Sunglasses After Dark

Kill City Blues

Richard Kadrey2013

Sandman Slim hunts for a weapon in a supernatural mall filled with monsters and gods. It is a noir story set in a gritty Los Angeles.

Same sardonic register, still urban fantasy

pace0·prose0·bleak-1

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.

sardonic → 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.

sardonic → 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.

sardonic → dark

pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

Bitten & Smitten

Michelle Rowen2006

Sarah is accidentally turned into a vampire and must rely on a grumpy, centuries-old vampire to teach her how to survive.

pace0·prose-1·bleak-2

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.

Same sardonic register, still urban fantasy

pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

Gentlemen Prefer Succubi

Jill Myles2009

After encounters with a vampire and a fallen angel, a woman gains supernatural powers and a high libido. She is caught in a war between factions.

pace0·prose-1·bleak-2

The Rising

Brian Keene2003

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

sardonic → bleak, still splatterpunk

pace+1·prose-1·bleak+1

Shattered

Dean Koontz1973

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

sardonic → tense, still horror

pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

Flesh

Richard Laymon1987

An eyeless, slug-like parasite enters human hosts and forces them to commit acts of extreme violence and sexual assault.

Same sardonic register, still splatterpunk

pace+1·prose-1·bleak0

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.

sardonic → 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.

sardonic → 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.

sardonic → elegiac

pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1

The Woods Are Dark

Richard Laymon1981

A family and a group of hikers are captured by a clan of cannibalistic mutants in the woods. They must fight to escape before being eaten.

sardonic → bleak, still splatterpunk

pace0·prose0·bleak+1

Desperation

Stephen King1996

A demonic entity possesses a small-town sheriff and begins slaughtering travelers. A young boy who hears God leads the survivors.

sardonic → bleak, still horror

pace+1·prose0·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.

sardonic → elegiac, still horror

pace0·prose0·bleak+1