8 of The Best “No Plot Just Vibes” Books To Slow Down With

We get on a journey with Cleo and Frank, or Cleopatra and Frankenstein to each other. She’s a young British painter, and he’s an older self-made millionaire. They end up talking 90 minutes before New Year’s Eve in 2006. By the time it’s 2007, their witty remarks have turned into full-blown flirtation. They get married impulsively, and their life is permanently alerted. Their close-knit friends and family are taken along for the ride.

The story moves through its characters, their quirks, compulsions, insecurities, successes, and downfalls. The writing is sharp, and even though most characters might not be very likable, they read very real.

Murakami’s work is known for being bizarre, but this book takes that title and runs with it. Dreams spill into reality, and reality slips into a dream. It’s a story seeking truth, exploring a marriage that’s falling apart, and bringing to life some horrifying imagery from World War II. I was fascinated by the way the elements of darkness and wells were used to describe loneliness, alienation, emptiness, and more. There’s symbolism and fabulism stitched into the fabric of this book. Even though I didn’t understand quite a bit of what was happening, it was such a surreal experience.

You cannot find a plot in this one, no matter how hard you look. Our protagonist is a young woman who wants to sleep for a year and emerge at the end of it, leaving all her troubles behind. So, she experiments and devises a plan to do just that. She has help from one of the worst psychiatrists you’ll ever read about, who prescribes her horrifying strong medication as our little miss hibernation continues to lie about her symptoms. We also meet Reva, who claims to be her best friend and is often envious of her and her Wall Street ex-boyfriend, who treats her like crap. This book should be read for the narrator’s thoughts that are wild, miserable, witty, and get more eccentric as her life unfolds.

This novel follows the Ganguli family through their journey from Calcutta to Massachusetts. Ashoke and Ashima move to America after their arranged marriage. Ashoke adapts a lot more easily, while Ashima struggles and refuses to adjust to the American way of life. They have a child that they name after a Russian writer. Thus, Gogol Ganguli is born and navigates life with his peculiar name and cultural expectations thrust upon him by his parents.

This book captures the immigrant experience so vividly and clearly. It is driven not by its story but by the anguish, confusion, and need for belonging and self-discovery that is woven into its characters.

Oscar’s father dies in the 9/11 attacks. A year later, the nine-year-old finds a key in a vase that belonged to his father. He is on a mission to go around New York to find the lock that will be opened by the key and the answers he will find when it does.

We follow Oscar as he feels vivid, bizarre, and very real emotions. We also have a parallel narrative where we read letters written by Oscar’s grandfather to his son and from Oscar’s grandmother to Oscar. We learn about their lives through what they choose to share. All of this is done in a super bizarre format. I really enjoyed the spectacular imagery, pockets of intimacy, and the space held for grief. I loved being lost in the lives of these characters and in the unformed thoughts of a nine-year-old.

This book follows a family of four: Imelda and Augustine, who are also Em and the Big Hoom, as well as their son and daughter. The book is set in Mumbai and written from the son’s perspective. We never learn his name, but we learn to give a name to his innermost feelings. Em, his mother, has manic depression. We see the intricate details of how all their lives are affected by this condition.

This book takes the small and the big, the fleeting and the intrusive thoughts, and allows them to take up space on the page. Reading it felt like taking an intimate look into just how unusual familial relationships can be.