12 Best Liminal Fiction Books for Reality Slips

Some books make you question the narrator. The best liminal fiction books make you question the corridor, the office, the sea, the little bit of your own brain that insists everything is probably fine. Spoiler: it may not be.

Liminal fiction lives in the threshold space - between waking and dreaming, one version of reality and another, the self you recognise and the one making increasingly questionable choices in a fluorescently lit building. It is not always horror, not always science fiction, and not always cosy. What it reliably offers is atmosphere with a side of existential wobble.

If you like The Truman Show, Inception or The Matrix, or you simply enjoy a novel that leaves you staring at a wall for ten minutes after the final page, this is your shelf.