After
The Vivisector
Patrick White1970
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
5 of 6 directions open — nothing denser
More like it
Same cold register, still psychological fiction
- pace0prose0bleak0
The Conservationist
Nadine Gordimer1974
A wealthy white industrialist buys a farm outside Johannesburg. He struggles to maintain control over the land and the people on it.
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Shroud
John Banville2002
An aging scholar with a stolen identity meets a woman who knows his secret. They travel to Turin to confront his past.
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose-1bleak0
The Good Doctor
Damon Galgut2003
A cynical doctor at a decaying South African hospital watches a naive new recruit try to implement reforms. Their friendship is tested by apathy.
pace0·prose-1·bleak0
- pace-1prose0bleak0
Study for Obedience
Sarah Bernstein2023
A woman moves to a remote northern country to care for her brother. The local community grows hostile as she observes them.
pace-1·prose0·bleak0
1 more ↓ ↑
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Milkman
Anna Burns2018
An unnamed 18-year-old girl is stalked by an older paramilitary figure in 1970s Northern Ireland. The prose uses long, circuitous sentences.
cold → tense, still psychological fiction
pace0·prose0·bleak0
To recover
cold → propulsive
- pace+2prose-3bleak-2
The Lost Symbol
Dan Brown2009
Symbologist Robert Langdon follows a trail of Masonic puzzles through Washington D.C. monuments to save his kidnapped mentor.
pace+2·prose-3·bleak-2
- pace+1prose-3bleak-2
Walking Disaster
Jamie McGuire2013
This novel retells the events of 'Beautiful Disaster' from the perspective of Travis Maddox. It follows his college years and obsession with Abby.
pace+1·prose-3·bleak-2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+1prose-3bleak-2
This Man
Jodi Ellen Malpas2013
An interior designer begins an affair with a wealthy client who demands total control over her life and schedule.
cold → tense
pace+1·prose-3·bleak-2
- pace+2prose-3bleak-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-3·bleak-2
- pace+1prose-3bleak-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.
cold → wry
pace+1·prose-3·bleak-2
Faster
- pace+2prose-3bleak-2
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.
cold → playful
pace+2·prose-3·bleak-2
- pace+2prose-2bleak0
Child 44
Tom Rob Smith2008
A Soviet security officer investigates a serial killer in a state that officially claims murder does not exist.
cold → tense
pace+2·prose-2·bleak0
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+2prose-2bleak-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.
cold → sardonic
pace+2·prose-2·bleak-1
- pace+2prose-3bleak-2
The Da Vinci Code
Dan Brown2003
A symbologist and a cryptologist flee the police while solving puzzles hidden in art. They search for a secret regarding the Holy Grail.
cold → propulsive
pace+2·prose-3·bleak-2
- pace+2prose-3bleak-2
The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
cold → wry
pace+2·prose-3·bleak-2
Slower
- pace-1prose0bleak-1
Tinkers
Paul Harding2009
An elderly clock repairman lies dying while his thoughts drift through his father's life as a peddler. The prose focuses on nature and mechanics.
cold → meditative, still psychological fiction
pace-1·prose0·bleak-1
- pace-1prose-1bleak0
February
Lisa Moore2009
A widow in Newfoundland moves between her quiet daily routines and the memory of her husband's death on a sunken oil rig decades earlier.
cold → elegiac, still psychological fiction
pace-1·prose-1·bleak0
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose-1bleak0
The Wilderness
Samantha Harvey2009
An architect with Alzheimer's attempts to reconstruct his life story. The narrative fragments as his memory and sense of time dissolve.
cold → elegiac, still psychological fiction
pace-1·prose-1·bleak0
- pace-1prose0bleak0
Study for Obedience
Sarah Bernstein2023
A woman moves to a remote northern country to care for her brother. The local community grows hostile as she observes them.
Same cold register, still psychological fiction
pace-1·prose0·bleak0
- pace-1prose0bleak-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.
cold → playful
pace-1·prose0·bleak-1
Heavier
- pace0prose-1bleak+1
The Gathering
Anne Enright2007
A woman gathers with her siblings in Dublin for her brother's wake. She reconstructs a childhood trauma to understand his suicide.
cold → elegiac, still psychological fiction
pace0·prose-1·bleak+1
- pace0prose-1bleak+1
No Longer Human
太宰 治2024
A man describes his life through three notebooks, detailing his inability to connect with others and his social alienation.
cold → bleak, still psychological fiction
pace0·prose-1·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose-1bleak+1
The Lighthouse
Alison Moore2012
A recently separated man takes a walking tour of Germany while reflecting on his childhood abandonment and his failing marriage.
cold → bleak, still psychological fiction
pace0·prose-1·bleak+1
- pace0prose-1bleak+1
Schindler's Ark
Thomas Keneally1982
A German businessman uses his factory and connections to protect Jewish prisoners from execution in occupied Poland.
cold → clinical, still biographical fiction
pace0·prose-1·bleak+1
- pace0prose-1bleak+1
The White Hotel
D. M. Thomas1981
A woman's life is told through poems, a Freudian case study, and a narrative. It moves from her sexual fantasies to her death in the Holocaust.
cold → dreamlike, still psychological fiction
pace0·prose-1·bleak+1
