5 Books with Unusual Formats for a Unique Reading Experience

Starting off this list of books with unusual formats is a crime thriller! Maybe I’ll do a post just about thrillers and mysteries with multimedia formats one day, because they’re some of my favourite books!

Murder in the Family follows a fictitious Netflix true crime documentary and is told through emails, newspaper articles, and other multimedia artefacts. Experts debate the case and the truth and we as readers are invited to join them.

I haven’t read this one yet, but I own a physical copy that I can’t wait to scribble all over as I get my detective hat on. I also plan on checking out the audiobook because I’m curious to see how the visual aspects of such a book will translate.

If you’re a reader who enjoys crime thrillers and wants a more immersive reading experiences, this book might just be the one for you!

Up next, one of my favourite science fiction books of all time!

Sleeping Giants follows Rose, an acclaimed physicist who discovered a giant alien robot hand carved with strange glowing symbols as a child. Now, she is leading a top-secret team to investigate this strange artefact and find out once and for all who built it and what its purpose is.

Sleeping Giants is told primarily through interviews/interrogations. The interviewer is snarky, anonymous, and quite possibly a secret government agent.

I highly recommend the audiobook version of this book! It has a full cast which really adds to the experience of the interviews and logs chronicling the team’s research and experiences investigating this strange alien hand.

Not to give too much away about the rest of the trilogy, but I think it’s safe to say that it will surprise you!

This is one of the most beautiful books on my shelf.

A truly astonishing collaboration between author Jason Reynolds and illustrator Jason Griffin, Ain’t Burned All the Bright tells the story of a Black family in America through the Covid-19 pandemic and the erupting violence against Black people at the same time.

The catch? The story is told in three long sentences, stretching across the beautifully illustrated pages of a pocket notebook.

Is this a graphic novel? I’m not sure! It’s stunning and intimate, inviting us into the experience of a teenage boy in this strange world. It’s an intense and moving story as well as truly just a piece of art.

Definitely one of the most unique books on my shelves that I show everyone who visits me because it’s truly a reading experience.

Last but not least, probably the most challenging book on this list is House of Leaves.

There’s a good chance you might’ve heard of this one, it’s almost a cult classic!

Told in multiple narrative layers, footnotes and appendices, House of Leaves is a horror experience following a family who move into a strange new house. At least I think that’s the most simple way to describe the story of this book.

I’ve just started reading it myself and wow, talk about a unique reading experience! Additionally, this book is absolutely huge so if you’re looking for any books with unusual formats and aren’t scared of some dark vibes and long hours spent flipping through pages with the weirdest layouts you’ve probably seen…House of Leaves might just be your vibe!

Finally, I couldn’t help but include my current audiobook read at the time of writing this: With a Kiss We Die.

This book is essentially transcripts of a fictional investigative true crime podcast called the Raines report. When two college drama students are accused of a vicious double murder, they contact the host of the podcast to tell their side of the story before they’re arrested for a murder they insist they did not commit.

What unfolds is a podcast, following these two lovers-turned-murder-suspects in near real-time as the journalist tries to unravel their story.

If you’re a true crime podcast junkie or enjoy crime thrillers with podcast elements, this book is probably for you! Considering the podcast format, the audiobook works incredibly well and I really like all of the narrators, they add a lot of depth to the characters and make me even more suspicious of absolutely everyone.