Foe

Beautiful lies

Lisa Unger2006

A woman receives a mysterious package that reveals her parents are not who they claim to be, sparking a search for her true identity.

Same tense register, still psychological thriller

pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

Star Maker

Olaf Stapledon1937

A narrator travels through space and time to observe the birth and death of civilizations across the universe.

tense → elegiac, still speculative fiction

pace0·prose+1·bleak0

VAS

Steve Tomasula2002

A man considers a vasectomy while the book uses diagrams and varied typography to explore the history of eugenics and biotechnology.

tense → clinical

pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

Too Like the Lightning

Ada Palmer2016

In a 25th-century utopia, a convict narrates the discovery of a boy who can perform miracles. The prose uses 18th-century styles and gender terms.

tense → sardonic, still unreliable narrator

pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

Mile High

Liz Tomforde2023

A professional hockey player and a flight attendant clash on the team's private plane during a season-long road trip.

pace0·prose-2·bleak-2

Behind the Net

Stephanie Archer2024

A former musician becomes the live-in assistant for a professional hockey goalie she knew in high school.

pace0·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.

pace0·prose-2·bleak-2

Never Lie

Freida McFadden2022

A couple trapped in a blizzard at a missing psychiatrist's estate find hidden tapes of her sessions. The story alternates between past and present.

tense → propulsive, still psychological thriller

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

All Systems Red

Martha Wells2017

A self-aware security android hacks its own governor module to watch soap operas while protecting a team of scientists on a distant planet.

tense → wry

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

Verity

Colleen Hoover2018

A ghostwriter moves into a secluded estate to finish a series for an injured author and finds a hidden, disturbing autobiography.

Same tense register, still psychological thriller

pace+1·prose-2·bleak0

Beelzebub's tales to his grandson

Georges Ivanovitch Gurdjieff1950

An extraterrestrial being explains the history and strange behaviors of humanity to his grandson during a long space voyage.

tense → meditative

pace-2·prose+1·bleak-1

After London

Richard Jefferies1885

Nature reclaims England after an unspecified catastrophe destroys civilization. A young man explores the toxic swamps that were once London.

tense → elegiac, still speculative fiction

pace-2·prose0·bleak0

News from nowhere, or, An epoch of rest, being some chapters from a utopian romance

William Morris1890

A Victorian man wakes up in the year 2102. He explores a socialist agrarian society where private property and money have been abolished.

tense → meditative, still speculative fiction

pace-2·prose0·bleak-2

The Machine

James Smythe2013

A woman uses a machine to rebuild her husband’s lost memories, but the restored personality becomes increasingly dangerous.

tense → bleak, still psychological thriller

pace-1·prose-1·bleak+1

The Birth of the People's Republic of Antarctica

John Batchelor1983

A man born in Sweden travels south as Europe collapses into war. He eventually leads a group of refugees to found a new society in Antarctica.

tense → bleak, still speculative fiction

pace-1·prose0·bleak+1

Hater

David Moody2006

A sudden epidemic causes ordinary people to commit extreme acts of violence against others. A father tries to protect his family as society collapses.

tense → bleak, still psychological thriller

pace0·prose-1·bleak+1