After
Tell the Wolves I'm Home
Carol Rifka Brunt2012
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
6 of 6 directions open
More like it
- pace0prose+1bleak0
Reef
Romesh Gunesekera1995
A young houseboy serves a marine biologist in Sri Lanka. He masters the art of cooking while political unrest grows in the background.
Same tender register, still coming-of-age
pace0·prose+1·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee1960
A young girl in the 1930s South watches her father defend a Black man falsely accused of rape. The story follows her loss of innocence.
Same tender register, still coming-of-age
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
In the Unlikely Event
Judy Blume2015
In 1952, three commercial planes crash in a New Jersey town over two months. The story follows an ensemble of residents as they cope with the debris.
tender → earnest, still coming-of-age
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Moloka'i
Alan Brennert2003
A seven-year-old girl is diagnosed with leprosy in 1890s Hawaii. She is exiled to the settlement on Moloka'i, where she lives for the next decades.
Same tender register, still historical fiction
pace0·prose0·bleak0
1 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose0bleak0
The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane
Lisa See2017
A girl in a remote Akha village grows up farming tea before a stranger's arrival and a secret pregnancy change her life's trajectory.
Same tender register, still historical fiction
pace0·prose0·bleak0
Denser prose
- pace0prose+2bleak+1
As I Lay Dying
William Faulkner1915
The Bundren family travels by wagon to bury their matriarch. Fifteen different narrators describe the journey as the corpse decomposes.
tender → sardonic
pace0·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace+1prose+2bleak+2
A Brief History of Seven Killings
Marlon James2014
A large cast of characters recounts the 1976 attempt on Bob Marley's life. The narrative spans decades and moves from Jamaica to New York.
tender → propulsive, still historical fiction
pace+1·prose+2·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose+2bleak+1
Gravity's Rainbow
Thomas Pynchon1973
During the end of WWII, an American lieutenant's sexual encounters seem to predict where German V-2 rockets will fall. The narrative is fragmented.
tender → sardonic, still historical fiction
pace0·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+2bleak0
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.
tender → playful
pace-1·prose+2·bleak0
- pace0prose+2bleak+1
Briefing for a Descent into Hell
Doris Lessing1971
A man is found wandering London and placed in a psychiatric ward. The narrative shifts between the hospital and his internal cosmic hallucinations.
tender → dreamlike
pace0·prose+2·bleak+1
To recover
- pace+1prose-1bleak-1
The Manning Brides
Debbie Macomber2008
Two brothers navigate unconventional paths to marriage. One enters a marriage of convenience for a child, while the other finds love after loss.
tender → warm
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace+1prose-1bleak-1
The Takeover
T.L. Swan
A billionaire attempts to acquire a widow's family company but ends up moving into her home. It follows their power struggle and her three sons.
tender → playful
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+1prose-1bleak-1
To Sir Phillip, With Love
Julia Quinn2003
Eloise Bridgerton travels to meet a widowed baronet she has only known through letters. They consider a marriage of convenience.
tender → warm
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace0prose-1bleak-1
Everything Beautiful in Its Time
Jenna Bush Hager2020
The author reflects on the lives and deaths of her grandparents, including a former President and First Lady. It is a series of personal essays.
tender → warm
pace0·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace0prose-1bleak-1
Love Comes Softly
Janette Oke1979
A widow on the 19th-century frontier enters a marriage of convenience with a widower to survive the winter and care for his daughter.
Same tender register
pace0·prose-1·bleak-1
Faster
- pace+2prose-1bleak-1
Dial A for Aunties
Jesse Q. Sutanto2021
A photographer accidentally kills her blind date. Her mother and aunties help hide the body during a massive luxury wedding.
tender → playful
pace+2·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace+2prose0bleak+1
Child 44
Tom Rob Smith2008
A Soviet security officer investigates a serial killer in a state that officially claims murder does not exist.
tender → tense
pace+2·prose0·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+2prose0bleak0
Candide
Voltaire
A naive young man travels the world while his tutor insists that everything is for the best. He encounters a series of global catastrophes.
tender → sardonic
pace+2·prose0·bleak0
- pace+2prose-1bleak-1
The Da Vinci Code
Dan Brown2003
A symbologist and a cryptologist flee the police while solving puzzles hidden in art. They search for a secret regarding the Holy Grail.
tender → propulsive
pace+2·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace+2prose-1bleak-1
The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
tender → wry
pace+2·prose-1·bleak-1
Slower
tender → elegiac, still historical fiction
- pace-1prose+2bleak+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.
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2
- pace-1prose+1bleak+1
The English Patient
Michael Ondaatje1992
Four people shelter in a ruined Italian villa at the end of WWII. They care for a burned, anonymous man who recounts his past in the desert.
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose+2bleak0
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.
tender → playful
pace-1·prose+2·bleak0
- pace-1prose+2bleak+1
Umbrella
Will Self2013
A psychiatrist in 1971 treats a woman who has been catatonic for decades. The prose shifts between eras and consciousnesses without paragraph breaks.
tender → clinical
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+2bleak+2
Translated Accounts
James Kelman2001
Anonymous witnesses describe life under a military regime. The prose uses broken, bureaucratic syntax to mimic a literal translation.
tender → bleak
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2
Heavier
tender → bleak, still historical fiction
- pace0prose0bleak+2
A Fine Balance
Rohinton Mistry1995
Four people from different castes share a small apartment during the 1975 Indian Emergency. Their lives are upended by state-sanctioned violence.
pace0·prose0·bleak+2
- pace0prose+1bleak+2
The Confessions of Nat Turner
William Styron1967
A fictionalized confession of the leader of an 1831 slave revolt while he awaits execution in a Virginia jail cell.
pace0·prose+1·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose+1bleak+2
The Known World
Edward P. Jones2003
A black man who was once a slave becomes a slave owner in antebellum Virginia. The story follows the fallout on the plantation after his death.
tender → meditative, still historical fiction
pace0·prose+1·bleak+2
- pace0prose+1bleak+2
A Long Long Way
Sebastian Barry2005
A young Irishman joins the British Army to fight in the trenches of World War I while his home country moves toward rebellion.
tender → elegiac, still historical fiction
pace0·prose+1·bleak+2
- pace0prose+1bleak+2
Brotherless Night
V. V. Ganeshananthan2023
A young woman in Sri Lanka tries to study medicine while her brothers join militant groups during the civil war. It covers a decade of conflict.
tender → elegiac, still historical fiction
pace0·prose+1·bleak+2
