Consumed by Deception

King

T.M. Frazier2015

A biker with a violent past finds an amnesiac woman on the street and takes her home. He keeps her captive while trying to uncover her identity.

pace0·prose0·bleak0

Madame Bovary

Gustave Flaubert1856

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

Same tense register

pace0·prose+3·bleak+1

Paradise Logic

Sophie Kemp2025

A young woman follows advice from a magazine to become a perfect partner. Her quest involves surreal jobs and messages from the beyond.

tense → epic

pace0·prose+3·bleak+1

Wuthering Heights

Emily Brontë1846

Two families on the Yorkshire moors deal with the arrival and subsequent revenge of an adopted orphan. The story is told through nested narrators.

tense → bleak

pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2

She Went All the Way

Meg Cabot2002

A screenwriter and an actor survive a helicopter crash in the Alaskan wilderness and must hike to safety while being pursued by a killer.

tense → playful, still romantic suspense

pace0·prose0·bleak-1

Talk Me Down

Victoria Dahl2009

An erotica author returns to her small hometown and falls for the local police chief while being targeted by a stalker.

tense → playful, still romantic suspense

pace0·prose+1·bleak-1

Mo' Meta Blues

Ahmir Thompson2013

Questlove recounts his life through the records he heard and the music he made. It is a series of essays on hip-hop history and personal memory.

tense → playful

pace0·prose+1·bleak-1

Breaking Point

Pamela Clare2011

A journalist and a deputy sheriff are targeted by a drug cartel in the Colorado mountains. They must survive the wilderness while being hunted.

Same tense register, still romantic suspense

pace+1·prose+1·bleak0

I Dare You

Shantel Tessier2018

A high school student moves to a new town and becomes the target of a cruel secret society. She must complete dangerous dares to survive.

Same tense register, still dark romance

pace+1·prose0·bleak+1

Ruthless People

J.J. McAvoy2017

The heirs to the Irish and Italian mobs marry to end a war. They compete for dominance while eliminating shared enemies.

tense → propulsive, still romantic suspense

pace+1·prose+1·bleak0

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.

tense → playful

pace-2·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.

tense → elegiac

pace-2·prose+3·bleak+2

Either/Or

Søren Kierkegaard1992

A collection of papers presents two life philosophies: the aesthetic pursuit of pleasure and the ethical commitment to duty.

tense → meditative

pace-2·prose+3·bleak0

Wuthering Heights

Emily Brontë1846

Two families on the Yorkshire moors deal with the arrival and subsequent revenge of an adopted orphan. The story is told through nested narrators.

tense → bleak

pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2

A Farewell to Arms

Ernest Hemingway1929

An American ambulance driver and a British nurse conduct a love affair during the Italian campaign of World War I.

tense → elegiac

pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2

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.

tense → elegiac

pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2