After
A Desperate Fortune
Susanna Kearsley2015
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
5 of 6 directions open — nothing to recover from
More like it
- pace0prose0bleak+1
The Tuscan Child
Rhys Bowen2018
A woman travels to Italy in 1973 to investigate her late father's secret life during WWII. The story alternates between 1944 and the 1970s.
Same warm register, still historical mystery
pace0·prose0·bleak+1
- pace0prose0bleak0
The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern
Lynda Cohen Loigman2024
An elderly pharmacist in a retirement community reconnects with a man from her past. The story shifts between the 1920s and the 1980s.
Same warm register, still dual timeline
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace+1prose0bleak0
The Giver of Stars
Jojo Moyes2019
Five women deliver books on horseback in rural Kentucky during the Great Depression. They face local prejudice and harsh terrain to run the library.
Same warm register, still romance
pace+1·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Anxious People
Fredrik Backman2020
A failed bank robber takes a group of strangers hostage during an apartment open house. The story explores the backstories of the captives.
Same warm register
pace0·prose0·bleak0
1 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose0bleak0
Cannery Row
John Steinbeck1945
A series of vignettes about the residents of a Monterey street during the Depression. They attempt to throw a party for a local biologist.
Same warm register
pace0·prose0·bleak0
Denser prose
- pace-1prose+2bleak+1
Ulysses
James Joyce1914
Three characters wander through Dublin on a single day in 1904. Each chapter uses a different literary style to mimic thoughts and sensations.
warm → playful
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace0prose+2bleak+2
Briefing for a Descent into Hell
Doris Lessing1971
A man is found wandering London and placed in a psychiatric ward. The narrative shifts between the hospital and his internal cosmic hallucinations.
warm → dreamlike
pace0·prose+2·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose+2bleak+2
Umbrella
Will Self2013
A psychiatrist in 1971 treats a woman who has been catatonic for decades. The prose shifts between eras and consciousnesses without paragraph breaks.
warm → clinical
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2
- pace0prose+2bleak+3
Don Quixote
Kathy Acker1986
A woman undergoes an abortion and adopts the persona of Don Quixote to pursue a quest in a fragmented, postmodern landscape.
warm → sardonic
pace0·prose+2·bleak+3
- pace0prose+2bleak+2
Gravity's Rainbow
Thomas Pynchon1973
During the end of WWII, an American lieutenant's sexual encounters seem to predict where German V-2 rockets will fall. The narrative is fragmented.
warm → sardonic
pace0·prose+2·bleak+2
Faster
- pace+2prose-1bleak0
Dial A for Aunties
Jesse Q. Sutanto2021
A photographer accidentally kills her blind date. Her mother and aunties help hide the body during a massive luxury wedding.
warm → playful
pace+2·prose-1·bleak0
- pace+2prose-1bleak0
The Bootlegger
Clive Cussler2014
In 1920, investigator Isaac Bell pursues rum-runners and discovers a plot involving Bolshevik assassins and government sabotage.
warm → propulsive, still historical mystery
pace+2·prose-1·bleak0
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+2prose0bleak+2
Child 44
Tom Rob Smith2008
A Soviet security officer investigates a serial killer in a state that officially claims murder does not exist.
warm → tense
pace+2·prose0·bleak+2
- pace+2prose0bleak+1
Candide
Voltaire
A naive young man travels the world while his tutor insists that everything is for the best. He encounters a series of global catastrophes.
warm → sardonic
pace+2·prose0·bleak+1
- pace+2prose-1bleak0
The Da Vinci Code
Dan Brown2003
A symbologist and a cryptologist flee the police while solving puzzles hidden in art. They search for a secret regarding the Holy Grail.
warm → propulsive
pace+2·prose-1·bleak0
Slower
- pace-1prose+2bleak+1
Ulysses
James Joyce1914
Three characters wander through Dublin on a single day in 1904. Each chapter uses a different literary style to mimic thoughts and sensations.
warm → playful
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+2bleak+3
Absalom, Absalom!
William Faulkner1936
The rise and fall of Thomas Sutpen is recounted through multiple, conflicting memories. The prose uses extremely long, complex sentences.
warm → elegiac
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+3
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose+2bleak+2
Umbrella
Will Self2013
A psychiatrist in 1971 treats a woman who has been catatonic for decades. The prose shifts between eras and consciousnesses without paragraph breaks.
warm → clinical
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2
- pace-1prose+2bleak+3
Translated Accounts
James Kelman2001
Anonymous witnesses describe life under a military regime. The prose uses broken, bureaucratic syntax to mimic a literal translation.
warm → bleak
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+3
- pace-1prose+1bleak+2
The English Patient
Michael Ondaatje1992
Four people shelter in a ruined Italian villa at the end of WWII. They care for a burned, anonymous man who recounts his past in the desert.
warm → elegiac
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2
Heavier
warm → bleak
- pace0prose+2bleak+3
The Road
Cormac McCarthy2006
A father and son walk through a landscape of ash and scavengers toward the coast. They carry only what fits in a shopping cart.
pace0·prose+2·bleak+3
- pace+1prose+1bleak+3
The Underground Railroad
Colson Whitehead2016
Two slaves escape a Georgia plantation via a literal underground train system while being pursued by a slave catcher.
pace+1·prose+1·bleak+3
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+1prose+1bleak+3
Oryx and Crake
Margaret Atwood2003
A man survives a genetic apocalypse in a world of engineered creatures. He remembers his past with a scientist and the woman they both loved.
warm → sardonic
pace+1·prose+1·bleak+3
- pace0prose+1bleak+3
A Little Life
Hanya Yanagihara2015
Four friends in New York over thirty years. One of them is being destroyed, and the book does not look away.
pace0·prose+1·bleak+3
- pace+1prose0bleak+3
Slaughterhouse-Five
Kurt Vonnegut1969
Billy Pilgrim becomes unstuck in time, experiencing his life out of order, from his chaplaincy in WWII to his abduction by aliens.
warm → sardonic
pace+1·prose0·bleak+3
