After
Good Material
Dolly Alderton2024
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
5 of 6 directions open — nothing to recover from
More like it
- pace0prose0bleak0
Margo's Got Money Troubles
Rufi Thorpe2024
A young mother starts an OnlyFans to avoid eviction. She uses her father's professional wrestling advice to build a persona and manage her life.
Same wry register, still contemporary
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak+1
Queenie
Candice Carty-Williams2019
A young Jamaican British woman in London navigates a breakup and workplace racism. She makes a series of self-destructive choices with men.
Same wry register, still contemporary
pace0·prose0·bleak+1
- pace0prose0bleak+1
The Almost Sisters
Joshilyn Jackson2017
A graphic novelist discovers she is pregnant after a one-night stand. She returns to Alabama to handle a family secret found in her attic.
Same wry register, still contemporary
pace0·prose0·bleak+1
- pace0prose0bleak0
The Guncle
Steven Rowley2021
A former sitcom star takes in his niece and nephew for the summer after a family tragedy, navigating grief through humor and palm springs life.
wry → warm, still contemporary
pace0·prose0·bleak0
1 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose0bleak0
The Five-Star Weekend
Elin Hilderbrand2023
A widow invites four friends from different stages of her life to a weekend on Nantucket. They navigate old secrets and current life transitions.
wry → warm, still contemporary
pace0·prose0·bleak0
Denser prose
- pace-2prose+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.
wry → playful
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+2bleak+2
Briefing for a Descent into Hell
Doris Lessing1971
A man is found wandering London and placed in a psychiatric ward. The narrative shifts between the hospital and his internal cosmic hallucinations.
wry → dreamlike
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose+2bleak+3
Don Quixote
Kathy Acker1986
A woman undergoes an abortion and adopts the persona of Don Quixote to pursue a quest in a fragmented, postmodern landscape.
wry → sardonic
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+3
- pace-1prose+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.
wry → sardonic
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2
- pace0prose+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.
wry → propulsive
pace0·prose+2·bleak+3
Faster
- pace+1prose-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.
wry → playful
pace+1·prose-1·bleak0
- pace+1prose0bleak+2
Child 44
Tom Rob Smith2008
A Soviet security officer investigates a serial killer in a state that officially claims murder does not exist.
wry → tense
pace+1·prose0·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+1prose0bleak+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.
wry → sardonic
pace+1·prose0·bleak+1
- pace+1prose-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.
wry → propulsive
pace+1·prose-1·bleak0
- pace+1prose-1bleak0
The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
Same wry register
pace+1·prose-1·bleak0
Slower
- pace-2prose+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.
wry → playful
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+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.
wry → elegiac
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+3
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-2prose+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.
wry → clinical
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+2
- pace-2prose+2bleak+3
Translated Accounts
James Kelman2001
Anonymous witnesses describe life under a military regime. The prose uses broken, bureaucratic syntax to mimic a literal translation.
wry → bleak
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+3
- pace-2prose+1bleak+2
The English Patient
Michael Ondaatje1992
Four people shelter in a ruined Italian villa at the end of WWII. They care for a burned, anonymous man who recounts his past in the desert.
wry → elegiac
pace-2·prose+1·bleak+2
Heavier
- pace-1prose+1bleak+3
A Little Life
Hanya Yanagihara2015
Four friends in New York over thirty years. One of them is being destroyed, and the book does not look away.
wry → bleak, still contemporary
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+3
- pace-1prose+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.
wry → bleak
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+3
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose+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.
wry → bleak
pace0·prose+1·bleak+3
- pace0prose+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.
wry → sardonic
pace0·prose+1·bleak+3
- pace0prose0bleak+3
Slaughterhouse-Five
Kurt Vonnegut1969
Billy Pilgrim becomes unstuck in time, experiencing his life out of order, from his chaplaincy in WWII to his abduction by aliens.
wry → sardonic
pace0·prose0·bleak+3
