After
All Quiet on the Western Front
Mary Ellen Snodgrass2004
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
4 of 6 directions open — nothing heavier, nothing faster
More like it
- pace0prose0bleak0
Desperation
Stephen King1996
A demonic entity possesses a small-town sheriff and begins slaughtering travelers. A young boy who hears God leads the survivors.
despairing → bleak, still horror
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Deeper
James Moore2009
Divers off the New England coast recover a strange creature that survives on land and begins hunting humans.
despairing → tense, still horror
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Temperature
Adam Santo2010
After dying in a car crash, Sally is resurrected by a stranger and led through a world of the undead.
despairing → tense, still horror
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak-1
The Rats
James Herbert1974
Giant, man-eating rats overrun London, attacking citizens in homes and subways. The story follows the escalating biological disaster.
despairing → propulsive, still horror
pace0·prose0·bleak-1
1 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose+1bleak0
Denser prose
despairing → dreamlike
- pace-2prose+2bleak-1
House of Leaves
Mark Z. Danielewski1998
A man finds a door in his house that should not exist. The story is told through layers of academic footnotes and a decaying manuscript.
pace-2·prose+2·bleak-1
- pace-2prose+2bleak-1
Ambergris
Jeff VanderMeer2020
This collection follows the history of a city built atop a subterranean race. It uses fake histories, journals, and detective noir.
pace-2·prose+2·bleak-1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-2prose+2bleak0
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.
despairing → elegiac, still horror
pace-2·prose+2·bleak0
- pace-1prose+2bleak0
Poe's Children
Peter Straub2008
An anthology of twenty-five contemporary horror stories. The collection focuses on literary and atmospheric styles rather than gore.
despairing → elegiac, still horror
pace-1·prose+2·bleak0
- pace-2prose+2bleak-1
Mysteries and Tales of Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe2015
A collection of short stories featuring gothic horror, premature burial, and psychological decay. Most narrators are unstable or dying.
despairing → tense, still horror
pace-2·prose+2·bleak-1
To recover
- pace0prose-1bleak-3
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.
despairing → sardonic, still horror
pace0·prose-1·bleak-3
- pace-1prose-1bleak-3
Redshirts
John Scalzi2012
Low-ranking crew members on a starship realize they are disposable characters in a sci-fi television show. They attempt to escape their fate.
despairing → playful
pace-1·prose-1·bleak-3
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose-1bleak-3
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.
despairing → propulsive
pace0·prose-1·bleak-3
- pace-1prose-1bleak-3
Fifty Shades of Grey
E.L. James2000
A college student enters a sexual contract with a wealthy businessman. The story focuses on their power dynamics and BDSM encounters.
despairing → earnest
pace-1·prose-1·bleak-3
- pace0prose-1bleak-3
The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
despairing → wry
pace0·prose-1·bleak-3
Slower
- pace-3prose-1bleak-2
Lady Audley's Secret
Mary Elizabeth Braddon1862
A man returns from Australia to find his friend's wife is a governess with a hidden past. He investigates her identity after his friend disappears.
despairing → mysterious, still horror
pace-3·prose-1·bleak-2
- pace-3prose+2bleak-1
The night land
William Hope Hodgson1972
Millions of years after the sun dies, a man leaves an underground fortress to rescue a woman. The prose uses archaic, repetitive syntax.
despairing → dreamlike
pace-3·prose+2·bleak-1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-3prose+2bleak-1
Dhalgren
Samuel R. Delany1975
An amnesiac wanderer enters Bellona, a city cut off from the world where time and geography shift. He joins a gang and writes poetry.
despairing → dreamlike
pace-3·prose+2·bleak-1
- pace-3prose+2bleak-3
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.
despairing → playful
pace-3·prose+2·bleak-3
- pace-3prose+2bleak-2
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.
despairing → playful
pace-3·prose+2·bleak-2
