After
Ghosts that Have Haunted Me and Some Others
John Kendrick Bangs2005
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
5 of 6 directions open — nothing to recover from
More like it
- pace0prose0bleak+1
Duma Key
Stephen King2008
A man moves to a Florida key to recover from an accident and begins painting. His art starts to reveal and influence local supernatural forces.
playful → meditative, still haunted house
pace0·prose0·bleak+1
- pace0prose0bleak+1
Silence for the Dead
Simone St. James2014
A woman lies about her identity to work at a remote hospital for shell-shocked WWI veterans. She discovers the house is haunted by something hostile.
playful → tense, still haunted house
pace0·prose0·bleak+1
- pace0prose0bleak+1
Spook Stories
E. F. Benson1928
A collection of ghost stories involving haunted houses, malevolent spirits, and supernatural occurrences in early 20th-century England.
playful → tense, still haunted house
pace0·prose0·bleak+1
- pace0prose0bleak0
The Zen of Zombie: Better Living Through the Undead (Zen of Zombie Series)
Scott Kenemore
A satirical self-help guide that uses the behavior of zombies as a model for achieving mindfulness and reducing stress.
Same playful register
pace0·prose0·bleak0
1 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose0bleak+1
Ammie, Come Home
Barbara Michaels1968
A widow and her niece move into a Georgetown house where a seance awakens a spirit that begins to possess the inhabitants.
playful → tense, still ghost story
pace0·prose0·bleak+1
Denser prose
- pace0prose+2bleak+2
House of Leaves
Mark Z. Danielewski1998
A man finds a door in his house that should not exist. The story is told through layers of academic footnotes and a decaying manuscript.
playful → dreamlike, still haunted house
pace0·prose+2·bleak+2
- pace0prose+2bleak+2
Ghost Stories
Henry James2001
A collection of Victorian tales where the existence of ghosts is often left to the reader's interpretation.
playful → meditative
pace0·prose+2·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose+2bleak+2
The Golden
Lucius Shepard1993
A vampire detective investigates the murder of a woman bred for her blood. The story takes place within a sprawling castle during a summit.
playful → decadent
pace0·prose+2·bleak+2
- pace0prose+2bleak+2
Ambergris
Jeff VanderMeer2020
This collection follows the history of a city built atop a subterranean race. It uses fake histories, journals, and detective noir.
playful → dreamlike
pace0·prose+2·bleak+2
- pace0prose+2bleak+3
Edgar Allen Poe (Black Cat / Cask of Amontillado / Fall of the House of Usher / Gold Bug / Metzengerstein / Murders in the Rue Morgue / Narrative of Arthur Gordn Pym / Never Bet the Devil Your Head / Pit and the Pendulum / Purloined Letter / Tell-Tale Heart)
Edgar Allan Poe2005
A collection of gothic stories and a novel. Narrators deal with psychological collapse, premature burial, and macabre crimes.
playful → bleak
pace0·prose+2·bleak+3
Faster
- pace+2prose-1bleak+1
Creepers
David Morrell2005
Five urban explorers break into a long-abandoned hotel in New Jersey and find themselves trapped with a killer.
playful → tense, still haunted house
pace+2·prose-1·bleak+1
- pace+2prose-1bleak+1
Patient Zero
Jonathan Maberry2009
A detective joins a secret government task force to stop a terrorist group using a bio-weapon that reanimates the dead. It is an action thriller.
playful → propulsive
pace+2·prose-1·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+2prose-1bleak+3
The Rising
Brian Keene2003
A father travels across an apocalypse where the dead are possessed by malevolent, intelligent demons. The world is ending permanently.
playful → bleak
pace+2·prose-1·bleak+3
- pace+2prose-1bleak+1
Shattered
Dean Koontz1973
A man and his future stepson drive across America while being stalked by the woman's vengeful ex-husband.
playful → tense
pace+2·prose-1·bleak+1
- pace+2prose-1bleak+2
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.
playful → tense
pace+2·prose-1·bleak+2
Slower
- pace-1prose+2bleak+2
Dhalgren
Samuel R. Delany1975
An amnesiac wanderer enters Bellona, a city cut off from the world where time and geography shift. He joins a gang and writes poetry.
playful → dreamlike
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2
- pace-1prose+2bleak0
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.
Same playful register
pace-1·prose+2·bleak0
3 more ↓ ↑
- 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.
Same playful register
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
- 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.
playful → elegiac
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+3
- pace-1prose+2bleak+1
Either/Or
Søren Kierkegaard1992
A collection of papers presents two life philosophies: the aesthetic pursuit of pleasure and the ethical commitment to duty.
playful → meditative
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
Heavier
- pace0prose+1bleak+3
Little Sister Death
William Gay2015
A writer moves his family to a Tennessee farm to research a local haunting, only to become obsessed with the site's violent history.
playful → bleak, still ghost story
pace0·prose+1·bleak+3
- pace0prose+2bleak+3
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.
playful → elegiac, still humor
pace0·prose+2·bleak+3
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose+1bleak+3
Frankenstein
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley1818
Victor Frankenstein assembles a living being from scavenged parts. The narrative follows the creature's rejection and its violent revenge.
playful → elegiac
pace0·prose+1·bleak+3
- pace+1prose0bleak+3
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.
playful → elegiac
pace+1·prose0·bleak+3
- pace0prose+2bleak+3
Hamlet
William Shakespeare
A prince of Denmark is told by a ghost that his uncle killed his father. He feigns madness while deciding whether to take revenge.
playful → meditative
pace0·prose+2·bleak+3