LitQueuelitqueue

After

Don't Look Now

Daphne du Maurier

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

Same elegiac register, still horror

1 more ↓

  • A Cosmology of Monsters

    Shaun Hamill2019

    A family operates a haunted house attraction while being stalked by actual monsters. It follows the youngest son across several decades.

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

elegiac → dreamlike

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    Same elegiac register, still horror

    pace0·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.

    elegiac → dreamlike, still horror

    pace0·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.

    elegiac → dark

    pace0·prose+2·bleak+1

To recover

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    elegiac → propulsive

    pace+2·prose-1·bleak-2

  • 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.

    elegiac → earnest

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

  • The Martian

    Andy Weir2011

    A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.

    elegiac → wry

    pace+2·prose-1·bleak-2

Faster

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    elegiac → tense, still horror

    pace+2·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.

    elegiac → propulsive, still horror

    pace+2·prose-1·bleak0

  • The Undead Day One

    R.R. Haywood

    A supermarket manager attempts to survive the first twenty-four hours of a zombie outbreak in England. The story is told in real-time.

    elegiac → propulsive, still horror

    pace+2·prose-1·bleak-1

Slower

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    elegiac → playful

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak-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.

    elegiac → playful

    pace-1·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.

    Same elegiac register

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

Heavier

Same elegiac register, still horror

3 more ↓

  • Blue World

    Robert McCammon1989

    A collection of short stories and a novella involving a priest's obsession with a serial killer. The themes cover supernatural and human evil.

    pace+1·prose0·bleak+1

  • Desperation

    Stephen King1996

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

    elegiac → bleak, still horror

    pace+2·prose0·bleak+1

  • The Burning Side

    Sarah Damoff

    elegiac → tense, still horror

    pace+2·prose+1·bleak+1