After
First Frost
Sarah Addison Allen2015
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
5 of 6 directions open — nothing to recover from
More like it
Same warm register, still magical realism
- pace0prose0bleak0
Other Birds
Sarah Addison Allen2022
A young woman moves into her late mother's apartment on a South Carolina island. She interacts with eccentric neighbors and literal ghosts.
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose+1bleak0
Virgil Wander
Leif Enger2018
A man survives a plane crash into a river and begins to see his dying Midwestern town differently. It follows the quiet lives of the residents.
pace0·prose+1·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry
Fredrik Backman2015
A seven-year-old girl delivers letters of apology from her late grandmother to their neighbors. The task reveals the truth behind her stories.
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern
Lynda Cohen Loigman2024
An elderly pharmacist in a retirement community reconnects with a man from her past. The story shifts between the 1920s and the 1980s.
pace0·prose0·bleak0
1 more ↓ ↑
- pace+1prose0bleak0
Landline
Rainbow Rowell2014
A woman discovers a telephone that allows her to call her husband in the past. She uses it to attempt to fix their failing marriage.
pace+1·prose0·bleak0
Denser prose
- pace0prose+2bleak+2
The Famished Road
Ben Okri1991
An abiku, or spirit child, narrates his life in a Nigerian ghetto. He fluctuates between the world of the living and the world of spirits.
warm → dreamlike, still magical realism
pace0·prose+2·bleak+2
- pace0prose+2bleak+2
As I Lay Dying
William Faulkner1915
The Bundren family travels by wagon to bury their matriarch. Fifteen different narrators describe the journey as the corpse decomposes.
warm → sardonic
pace0·prose+2·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose+2bleak+2
Gravity's Rainbow
Thomas Pynchon1973
During the end of WWII, an American lieutenant's sexual encounters seem to predict where German V-2 rockets will fall. The narrative is fragmented.
warm → sardonic
pace0·prose+2·bleak+2
- pace+1prose+2bleak+3
A Brief History of Seven Killings
Marlon James2014
A large cast of characters recounts the 1976 attempt on Bob Marley's life. The narrative spans decades and moves from Jamaica to New York.
warm → propulsive
pace+1·prose+2·bleak+3
- pace0prose+2bleak+2
Beloved
Toni Morrison1987
A mother in post-Civil War Ohio is haunted by the ghost of the daughter she killed to spare from slavery. The prose is dense and non-linear.
warm → elegiac, still magical realism
pace0·prose+2·bleak+2
Faster
- pace+2prose-1bleak0
Dial A for Aunties
Jesse Q. Sutanto2021
A photographer accidentally kills her blind date. Her mother and aunties help hide the body during a massive luxury wedding.
warm → playful
pace+2·prose-1·bleak0
- pace+2prose0bleak+2
Child 44
Tom Rob Smith2008
A Soviet security officer investigates a serial killer in a state that officially claims murder does not exist.
warm → tense
pace+2·prose0·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+2prose0bleak+1
Candide
Voltaire
A naive young man travels the world while his tutor insists that everything is for the best. He encounters a series of global catastrophes.
warm → sardonic
pace+2·prose0·bleak+1
- pace+2prose-1bleak0
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.
warm → propulsive
pace+2·prose-1·bleak0
- pace+2prose-1bleak0
The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
warm → wry
pace+2·prose-1·bleak0
Slower
- pace-1prose+2bleak+1
Invisible Cities
Italo Calvino1972
Marco Polo describes fifty-five imaginary cities to Kublai Khan. The book is a series of short, prose-poem meditations on urban existence.
warm → meditative, still magical realism
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+2bleak+1
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.
warm → playful
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose+2bleak+3
Absalom, Absalom!
William Faulkner1936
The rise and fall of Thomas Sutpen is recounted through multiple, conflicting memories. The prose uses extremely long, complex sentences.
warm → elegiac
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+3
- pace-1prose+2bleak+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.
warm → meditative, still magical realism
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+2bleak+2
Umbrella
Will Self2013
A psychiatrist in 1971 treats a woman who has been catatonic for decades. The prose shifts between eras and consciousnesses without paragraph breaks.
warm → clinical
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2
Heavier
- pace+1prose+1bleak+3
The Underground Railroad
Colson Whitehead2016
Two slaves escape a Georgia plantation via a literal underground train system while being pursued by a slave catcher.
warm → bleak, still magical realism
pace+1·prose+1·bleak+3
- pace0prose+1bleak+3
Ironweed
William Kennedy1983
A homeless alcoholic returns to Albany in 1938. He encounters the ghosts of his past while trying to find a day of work and reconciliation.
warm → elegiac, still magical realism
pace0·prose+1·bleak+3
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose+1bleak+3
The Summer that Melted Everything
Tiffany McDaniel2016
A boy claiming to be the devil arrives in a small Ohio town during a 1984 heatwave. His presence triggers a series of local tragedies.
warm → elegiac, still magical realism
pace0·prose+1·bleak+3
- pace0prose+2bleak+3
The Road
Cormac McCarthy2006
A father and son walk through a landscape of ash and scavengers toward the coast. They carry only what fits in a shopping cart.
warm → bleak
pace0·prose+2·bleak+3
- pace+1prose+1bleak+3
Oryx and Crake
Margaret Atwood2003
A man survives a genetic apocalypse in a world of engineered creatures. He remembers his past with a scientist and the woman they both loved.
warm → sardonic
pace+1·prose+1·bleak+3
