towns must be measured by.