After
Dr. Jekyll en Mr. Hyde, en ander beroemde gruwelverhalen
Robert Louis Stevenson1962
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
6 of 6 directions open
More like it
Same tense register, still gothic
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Selected Short Stories (Assignation / Berenice / Black Cat / Cask of Amontillado / Descent into the Maelstrom / Devil in the Belfry / Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar / Fall of the House of Usher / Gold-Bug / Hop-Frog / Ligeia / Man of the Crowd / Masque of the Red Death / Ms. Found in a Bottle / Murders in the Rue Morgue / Pit and the Pendulum / Purloined Letter / Tell-tale Heart / William Wilson)
Edgar Allan Poe1952
A collection of 19th-century gothic tales focused on psychological collapse, premature burial, and early detective work.
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The Castle of Otranto
Horace Walpole
After his son is crushed by a giant helmet, a prince attempts to secure his lineage while supernatural events plague his castle.
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The Room in the Tower and Other Stories
E. F. Benson2009
A collection of Edwardian ghost stories featuring haunted towers, spectral visitations, and psychological dread.
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American Gothic Tales
Joyce Carol Oates1996
An anthology of short stories spanning the 18th to 20th centuries. It collects canonical works of supernatural and psychological horror.
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1 more ↓ ↑
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The Birds and Other Stories
Daphne du Maurier1963
A collection of stories where nature and the psyche turn hostile. In the title story, birds begin a coordinated, lethal attack on a coastal farm.
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Denser prose
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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.
tense → dreamlike, still gothic
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House of Leaves
Mark Z. Danielewski1998
A man finds a door in his house that should not exist. The story is told through layers of academic footnotes and a decaying manuscript.
tense → dreamlike
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3 more ↓ ↑
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Ambergris
Jeff VanderMeer2020
This collection follows the history of a city built atop a subterranean race. It uses fake histories, journals, and detective noir.
tense → dreamlike
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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.
tense → dark, still gothic
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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.
tense → elegiac, still horror
pace0·prose+1·bleak+1
To recover
tense → playful
- pace+1prose-2bleak-2
On a Pale Horse
Piers Anthony1983
After accidentally killing the personification of Death, a man must take over the office. He navigates the bureaucracy of the afterlife.
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Apprentice to the Villain
Hannah Nicole Maehrer2024
Evie Sage assists an evil overlord while a magical threat endangers their kingdom. The story follows their workplace dynamic and a looming siege.
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3 more ↓ ↑
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Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
Steven D. Levitt
An economist uses data to investigate the incentives behind real-world phenomena like cheating teachers and falling crime rates.
tense → wry
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2
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Grunge
Larry Correia2016
A Marine killed in a bombing is resurrected to hunt supernatural creatures. He joins a private company that kills monsters for government bounties.
tense → sardonic, still horror
pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2

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The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible
A.J. Jacobs
A journalist spends one year attempting to follow every rule and commandment in the Bible as literally as possible.
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2
Faster
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Shattered
Dean Koontz1973
A man and his future stepson drive across America while being stalked by the woman's vengeful ex-husband.
Same tense register, still horror
pace+2·prose-2·bleak-1

- pace+2prose-2bleak-2
Grunge
Larry Correia2016
A Marine killed in a bombing is resurrected to hunt supernatural creatures. He joins a private company that kills monsters for government bounties.
tense → sardonic, still horror
pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2

3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+2prose-2bleak+1
Intercepts
T.J. Payne2020
A worker at a government facility monitors human test subjects driven insane by sensory deprivation. The experiment enters his private life.
Same tense register, still horror
pace+2·prose-2·bleak+1

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Infected
Bobby Adair
A slow-acting virus turns the population into aggressive predators. The story follows a survivor navigating the initial societal collapse.
tense → propulsive, still horror
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The Undead Day One
R.R. Haywood
A supermarket manager attempts to survive the first twenty-four hours of a zombie outbreak in England. The story is told in real-time.
tense → propulsive, still horror
pace+2·prose-2·bleak-1
Slower
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Lady Audley's Secret
Mary Elizabeth Braddon1862
A man returns from Australia to find his friend's wife is a governess with a hidden past. He investigates her identity after his friend disappears.
tense → mysterious, still horror
pace-1·prose-2·bleak-1

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Dhalgren
Samuel R. Delany1975
An amnesiac wanderer enters Bellona, a city cut off from the world where time and geography shift. He joins a gang and writes poetry.
tense → dreamlike
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3 more ↓ ↑
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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.
tense → playful
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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
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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.
tense → elegiac
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Heavier
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The Lottery
Shirley Jackson1983
Villagers gather for an annual ritual in a small town. The story follows the procedural steps of a lottery that ends in a public execution.
tense → cold, still gothic
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The Monk
Matthew Gregory Lewis
A celebrated monk is seduced by a woman in disguise and descends into a cycle of rape, murder, and sorcery. He eventually makes a pact with Satan.
tense → bleak, still gothic
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3 more ↓ ↑
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The House Next Door
Anne Rivers Siddons1978
A couple watches as a newly built house next door causes a series of tragedies for its occupants. The house preys on the flaws of those inside.
tense → dread, still gothic
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The Elementals
Michael McDowell1981
Two families vacation at a coastal estate where one of three houses is slowly being buried by sand and inhabited by a malevolent presence.
tense → dread, still gothic
pace0·prose0·bleak+1

- pace+1prose0bleak+1
Tales (Assignation / Black Cat / Cask of Amontillado / Descent Into the Maelstrom / Fall of the House of Usher / Gold Bug / Man in the Crowd / Manuscript Found in a Bottle / Masque of the Red Death / Murders in the Rue Morgue / Mystery of Marie Roget / Pit and the Pendulum / Purloined Letter / Telltale Heart / William Wilson)
Edgar Allan Poe1901
A collection of short stories featuring macabre deaths, psychological breakdowns, and the first modern detective mysteries.
tense → bleak, still gothic
pace+1·prose0·bleak+1