LitQueuelitqueue

After

Alison Hewitt Is Trapped

Madeleine Roux2011

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

1 more ↓

  • Deadline

    Mira Grant2011

    A journalist investigates a conspiracy involving the CDC and the origins of the zombie virus while grieving his sister's death.

    Same propulsive register, still zombie apocalypse

    pace0·prose+1·bleak0

Denser prose

propulsive → dreamlike

3 more ↓

  • Ghost Stories

    Henry James2001

    A collection of Victorian tales where the existence of ghosts is often left to the reader's interpretation.

    propulsive → meditative

    pace-1·prose+3·bleak0

  • Android Karenina

    Лев Толстой2010

    The text of Tolstoy's classic is modified to include robots, cyborgs, and space travel in a 19th-century Russian setting.

    propulsive → elegiac, still horror

    pace-1·prose+3·bleak+1

  • Racconti [55 stories]

    Edgar Allan Poe2011

    A collection of 55 stories featuring unreliable narrators and gothic settings. Themes include obsession, premature burial, and the macabre.

    propulsive → dreamlike, still horror

    pace-1·prose+3·bleak0

To recover

3 more ↓

  • Grunge

    Larry Correia2016

    A Marine killed in a bombing is resurrected to hunt supernatural creatures. He joins a private company that kills monsters for government bounties.

    propulsive → sardonic, still horror

    pace+1·prose0·bleak-2

  • The Book of Hope

    Jane Goodall2021

    A dialogue-based book where Jane Goodall discusses her life's work and her reasons for remaining optimistic about the environment.

    propulsive → earnest

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-2

  • The Man Who Quit Money

    Mark Sundeen2012

    A biography of Daniel Suelo, who abandoned currency in 2000. It follows his daily life scavenging and living in caves in the Utah wilderness.

    propulsive → meditative

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-2

Faster

Same propulsive register, still zombie apocalypse

3 more ↓

  • Desperation

    Stephen King1996

    A demonic entity possesses a small-town sheriff and begins slaughtering travelers. A young boy who hears God leads the survivors.

    propulsive → bleak, still horror

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak+1

  • The Burning Side

    Sarah Damoff

    propulsive → tense, still horror

    pace+1·prose+2·bleak+1

  • The Rats

    James Herbert1974

    Giant, man-eating rats overrun London, attacking citizens in homes and subways. The story follows the escalating biological disaster.

    Same propulsive register, still horror

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak0

Slower

3 more ↓

  • 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-2·prose+3·bleak-1

  • Absalom, Absalom!

    William Faulkner1936

    The rise and fall of Thomas Sutpen is recounted through multiple, conflicting memories. The prose uses extremely long, complex sentences.

    propulsive → elegiac

    pace-2·prose+3·bleak+1

  • Either/Or

    Søren Kierkegaard1992

    A collection of papers presents two life philosophies: the aesthetic pursuit of pleasure and the ethical commitment to duty.

    propulsive → meditative

    pace-2·prose+3·bleak-1

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • The Burning Side

    Sarah Damoff

    propulsive → tense, still horror

    pace+1·prose+2·bleak+1

  • Mapping the Interior

    Stephen Graham Jones2017

    A teenager follows a figure resembling his dead father into the hidden spaces of his home. He maps a shifting, dangerous interior.

    propulsive → elegiac, still horror

    pace0·prose+2·bleak+1

  • Flowers in the Attic

    V.C. Andrews1979

    Four children are hidden in an attic for years by their mother and grandmother to secure an inheritance. They face gradual poisoning and abuse.

    propulsive → elegiac, still horror

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+1