LitQueuelitqueue

After

Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter

A.E. Moorat

5 of 6 directions open — nothing to recover from

More like it

1 more ↓

  • Enchanted, Inc.

    Shanna Swendson2005

    A woman who is immune to magic moves to New York and takes a job at a firm that provides magical services to the public.

    Same playful register

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

playful → dreamlike

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    playful → dark

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+3

  • The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner

    James Hogg1824

    A religious fanatic becomes convinced he is predestined for salvation and commits crimes at the behest of a mysterious stranger.

    playful → cold

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+3

  • Ghost Stories

    Henry James2001

    A collection of Victorian tales where the existence of ghosts is often left to the reader's interpretation.

    playful → meditative

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2

Faster

3 more ↓

  • Can You Survive the Zombie Apocalypse?

    Max Brallier2011

    An interactive story where the reader makes choices to navigate a zombie outbreak. Success or death depends on the paths selected.

    Same playful register, still comedy horror

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak+1

  • Johnny Gruesome

    Greg Lamberson2008

    A murdered teenager returns from the grave to kill the classmates who betrayed him. It is a fast-paced slasher story with high gore.

    playful → sardonic, still splatterpunk

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak+1

  • Clickers

    J. F. Gonzalez2000

    Giant carnivorous crabs emerge from the ocean to attack a small Maine town. A group of survivors attempts to escape the escalating gore.

    playful → propulsive, still splatterpunk

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak+1

Slower

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    playful → dreamlike

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak+2

  • 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.

    Same playful register

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak0

  • 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.

    Same playful register

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1

Heavier

playful → bleak, still splatterpunk

3 more ↓

  • The Rising

    Brian Keene2003

    A father travels across an apocalypse where the dead are possessed by malevolent, intelligent demons. The world is ending permanently.

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak+3

  • The Light at the End

    John Skipp2000

    A group of New Yorkers hunts a punk-rock vampire who is killing people in the subway system during the 1980s.

    pace0·prose0·bleak+3

  • Them Or Us

    David Moody2011

    The final survivors of a global plague face a mutated, aggressive subclass of humans. It is a graphic account of total societal collapse.

    pace0·prose0·bleak+3