30 Highest Rated Mind Blowing Books That Everyone Should Read

This list of the highest rated recommended reads was shortlisted, sorted and compiled from a group of very enthusiastic redditors. They have given these titles the full 5-star reviews, and judging by the comments, they do leave a significant impact on the readers. There are most definitely more than 30 recommendations, but we guess sometimes it’s just better if we bring in simplicity to join the club. You’ll find latest modern fictions to classics and even stories that revolve around infinite reincarnations in an infinite loop. We’re sure the movie “Edge of Tomorrow” comes into mind or does it ring any bells? Quite a number of them cover the previous wars the Earth has endured, from different individual’s perspectives and experiences. This list without a doubt, will carry you to another land of adventure and break the barriers of your imagination, guaranteed. Do stay safe and happy reading!

Note that the books listed below are just part of our recommendations and are not free. However, any titles which can be downloaded legally will be linked accordingly.

30 Highest Rated Mind Blowing Books That Everyone Should Read

1. The Rabbit Yard by Johannes Anyuru – It’s very topical as it starts with an act of terrorism. The book is part dystopian, but even if you’re not into dystopia, it’s also so much more. The story is clever and the book is also moving in parts. The ending is totally unforgettable.
2. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Catherine Webb – Fascinating treatise on the human condition, and explores the “what if?” of being able to redo your life.
3. Replay by Ken Grimwood – It’s about a guy who has a heart attack and wakes up in his 18 year old body. He is able to redo his life multiple times, waking up at a different time each time he dies. Very fun read.
4. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson – During a snowstorm in England in 1910, a baby is born and dies before she can take her first breath. During a snowstorm in England in 1910, the same baby is born and lives to tell the tale. What if there were second chances?
5. The 7 1/2 Deaths by Evelyn Hardcastle – Evelyn Hardcastle will die. She will die every day until Aiden Bishop can identify her killer and break the cycle.
6. All You Need is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka – When the alien Mimics invade, soldier Keiji Kiriya is killed, easily, on the battlefield. But he wakes up the previous morning as if nothing happened and must fight the battle again…and again…and again. Made into the movie “Edge of Tomorrow”.
7. Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat – She breaks down cooking into 4 basic pillars, and teaches you how to use them and the science behind what they do to food.
8. Pachinko by Min Jin Lee – The writing is so beautiful and strong, and the author’s ability to create characters and story arcs is unmatched. It’s a story about three generations of a family and truly showed me what loyalty is, regardless of what needs to be sacrificed. Also, the author’s approach to acknowledging World War II in 1930s/1940s Japan is so clever and artful.
9. Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson – It’s a fun, easy read about a dystopian world where people randomly get superpowers. Instead of becoming heroes, every single person with powers becomes a villain. The story follows a group of people without super powers who assassinate the super villains.
10. The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien – The writing in The Things They Carried is some of the most beautiful prose you’ve ever read. It was real. You should read it because it will really ground you.
11. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque – The book does a great job at portraying the soldiers as real people with their hopes and dreams, vices, petty squabbles, funny misadventures, and the heartbreaks. The only people they can connect with are each other, not even their families can understand what they went through.
12. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel – A very unique take on the dystopia genre. It blended these mini vignettes of different places, different times and different characters into a rich tapestry with everything connected. A traveling Shakespeare company in a post-pandemic world venturing through splintered populations and cult towns.
13. All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr – About a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II. The quality of writing and progression of the plot is incredible; the chapters slip back and forth between the two perspectives without confusion or loss of impact.
14. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurty – This is a story of heroism, love, honour, loyalty and betrayal, reaching from the office of the Hat Creek Cattle Company of the Rio Grande to the heart and the wilderness of the American West. This book won the Pulitzer Prize.
15. The Windup Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami – It’s life changing. It’s an extraordinary story of human nature, suffering, and survival, with incredibly vivid imagery and deep, mind bending concepts.
16. Dark Matter by Blake Crouch – Its incredibly fascinating if you like sci-fi. Possibly one of the most bumbling incompetent protagonists you’ll ever seen. The end of the book was so fun that it made up for it though.
17. Dracula by Bram Stoker – It’s one of those classics that everyone knows about, but not that many people have actually read it. It was wonderfully creepy the entire way through. It wasn’t like the cheap scare of a jump scare, it was a slow burn that started from the very first journal entry.
18. Goldfinch by Donna Tartt – The idea that we are constantly struggling against our nature or fate. To what extent do we just accept who we are or put another way – can we change who we are?
19. Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy – McCarthy has a unique ability to evoke a realistic yet unbelievable amount of violence and evil from characters under duress.
20. Beneath the Wheel by Hermann Hesse – A story about a brilliant young mind being slowly destroyed by expectations and a rigid education system that doesn’t allow for brilliance but only excellence.
21. Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov – Isaac Asimov’s Robot novels chronicle the unlikely partnership between a New York City detective and a humanoid robot who must learn to work together.
22. A prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving – This novel tells the tale of two 11-year-old boys in New Hampshire. When accidentally one kills the mother of the other, events move to a tragic conclusion.
23. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak – It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still.
24. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes – A really gripping novel and the end leaves you thinking a bit, because it’s not clear what really happens. This book can also bring awareness to people with mental disabilities and show how hardworking they are just to be considered “normal”.
25. Kindred by Octavia E. Butler – A brutal, complex read about the nature of slavery, of people. No words can do it justice but it is a fantastic book.
26. The Lies of Locke Lamorra by Scott Lynch – It’s a gripping crime drama set in one of the most imaginative fantasy settings you’ll ever read. A gripping read with lovable characters.
27. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K Dick – A tough Los Angeles detective in the year 2019 tracks down rouge androids and is called upon to track down a group of replicants, androids so organically engineered that they are virtually indistinguishable from actual humans.
28. The Red Rising Trilogy by Pierce Brown – The story is gripping, the futuristic technology is cool, the characters are so fascinating, the details of the horribly unjust dystopian galaxy are endlessly interesting.
29. East of Eden by John Steinbeck – Set in the rich farmland of California’s Salinas Valley, this sprawling and often brutal novel follows the intertwined destinies of two families—the Trasks and the Hamiltons—whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel.
30. A Memory of Light (Wheel of Time series) by Robert Jordan, ‎Brandon Sanderson – A Memory of Light is the 14th and final book of the series and focuses on an event that the entire series has been actively discussing, hyping, and building towards, and it pays off with huge dividends as of this huge 900~ page volume. A huge portion is purely dedicated to this climactic event which does complete justice to the hype that was building towards it.