Literary types and fiction nerds have been abuzz about Nell Zink’s second novel, Mislaid. Zink is known for her fast-paced, in-your-face writing style, her quirky casts of characters and the most unusual situations she places them in.

Set in rural Virginia, Mislaid’s first fifty pages alone contain enough action alone to sustain an entire novel. Without giving away any spoilers, the first chapter goes something like this: young woman discovers she is a lesbian, enrolls in a sleepy women's liberal arts college, finds herself in a sexual relationship with a gay (male) professor/poet, gets pregnant, and has a shotgun wedding. In Zink’s capable and creative hands, what would take another novelist 300+ pages of pensive prose is radically and exuberantly knocked out in just 20 pages. And things only get weirder from there!

Zink’s style threatens to smash up the current landscape of literary fiction and criticism as we know it. Sexual and racial politics in her books—especially Mislaid—are treated with a no-duh, what-are-you-looking-at-stupid? attitude that is simply revolutionary. Rather than keep her readers busy trying to decode any hidden messages in the text, she pushes them an inch farther by putting the subtext right there on the page in plain type, effectively skewering academics and poets, with their ‘serious’ work. Instead, Zink pulls from her encyclopaedic knowledge of everything from masonry, ornithology, subculture, Shakespeare, and classical philosophy to create a work of fiction that is at once both serious and seriously hilarious.

One really special thing about Mislaid is that despite how unconventional it is, it fits pretty squarely in with other works of Southern Gothic fiction. You can clearly see where her roots are as a writer (like her protagonist Zink also hails from rural Virginia) through the intimacy she clearly has with the innate strangeness of the natural and social landscape of the American South. Whether you’re waiting to get your hands on your copy of Mislaid, or looking for some more weird Southern fiction to keep your mind busy after devouring this title in one sitting (like me), here is a list of some titles that you might enjoy:

The Ballad of the Sad Cafe by Carson McCullers
A novella centered around the unusual love between the pillar of a small Georgia town and a traveling hunchback, filled with grotesque imagery and heartwarming (and gut-wrenching) truths about human relationships.

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
In New Orleans, an obese medievalist with bad hygiene who lives with his mother finds himself at the center of a race riot in a pants factory, among other misadventures.

Tampa by Alyssa Nutting
Lolita in reverse, this book’s protagonist is a female middle-school teacher with a raging libido and a thing for prepubescent boys. Once she sets her sights on one of her students, she gleefully initiates an illicit affair that will surely destroy her ‘perfect’ suburban life.

The Complete Stories of Flannery O'Connor
Some of the best, most hard-hitting short stories you’ll ever read. Start with “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” “Good Country People,” and “The Life You Save May Be Your Own.”

The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler
A depressed travel writer who hates to travel meets an eccentric, exuberant, and beautiful dog trainer and single mom who coaxes him out of his shell, helps him deal with his tragic past, and threatens to become the love of his life.

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Classic Faulkner, not to be missed! Did you know that William Faulkner insists that he wrote this book over a course of six weeks, every night from 12 midnight to 4 am, and didn’t edit a word of it before publication? I guess constraint really is creativity’s best friend!

Tobacco Road by Erskine Caldwell
Living in deep isolation during the Depression, the Lesters are poor white farmers who are obsessed with death and sex. They also live with the curse of optimism, always believing things will get better--even when circumstances continue to worsen.

Other Voices Other Rooms by Truman Capote
A young, effeminate boy in rural Louisiana moves in with a fading debutante, an aging transvestite, and befriends his tomboy neighbor. While observing the strange people that surround him, he learns an important lesson about himself.

The Feast of All Saints by Anne Rice
This historical novel is centered around the large population of free people of color living around New Orleans in the 1840s. It discusses the nuances and challenges faced by mixed race people of that time, especially for those who try to ‘pass as white.’

Great Tales and Poems by Edgar Allan Poe
Poe basically invented Southern Gothic literature, so a list of weird books that take place in the South wouldn’t be complete without him. This edition is a compact volume containing only his best and most frightening stories and poems.

The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty
A young woman moves back home to New Orleans to care for her dying father. In the days following his death she learns that her stepmother is nothing but a miserable gold digger, but discovers the importance of the true friends and loving family members she has left.