Books With Crazy Titles That Are Actually Good
A ridiculous title is a promise. It says: I know exactly what I am, I am not going to pretend otherwise, and you already know whether you want this.
Most books are too polite to do that. They go with something atmospheric and vague and hope you pick it up anyway. The books below did the opposite. They put the whole joke on the cover, and then, crucially, they were good.
That last part is the hard bit. Anybody can name a book something outrageous. Very few can then justify it for three hundred pages.
Crazy titles that turned out to be excellent
Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson
A murder mystery narrated by a man who tells you upfront that every member of his family has killed somebody, then explains each one. It sounds like a gimmick and it is actually a very clever, very fair-play golden age mystery. It has sold north of two million copies and is being made into a television series, so the title clearly did not hold it back.
The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson
The title is the plot. A centenarian escapes his nursing home hours before his birthday party and stumbles through a life story involving most of the twentieth century. Charming, deadpan, and enormously popular in a way nobody predicted.
My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
Short, sharp, and much darker than the title suggests. A woman keeps cleaning up after her sister, who keeps killing boyfriends. It is genuinely great and it earns every bit of the premise.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
A title that sounds like a Sherlock Holmes parody and delivers one of the most quietly devastating narrators in modern fiction. The dog situation is resolved early. The book is about something else entirely.
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
Naming your own memoir a staggering work of genius is either unbearable arrogance or a very good joke about how memoirs work. It is the second one, and the book knows it.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
An unwieldy mouthful of a title that nobody can say correctly the first time, attached to a warm, funny, genuinely moving novel told in letters. Proof that a title does not have to be sleek to work.
The memoir wing, where the titles get worse
Let’s Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson
Subtitled “a mostly true memoir.” Contains a taxidermied animal situation that has to be read rather than described. Very funny, and underneath it a real book about anxiety.
I Was Told There’d Be Cake by Sloane Crosley
Essays with a title that captures the exact feeling of arriving somewhere in your twenties and finding out the thing you were promised was not there.
Go the F**k to Sleep by Adam Mansbach
A picture book for adults about the specific rage of a parent at 9pm. It became a bestseller because every single person with a child recognised it immediately.
And then there is my stuff
Full disclosure, this is my website, and the next few are mine. I write in this lane on purpose. The title tells you the whole deal, and if it makes you laugh in a slightly guilty way, the book is for you. If it makes you close the tab, that is also useful information and no hard feelings.
I Knocked Up Bigfoot’s Sister and Now the Whole Holler Wants Revenge
Cryptid in-laws. The holler does not forgive, and neither does her brother. Read the summary.
She Stole My Lottery Tickets, Exposed My Search History, and Knifed My Blow-Up Doll
Everything in that title happens in the first act. The second act is where it gets bad. Read the summary.
My Wife’s Therapist is my Side Piece’s Husband
A suburban surveillance nightmare that gets more complicated every time you think about the title. Read the summary.
Lettuce-Eating Lucy Gets the Squirts
A wellness influencer, contaminated romaine, twelve stolen porta-potties, and a war with Big Lettuce. There is now a coloring book, which I am also not going to justify. Read the summary.
Earl’s Cussin’ and Fishin’ on the Strait of Hormuz
He won a raffle he never entered. It escalated internationally. Read the summary.
Why the ridiculous title works
A vague title asks you to take a chance. A ridiculous one makes you an offer. You know instantly whether you are the audience, which means the people who buy it are the people who wanted it, and the people who would have hated it never picked it up.
That is a better deal for everybody than a tasteful cover and a disappointed reader.
More in this vein: Books Like Quan Millz and Funny Trailer Park Books. Or browse the whole catalogue and see how far the bit goes.
