Act of war

Runner

Patrick Lee2014

A retired special forces operative protects a young girl with no memory from armed government agents. The plot is a high-speed chase.

pace0·prose0·bleak0

Blood on the dining-room floor

Gertrude Stein1948

A repetitive, circular narrative about a death in a country house. It uses experimental prose to obscure the facts of a traditional mystery.

propulsive → playful

pace-3·prose+3·bleak0

The Doves Necklace

Raja Alem2014

A detective investigates an unidentified woman's body found in a Mecca alleyway. The city itself narrates parts of the story.

propulsive → dreamlike

pace-2·prose+3·bleak+1

American Psycho

Bret Easton Ellis1991

A wealthy investment banker details his daily routines, consumer habits, and graphic murders. The narrative is cold and repetitive.

propulsive → cold

pace-2·prose+3·bleak+2

Medusa

Clive Cussler2009

The NUMA team investigates a missing undersea lab and a bathysphere attack. They uncover a corporate plot involving a deadly virus and jellyfish.

Same propulsive register, still techno-thriller

pace0·prose0·bleak-1

The President Is Missing

Bill Clinton2018

The U.S. President goes underground to stop a cyberattack that threatens to wipe out the nation's electrical and financial infrastructure.

Same propulsive register

pace0·prose0·bleak-1

Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation ― Journalist Cokie Roberts' NYT Bestselling American History Book About Female Patriots

Cokie Roberts

This history focuses on the personal letters and private lives of the wives and mothers of the American Revolution's leaders.

propulsive → earnest

pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1

Gödel, Escher, Bach

Douglas R. Hofstadter1979

An exploration of how cognition emerges from hidden neurological patterns. It uses math, art, and music to explain self-referential systems.

propulsive → playful

pace-3·prose+3·bleak-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.

propulsive → playful

pace-3·prose+3·bleak0

A maça no escuro

Clarice Lispector1961

A man flees into the Brazilian interior believing he killed his wife. He works on a remote farm while navigating his own internal monologue.

propulsive → meditative

pace-3·prose+3·bleak+1

Sharp Objects

Gillian Flynn2006

A reporter returns to her hometown to cover the murders of two girls while grappling with her own history of self-harm.

propulsive → tense

pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2

In Cold Blood

Truman Capote1965

A reconstruction of the 1959 murder of a Kansas family and the subsequent investigation. It follows both the victims and the killers.

propulsive → clinical

pace-2·prose+2·bleak+2

Lord of the Flies

William Golding1954

Schoolboys are stranded on an island and try to organize a society. Order collapses into tribalism and violence.

propulsive → tense

pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2