LitQueuelitqueue

After

Diavola

Jennifer Thorne2024

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

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  • We Used to Live Here

    Marcus Kliewer2024

    A couple flipping a house allows a former resident and his family inside for a tour. The family refuses to leave as the house begins to change.

    Same tense register, still haunted house

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

tense → dreamlike

3 more ↓

  • 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, still gothic

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

  • Ghost Stories

    Henry James2001

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

    tense → meditative

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak0

  • 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 gothic

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak0

To recover

tense → playful

3 more ↓

  • Tall, Tatted and Tempting

    Tammy Falkner2013

    A tattoo artist who communicates through sign language falls for a woman who enters his shop. The story follows their domestic courtship.

    tense → tender

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-2

  • A Veiled Deception

    Annette Blair2009

    A vintage shop owner investigates a murder during her sister's wedding preparations to clear her family's name.

    pace-1·prose-1·bleak-2

  • It Starts with Us

    Colleen Hoover2022

    A single mother navigates a new relationship with her first love while managing a jealous ex-husband. The story alternates perspectives.

    tense → earnest

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-2

Faster

3 more ↓

  • The Rising

    Brian Keene2003

    A father travels across an apocalypse where the dead are possessed by malevolent, intelligent demons. The world is ending permanently.

    tense → bleak

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak+1

  • Shattered

    Dean Koontz1973

    A man and his future stepson drive across America while being stalked by the woman's vengeful ex-husband.

    Same tense register

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

  • The Executioner

    Chris Carter2010

    A Los Angeles detective hunts a serial killer who murders victims using their specific phobias. Each crime scene features a blood-scrawled number.

    Same tense register

    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.

    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

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • The Monk

    Matthew Gregory Lewis

    A celebrated monk is seduced by a woman in disguise and descends into a cycle of rape, murder, and sorcery. He eventually makes a pact with Satan.

    tense → bleak, still gothic

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

  • The House Next Door

    Anne Rivers Siddons1978

    A couple watches as a newly built house next door causes a series of tragedies for its occupants. The house preys on the flaws of those inside.

    tense → dread, still gothic

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

  • The Elementals

    Michael McDowell1981

    Two families vacation at a coastal estate where one of three houses is slowly being buried by sand and inhabited by a malevolent presence.

    tense → dread, still gothic

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1