Bitter Greens

The Night Circus

Erin Morgenstern2011

Two magicians are bound into a lifelong competition within a traveling nocturnal circus. Their moves are expressed through the tents they create.

Same dreamlike register, still historical fantasy

pace0·prose0·bleak-1

Love & Sleep

John Crowley1994

Pierce Moffett researches the history of magic while living in a small town. The narrative shifts between his life and the Renaissance.

dreamlike → meditative, still historical fantasy

pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

Ink

Hal Duncan2007

Gods and mortals clash in a shifting city where reality is written on skin. The story follows a cycle of mythic archetypes across time.

Same dreamlike register

pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

At Swim-Two-Birds

Flann O'Brien1939

A student writes a story about a man whose own characters rebel and plot against him. It incorporates Irish myth and multiple layers of fiction.

dreamlike → playful

pace0·prose+1·bleak-1

This Man

Jodi Ellen Malpas2013

An interior designer begins an affair with a wealthy client who demands total control over her life and schedule.

dreamlike → tense

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

Ready Player One

Ernest Cline2008

A teenager in a dystopian future hunts for a digital easter egg inside a massive simulation. The quest relies on 1980s pop culture trivia.

pace+2·prose-2·bleak-1

Real Murders

Charlaine Harris1990

A librarian in a small Georgia town belongs to a club that studies famous crimes. A real murder occurs that mimics a historical case.

dreamlike → wry

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

Mind's Eye

Douglas E. Richards2014

A man discovers he has the ability to access the internet and process data directly with his mind. He is hunted by a secret organization.

dreamlike → propulsive

pace+2·prose-2·bleak0

The Atlantis Gene

A.G. Riddle2013

A geneticist and a counter-terrorism agent uncover a global conspiracy involving human evolution and an ancient Antarctic discovery.

dreamlike → propulsive

pace+2·prose-2·bleak0

Monster Hunter International

Larry Correia2007

An accountant kills his boss, who has become a werewolf, and is recruited by a private company that hunts monsters for government bounties.

dreamlike → propulsive

pace+2·prose-2·bleak0

Boneland

Alan Garner2012

An adult Colin searches for his lost sister while an ancient shaman performs rituals in the same landscape. The two timelines mirror one another.

dreamlike → elegiac

pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

Cloud & Ashes: Three Winter's Tales

Greer Gilman2009

A triptych of stories set in a mythic Yorkshire, told in dense, archaic dialect. It follows the intersections of folk magic and celestial myth.

Same dreamlike register, still historical fantasy

pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

Among Others

Jo Walton2011

A teenage girl at a 1970s boarding school copes with her twin's death through books and subtle magic. It is written as a series of diary entries.

dreamlike → tender

pace-1·prose-1·bleak0

Mees, kes teadis ussisõnu

Andrus Kivirähk2015

A boy in medieval Estonia learns the ancient language of snakes to command animals as his forest culture is erased by Christian invaders.

dreamlike → elegiac, still historical fantasy

pace0·prose-1·bleak+2

The sad tale of the brothers Grossbart

Jesse Bullington2009

Two murderous brothers travel across 14th-century Europe to rob Egyptian tombs. They encounter monsters and religious zealots along the way.

dreamlike → sardonic, still historical fantasy

pace+1·prose0·bleak+2

The Fifth Season

N. K. Jemisin2015

A mother searches for her daughter across a continent undergoing a tectonic apocalypse. Some chapters address the reader in the second person.

dreamlike → bleak

pace+1·prose0·bleak+2