LitQueuelitqueue

After

Tales (Assignation / Black Cat / Cask of Amontillado / Descent Into the Maelstrom / Fall of the House of Usher / Gold Bug / Man in the Crowd / Manuscript Found in a Bottle / Masque of the Red Death / Murders in the Rue Morgue / Mystery of Marie Roget / Pit and the Pendulum / Purloined Letter / Telltale Heart / William Wilson)

Edgar Allan Poe1901

5 of 6 directions open — nothing heavier

More like it

1 more ↓

  • Monster

    Dave Zeltserman2012

    A man executed for a crime he did not commit is resurrected as a monster. He hunts Victor Frankenstein and the Marquis de Sade for revenge.

    Same bleak register, still gothic

    pace0·prose-1·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • Ambergris

    Jeff VanderMeer2020

    This collection follows the history of a city built atop a subterranean race. It uses fake histories, journals, and detective noir.

    bleak → dreamlike, still unreliable narrator

    pace-1·prose+1·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.

    bleak → dark, still gothic

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

  • Ghost Stories

    Henry James2001

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

    bleak → meditative, still unreliable narrator

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1

To recover

3 more ↓

  • The Last Question

    Isaac Asimov2007

    A short story told in seven vignettes spanning billions of years. Humanity asks a supercomputer if the heat death of the universe can be avoided.

    bleak → meditative

    pace0·prose-2·bleak-3

  • 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.

    bleak → sardonic, still horror

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-3

  • Thoughtful

    S.C. Stephens2015

    Kellan Kyle falls for his best friend's girlfriend, Anna. The story retells the events of Thoughtless from Kellan's perspective.

    bleak → earnest

    pace0·prose-2·bleak-3

Faster

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    bleak → tense, still horror

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak0

  • Infected

    Bobby Adair

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

    bleak → propulsive, still horror

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

  • The Undead Day One

    R.R. Haywood

    A supermarket manager attempts to survive the first twenty-four hours of a zombie outbreak in England. The story is told in real-time.

    bleak → propulsive, still horror

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

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.

    bleak → playful

    pace-2·prose+1·bleak-3

  • 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.

    bleak → playful

    pace-2·prose+1·bleak-2

  • Absalom, Absalom!

    William Faulkner1936

    The rise and fall of Thomas Sutpen is recounted through multiple, conflicting memories. The prose uses extremely long, complex sentences.

    bleak → elegiac, still unreliable narrator

    pace-2·prose+1·bleak0