r/whattoreadwhen

Do we have any books that are told in a non-linear fashion similar to Memento, just much more extreme?

Like, what about a story where the climax isn't actually at the end, but at the center / middle of the story and we only read about 'fragments' that close in from the beginning to the center and from the ending to the center (so far just like Memento),

but there's not only this single (main-)plotline I just mentioned and we actually get, say, 3 other plotlines from other perspectives / persons which begin and end somewhere within that main-plotline with

sub-plotline A ONLY moving forwards in chronological order

sub-plotline B ONLY moving backwards (in fragments)

sub-plotline C moving forwards AND backwards because its fragments are narrated in 'arbitrary order' (e.g. there is no order and you've to puzzle it together yourself entirely based on context from all other sub-plotlines and the main plotline).

This is of course only an example, generally I'm just looking for a nonlinear narration that's told in Memento-like fragments, and that forces you as reader to puzzle together the right order (so sub-plotline C).

I expect (and demand!) that such a story will be challenging to read. I don't want the author to make puzzling easy for me :)

Ideally I'd prefer cyberpunk for that kind of genre, and if possible multiple perspectives / point of views on the same events.

I'm looking for a serious (like not entirely humour-driven) mystery / murder-mystery / sci-fi book that covers a periodical body swap / mind swap between at least two persons, that repeats / circulates after a certain time (so both minds are in their respective bodies again at some point).

I'm NOT looking for a book that takes a deep dive on transgender tropes here, if there's some references to it that's fine, but please spare me stories which use something of that sort as their core concept.

What I actually AM looking for would ideally be a mind-bending (if possible) mystery / murder-mystery book that is narrated SOLELY FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF ONE of the mind swapping individuals, who always has to figure out what tf happened to his or one of the other bodies their mind is transferred into "in the meantime".

(if we experience the other person's perspective later on in the second part of the book to 'fill the gaps' that's fine of course, but it wouldn't work out if we knew that perspective right away)

Why's this an interesting concept for a murder mystery in particular?

Obviously the other individuals will do stuff while the main character is NOT witnessing their consciousness. They'll walk around, interact with people, get to know some of them better, perhaps also befriend them, while some others may become aversive towards towards the individual due to some conflict that happened.

For the sake of simplicity let's say there are just two swapping minds.

For our main character, that may know their 'alter ego' is in imminent danger of being murdered, but 'alter ego' does not, this is brings up a whole lot of issues related to communication and trustworthiness. Both main character and 'alter ego' know they swap bodies, so they have an incentive to find a way of communication (by e.g. leaving notes behind for the other to read after the next body swap), but our main character doesn't know what kind of shit 'alter ego' pulled in the meantime while the main character wasn't in 'alter egos' body.

There may be persons that our main character could chat to quite comfortably before, that just one transfer cycle later threaten him with a knife. Or the main character could transfer into the other person and suddenly feel dizzy, as if being drugged (potentially by the murderer).

Main task / challenge for the protagonist should be the continuous attempt of trying to figure out what actually happened since the last transfer, and to identify the murderer / prevent the murder (which will likely require cooperation from the other person that's involved in the mind swap ('alter ego')).

Do we have any books like that?

(essentially this would probably just be MEMENTO on steroids lol)