LitQueuelitqueue

After

Stolen

Kelley Armstrong2002

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

1 more ↓

  • The Exorcist

    William Peter Blatty1971

    A famous actress seeks help when her daughter displays violent behavior. Two priests perform a ritual to remove a demonic presence.

    Same tense register, still horror

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

tense → dreamlike

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.

    tense → elegiac, still horror

    pace-1·prose+2·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.

    tense → dreamlike, still horror

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak0

  • 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+2·bleak+1

To recover

3 more ↓

  • How to Marry a Millionaire Vampire

    Kerrelyn Sparks2005

    A vampire who broke a fang kidnaps a dentist who is afraid of blood. She is hiding from the mafia while he needs his smile repaired.

    tense → playful, still urban fantasy

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-2

  • Undead and Unwed

    MaryJanice Davidson2004

    After dying in a car crash, a fashion-obsessed woman wakes up as a vampire. She resists the local undead community's claim that she is their queen.

    tense → playful, still urban fantasy

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-2

  • Flip This Zombie

    Jesse Petersen2011

    A married couple runs a zombie extermination and 'flipping' business. They treat the apocalypse as a series of domestic and financial hurdles.

    tense → playful, still urban fantasy

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-2

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.

    Same tense register, still horror

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

  • 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.

    Same tense register, still horror

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak+1

  • Infected

    Bobby Adair

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

    tense → propulsive, still horror

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak0

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.

    tense → playful

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak-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.

    tense → playful

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak-1

  • 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+2·bleak+1

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.

    tense → elegiac, still horror

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

  • 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.

    tense → elegiac, still horror

    pace0·prose0·bleak+1

  • 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, still horror

    pace0·prose0·bleak+1