10 Books Featuring Unreliable Realities to Read

A locked door is unsettling. A locked door that may not have existed five minutes ago is a full-body reading experience. That is the particular joy of books featuring unreliable realities: they do not merely ask whether the protagonist can escape. They make you question whether escape, the protagonist, and possibly the floor beneath their feet are real at all.

For readers who like The Matrix, Inception and The Truman Show, the best reality-bending fiction has a nasty little aftertaste. You finish a chapter, look around your living room, and briefly suspect the kettle knows more than it is letting on. These stories can be philosophical, frightening, funny or deeply sad. The common thread is a world whose rules refuse to stay put.