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After

Night Eaters

Marjorie M. Liu2022

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

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  • Ghosts

    Noel Hynd1995

    An investigator travels to a remote island to document paranormal activity in a house rumored to be haunted by a violent past.

    wry → tense, still horror

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    wry → elegiac, still horror

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2

  • 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.

    wry → dreamlike, still horror

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

  • 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.

    wry → dark

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2

To recover

3 more ↓

  • Secrets

    Fern Michaels2022

    Siblings who restore antiques find a locked diary and a carnival flyer in a mysterious steamer chest. They work to find the owner.

    wry → warm

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

  • 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.

    wry → sardonic, still horror

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

  • Night Play

    Sherrilyn Kenyon2004

    A woman meets a man who is secretly a werewolf being hunted by his own kind. He must protect her while they navigate a fated connection.

    wry → playful, still urban fantasy

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

Faster

3 more ↓

  • Shattered

    Dean Koontz1973

    A man and his future stepson drive across America while being stalked by the woman's vengeful ex-husband.

    wry → tense, still horror

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak0

  • 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.

    wry → tense, still horror

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak+2

  • Infected

    Bobby Adair

    A slow-acting virus turns the population into aggressive predators. The story follows a survivor navigating the initial societal collapse.

    wry → propulsive, still horror

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak+1

Slower

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    wry → playful

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak-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·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.

    wry → elegiac

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak+2

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • Mapping the Interior

    Stephen Graham Jones2017

    A teenager follows a figure resembling his dead father into the hidden spaces of his home. He maps a shifting, dangerous interior.

    wry → elegiac, still horror

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+2

  • Flowers in the Attic

    V.C. Andrews1979

    Four children are hidden in an attic for years by their mother and grandmother to secure an inheritance. They face gradual poisoning and abuse.

    wry → elegiac, still horror

    pace0·prose0·bleak+2

  • 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.

    wry → cold, still horror

    pace0·prose0·bleak+2