The Most Fun Litfics That Will Challenge Your Perception Of The Genre

Published Oct 14, 2026, 2:06 PM EDT Abby Shewmaker is a journalist covering books, art, entertainment, and culture. She studied Communications and History at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and is a Contributing Writer at FLAUNT Magazine. Sign in to your ScreenRant account To many unfamiliar with the genre, any mention of literary fiction—as broad-reaching a category as the name might imply—conjures an image of heavy, dense, or thematically complex literature that is, to put it plainly, a little too serious. Ask an experienced literary fiction reader, however, and they'd probably say that that perception couldn't be further from reality. Literary fiction can be just as weird, funny, addictive, and unpredictable as any genre novel. Some of its best books feature mountain lions narrating from the Hollywood Hills, sinister MFA cliques, apocalyptic plagues, elaborate scams, and protagonists making one terrible decision after another. These novels may still tackle loneliness, capitalism, race, grief, identity, and the other subjects literary fiction is known for, but they also happen to be ridiculously fun to read. For genre fiction readers looking to venture into litfic, these books are a good place to start. Margo's Got Money Troubles Rufi Thorpe, 2024 Rufi Thorpe's 2024 novel Margo's Got Money Troubles is one of the most fun books to come out of literary fiction in the last few years. The novel focuses on Margo Millet, a 20-year-old single mother who, guided by the advice of her professional wrestler father, turns to making content on OnlyFans to support herself and her child. Margo's Got Money Troubles is sharp, laugh-out-loud funny, and provides a thought-provoking yet accessible exploration of the state of 21st century feminism in the era of online sex work, social media, and the ever-shifting power dynamics within a patriarchal system. Elle Fanning, Michelle Pfeiffer, Nick Offerman, and Nicole Kidman recently starred in the novel's Hulu limited series adaptation, to positive reviews. Margo's Got Money Troubles is a prime literary fiction gateway book for any romance readers looking for adventure, loveable and complex characters, and on-point contemporary references. Margo's Got Money Troubles is available to purchase now through this link. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay Michael Chabon, 2000 At more than 600 pages, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay may look intimidating, but Michael Chabon fills nearly every part of the novel with adventure. Set around the golden age of comic books, the story follows cousins Joe Kavalier and Sammy Clay as they create a superhero called the Escapist and find themselves swept up in the rapidly expanding comics industry. The novel has all the scope of a major work of historical fiction, spanning war, immigration, ambition, love, loss, and artistic obsession, but it also taps directly into the excitement of the comics its protagonists create. Escape artists, superheroes, industry rivalries, secret identities, and larger-than-life personalities keep the story moving even as Chabon explores heavier questions of identity and belonging. For readers who normally gravitate toward fantasy, comics, or adventure stories, Kavalier & Clay is an especially easy reminder that literary fiction can be just as expansive and entertaining. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay is available to purchase now through this link. Lost Lambs Madeline Cash, 2026 A family split open, a church support group, and a cabal of billionaires determined to live forever all come together in Madeline Cash's 2026 debut novel Lost Lambs. Told from multiple perspectives across an American town, Lost Lambs tells the story of an open marriage—and the fallout that follows. Lost Lambs is a great book for anyone looking for sharp contemporary commentary, with a relentlessly hilarious plot and a truly unexpected ending. The characters are singular, each with their own strange fixations, grudges, and ways of making an already messy situation worse. Cash keeps piling absurdity on top of dysfunction, but the novel never loses sight of the loneliness and desperation underneath it all. The result is literary fiction that is chaotic, fast-paced, and so fun to read. Lost Lambs is available to purchase now through this link. Open Throat: A Novel Henry Hoke, 2023 Henry Hoke's 2023 breakout novel Open Throat proves that a thematically complex novel can still leave room for the unexpected. Open Throat follows the inner monologue of a queer, sentient mountain lion living beneath Los Angeles's Hollywood sign, watching the city and its residents from the margins as he searches for food, connection, and some sense of where he belongs. It's a strange premise, but Hoke commits to it completely, turning the lion's perspective into something funny, lonely, and surprisingly propulsive. His observations of hikers, tourists, unhoused people, and the excesses of Los Angeles give the novel its satirical bite, while the constant threat of hunger, fire, and human violence keeps the story moving. Open Throat is short—only just over 150 pages—sweet, and packing a gut-punch. Open Throat is available to purchase now through this link. Bunny Mona Awad, 2019 For fans of dark academia, Bunny by Mona Awad is the perfect surreal, darkly funny novel. Bunny, published in 2019, is a satire that truly keeps the reader guessing between what's genuine and what's facetious, and what's real and what only exists in its protagonist's increasingly unstable perception. The novel follows Samantha, an outsider in an elite MFA program who is suddenly invited into the orbit of a clique of eerily similar women who call one another "Bunny." From there, the story spirals into secret workshops, bizarre rituals, and increasingly grotesque experiments that push Bunny toward horror and fantasy without ever losing its literary edge. It's strange, fast-moving, and genuinely unpredictable, making it an easy pick for readers who like their literary fiction with a little chaos. Bunny is available to purchase now through this link. My Year of Rest and Relaxation Ottessa Moshfegh, 2018 Ottessa Moshfegh's unnamed narrator of My Year of Rest and Relaxation has but a singular ambition: to sleep for an entire year. Through whatever means or enablement necessary, the narrator is determined to spend as much time as humanly possible unconscious, believing that she will emerge on the other end anew, healed from the traumas of her past. Moshfegh's narrator, the polarizing antihero of her 2018 novel, is the kind of provocateur you can't help but look away from. She's unapologetically selfish, vain, cruel, and often completely detached from the people around her, yet her deadpan observations make the novel consistently funny even at its bleakest. Her increasingly elaborate attempts to disappear from her own life give My Year of Rest and Relaxation a strange comic momentum, turning a novel about grief, depression, and isolation into something compulsively readable. It is dark literary fiction, certainly, but never dull. My Year of Rest and Relaxation is available to purchase now through this link. Yellowface R.F. Kuang, 2023 R.F. Kuang’s Yellowface begins with one terrible decision and spends the rest of the novel watching its consequences multiply. After bestselling author Athena Liu dies suddenly, struggling writer June Hayward steals Athena’s unpublished manuscript, rewrites it, and publishes it under her own name. It's part publishing satire, part psychological thriller, and part spectacularly messy portrait of a woman trying to justify the indefensible. Much of the fun comes from watching June dig herself deeper and deeper into the hole. Kuang (who is also the author of the acclaimed fantasy novel The Poppy War) keeps the novel moving through social media pile-ons, publishing scandals, professional rivalries, paranoia, and one bad choice after another, giving Yellowface the addictive momentum of a thriller. At the same time, it takes on questions of race, authorship, cultural appropriation, and the publishing industry without ever losing its vicious sense of humor. Yellowface is litfic at its most compulsively readable. Yellowface is available to purchase now through this link. A Visit From The Goon Squad Jennifer Eagan, 2010 Jennifer Egan’s A Visit From the Goon Squad is proof that experimental fiction does not have to feel like homework. The novel moves through a loose network of characters connected to the music industry, jumping across decades, perspectives, and styles as their lives overlap and intersect. One chapter is written in the second person, another takes the form of a magazine article, and its most famous section is told almost entirely through PowerPoint slides. This playfulness in form gives Goon Squad much of its energy. Every chapter feels like opening a door into a new universe, with Egan constantly changing the rules while maintaining the connections between her characters. The book is about aging, regret, ambition, technology, and time, but it is also funny, surprising, and totally inventive. Readers who associate literary experimentation with difficulty may be surprised by how much fun Egan has with the form. A Visit From the Goon Squad is available to purchase now through this link. Severance Ling Ma, 2018 Ling Ma's stellar debut novel Severance offers a thrilling literary twist on the long-honed zombie apocalypse novel. It's an oddly prescient tale, published in 2018, of a fungal infection pandemic that makes its way through the world, leaving the infected to mindlessly repeat their routines and habits in perpetuity. Ma's novel is a commentary on capitalism, office culture, and the immigrant experience, but it also has the momentum of a great survival story. As New York empties out, protagonist Candace Chen eventually falls in with a group of survivors making their way across the country, giving the novel an adventure-driven second half that will feel familiar to fans of post-apocalyptic genre fiction. The difference is that Ma uses those conventions to ask sharper questions about work, nostalgia, and what people cling to when the rest of the world falls away. Severance is available to purchase now through this link. The Secret History Donna Tartt, 1992 The Secret History is a suspenseful mystery in a literary fiction package. Set at an elite, isolated college in Vermont, Donna Tartt's novel follows a tight-knit group of classics students whose intellectual obsessions and increasingly insular friendships culminate in murder. For all its literary heft, The Secret History has the pull of a thriller. Tartt reveals the murder almost immediately, shifting the suspense from who did it to how the group got there—and whether they can live with what they've done. Secretive friendships, betrayals, cover-ups, and a constant sense that everything is about to unravel make it an easy crossover pick for readers who usually gravitate toward mysteries and psychological thrillers. The Secret History is available to purchase now through this link.