After
Theft: A Love Story
Peter Carey2006
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
6 of 6 directions open
More like it
Same sardonic register, still satire
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Nutshell
Ian McEwan2016
A fetus narrates from the womb as his mother and uncle plot to murder his father. He observes their schemes through sound and chemical shifts.
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The Restraint of Beasts
Magnus Mills1998
Three fence-builders travel across England while their accidents result in a series of casual, unacknowledged deaths.
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My Sister, the Serial Killer
Oyinkan Braithwaite2018
A Lagos nurse cleans up the crime scenes left by her beautiful younger sister, who keeps killing her boyfriends in 'self-defense'.
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The Sympathizer
Viet Thanh Nguyen2015
A half-French, half-Vietnamese double agent flees to Los Angeles after the Fall of Saigon. He continues to spy on his fellow refugees.
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1 more ↓ ↑
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Fleishman Is in Trouble
Taffy Brodesser-Akner2019
A recently divorced doctor navigates dating apps while his ex-wife disappears, leaving him with the children. The perspective shifts halfway.
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Denser prose
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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.
Same sardonic register, still satire
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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.
sardonic → elegiac, still unreliable narrator
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3 more ↓ ↑
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The Vivisector
Patrick White1970
A painter uses the people in his life as raw material for his art. He observes their flaws and suffering to translate them onto canvas.
sardonic → cold
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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.
sardonic → propulsive
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The Pale King
David Foster Wallace2011
An unfinished, experimental novel about the mundane daily operations of an IRS processing center in 1985 Illinois.
Same sardonic register, still satire
pace-2·prose+1·bleak0
To recover
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Year zero
Reid, Robert2012
Aliens discover that Earth's music is the best in the galaxy and they owe humanity trillions in copyright fines.
sardonic → playful, still satire
pace0·prose-2·bleak-2
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The Lost Symbol
Dan Brown2009
Symbologist Robert Langdon follows a trail of Masonic puzzles through Washington D.C. monuments to save his kidnapped mentor.
sardonic → propulsive
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2
3 more ↓ ↑
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Redshirts
John Scalzi2012
Low-ranking crew members on a starship realize they are disposable characters in a sci-fi television show. They attempt to escape their fate.
sardonic → playful, still satire
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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.
sardonic → propulsive
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This Man
Jodi Ellen Malpas2013
An interior designer begins an affair with a wealthy client who demands total control over her life and schedule.
sardonic → tense
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Faster
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Child 44
Tom Rob Smith2008
A Soviet security officer investigates a serial killer in a state that officially claims murder does not exist.
sardonic → tense, still noir
pace+1·prose-1·bleak0
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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.
Same sardonic register, still satire
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1
3 more ↓ ↑
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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.
sardonic → playful
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2
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Get Jiro!
Anthony Bourdain2012
In a future Los Angeles, master chefs rule as warlords. A sushi chef who kills rude customers is caught between two warring food factions.
Same sardonic register, still satire
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1
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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.
sardonic → propulsive
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2
Slower
- pace-2prose+1bleak-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.
sardonic → playful
pace-2·prose+1·bleak-1
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Absalom, Absalom!
William Faulkner1936
The rise and fall of Thomas Sutpen is recounted through multiple, conflicting memories. The prose uses extremely long, complex sentences.
sardonic → elegiac, still unreliable narrator
pace-2·prose+1·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
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The Pale King
David Foster Wallace2011
An unfinished, experimental novel about the mundane daily operations of an IRS processing center in 1985 Illinois.
Same sardonic register, still satire
pace-2·prose+1·bleak0
- pace-2prose+1bleak0
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.
sardonic → clinical
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Translated Accounts
James Kelman2001
Anonymous witnesses describe life under a military regime. The prose uses broken, bureaucratic syntax to mimic a literal translation.
sardonic → bleak
pace-2·prose+1·bleak+1
Heavier
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Narcopolis
Jeet Thayil2012
A cast of addicts and dealers frequent an opium den in 1970s Bombay. The narrative follows the city’s transformation over three decades.
sardonic → dreamlike, still noir
pace-1·prose0·bleak+1
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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.
Same sardonic register, still satire
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3 more ↓ ↑
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Dorian
Will Self2002
A modern retelling of Oscar Wilde's novel set in the London drug and art scenes of the 1980s. A video installation ages while the subject does not.
Same sardonic register, still satire
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1
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The Keepers of Truth
Michael Collins2000
A local reporter in a dying Indiana town investigates a murder at the last local factory. He documents the decay of his family and his community.
sardonic → bleak, still noir
pace-1·prose0·bleak+1
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The North Water
Ian McGuire2016
A disgraced surgeon joins a whaling expedition where a psychopathic harpooner commits a murder. The crew becomes trapped in the Arctic ice.
sardonic → cold, still noir
pace0·prose0·bleak+1
