Kelly Link - "magic for beginners"

Breathtakingly strange and unsetting, Kelly Link spins incredibly original stories. Can't believe I forgot to mention her.

Livia Llewellyn - "Furnace"

A gripping short story of a girl in a dying town, her grandfather showing her maps of the city, her mother chasing her...

Thought of Kelly Link's magic for beginners.

Ernest Cline - "Ready Player One"

A thoroughly enjoyable book about a world fifty years in the future where everybody escapes into OASIS, a MMORG as well as... everything else. Creator, in his last will, tells about an easter egg. The one to find it, will inherit all the fortunes of Oasis. Wade, our young protagonist, is special...

It's dripping with 80s references, since the creator loved that period supposedly so much. Sometimes it's a bit much - he seemed to rave about anything - but all in all, although the plot is a bit shakey and predictable, a good fun read. Great escape. How ironic.