After
Girls Burn Brighter
Shobha Rao2018
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
5 of 6 directions open — nothing heavier
More like it
- pace-1prose0bleak0
A Distant Shore
Caryl Phillips2003
A retired teacher and an African refugee form a quiet bond in a xenophobic English village. Their past traumas emerge through alternating stories.
Same bleak register, still literary fiction
pace-1·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
An Untamed State
Roxane Gay2014
A woman is kidnapped for ransom in front of her family in Haiti and endures weeks of brutal captivity. The narrative focuses on her survival.
Same bleak register, still literary fiction
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak-1
There There
Tommy Orange2018
Twelve Native American characters travel to the Big Oakland Powwow. Their separate lives converge into a single violent event.
bleak → elegiac, still literary fiction
pace0·prose0·bleak-1
- pace0prose0bleak-1
Nightcrawling
Leila Mottley2022
A teenager in Oakland struggles to support her brother and a neighbor's child. She becomes ensnared in a police corruption scandal.
bleak → tender, still literary fiction
pace0·prose0·bleak-1
1 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose0bleak-1
The Rabbit Hutch
Tess Gunty2022
Residents of a low-income apartment building in Indiana live out their final week before a violent act. It follows an ensemble cast.
bleak → sardonic, still literary fiction
pace0·prose0·bleak-1
Denser prose
- pace-2prose+1bleak0
Translated Accounts
James Kelman2001
Anonymous witnesses describe life under a military regime. The prose uses broken, bureaucratic syntax to mimic a literal translation.
Same bleak register
pace-2·prose+1·bleak0
- pace-2prose+1bleak-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, still literary fiction
pace-2·prose+1·bleak-2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose+1bleak-1
As I Lay Dying
William Faulkner1915
The Bundren family travels by wagon to bury their matriarch. Fifteen different narrators describe the journey as the corpse decomposes.
bleak → sardonic, still literary fiction
pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1
- pace-1prose+1bleak0
Don Quixote
Kathy Acker1986
A woman undergoes an abortion and adopts the persona of Don Quixote to pursue a quest in a fragmented, postmodern landscape.
bleak → sardonic, still quest
pace-1·prose+1·bleak0
- pace-1prose+1bleak-1
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.
bleak → sardonic
pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1
To recover
- pace+1prose-2bleak-3
Ten Big Ones
Janet Evanovich2004
Stephanie Plum witnesses a gang hit and becomes a target herself. She balances the threat with her ongoing romantic indecision.
bleak → playful
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-3
- pace0prose-2bleak-3
Craven Manor
Darcy Coates2018
A man takes a job as a groundskeeper at a decaying estate. He finds a crypt, a strange employer, and evidence that the house is not empty.
bleak → tense
pace0·prose-2·bleak-3
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+1prose-2bleak-3
The Kaiju Preservation Society
John Scalzi2022
A food delivery driver joins a secret organization that travels to an alternate Earth to care for massive, dinosaur-like creatures.
bleak → playful
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-3
- pace0prose-2bleak-3
Fifty Shades of Grey
E.L. James2000
A college student enters a sexual contract with a wealthy businessman. The story focuses on their power dynamics and BDSM encounters.
bleak → earnest
pace0·prose-2·bleak-3
- pace+1prose-2bleak-3
The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
bleak → wry
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-3
Faster
- pace+1prose-2bleak-3
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.
bleak → playful
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-3
- pace+1prose-1bleak-1
Child 44
Tom Rob Smith2008
A Soviet security officer investigates a serial killer in a state that officially claims murder does not exist.
bleak → tense
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+1prose-1bleak-2
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.
bleak → sardonic
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2
- pace+1prose-2bleak-3
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.
bleak → propulsive
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-3
- pace+1prose-2bleak-3
The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
bleak → wry
pace+1·prose-2·bleak-3
Slower
- pace-2prose0bleak-1
Blackouts
Justin Torres2023
A young man cares for a dying elder in a medical facility. They use a 1930s study on homosexuality to reconstruct their personal histories.
bleak → elegiac, still literary fiction
pace-2·prose0·bleak-1
- pace-2prose+1bleak-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, still literary fiction
pace-2·prose+1·bleak-2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-2prose0bleak-2
Orbital
Samantha Harvey2024
Six astronauts orbit Earth over twenty-four hours. The narrative focuses on their routine tasks and observations of the planet below.
bleak → meditative, still literary fiction
pace-2·prose0·bleak-2
- pace-2prose0bleak-2
The Waters of Kronos
Conrad Richter1960
An elderly man travels back in time to his childhood Pennsylvania town, which in his present day is submerged beneath a reservoir.
bleak → elegiac, still literary fiction
pace-2·prose0·bleak-2
- pace-2prose0bleak0
The story of a brief marriage
Anuk Arudpragasam2016
Two refugees enter an arranged marriage in a Sri Lankan camp during the final days of the civil war. It focuses on the physical details of survival.
bleak → meditative, still literary fiction
pace-2·prose0·bleak0
