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Oh boy.

This is your opportunity to pick up the Illuminae series! Because I would say that book is unconventional chapters! Another option would be the Cormoran Strike series (The Cuckoo's Calling), because every chapter starts with an epigraph. Maybe an epistolary novel would work here, since letters are "unconventional" chapters. And I could see my way to including books of short stories here, since they usually don't have any chapters at all. I'm desperate, okay!?

Here are some websites with some ideas:

Listopia: Books with No Labeled Chapters


I think I still need a lot of inspiration here. What have you all got?

If anyone wants to get really out there, Jenny Boully has The Book of Beginnings and Endings which is exactly what it sounds like or The Body: An Essay, which is entirely footnotes to an MIA text. I feel like the weird formatting would qualify for this. Both would be fast reads too.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time would work for this as all the chapter numbers are prime numbers.

Cujo by Stephen King has no chapters.

The Autumn of the Patriarch by Gabriel García Márquez doesn't have numbered chapters, but merely an image at the start of each chapter. For added difficulty, each chapter is one paragraph long. Naturally, it also works for the category of a book by an author from South America.

Most of Terry Pratchett's books don't have chapters, as I recall. At least the Discworld books.

I think this is a prompt that you will fill only after you start reading it and realize it does not have conventional chapters.

Epistolary for sure fit. Perhaps even graphic novels, manga, comics?

The beautiful Griffin and Sabine books by Nick Bantock.
Cinnamon and Gunpowder - pirate story told by diary entries.
The City Baker's Guide to Country Living - told by month.
Tom Clancy - most of Jack Ryan are not conventional chapters but location/date.

The Thorn and the Blossom is on my nightstand and fits.

Or if you want a real challenge...Finnegans Wake no chapters and maybe not even punctuation, as I recall. Or, Hunger’s Brides: A Novel of the Baroque - 1600+ pages with a bit of EVERYTHING for chapters. 🙄

Nullifidian wrote: "The Autumn of the Patriarch by Gabriel García Márquez doesn't have numbered chapters, but merely an image at the start of each chapter. For added difficulty, each chapte..."

Boy, does it ever not have chapters... and sentences that go on for pages and pages... *shudders*

I am currently reading Girl with a Pearl Earring and I don't see any chapters in it. Plus it is only 233 pages long.

I'd recommend How to be both. It's a novel told in two parts and published in two different ways: half with half A first, and half with half B first. It's excellent!

Reading Goodbye, Vitamin right now and there are no chapters, there are only dates to separate the sections. ( it's driving me crazy because I can't figure out where to stop for the day/night...at the end of a month?) Also it's pretty short.

I might work on the Illuminae series.

Zeroville This book is so odd and wonderful!! The chapters are numbered and midway through the book they start going backwards to end at zero.

Also
The Old Man and the Sea (no chapters)

Moll Flanders has no chapters, or even breaks.

I am currently reading Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk. The chapters (and pages) count backwards to 1. My boyfriend says a lot of his books have unconventional chapters.

Convenience Store Woman has no chapters, I just read it for the 2018 challenge. It is quirky and a quick read.
I've been wanting to read House of Leaves for a few years now - might finally do it for this prompt.

Would a play work for this? It's divided into acts and scenes, but not chapters. I'm trying to reread the Harry Potter series, and I was thinking of using Cursed Child for this.

No Country for Old Men is decidedly lacking in punctuation and would definitely fit this prompt. As I recall, Moll Flanders does not have chapters. Neither does The Old Man and the Sea

The Invention of Wings is on one of those lists and also on my TBR.

I like Theresa's plan though, of just waiting to see what has weird chapters when I start into it. I might go with that. (In a pinch I could slot a novella in here, since those are too short to be divided into chapters, typically.)

I know I read some books this year (and maybe last year) that had a fun way to make chapters like with quotes or just differently but I can't remember which ones it was.

Maybe I will just see if I come across something like this during the year and hope it's not a book for a category that I am having problem finding books for.

If there are any other public librarians out there, I would definitely recommend I Work at a Public Library: A Collection of Crazy Stories from the Stacks, which uses Dewey Decimal classifications as chapter numbers :)

Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk works for this. The chapters and pages are numbered backwards in the book, beginning with Chapter 47 on page 289 and ending with page 1 of Chapter 1.

I read Art Garfunkel's What Is It All But Luminous last year--my review commented on the format, so there must have been something unusual about it!

My kindle copy of the The Cuckoos Calling has chapter numbers.

I’m having trouble finding anything for this prompt besides house of leaves, which just looks like it will give me a headache.

House of Leaves

Does anyone know if Long Way Down has chapters since it’s a book of verse?


Nadine wrote: "Oh boy.

This is your opportunity to pick up the Illuminae series! Because I would say that book is unconventional chapters! Another option would be the Cormoran Strike series ([bo..."

Rick Riordan's books have funny and unconventional chapter titles.
His current series especially fits the prompt since each chapter title is a haiku!

A Madness of Angels and its sequels don't have chapters as much as very long sections.

Jennifer wrote: "My kindle copy of the The Cuckoos Calling has chapter numbers.

I’m having trouble finding anything for this prompt besides house of leaves, which just looks like it will give me a headache.

[bo..."

yeah it's got chapter numbers but I count it as "unusual chapter headings " because of the epigraph at the start of each chapter. Or did she not do that in Cuckoo? I can't remember now? The last three definitely have the epigraphs.

I just started reading One Day in December which has dates and/or names as the chapter headings. I'm reading it now so I can't use it for 2019, BUT it is starting off as a fun book if anyone is interested!

Sara wrote: "I just started reading One Day in December which has dates and/or names as the chapter headings. I'm reading it now so I can't use it for 2019, BUT it is starting off as a fun book ..."


thank you!!!! because this category is a mega-struggle!!

Now, thanks to comments here, I have three possibles:
Girl with a Pearl Earring (which is a book I own and have never read)
Convenience Store Woman
One Day in December


hahah three very different books!

Kerry wrote: "I am currently reading Girl with a Pearl Earring and I don't see any chapters in it. Plus it is only 233 pages long."

My whole book club loved Girl with a Pearl Earring!

Ah, The Invention of Wings is perfect for me! I have owned it for awhile and keep wanting to read it! Thanks!

there are a few unusual books that I think fit this prompt perfectly.
Dictionary of the Khazars has dictionary entries instead of chapters, if you are looking for a really unconventional reading experience.
I plan to pick up Hopscotch, which also has an interesting structure and can be read in different ways.
Also, if there is anyone from Ukraine or speaks Ukrainian, as I don't think this one has been translated - Лексикон інтимних міст - it has names of the cities instead of chapters and you can read it in any order.

I could be remembering wrong, but I feel like the Lemony Snicket books have unusual chapter names, and just chapter structure in general

Did we ever decide whether a play would count? I'm not sure an act and scene number is really the same as a chapter, and it would open up a ton of options.

Rachel wrote: "Did we ever decide whether a play would count? I'm not sure an act and scene number is really the same as a chapter, and it would open up a ton of options."

No, no one ever said anything! So I guess I'll venture my opinion: I think it counts. It is a book, and it does not have conventional chapters.

Julia wrote: "there are a few unusual books that I think fit this prompt perfectly.
Dictionary of the Khazars has dictionary entries instead of chapters, if you are looking for a really unconventi..."

I feel like I need to read this just to figure out what the seventeen crucial lines are. Crucial enough to have 2 different versions of a 354 page book? What?

Der Augensammler (The Eye Collector) by German thriller writer Sebastian Fitzek is counting down the chapters in reverse.

The October List is a thriller told in reverse, with the chapters accordingly counting down.

The chapters in The Running Man are a countdown, too, each titled "Minus [XXX] minutes and counting".

Several of Stephen Kings books work for this. I know Dolores Claiborne doesn't have chapters. I don't think Misery did either but I could be wrong about that one. I'm currently reading The Book of Essie and it doesn't have chapters. The Chalk Man (thriller) and Everyone Brave is Forgiven (WW2 historical fiction) both have dates as chapters instead of numbers.

Conny wrote: "Der Augensammler (The Eye Collector) by German thriller writer Sebastian Fitzek is counting down the chapters in reverse.

The October List is a thril..."


This reminded me that All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda is told mostly in reverse. The beginning and ending is regular chronological order, but the big middle chunk is in reverse. Each chapter heading is the date.

Julemandens Død (The Death of Santa Claus) is a very cool scary christmas book in the tradition with a chapter for each day from 1st december to 24th december. But this book involves time travel, so the dates get mixed around :)
If I haven´t read anything else by next years december I might reread it.

Mira Grant's books all tend to start chapters with a quote or "extract" from one of the characters and aren't numbered. I think they use time stamps instead.

For YA White Rabbit, Red Wolf (this has a different US title) and After the Fire both have now/before/after type headings.

Also Red Clocks starts chapters with character descriptors (The Mender, The Biographer, etc).

I think this is common enough in my reading that I won't have to plan for it.

Would Thirteen Reasons Why work for this?

I have Blindness on my physical shelf, so I will try that. There are chapter separations, but they are not numbered or titled.

Taking the easy way out and going for a Pratchett book for this one, Mort. Weirdly, I was saving that one for if the "book you received as a gift" prompt came up again, but still glad I can fit it in a challenge.

My kids gave me the William Shakespeare's Star Wars Trilogy: The Royal Box Set for my birthday, and it has been waiting . . . waiting . . . for me to get to it. (You can also get individual books.)

Snags 3 prompts for 2019:

Set in space for book 1

Imaginary creatures for book 2

Unconventional chapters for book 3, as it loosely divides the story into acts and scenes, play style.

Score. :)

Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart would work for this and I highly recommend if you're looking for something a bit YA. Chapter numbers run backwards, as does the story.

This, I fell, is a difficult prompt because you have to actually have the book in your hands to really know if it would work...

If you have a book you think might work for this, you can always use the Amazon "look inside" feature. The kindle versions sometimes have a contents page with numbers even if the chapters aren't numbered, so it's best to scroll through the sample text.

Ellie wrote: "If you have a book you think might work for this, you can always use the Amazon "look inside" feature. The kindle versions sometimes have a contents page with numbers even if the chapters aren't nu..."

Most of the book pages here on GRs have a preview feature also where you can see a few pages. Definitely not as many as on Amazon but it is something I have used before to decide on certain prompts ( Multiple POVs, Books told in first person etc.. I used it this year to get a better idea of what LitRPG involves). That's a helpful tip to throw out there Eliie, Nice!

Maja wrote: "This, I fell, is a difficult prompt because you have to actually have the book in your hands to really know if it would work..."

If you search for a book on Amazon, you can usually virtually "look inside" the book for a few pages. I would think quite often that would be enough to know if it would work.