The Association

The Night Flier

Stephen King2016

A cynical tabloid reporter tracks a serial killer who travels by private plane. He eventually discovers the pilot is not human.

pace0·prose0·bleak0

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

The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek

Rhett McLaughlin2019

Two friends investigate a reform school in 1990s North Carolina after a classmate disappears. It is a mystery involving local conspiracies.

sardonic → playful

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Rich People Problems

Kevin Kwan2017

An extended family gathers in Singapore as their matriarch lies dying. They scheme against one another to inherit a massive estate.

pace0·prose-1·bleak-2

Wielding a Red Sword

Piers Anthony1986

An Indian prince avoids an arranged marriage by accepting the supernatural office of War. He wields a sword that draws him into a conflict in Hell.

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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.

sardonic → tense, 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.

sardonic → propulsive, still horror

pace+1·prose-1·bleak0

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.

sardonic → propulsive, still horror

pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

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 Pale King

David Foster Wallace2011

An unfinished, experimental novel about the mundane daily operations of an IRS processing center in 1985 Illinois.

Same sardonic register, still satire

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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.

sardonic → 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.

sardonic → 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.

sardonic → cold, still horror

pace0·prose0·bleak+1