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After

The Plot Against America

Philip Roth2004

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

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  • The Carhullan Army

    Sarah Hall2007

    A woman escapes a repressive city to join a female paramilitary commune in the Cumbrian hills. She undergoes grueling training for a rebellion.

    Same tense register

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • Seven Surrenders

    Ada Palmer2017

    The leaders of global Hives struggle to maintain a centuries-long peace as secrets emerge. The narrator is biased and uses archaic language.

    tense → sardonic, still political fiction

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak0

  • Against the Day

    Thomas Pynchon2006

    A massive ensemble cast navigates the globe between the 1893 World's Fair and WWI. The plot spans airships, math, and secret societies.

    tense → playful, still historical fiction

    pace0·prose+1·bleak0

  • All Those Vanished Engines

    Paul Park2014

    Three linked stories follow the Park family through an alternate history where the American Civil War ended in a two-nation settlement.

    tense → dreamlike, still alternate history

    pace0·prose+1·bleak0

To recover

3 more ↓

  • Assistant to the Villain

    Hannah Nicole Maehrer2023

    A woman takes a job as an administrative assistant to a local villain to support her family. She manages his office while ignoring his evil deeds.

    tense → playful

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

  • The Marriage Bargain

    Jennifer Probst2012

    A bookstore owner enters a one-year contract marriage with a billionaire to save her family's land. They must follow a set of rules to stay platonic.

    tense → playful

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

  • A Quick Bite

    Lynsay Sands2005

    A vampire who faints at the sight of blood finds a psychologist tied to her bed as a gift. They navigate his kidnapping and her family dynamics.

    tense → playful

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

Faster

3 more ↓

  • All Systems Red

    Martha Wells2017

    A self-aware security android hacks its own governor module to watch soap operas while protecting a team of scientists on a distant planet.

    tense → wry

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2

  • Skin Game

    Jim Butcher2014

    Wizard Harry Dresden joins a team of villains to rob a vault in the Underworld. It is a fast-paced heist set in a modern fantasy Chicago.

    tense → propulsive

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-1

  • 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.

    tense → playful

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2

Slower

3 more ↓

  • Beelzebub's tales to his grandson

    Georges Ivanovitch Gurdjieff1950

    An extraterrestrial being explains the history and strange behaviors of humanity to his grandson during a long space voyage.

    tense → meditative

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1

  • Absalom, Absalom!

    William Faulkner1936

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

    tense → elegiac, still historical fiction

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

  • Translated Accounts

    James Kelman2001

    Anonymous witnesses describe life under a military regime. The prose uses broken, bureaucratic syntax to mimic a literal translation.

    tense → bleak, still political fiction

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • We the Living

    Ayn Rand1936

    A woman tries to study engineering and survive in the early Soviet Union. She enters a love triangle with a communist official and an aristocrat.

    tense → melancholy, still political fiction

    pace0·prose0·bleak+1

  • Elvissey

    Jack Womack1993

    Travelers from a corporate dystopia visit an alternate 1954 to kidnap Elvis Presley. They find a version of him that is dangerous and unstable.

    tense → bleak, still alternate history

    pace+1·prose0·bleak+1

  • Waiting for the Barbarians

    J. M. Coetzee1980

    A colonial magistrate attempts to maintain order in a frontier town. He faces imprisonment after sympathizing with prisoners of the Empire.

    tense → bleak, still political fiction

    pace0·prose0·bleak+1