After
Omega days
Campbell, John L. (Investigator)2014
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
5 of 6 directions open — nothing faster
More like it
- pace-1prose0bleak0
Midnight Mass
F. Paul Wilson2004
Vampires have conquered the world, and a small group of survivors in New Jersey attempts to fight back using religious iconography.
Same propulsive register, still horror
pace-1·prose0·bleak0
- pace-1prose0bleak0
The Violence
Delilah S. Dawson2022
A virus causes people to erupt into sudden, uncontrollable violence. A mother and daughter use the chaos to escape an abusive patriarch.
Same propulsive register, still horror
pace-1·prose0·bleak0
- pace-1prose0bleak0
Thicker Than Blood
Madeline Sheehan2015
Two survivors navigate a world overrun by the undead. They are forced together by circumstance and must manage a volatile relationship.
propulsive → bleak, still horror
pace-1·prose0·bleak0
- pace-1prose0bleak0
Aftertime
Sophie Littlefield2011
A woman wakes up in a post-apocalyptic California overrun by cannibals. She must track down her missing daughter in a landscape of total collapse.
propulsive → bleak, still horror
pace-1·prose0·bleak0
1 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose-1bleak0
Red Hill
Jamie McGuire2013
Three groups of survivors attempt to reach a ranch during a sudden zombie outbreak. The story follows their separate paths to the same refuge.
propulsive → tense, still horror
pace-1·prose-1·bleak0
Denser prose
- pace-2prose+2bleak0
House of Leaves
Mark Z. Danielewski1998
A man finds a door in his house that should not exist. The story is told through layers of academic footnotes and a decaying manuscript.
propulsive → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+2·bleak0
- pace-2prose+2bleak+1
Blindness
José Saramago1999
An epidemic of sudden blindness strikes a city, leading to the collapse of social order. A small group struggles to survive in a filthy asylum.
propulsive → bleak
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-2prose+2bleak0
Ambergris
Jeff VanderMeer2020
This collection follows the history of a city built atop a subterranean race. It uses fake histories, journals, and detective noir.
propulsive → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+2·bleak0
- pace-2prose+2bleak+1
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.
propulsive → elegiac, still horror
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+2bleak0
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.
propulsive → dreamlike, still horror
pace-2·prose+2·bleak0
To recover
- pace0prose-1bleak-2
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.
propulsive → sardonic, still horror
pace0·prose-1·bleak-2
- pace0prose-1bleak-2
The Kaiju Preservation Society
John Scalzi2022
A food delivery driver joins a secret organization that travels to an alternate Earth to care for massive, dinosaur-like creatures.
propulsive → playful
pace0·prose-1·bleak-2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose-1bleak-2
Smokin' Seventeen
Janet Evanovich2011
A bounty hunter investigates bodies found in her boss's lot while choosing between three suitors. The story follows her daily mishaps in New Jersey.
propulsive → playful
pace-1·prose-1·bleak-2
- pace-1prose-1bleak-2
Miss Butterworth and the Mad Baron
Julia Quinn2022
A graphic novel adaptation of a fictional melodrama where an orphan flees a cruel aunt and encounters a man in a remote castle.
propulsive → playful
pace-1·prose-1·bleak-2
- pace-2prose-1bleak-2
The Comfort Book
Matt Haig2021
A collection of short reflections, lists, and anecdotes intended to provide mental support. It is a non-linear book of philosophy and memoir.
propulsive → warm
pace-2·prose-1·bleak-2
Slower
- pace-3prose-1bleak-1
Lady Audley's Secret
Mary Elizabeth Braddon1862
A man returns from Australia to find his friend's wife is a governess with a hidden past. He investigates her identity after his friend disappears.
propulsive → mysterious, still horror
pace-3·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace-3prose+2bleak0
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.
propulsive → dreamlike
pace-3·prose+2·bleak0
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-2prose+1bleak0
The City of Mirrors
Justin Cronin2015
The survivors of a vampire apocalypse face a final confrontation with the original source of the infection.
propulsive → elegiac, still horror
pace-2·prose+1·bleak0
- pace-3prose+2bleak-2
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.
propulsive → playful
pace-3·prose+2·bleak-2
- pace-3prose+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.
propulsive → playful
pace-3·prose+2·bleak-1
Heavier
propulsive → bleak, still horror
- pace-2prose+1bleak+1
One
Conrad Williams2009
A man walks across a scorched, post-apocalyptic Britain to find his son. He encounters red rain, ruins, and cannibalism.
pace-2·prose+1·bleak+1
- pace0prose0bleak+1
Desperation
Stephen King1996
A demonic entity possesses a small-town sheriff and begins slaughtering travelers. A young boy who hears God leads the survivors.
pace0·prose0·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose+1bleak+1
- pace-1prose+1bleak+1
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.
propulsive → elegiac, still horror
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1
- pace-1prose0bleak+1
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.
propulsive → elegiac, still horror
pace-1·prose0·bleak+1
