La Cousine Bette

The Final Solution

Michael Chabon1999

An elderly detective living in 1944 Sussex helps a mute refugee boy find his missing parrot, which recites strings of German numbers.

sardonic → elegiac, still historical

pace0·prose0·bleak0

Blood on the dining-room floor

Gertrude Stein1948

A repetitive, circular narrative about a death in a country house. It uses experimental prose to obscure the facts of a traditional mystery.

sardonic → playful

pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1

The Doves Necklace

Raja Alem2014

A detective investigates an unidentified woman's body found in a Mecca alleyway. The city itself narrates parts of the story.

sardonic → dreamlike

pace0·prose+1·bleak0

Niccolò Rising

Dorothy Dunnett1986

A dyer’s apprentice in 15th-century Bruges uses his intellect to navigate the world of international trade. He builds a mercantile empire.

sardonic → wry

pace0·prose+1·bleak-1

This Man

Jodi Ellen Malpas2013

An interior designer begins an affair with a wealthy client who demands total control over her life and schedule.

sardonic → tense

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

Ready Player One

Ernest Cline2008

A teenager in a dystopian future hunts for a digital easter egg inside a massive simulation. The quest relies on 1980s pop culture trivia.

pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2

Real Murders

Charlaine Harris1990

A librarian in a small Georgia town belongs to a club that studies famous crimes. A real murder occurs that mimics a historical case.

sardonic → wry

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

Behind Closed Doors

B.A. Paris2016

A woman is held captive by her husband in a high-security home. She must find a way to escape before her sister moves in with them.

pace+2·prose-2·bleak-1

Kiss the Girls

James Patterson1995

Detective Alex Cross tracks two serial killers operating on opposite coasts who are communicating and competing with one another.

sardonic → tense

pace+2·prose-2·bleak0

Verity

Colleen Hoover2018

A ghostwriter moves into a secluded estate to finish a series for an injured author and finds a hidden, disturbing autobiography.

sardonic → tense

pace+2·prose-2·bleak0

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.

sardonic → clinical, still historical

pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

Blackouts

Justin Torres2023

A young man cares for a dying elder in a medical facility. They use a 1930s study on homosexuality to reconstruct their personal histories.

sardonic → elegiac, still literary fiction

pace-1·prose0·bleak0

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.

sardonic → elegiac, still literary fiction

pace-1·prose0·bleak0

Páradais

Fernanda Melchor2020

Two teenagers in a luxury housing complex plot a crime to escape their lives. The prose consists of long, rhythmic, and breathless sentences.

sardonic → bleak, still literary fiction

pace+1·prose0·bleak+1

See how small

Scott Blackwood2015

The ghosts of three girls murdered in an ice cream shop watch the survivors struggle. The narrative follows family and suspects in the aftermath.

sardonic → elegiac, still literary fiction

pace0·prose0·bleak+1

American Psycho

Bret Easton Ellis1991

A wealthy investment banker details his daily routines, consumer habits, and graphic murders. The narrative is cold and repetitive.

sardonic → cold

pace0·prose+1·bleak+1