LitQueuelitqueue

After

Aftertime

Sophie Littlefield2011

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

Same bleak register, still horror

1 more ↓

  • Blood Crazy

    Simon Clark1995

    Every adult on Earth suddenly turns into a mindless killer who targets anyone under eighteen. A group of teenagers fights to survive.

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

bleak → dreamlike

3 more ↓

  • Android Karenina

    Лев Толстой2010

    The text of Tolstoy's classic is modified to include robots, cyborgs, and space travel in a 19th-century Russian setting.

    bleak → elegiac, still horror

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

  • Racconti [55 stories]

    Edgar Allan Poe2011

    A collection of 55 stories featuring unreliable narrators and gothic settings. Themes include obsession, premature burial, and the macabre.

    bleak → dreamlike, still horror

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak0

  • Gormenghast

    Mervyn Peake1950

    A young heir and a social climber navigate the rigid rituals of a decaying, labyrinthine castle. The prose is dense and descriptive.

    bleak → dark

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

To recover

3 more ↓

  • Smokin' Seventeen

    Janet Evanovich2011

    A bounty hunter investigates bodies found in her boss's lot while choosing between three suitors. The story follows her daily mishaps in New Jersey.

    bleak → playful

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-2

  • The Martian

    Andy Weir2011

    A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.

    bleak → wry

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

  • The Comfort Book

    Matt Haig2021

    A collection of short reflections, lists, and anecdotes intended to provide mental support. It is a non-linear book of philosophy and memoir.

    bleak → warm

    pace-1·prose-1·bleak-2

Faster

3 more ↓

  • The remaining

    D. J Molles2014

    A soldier emerges from a bunker into a world where a bacterium has turned most people into predators. He attempts to find survivors.

    bleak → tense, still post-apocalyptic

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak0

  • The Walking Dead, Book Six

    Robert Kirkman2010

    Survivors of a zombie plague attempt to build a community in a fortified neighborhood. The focus is on group politics and interpersonal conflict.

    Same bleak register, still post-apocalyptic

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak0

  • 28 Days Later

    Alex Garland2002

    A man wakes from a coma to find London deserted and overrun by humans infected with a rage virus. He joins a small group of survivors.

    Same bleak register, still post-apocalyptic

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak0

Slower

3 more ↓

  • The City of Mirrors

    Justin Cronin2015

    The survivors of a vampire apocalypse face a final confrontation with the original source of the infection.

    bleak → elegiac, still horror

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

  • 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.

    bleak → playful

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak-2

  • 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.

    bleak → playful

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak-1

Heavier

Same bleak register, still horror

3 more ↓

  • The Burning Side

    Sarah Damoff

    bleak → tense, still horror

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak+1

  • Mapping the Interior

    Stephen Graham Jones2017

    A teenager follows a figure resembling his dead father into the hidden spaces of his home. He maps a shifting, dangerous interior.

    bleak → elegiac, still horror

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

  • Flowers in the Attic

    V.C. Andrews1979

    Four children are hidden in an attic for years by their mother and grandmother to secure an inheritance. They face gradual poisoning and abuse.

    bleak → elegiac, still horror

    pace0·prose0·bleak+1