LitQueuelitqueue

After

One

Conrad Williams2009

5 of 6 directions open — nothing heavier

More like it

1 more ↓

  • Las cosas que perdimos en el fuego

    Mariana Enríquez2016

    Short stories set in Argentina explore contemporary horrors like domestic violence and poverty through a supernatural lens.

    Same bleak register, still horror

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • Ambergris

    Jeff VanderMeer2020

    This collection follows the history of a city built atop a subterranean race. It uses fake histories, journals, and detective noir.

    bleak → dreamlike

    pace0·prose+1·bleak-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.

    bleak → elegiac, still horror

    pace0·prose+1·bleak0

  • 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.

    bleak → dark

    pace0·prose+1·bleak0

To recover

3 more ↓

  • This Girl

    Colleen Hoover2013

    A husband retells the story of his early relationship to his wife. It uses dual timelines to revisit events from the first book in the series.

    bleak → earnest

    pace0·prose-2·bleak-3

  • The Score

    Elle Kennedy2016

    A college senior has a one-night stand with a hockey player to get over a breakup. They continue the arrangement as graduation approaches.

    bleak → playful

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-3

  • 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.

    bleak → playful

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-3

Faster

3 more ↓

  • The remaining

    D. J Molles2014

    A soldier emerges from a bunker into a world where a bacterium has turned most people into predators. He attempts to find survivors.

    bleak → tense, still post-apocalyptic

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-1

  • The Walking Dead, Book Six

    Robert Kirkman2010

    Survivors of a zombie plague attempt to build a community in a fortified neighborhood. The focus is on group politics and interpersonal conflict.

    Same bleak register, still post-apocalyptic

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-1

  • 28 Days Later

    Alex Garland2002

    A man wakes from a coma to find London deserted and overrun by humans infected with a rage virus. He joins a small group of survivors.

    Same bleak register, still post-apocalyptic

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-1

Slower

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    bleak → playful

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-3

  • 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.

    bleak → playful

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-2

  • Absalom, Absalom!

    William Faulkner1936

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

    bleak → elegiac

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak0