The Backrooms: 5 Books that Capture the Dread of Your Favorite Liminal Space

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Are you sick of hearing about terrifying liminal spaces yet? I certainly hope not.

With the release of the Backrooms movie, people everywhere are talking about the backrooms. Starting off first as a series of 22 short found-footage films posted to YouTube four years ago by Kane Pixel, you can find hundreds of videos of YouTube creators analyzing the videos and trying to piece together the strange lore scattered across them. I personally remember watching Wendigoon’s video A Maze of Terror – The Backrooms Series Explained and being so enraptured with the backrooms and all the weird things going on in them (also, shoutout to Wendigoon, who got to interview the backrooms’s original creator Kane Pixels on the set of the Backrooms film, a video which you should definitely check out).

People are intrigued by the backrooms so much that even a game came out about them! Escape the Backrooms was released in May, where you do, as the title suggests, go through a series of different maze-like levels to escape the backrooms while being hunted by weird monsters that grace the original films.

The backrooms are not a new phenomena to grace the internet, but with both the game and the movie being released this year, people are talking about it now more than ever. So, why not read a book that gives off the same vibe?

While nothing is quite the same as the endless loop of yellow hallways that appear in every form of backrooms media, there are certainly plenty of books that can capture the feeling of getting lost in an alternate reality found behind the door of the basement in a furniture showroom. So if you like books with alternate realities, creepy dopplegangers, dangerous secrets, and monsters lurking around every corner, then check out these five books!

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

Genres: horror, mystery, thriller

Page count: 709

This is a story about a house. A special house. A house that is far bigger on the inside than should even be possible. An ever-growing abyss that holds more secrets than you could possibly know.

When a young family moves in and the two children living there wander too deep into the house, their parents begin to investigate. Their investigation culminates into the Navidson Record, a series of short films that become a cult classic, popular among academics and stoned students. No one knows if they are real, if what happened in that house is true. The mystery is compelling. Addicting. And not a single person knows the truth.

Many people have tried to verify the legitimacy of the tapes. None have succeeded. Not before death or madness has claimed them. But JT is fixated on the tapes and as he gets closer and closer to figuring out what happened to that family in the house on Ash Tree Lane, the closer he gets to losing his mind forever.

House of Leaves is a great option for readers looking for a book that captures the feeling of getting lost in a liminal space. But unlike the backrooms that are familiar in the spaces they try to emulate, the house on Ash Tree Lane is a complete mystery, ever changing and ever growing. You just might lose your mind there too.

The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher

Genres: horror, fantasy, thriller, mystery

Page count: 341

Kara’s life couldn’t get worse. Newly divorced, broke, and about to be homeless, she has no choice but to move back in with her mother, something that wouldn’t be so bad, except her mother won’t stop talking. Literally. So when her uncle offers her a place to stay in exchange for helping him recover from his knee surgery, she doesn’t hesitate to say yes.

But this isn’t just any normal house. It’s The Wonder Museum, a museum for natural wonders, curiosities, and taxidermy. Kara has always been fascinated by the museum her uncle runs and what she finds there is nothing short of wondrous. At night, when trying to patch a hole in the wall, Kara finds a portal. A portal to another universe in the shape of a bunker. And within it is written four words: pray they aren’t hungry.

Kara’s obsession with the museum takes on an entirely different meaning when she reads those words, and with the help of her friend Simon, she begins to explore the odd, otherworldly bunker. The deeper she goes, the more portals she finds, each to their own alternate realities. But then there are the monsters, and the monsters that are hungry. Very hungry.

Kara should be careful what she wishes for, because her life could, indeed, very much get worse.

The Hollow Places is the perfect blend of Narnia and Pan’s labyrinth, a fantastical yet horrific version of the neverending, twisting backrooms. It has monsters, liminal spaces, and the inescapable dread of fearing you may never make it home and will instead spend the rest of your life stuck in an alternate reality. If the monsters don’t kill you first.

Subcutanean by Aaron Reed

Genres: horror, queer, science fiction

Page count: 232

Orion is scared for college to end. Because when college ends, he’ll have to say goodbye to the life he’s built here with his best friend, Niko. And there are still so many things he has left to say, things he has been scared to admit because they could change everything. So when the two of them find a secret basement in their off-campus house, the adventure it presents is one last thing for them to share before they graduate. So they go down.

And down.

And down.

And soon they realize that it doesn’t end. It seems to go on forever, and the deeper they go, the more dangerous it becomes. Suddenly, what was once just a mysterious basement, is now a treacherous labyrinth full of possibilities. But not all possibilities are good, and soon the secrets Orion and Niko have kept from each other start to reveal themselves, spilling from the lips of two-faced dopplegangers that haunt them in the shapes of each other.

They need to get out before they are lost forever, but there’s one thing stopping Orion: if the basement holds infinite possibilities, could there be a Niko here who loves him back?

The special thing about Subcutanean is that there are multiple versions of this book. Orion and Niko’s journey into the basement changes depending on which version you pick. The changes could come in subtle differences. Or they could be entirely plot-altering, and if that isn’t the most backrooms-coded thing when dealing with a story about a liminal space, then I don’t know what is.

Coup de Grâce by Sofia Ajram

Genres: horror, novella, queer

Page count: 139

Vicken has decided that he’s done with life. But unfortunately for him, life has decided that it isn’t quite done with him.

On a subway bound for the Saint Lawrence River in Montreal, Vicken is determined to kill himself and finally end his lifetime of pain and depression. It is, surprisingly, the easiest decision he has ever made, once he’s set his mind to it. But when he steps off the subway, he soon finds that he is stuck, caught in an endless, looping cycle of the subway station.

Desperate to get out, Vicken starts to explore the labyrinth of bland rooms and corridors, but no matter how far he goes, no matter how many twists and turns he takes, there’s no end in sight.

When it becomes clear that Vicken isn’t alone in his strange new prison, he must make a decision. Does he fight to survive or does he submit to whatever cruel death will befall him if he stays? And would it really be so bad to die here if he was already planning on killing himself?

While Coup de Grâce has very similar elements to the other books I’ve talked about here, what makes this book stand out is that there is a big focus on Vicken’s mental health issues as he is trying to escape the subway station. While most characters are fighting to live another day, Vicken had already made up his mind to kill himself, so why does he need to escape if he wanted to die anyways? It brings a unique lens to the horror genre and sets it apart from other books about a bookrooms-esque world.

Last to Leave the Room by Caitlin Starling

Genres: horror, science fiction, thriller, queer

Page count: 312

The city of San Siroco is sinking, but Tamsin Rivers’s basement is sinking faster.

No one knows why the city is sinking, but Tamsin thinks that the shady tech firm she works for, Myrica Dynamic, may be responsible. Tamsin becomes obsessed with researching the strange phenomena of the city, in hopes of finding a rational solution to why it is sinking, or rather, why her basement is sinking. But things only get weirder when she finds a door in her basement, a door that has never been there before.

Behind the door, in a weird alternate dimension, is her. An exact physical copy of her. A doppledanger who is exactly like her in almost every single way. Tamsin is fascinated by her, devising test after test to prove that this thing down here isn’t real and that it isn’t her. But it is. Against all odds, there appears to be an exact replica of Tamsin hidden behind the secret door in her basement. Except the longer she spends with the other Tamsin, the more she begins to lose herself. Memories of her life begin slipping through her fingers and then she begins losing time.

As Tamsin begins to fear the world outside her basement, she must pull herself together if she is going to figure out what’s going on, if she’s going to figure out why she’s losing pieces of herself, why there’s a copy of her in a room in her basement that shouldn’t exist, and why on earth the city is sinking. If she doesn’t lose herself first.

Last to Leave the Room is an excellent choice for readers looking for a book that captures the unique feeling of “familiar but wrong” that the backrooms emanate. And what better place is there to feel trapped than in an alternate dimension behind a door in a basement with a doppleganger that is slowly becoming the perfect version of you?