Hidden Pictures

The Amityville Horror

Jay Anson1977

A family moves into a house where a mass murder occurred and experiences 28 days of escalating paranormal disturbances.

pace0·prose0·bleak0

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.

tense → decadent, still mystery

pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

Wieland and Memoirs of Carwin the Biloquist

Charles Brockden Brown2009

A religious man hears mysterious voices that drive him toward violence and madness. It is an early American gothic told through letters.

Same tense register

pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2

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.

tense → elegiac, still horror

pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2

The Boy Next Door

Meg Cabot2002

A gossip columnist looks after her neighbor's pets after an attack and falls for the man she thinks is the woman's nephew. It is told in emails.

tense → playful, still mystery

pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

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.

tense → propulsive, still thriller

pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

The Chef

James Patterson2019

A New Orleans police detective who moonlights as a food truck chef is framed for murder. He must clear his name while uncovering a conspiracy.

tense → propulsive, still thriller

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, still thriller

pace+1·prose-1·bleak+1

Grunge

Larry Correia2016

A Marine killed in a bombing is resurrected to hunt supernatural creatures. He joins a private company that kills monsters for government bounties.

tense → sardonic, still horror

pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

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.

Same tense register, still horror

pace+1·prose-1·bleak+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.

tense → dreamlike

pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1

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.

tense → playful

pace-2·prose+2·bleak-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.

tense → playful

pace-2·prose+2·bleak0

The Lottery

Shirley Jackson1983

Villagers gather for an annual ritual in a small town. The story follows the procedural steps of a lottery that ends in a public execution.

tense → cold, still horror

pace0·prose0·bleak+2

Exquisite Corpse

Poppy Z. Brite1996

Two serial killers meet in New Orleans and collaborate on the abduction and murder of a young man. The prose details extreme physical violence.

tense → bleak, still horror

pace0·prose+1·bleak+2

Let the Right One In

John Ajvide Lindqvist2004

A bullied boy befriends a vampire who appears to be a young girl. The story depicts their relationship alongside a series of gruesome murders.

tense → bleak, still horror

pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2