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What if we are all living in a simulation? Are aliens real? Is anyone real? How do we know if we’re alive or not?
...and down you go into the existential crisis hole again. But wait! Before you go, check out these books. The journey down is quite long and boring, but these stories about conspiracy theories might keep you company and help you discover more bits about humanity.
1. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo | Stieg Larsson (psychological thriller • crime)
Harriet Vanger, a scion of one of Sweden’s wealthiest families disappeared over forty years ago. All these years later, her aged uncle continues to seek the truth. He hires Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently trapped by a libel conviction, to investigate. He is aided by the pierced and tattooed punk prodigy Lisbeth Salander. Together they tap into a vein of unfathomable iniquity and astonishing corruption.
Scion: a descendant of a wealthy or influential family.
Key Themes:
morality
memory
family & friendship
government corruption
underlying feminism
Rating:
✘ extreme violence against women
✘ explicit sexual references
📺 adapted into film in 2011
❗The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is recommended to Year 10+. (senior fiction)
2. Stories of Your Life & Others | Ted Chiang (sci-fi • short stories)
One day, the heptapods came.
Dr Louise Banks is tasked to interact with the creatures to find out what they want, or why they are here.
The more she does, the more she recalls bits and pieces of memories she has never experienced before, until she realised that she was perceiving her future...
Humans can only perceive time linearly - that is, you can't read this sentence backward, just as you can't travel back in time or see what is in the future... but can it be changed? Chiang takes the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which states that the structure of language affects its speakers' worldview, to the extreme and includes elements of love and family.
The actual book is a collection of short stories, and Story of Your Life is only one of many. Chiang's way of thinking is absolutely mind-blowing, so SAC highly, highly recommend this to anyone interested in the extent of human intelligence, seeing the future, or how science can explain concepts that seem to only exist in fantasy stories.
Key Themes:
free will vs destiny (~Macbeth vibes~)
language & reality
knowledge of the future
Rating:
• slightly sophisticated language
✘ drug use
👑 named No. 80 in The Guardian's "100 Best Books of the 21st Century"
👑 winner of the 2000 Nebula Award for Best Novella
📺 adapted into film in 2016 as Arrival (a must-watch!)
❗Stories of Your Life & Others is recommended to Year 8+, although older ages might find it more enjoyable.
SAC's Sassy Sidenote:
The film adaptation of Story of Your Life, Arrival, is actually featured on the cover of this week's newsletter!
It is one of the editor's favourite movies, because of the phenomenal sound design and screenplay that transformed Chiang's story into a blockbuster film.
Isn't this just so haunting? The atmosphere is amazing!
It should be common knowledge that there are people who believe that the Earth is flat, and that every space agency in the world is lying to the public by fabricating images of the Earth from space.
...I don't even know what to say about this Flat Earth Convention photo.
Ever wondered what it would be like to live on a flat Earth? (lol no? Me neither.)
But hey, what would happen if we were actual flat Earthers?
3. Night's Master | Tanith Lee (fantasy)
The first book of the stunning arabesque high fantasy series Tales from the Flat Earth, which, in the manner of The One Thousand and One Nights, portrays an ancient world in mythic grandeur via connected tales.
Long time ago when the Earth was Flat, beautiful indifferent Gods lived in the airy Upperearth realm above, curious passionate demons lived in the exotic Underearth realm below, and mortals were relegated to exist in the middle. Azhrarn, Lord of the Demons and the Darkness, was the one who ruled the Night, and many mortal lives were changed because of his cruel whimsy. And yet, Azhrarn held inside his demon heart a profound mystery which would change the very fabric of the Flat Earth forever...
Come within this ancient world of brilliant darkness and beauty, of glittering palaces and wondrous elegant beings, of cruel passions and undying love.
Discover the exotic wonder that is the Flat Earth.
Key Themes:
drama
folk tale-ish
sorcery & magic 🔮
Rating:
👑 won British Fantasy Award for Best Novel in 1980.
❗Night's Master is recommended to Year 8+.
On a more serious note, there are some conspiracy theories that are not true at all and invalidate others' past trauma.
Some people actually believe that the Holocaust had never happened, and that the millions of Jewish people who had suffered under the era of Hitler had being lying about having their lives turned completely upside down, and their families and friends brutally murdered.
Although this kind of reminders is unnecessary in the Queenwood community, we would like to reiterate that these sorts of terrible conspiracy theories have no basis and should not be trusted at all. They are completely immoral because they trivialise the pain and devastation that so many people have felt.
A famous fiction book about the Holocaust is The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris, but if you're looking for a less popular book of a similar theme, we have one right here:
4. The Yellow Bird Sings | Jennifer Rosner (historical fiction)
As Nazi soldiers round up the Jews in their town, Róza and her 5-year-old daughter, Shira, flee, seeking shelter in a neighbour’s barn. Hidden in the hayloft day and night, Shira struggles to stay still and quiet, as music pulses through her and the farmyard outside beckons. To soothe her daughter and pass the time, Róza tells her a story about a girl in an enchanted garden:
The girl is forbidden from making a sound, so the yellow bird sings. He sings whatever the girl composes in her head: high-pitched trills of piccolo; low-throated growls of contrabassoon. Music helps the flowers bloom.
In this make-believe world, Róza can shield Shira from the horrors that surround them. But the day comes when their haven is no longer safe, and Róza must make an impossible choice: whether to keep Shira by her side or give her the chance to survive apart.
Inspired by the true stories of Jewish children hidden during World War II, Jennifer Rosner’s debut is a breathtaking novel about the unbreakable bond between a mother and a daughter. Beautiful and riveting, The Yellow Bird Sings is a testament to the triumph of hope―a whispered story, a bird’s song―in even the darkest of times.
Key Themes:
family 👩👧
love, empathy 💛
survival ✊
Rating:
✔ easy read
✔ riveting plot
✘ animal slaughter
✘ r*pe
✘ murder
❗The Yellow Bird Sings is recommended to Year 9+.
Who is "the father of conspiracy theory fiction"? Why of course, Dan Brown!
5. The Da Vinci Code | Dan Brown (mystery thriller • crime)
While in Paris on business, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon receives an urgent late-night phone call: the elderly curator of the Louvre has been murdered inside the museum. Near the body, police have found a baffling cipher. While working to solve the enigmatic riddle, Langdon is stunned to discover it leads to a trail of clues hidden in the works of Da Vinci — clues visible for all to see — yet ingeniously disguised by the painter.
Langdon joins forces with a gifted French cryptologist, Sophie Neveu, and learns the late curator was involved in the Priory of Sion — an actual secret society whose members included Sir Isaac Newton, Botticelli, Victor Hugo, and Da Vinci, among others.
In a breathless race through Paris, London, and beyond, Langdon and Neveu match wits with a faceless powerbroker who seems to anticipate their every move. Unless Langdon and Neveu can decipher the labyrinthine puzzle in time, the Priory’s ancient secret — and an explosive historical truth — will be lost forever.
Key Themes:
subjectivity of history - are history books really telling you the truth?
art 🎨
religion ✞
manipulation
women 💁♀️ & femininity 💃
Rating:
✔ literary classic (17 million copies sold!)
✘ graphic/violent elements
✘ depictions of religion that may be upsetting
✘ sexual references
❗The Da Vinci Code is recommended to Year 10+.
6. Deception Point | Dan Brown (mystery thriller)
A shocking scientific discovery. A conspiracy of staggering brilliance. A thriller unlike any you've ever read.... When a NASA satellite discovers an astonishingly rare object buried deep in the Arctic ice, the floundering space agency proclaims a much-needed victory—a victory with profound implications for NASA policy and the impending presidential election.
To verify the authenticity of the find, the White House calls upon the skills of intelligence analyst Rachel Sexton. Accompanied by a team of experts, including the charismatic scholar Michael Tolland, Rachel travels to the Arctic and uncovers the unthinkable: evidence of scientific trickery—a bold deception that threatens to plunge the world into controversy. But before she can warn the President, Rachel and Michael are ambushed by a deadly team of assassins.
Fleeing for their lives across a desolate and lethal landscape, their only hope for survival is to discover who is behind this masterful plot. The truth, they will learn, is the most shocking deception of all.
Key Themes:
search for truth
justice
fraud & deception (duh...)
Rating:
✔ positive depiction of female intelligence
✘ animal death
❗Deception Point is recommended to Year 9+.
Gaslight
...a form of psychological abuse in which false information is presented to people with the intent of making them doubt their own memories, perceptions and judgements.
Gaslighting is seriously harmful but also effective, which is why it can be used in media and fake news (sometimes it even is the essential element that makes conspiracy theories believable!) to make people doubt their values and beliefs.
Have you ever wondered where the word comes from?
7. Gaslight | Patrick Hamilton (play)
London, 1880. Bella Manningham and her husband, Jack, sit in their house at the time "before the feeble dawn of gaslight and tea".
Having an overbearing, stern man as a husband, Bella is already constantly on edge. He disappears often from their house, and refuses to tell her where he goes.
Bella hears heavy footsteps in the apartment above them. The apartment that a widow was murdered in and is now empty.
Bella sees the gaslight at their home dims at night, casting the house in flickering shadows. She tells her husband, and begs him to stay at home. He tells her she's imagining things.
Bella wonders if she is going insane.
Key Themes:
emotional manipulation
melodrama
effects of toxic masculinity
Rating:
✔ theatrical classic
✘ unsettling elements
✘ trauma
❗Gaslight is recommended to Year 8+.
This exceptional play did not only give rise to the term "gaslight", but also revealed the cruel reality of abusive relationships and established a strong female protagonist who outwits and eventually defeats her abuser.
Rendition of Gaslight by State Theatre Company South Australia
8. Brave New World | Aldous Huxley (dystopian)
Set in a futuristic World State, inhabited by genetically modified citizens and an intelligence-based social hierarchy, the novel anticipates huge scientific advancements in reproductive technology, sleep-learning, psychological manipulation and classical conditioning that are combined to make a dystopian society which is challenged by only a single individual: the story's protagonist.
Key Themes:
totalitarianism
technology & control 🤖
individuality
Rating:
✔ dystopian classic
✘ drug use
✘ sexual references
❗Brave New World is recommended to Year 8+.
People believe climate change is a conspiracy theory!
Here is a book that acts as a loud and clear reminder that it is DEFINITELY not...
9. The Drowned World | J G Ballard (sci-fi • post-apocalyse)
Mesmerising and ferociously prescient, this novel imagines a terrifying future in which solar radiation and global warming have melted the polar ice caps and Triassic-era jungles have overrun a submerged and tropical London.
Set during the year 2145, the novel follows biologist Dr. Robert Kerans and his team of scientists as they confront a surreal cityscape populated by giant iguanas, albino alligators, and endless swarms of malarial insects. Nature has swallowed all but a few remnants of human civilization, and, slowly, Kerans and his companions are transformed—both physically and psychologically—by this prehistoric environment.
Echoing Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness—complete with a mad white hunter and his hordes of native soldiers—this "powerful and beautifully clear" (Brian Aldiss) work becomes a thrilling adventure and a haunting examination of the effects of environmental collapse on the human mind.
Key Themes:
human 💁♂️ vs nature 🌿
past & future
hope & doom
Rating:
✔ founding text of the genre, climate fiction
👑 named as one of the top 10 best post-apocalyptic books by Time Magazine in 2010
❗The Drowned World is suitable for all ages.
Wanna see how a son of a prominent US political family is brainwashed into being an assassin for a Communist conspiracy? Here's the perfect book for you!
10. The Manchurian Candidate | Richard Condon (political thriller)
As compelling and disturbing as when it was first published in the midst of the Cold War, The Manchurian Candidate continues to enthrall readers with its electrifying action and shocking climax....
Sergeant Raymond Shaw is a hero of the first order. He's an ex-prisoner of war who saved the life of his entire outfit, a winner of the Congressional Medal of Honour, the stepson of an influential senator...and the perfect assassin. Brainwashed during his time as a P.O.W., he is a "sleeper" -- a living weapon to be triggered by a secret signal. He will act without question, no matter what order he is made to carry out.
To stop Shaw and those who now control him, his former commanding officer, Bennett Marco, must uncover the truth behind a twisted conspiracy of torture, betrayal, and power that will lead him to the highest levels of the government -- and into the darkest recesses of his own mind...
Key Themes:
dark politics
evil
espionage
psychological manipulation
Rating:
✔ truly exhilarating political plot
✘ murder
✘ drug use
✘ strong, explicit language
❗The Manchurian Candidate is recommended to Year 9+.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
As an American astrophysicist, planetary scientist and one of the most popular and knowledgeable scientist on the Internet, Neil has saved us time and time again with his logical, easy-to-follow explanations of bizarre scientific concepts.
He is also known to debunk the most popular scientific conspiracy theories, such as the flat earth theory:
The moon landing hoax: 🌚🌝
The feasibility of UFOs and aliens:
Ah yes, the Joe Rogan Experience
Some of you might find him familiar... Yes, he was the scientist that Katy Perry invited during her Witness tour!
"Is maths related to science?"
Neil's show, StarTalk, also covers a huge range of theories and concepts, such as the multiverse theory, the size & future of our universe, or even black holes!
It's the perfect podcast to listen to when you want to look like an intellectual whilst doing mundane tasks.
Although Neil has been criticised for his detached, problematic perspective of the world and ignorant tweets, he does hold incredible scientific knowledge, so SAC asks you to only listen to him as an entertainer with insightful knowledge, not idolise him as a person.