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After

A Tale of Two Cities

Charles Dickens1800

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More like it

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  • Straight from the hip

    Susan Mallery2009

    After an explosion leaves her partially blind, Izzy attends a survival camp. She trains with an instructor who is hiding his true motivations.

    hopeful → warm

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • Lolita

    Vladimir Nabokov

    A middle-aged professor documents his obsession with his twelve-year-old stepdaughter. He uses complex prose to justify his crimes.

    hopeful → tense

    pace+1·prose+3·bleak+1

  • Madame Bovary

    Gustave Flaubert1856

    A doctor's wife in provincial France seeks escape from her mundane life through expensive tastes and extramarital affairs.

    hopeful → tense

    pace+1·prose+3·bleak+1

  • Yesteryear

    Gloria Brandt2000

    A troubled woman works at a living history farm and meets a man with a stammer. They navigate their past traumas while living in an 1800s setting.

    hopeful → elegiac, still historical

    pace+1·prose+2·bleak0

To recover

3 more ↓

  • The muses are heard

    Truman Capote1956

    A journalist follows an American theater troupe as they travel to the Soviet Union to perform Porgy and Bess during the Cold War.

    hopeful → wry, still historical

    pace0·prose+2·bleak-1

  • Rendezvous with Rama

    Arthur C. Clarke1973

    A human crew intercepts and explores a giant, hollow alien cylinder passing through the solar system. It is a technical study of the unknown.

    hopeful → clinical

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak-1

  • 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.

    hopeful → playful

    pace+1·prose0·bleak-1

Faster

3 more ↓

  • Hounded

    Kevin Hearne2011

    A two-thousand-year-old Druid lives in modern Arizona and runs an occult bookshop. He must fight a vengeful Irish god who wants his sword.

    hopeful → wry

    pace+2·prose+1·bleak0

  • How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying

    Django Wexler2023

    A woman stuck in a time loop decides to stop trying to save the kingdom and instead attempts to become its villain. She uses past lives to plan.

    hopeful → sardonic

    pace+2·prose+1·bleak0

  • Quantum Radio

    A.G. Riddle2023

    A scientist at CERN discovers a signal from a parallel universe. He must flee a conspiracy while exploring the implications of the data.

    hopeful → propulsive

    pace+2·prose0·bleak0

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.

    hopeful → playful

    pace-1·prose+3·bleak-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.

    hopeful → playful

    pace-1·prose+3·bleak0

  • Absalom, Absalom!

    William Faulkner1936

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

    hopeful → elegiac

    pace-1·prose+3·bleak+2

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • Tess of the D’Urbervilles

    Thomas Hardy

    A country girl is sent to claim kinship with wealthy relatives. Her life is derailed by a sequence of social betrayals and rigid moral standards.

    hopeful → elegiac

    pace0·prose+2·bleak+2

  • Brokeback Mountain

    Annie Proulx1997

    Two ranch hands begin a secret sexual and emotional relationship in 1963 Wyoming. The story follows their occasional meetings over twenty years.

    hopeful → elegiac

    pace0·prose+2·bleak+2

  • Bright Side

    Kim Holden2014

    An optimistic college student moves to Minnesota for a fresh start while hiding a terminal diagnosis from her best friend.

    hopeful → tender

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak+2