Ankle Snatcher

My Soul to Keep

Tananarive Due1997

A woman discovers her husband is a 400-year-old immortal from an Ethiopian sect. He begins killing to keep his secret and stay with her.

Same tense register, still horror

pace0·prose0·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.

tense → elegiac, still horror

pace-1·prose+2·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.

tense → dreamlike, still horror

pace-1·prose+2·bleak0

Gormenghast

Mervyn Peake1950

A young heir and a social climber navigate the rigid rituals of a decaying, labyrinthine castle. The prose is dense and descriptive.

tense → dark

pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

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.

tense → sardonic, still horror

pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

Talking to GOATs: The Moments You Remember and the Stories You Never Heard

Jim Gray

A sports broadcaster recounts his interviews and interactions with famous athletes. He provides behind-the-scenes anecdotes from his career.

pace0·prose-1·bleak-2

You Can't Make This Up: Miracles, Memories, and the Perfect Marriage of Sports and Television

Al Michaels

A veteran broadcaster recounts his fifty-year career in sports television. He provides behind-the-scenes anecdotes of major games and colleagues.

tense → warm

pace0·prose-1·bleak-2

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.

tense → sardonic, still horror

pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

Intercepts

T.J. Payne2020

A worker at a government facility monitors human test subjects driven insane by sensory deprivation. The experiment enters his private life.

Same tense register, still horror

pace+1·prose-1·bleak+1

Infected

Bobby Adair

A slow-acting virus turns the population into aggressive predators. The story follows a survivor navigating the initial societal collapse.

tense → propulsive, still horror

pace+1·prose-1·bleak0

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.

tense → playful

pace-2·prose+2·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.

tense → elegiac

pace-2·prose+2·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.

tense → meditative

pace-2·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.

tense → elegiac, still horror

pace0·prose+1·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.

tense → elegiac, still horror

pace0·prose0·bleak+1

The Lottery

Shirley Jackson1983

Villagers gather for an annual ritual in a small town. The story follows the procedural steps of a lottery that ends in a public execution.

tense → cold, still horror

pace0·prose0·bleak+1