After
Morgan Is My Name
Sophie Keetch2023
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
5 of 6 directions open — nothing to recover from
More like it
- pace0prose0bleak0
The Princess Bride
William Goldman1973
A farm boy seeks to rescue his true love from a prince. The story is presented as an abridged version of a fictional historical text.
Same playful register, still fantasy
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Eligible
Curtis Sittenfeld2016
A modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice set in Cincinnati. The characters deal with reality TV, CrossFit, and contemporary social hierarchies.
Same playful register
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Roadmarks
Roger Zelazny1979
A man drives a literal road that connects all of history and alternate timelines. He is being hunted by assassins hired by his own son.
Same playful register, still adventure
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
The Royal We
Heather Cocks2015
An American student at Oxford falls in love with the heir to the British throne and navigates the resulting public scrutiny.
Same playful register
pace0·prose0·bleak0
1 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose0bleak0
Skios
Michael Frayn2012
A case of mistaken identity at a Greek island conference leads to a series of escalating complications. It is structured as a classical farce.
Same playful register
pace0·prose0·bleak0
Denser prose
- 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.
playful → 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.
playful → propulsive
pace0·prose+2·bleak+3
3 more ↓ ↑
- 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.
Same playful register
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+2bleak+3
The Sound and the Fury
William Faulkner1929
The decline of a Southern family told through four perspectives, including a non-linear stream of consciousness from a man with a disability.
playful → elegiac
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+3
- 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.
playful → dreamlike
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2
Faster
- pace+1prose0bleak+2
Awake in the Night Land
John C. Wright2014
Four novellas set in a dying world where the sun has gone out. Humans survive in a metal pyramid while monsters wait in the darkness.
playful → tense, still fantasy
pace+1·prose0·bleak+2
- 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.
Same playful register
pace+1·prose-1·bleak0
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+1prose-1bleak0
Medusa
Clive Cussler2009
The NUMA team investigates a missing undersea lab and a bathysphere attack. They uncover a corporate plot involving a deadly virus and jellyfish.
playful → propulsive, still adventure
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.
playful → tense
pace+1·prose0·bleak+2
- 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.
playful → sardonic
pace+1·prose0·bleak+1
Slower
- pace-2prose+2bleak+2
Moby Dick
Herman Melville1851
A sailor joins a whaling voyage led by a captain seeking revenge on a specific whale. Large sections digress into the mechanics of 1850s whaling.
playful → meditative, still adventure
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+2
- 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.
Same playful register
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
- 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.
playful → elegiac
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+3
- 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.
playful → 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.
playful → bleak
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+3
Heavier
playful → bleak
- 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.
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+3
- 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.
pace0·prose+1·bleak+3
3 more ↓ ↑
- 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.
playful → sardonic
pace0·prose+1·bleak+3
- 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.
pace-1·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.
playful → sardonic
pace0·prose0·bleak+3
