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Horrorstör

Grady Hendrix2014

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

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  • The Amityville Horror

    Jay Anson1977

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

    sardonic → tense, still horror

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

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.

    sardonic → elegiac, still horror

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2

  • 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.

    sardonic → dreamlike, still horror

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

  • 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.

    sardonic → dark

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2

To recover

3 more ↓

  • Confessions of a Shopaholic

    Sophie Kinsella2001

    A financial journalist hides her mounting debt while continuing to shop compulsively. She eventually writes a career-defining expose.

    sardonic → playful

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

  • Flip This Zombie

    Jesse Petersen2011

    A married couple runs a zombie extermination and 'flipping' business. They treat the apocalypse as a series of domestic and financial hurdles.

    sardonic → playful, still horror comedy

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

  • The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek

    Rhett McLaughlin2019

    Two friends investigate a reform school in 1990s North Carolina after a classmate disappears. It is a mystery involving local conspiracies.

    sardonic → playful, still horror comedy

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

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.

    sardonic → tense, still horror

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak+2

  • Infected

    Bobby Adair

    A slow-acting virus turns the population into aggressive predators. The story follows a survivor navigating the initial societal collapse.

    sardonic → propulsive, still horror

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak+1

  • 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.

    sardonic → propulsive, still horror

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak0

Slower

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    sardonic → playful

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak0

  • Absalom, Absalom!

    William Faulkner1936

    The rise and fall of Thomas Sutpen is recounted through multiple, conflicting memories. The prose uses extremely long, complex sentences.

    sardonic → elegiac

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak+2

  • Either/Or

    Søren Kierkegaard1992

    A collection of papers presents two life philosophies: the aesthetic pursuit of pleasure and the ethical commitment to duty.

    sardonic → meditative

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak0

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • Mapping the Interior

    Stephen Graham Jones2017

    A teenager follows a figure resembling his dead father into the hidden spaces of his home. He maps a shifting, dangerous interior.

    sardonic → elegiac, still horror

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+2

  • 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.

    sardonic → elegiac, still horror

    pace0·prose0·bleak+2

  • 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.

    sardonic → cold, still horror

    pace0·prose0·bleak+2