LitQueuelitqueue

After

Scream for Us

Molly Doyle2021

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

Same tense register

1 more ↓

  • Haunting Adeline

    H.D. Carlton2021

    An author is stalked by a man who breaks into her home and monitors her life. The narrative follows their escalating sexual obsession.

    Same tense register, still dark romance

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

Denser prose

tense → dreamlike

3 more ↓

  • Ghost Stories

    Henry James2001

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

    tense → meditative

    pace-1·prose+3·bleak+1

  • 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.

    pace-1·prose+3·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.

    tense → dark

    pace-1·prose+3·bleak+2

To recover

3 more ↓

  • Rock Me

    Cherrie Lynn2010

    Candace visits her cousin's ex-boyfriend for a tattoo and begins a sexual relationship with him. The story focuses on their physical chemistry.

    tense → tender, still erotica

    pace0·prose0·bleak-1

  • Deep Kiss of Winter

    Kresley Cole2009

    A vampire soldier pursues an ice fey whose skin is lethally cold to others. He seeks a way to claim her as his mate without dying.

    tense → playful

    pace0·prose+1·bleak-1

  • Seducing Cinderella

    Gina L. Maxwell2012

    An orthopedic surgeon asks her brother's best friend, an MMA fighter, to help her become more confident. They enter a physical arrangement.

    tense → playful

    pace0·prose0·bleak-1

Faster

3 more ↓

  • Battle Royale

    Koushun Takami1999

    A class of junior high students is trapped on an island and forced to kill each other until one remains. It follows several students' perspectives.

    tense → propulsive

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak+1

  • Creepers

    David Morrell2005

    Five urban explorers break into a long-abandoned hotel in New Jersey and find themselves trapped with a killer.

    Same tense register

    pace+1·prose0·bleak0

  • Patient Zero

    Jonathan Maberry2009

    A detective joins a secret government task force to stop a terrorist group using a bio-weapon that reanimates the dead. It is an action thriller.

    tense → propulsive

    pace+1·prose0·bleak0

Slower

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    tense → playful

    pace-2·prose+3·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.

    tense → elegiac

    pace-2·prose+3·bleak+2

  • Either/Or

    Søren Kierkegaard1992

    A collection of papers presents two life philosophies: the aesthetic pursuit of pleasure and the ethical commitment to duty.

    tense → meditative

    pace-2·prose+3·bleak0

Heavier

tense → elegiac

3 more ↓

  • Hamlet

    William Shakespeare

    A prince of Denmark is told by a ghost that his uncle killed his father. He feigns madness while deciding whether to take revenge.

    tense → meditative

    pace-1·prose+3·bleak+2

  • The Terror

    Dan Simmons2007

    Two British ships searching for the Northwest Passage in 1845 become trapped in ice and are hunted by a creature.

    tense → bleak

    pace-1·prose+2·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.

    tense → cold

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+2