After
2 states
Chetan Bhagat2009
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
5 of 6 directions open — nothing to recover from
More like it
Same playful register, still contemporary romance
- pace0prose0bleak0
King of Pride
Ana Huang2023
A buttoned-up billionaire heir falls for an impulsive bartender while trying to secure a CEO position. They navigate a forbidden workplace romance.
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Manhunting
Jennifer Crusie1994
A businesswoman visits a resort with a plan to find a wealthy husband. She instead clashes with a man who has abandoned his corporate career.
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Smitten
Janet Evanovich1990
A single mother with no experience bluffs her way into a construction job. She and her new boss develop a relationship while working together.
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Animal Magnetism
Jill Shalvis2011
A kennel owner rear-ends a pilot's truck while transporting several animals. They begin a relationship in a small Idaho town.
pace0·prose0·bleak0
1 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose0bleak0
Jude's Law
Lori Foster2006
A former Hollywood actor moves to Ohio and pursues a local businesswoman who thinks his romantic advances are a joke.
pace0·prose0·bleak0
Denser prose
playful → dreamlike
- pace-1prose+3bleak+1
In the Night Garden
Catherynne M. Valente2006
A girl with tattooed eyelids tells a prince interlocking stories of monsters and folklore. The narrative is a series of nested myths.
pace-1·prose+3·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+3bleak+2
The Claw of the Conciliator
Gene Wolfe1981
An exiled torturer travels with a gem that can heal the dead. The narrative uses archaic vocabulary and an unreliable perspective.
pace-1·prose+3·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose+3bleak+1
Ficciones
Jorge Luis Borges1945
A collection of short stories exploring philosophical paradoxes, infinite libraries, and imaginary encyclopedias.
playful → meditative
pace-1·prose+3·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+3bleak0
At Swim-Two-Birds
Flann O'Brien1939
A student writes a story about a man whose own characters rebel and plot against him. It incorporates Irish myth and multiple layers of fiction.
Same playful register
pace-1·prose+3·bleak0
- pace-2prose+3bleak+1
Love & Sleep
John Crowley1994
Pierce Moffett researches the history of magic while living in a small town. The narrative shifts between his life and the Renaissance.
playful → meditative
pace-2·prose+3·bleak+1
Faster
- pace+1prose+1bleak+2
The Mist
Stephen King1980
A group of townspeople is trapped in a grocery store by a thick mist containing lethal monsters while social order collapses inside.
playful → tense
pace+1·prose+1·bleak+2
- pace+1prose+1bleak+2
Changes
Jim Butcher2010
A wizard discovers he has a daughter who has been kidnapped by vampires. He must race against time and sacrifice his principles to save her.
playful → propulsive
pace+1·prose+1·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+1prose+1bleak+2
Promise of Blood
Brian McClellan2013
A Field Marshal stages a bloody coup against his king and must defend the new government using soldiers who gain magic powers from gunpowder.
playful → propulsive
pace+1·prose+1·bleak+2
- pace+1prose+1bleak+1
A Memory of Light
Robert Jordan2013
The final volume of a long-running series where various nations and magical users unite for a final battle against an ancient evil.
playful → earnest
pace+1·prose+1·bleak+1
- pace+1prose+1bleak+1
Whalefall
Daniel Kraus2023
A diver searching for his father's remains is swallowed by a sperm whale. He has one hour of oxygen to find a way out of the animal's stomach.
playful → tense
pace+1·prose+1·bleak+1
Slower
- pace-2prose+3bleak+1
Love & Sleep
John Crowley1994
Pierce Moffett researches the history of magic while living in a small town. The narrative shifts between his life and the Renaissance.
playful → meditative
pace-2·prose+3·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+3bleak+2
Boneland
Alan Garner2012
An adult Colin searches for his lost sister while an ancient shaman performs rituals in the same landscape. The two timelines mirror one another.
playful → elegiac
pace-2·prose+3·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-2prose+3bleak+1
The Habitation of the Blessed
Catherynne M. Valente2010
A priest finds the lost kingdom of Prester John. The story is told through three nested layers of journals, myths, and historical accounts.
playful → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+3·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+3bleak+1
Unfinished Tales
J.R.R. Tolkien1980
A collection of incomplete narratives and essays that expand the history, geography, and lore of Middle-earth.
playful → meditative
pace-2·prose+3·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+3bleak+1
Moonwise
Greer Gilman1991
Two women are pulled into a world created by their own folk-tales. The narrative uses dense, archaic language to describe a shifting landscape.
playful → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+3·bleak+1
Heavier
- pace0prose+2bleak+3
The Fifth Season
N. K. Jemisin2015
A mother searches for her daughter across a continent undergoing a tectonic apocalypse. Some chapters address the reader in the second person.
playful → bleak
pace0·prose+2·bleak+3
- pace0prose+1bleak+3
Pet Sematary
Stephen King1983
A family moves to Maine and discovers a burial ground that can return the dead to life. They use it, and the consequences are absolute.
playful → tense
pace0·prose+1·bleak+3
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose+1bleak+3
The Poppy War
R.F. Kuang2018
A war orphan enters a military academy and discovers shamanic powers. She leads a unit into a total war inspired by 20th-century Chinese history.
playful → bleak
pace0·prose+1·bleak+3
- pace0prose+2bleak+3
The Traitor Baru Cormorant
Seth Dickinson2015
An accountant infiltrates the empire that conquered her home to destroy it from within. She uses economics and politics as her primary weapons.
playful → cold
pace0·prose+2·bleak+3
- pace0prose+2bleak+3
Song of Kali
Dan Simmons1985
An American poet travels to Calcutta to find a manuscript by a dead writer. He encounters a cult that worships the goddess of destruction.
playful → bleak
pace0·prose+2·bleak+3
