Excellent books that make you go WTF

You have been cautioned

The power of the written word is mysterious and understated, and once opened to its allure you will never be the same for it.
Each one of these books planted a dissonance deep in my brain that has been slowly growing and breathing -- a sin that has no penance

Second Honorable Mention

The Blind Owl, 1936
Sadegh Hedayat, Iran

"(T)he presence of death annihilates all that is imaginary. We are the offspring of death and death delivers us from the tantalizing, fraudulent attractions of life; it is death that beckons us from the depths of life. If at times we come to a halt, we do so to hear the call of death... Throughout our lives, the finger of death points at us."

Wiki: The narrator addresses his murderous confessions to the shadow on his wall resembling an owl. His confessions do not follow a linear progression of events and often repeat and layer themselves thematically, thus lending to the open-ended nature of interpretation of the story.

The introduction to this book hooked me like a fish and led me through to a place that the sun cannot reach, lit by the torch of insanity and illusion.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blind_Owl

First Honorable Mention

Der Steppenwolf, 1927
Herman Hesse, German

"There are always a few such people who demand the utmost of life and yet cannot come to terms with its stupidity and crudeness." Herman Hesse

Wiki: The story in large part reflects a profound crisis in Hesse's spiritual world during the 1920's while memorably portraying the protagonist's split between his humanity and his wolf-like aggression and homelessness. Hesse would later assert that the book was largely misunderstood.

If I was Mark David Chapman, this book would be my "The Catcher in the Rye." I've read it at least 30 times and the only explanation I have is that I was hoping it would become the book I wanted it to. Alas, it never did. It is hard for me to say that overall Steppenwolf is a 'good' book; regardless, 30 pages are absolutely perfect, void of emotion, cold, honest -- and ones that I return to time and time again to feel their stoned isolation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steppenwolf_(novel)

No. 3

House of Leaves, 2000
Mark Z. Danielewski, American

"Who has never killed an hour? Not casually or without thought, but carefully: a premeditated murder of minutes?" Mark Z. Danielewski

Wiki: The format and structure of "House of Leaves" is unconventional, with unusual page layout and style, making it a prime example of ergodic literature.

What is ergodic? Good question: relating to or denoting systems or processes with the property that, given sufficient time, they include or impinge on all points in a given space and can be represented statistically by a reasonably large selection of points.

It will leave the reader with a nauseating unease. I truly believed that I was beyond the point of allowing a book to frighten me, but I was wrong. It isn't the monster or the sadness, it is the visceral unknowing that literally seeps through the pages.
It must be experienced in hard or softback. Digital will not suffice.

NOTE: The author's sister, singer Poe, released an album titled "Haunted" the same year HOL was published. The book and album have been called by some companion works. The song "Angry Johnny" eludes an undeniable similarity to one of HOL's main characters. It's not as deep as it all sounds; it's just weird as hell (which falls perfectly in line with this novel).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Leaves

No. 2

Breakfast of Champions, 1973
Kurt Vonnegut, American

“The waitress brought me another drink. She wanted to light my hurricane lamp again. I wouldn't let her.
"Can you see anything in the dark, with your sunglasses on?" she asked me.
"The big show is inside my head." Kurt Vonnegut

N.Y. Times: You have to hand it to Kurt Vonnegut Jr. In his eighth novel, "Breakfast of Champions, or Goodbye Blue Monday," he performs considerable complex magic. He makes pornography seem like any old plumbing, violence like lovemaking, innocence like evil, and guilt like child's play. He wheels out all the latest fashionable complaints about America--her racism, her gift for destroying language, her technological greed and selfishness--and makes them seem fresh, funny, outrageous, hateful, and lovable, all at the same time.

Vonnegut warns the reader, if you are looking to nitpick over inconsistencies or are turned off by storytelling cliche', then go fuck yourself. He then proceeds to draw a picture of an anus. I don't know that I can shed more light on the brilliance of this work than having you visualize a hand-drawn picture of an anus.
Pages will pass, chapters too; then you will be hit by a sentence or two that will totally unravel your brain for the next week.
His take on Veteran's Day will stay with me for the rest of my life.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakfast_of_Champions

No. 1

Blood Meridian, 1985
Cormac McCarthy, American

"Whatever in creation exists without my knowledge exists without my consent."

"War was always here. Before man was, war waited for him. The ultimate trade awaiting its ultimate practitioner."

"They were waiting, out there past men's knowing, where stars are drowning and whales ferry their vast souls through the black and seamless sea." Cormac McCarthy

Wiki: The majority of the narrative follows a teenager referred to only as "the kid," with the bulk of the text devoted to his experiences with the Glanton gang, a historical group of scalp hunters who massacred Native Americans and others in the United States-Mexico borderlands from 1849 to 1850 for bounty, pleasure, and eventually out of sheer compulsion. The role of the antagonist is gradually filled by Judge Holder, a huge, well-educated man depicted as completely bald from head to toe and who might be the devil himself.

The book is a masterpiece.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_Meridian
It is a glimpse into the marriage of the beauty and horror that is mankind. Once you master its staggering implications, you are then charged to realize its connection to Samuel Chamberlain's "My Confession: Recollections of a Rogue," and the shocking reality that at least some of this book is based on historical (albeit slightly embellished) recollections of a man related to The Hero of Little Round Top. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Chamberlain