After
Girl Waits with Gun
Amy Stewart2015
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
5 of 6 directions open — nothing to recover from
More like it
- pace0prose0bleak0
A Curious Beginning
Deanna Raybourn2015
In 1887, a lepidopterist and a reclusive natural historian flee an abductor while investigating her secret lineage.
Same wry register, still historical mystery
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Pirate King
Laurie R. King2011
Mary Russell goes undercover on a silent film set in Morocco to investigate a series of crimes. Real pirates soon seize the production.
Same wry register, still historical mystery
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak+1
The Lost Apothecary
Sarah Penner2021
Two timelines follow an 18th-century apothecary selling poisons to women and a modern historian who discovers her secret in London.
wry → earnest, still historical mystery
pace0·prose0·bleak+1
- pace0prose0bleak0
Children of the storm
Elizabeth Peters2003
In 1919 Egypt, the Emerson family investigates a series of thefts and a mysterious figure. The story balances archaeology with a kidnapping plot.
Same wry register, still historical mystery
pace0·prose0·bleak0
1 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose0bleak0
The rival queens
Fidelis Morgan2001
A countess and her maid hunt for gossip to sell to a tabloid in 1699 London. They witness a decapitation at a lecture and begin an investigation.
Same wry register, still historical mystery
pace0·prose0·bleak0
Denser prose
- pace-1prose+2bleak+2
Gravity's Rainbow
Thomas Pynchon1973
During the end of WWII, an American lieutenant's sexual encounters seem to predict where German V-2 rockets will fall. The narrative is fragmented.
wry → sardonic
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2
- pace0prose+2bleak+3
A Brief History of Seven Killings
Marlon James2014
A large cast of characters recounts the 1976 attempt on Bob Marley's life. The narrative spans decades and moves from Jamaica to New York.
wry → propulsive
pace0·prose+2·bleak+3
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-2prose+2bleak+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.
wry → playful
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+2bleak+3
The Sound and the Fury
William Faulkner1929
The decline of a Southern family told through four perspectives, including a non-linear stream of consciousness from a man with a disability.
wry → elegiac
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+3
- pace-1prose+2bleak+2
Briefing for a Descent into Hell
Doris Lessing1971
A man is found wandering London and placed in a psychiatric ward. The narrative shifts between the hospital and his internal cosmic hallucinations.
wry → dreamlike
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2
Faster
- pace+1prose-1bleak0
The Bootlegger
Clive Cussler2014
In 1920, investigator Isaac Bell pursues rum-runners and discovers a plot involving Bolshevik assassins and government sabotage.
wry → propulsive, still historical mystery
pace+1·prose-1·bleak0
- pace+1prose-1bleak0
Dial A for Aunties
Jesse Q. Sutanto2021
A photographer accidentally kills her blind date. Her mother and aunties help hide the body during a massive luxury wedding.
wry → playful
pace+1·prose-1·bleak0
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+1prose0bleak+2
Child 44
Tom Rob Smith2008
A Soviet security officer investigates a serial killer in a state that officially claims murder does not exist.
wry → tense
pace+1·prose0·bleak+2
- pace+1prose0bleak+1
Candide
Voltaire
A naive young man travels the world while his tutor insists that everything is for the best. He encounters a series of global catastrophes.
wry → sardonic
pace+1·prose0·bleak+1
- pace+1prose-1bleak0
The Da Vinci Code
Dan Brown2003
A symbologist and a cryptologist flee the police while solving puzzles hidden in art. They search for a secret regarding the Holy Grail.
wry → propulsive
pace+1·prose-1·bleak0
Slower
- pace-2prose+2bleak+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.
wry → playful
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+2bleak+3
Absalom, Absalom!
William Faulkner1936
The rise and fall of Thomas Sutpen is recounted through multiple, conflicting memories. The prose uses extremely long, complex sentences.
wry → elegiac
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+3
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-2prose+2bleak+2
Umbrella
Will Self2013
A psychiatrist in 1971 treats a woman who has been catatonic for decades. The prose shifts between eras and consciousnesses without paragraph breaks.
wry → clinical
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+2
- pace-2prose+2bleak+3
Translated Accounts
James Kelman2001
Anonymous witnesses describe life under a military regime. The prose uses broken, bureaucratic syntax to mimic a literal translation.
wry → bleak
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+3
- pace-2prose+1bleak+2
The English Patient
Michael Ondaatje1992
Four people shelter in a ruined Italian villa at the end of WWII. They care for a burned, anonymous man who recounts his past in the desert.
wry → elegiac
pace-2·prose+1·bleak+2
Heavier
wry → bleak
- pace-1prose+2bleak+3
The Road
Cormac McCarthy2006
A father and son walk through a landscape of ash and scavengers toward the coast. They carry only what fits in a shopping cart.
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+3
- pace0prose+1bleak+3
The Underground Railroad
Colson Whitehead2016
Two slaves escape a Georgia plantation via a literal underground train system while being pursued by a slave catcher.
pace0·prose+1·bleak+3
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose+1bleak+3
Oryx and Crake
Margaret Atwood2003
A man survives a genetic apocalypse in a world of engineered creatures. He remembers his past with a scientist and the woman they both loved.
wry → sardonic
pace0·prose+1·bleak+3
- pace-1prose+1bleak+3
A Little Life
Hanya Yanagihara2015
Four friends in New York over thirty years. One of them is being destroyed, and the book does not look away.
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+3
- pace0prose0bleak+3
Slaughterhouse-Five
Kurt Vonnegut1969
Billy Pilgrim becomes unstuck in time, experiencing his life out of order, from his chaplaincy in WWII to his abduction by aliens.
wry → sardonic
pace0·prose0·bleak+3
