After
The Carrow Haunt
Darcy Coates2018
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
6 of 6 directions open
More like it
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The Amityville Horror
Jay Anson1977
A family moves into a house where a mass murder occurred and experiences 28 days of escalating paranormal disturbances.
Same tense register, still horror
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
The Invited
Jennifer McMahon1920
A couple builds a house on land where a woman was lynched in 1924. As they build, the wife becomes obsessed with the property's violent history.
Same tense register, still horror
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Ghosts
Noel Hynd1995
An investigator travels to a remote island to document paranormal activity in a house rumored to be haunted by a violent past.
Same tense register, still horror
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak+1
Hell House
Richard Matheson1971
Four people stay in a notorious mansion to prove or disprove the existence of an afterlife. They face violent physical and sexual phenomena.
Same tense register, still haunted house
pace0·prose0·bleak+1
1 more ↓ ↑
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The Whispering Dead
Darcy Coates2021
A woman with amnesia hides in a graveyard and discovers she can see ghosts. She helps a restless spirit while running from a mysterious pursuer.
Same tense register, still horror
pace0·prose0·bleak0
Denser prose
- pace-1prose+2bleak+1
House of Leaves
Mark Z. Danielewski1998
A man finds a door in his house that should not exist. The story is told through layers of academic footnotes and a decaying manuscript.
tense → dreamlike, still haunted house
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+2bleak+1
Ambergris
Jeff VanderMeer2020
This collection follows the history of a city built atop a subterranean race. It uses fake histories, journals, and detective noir.
tense → dreamlike
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
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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+2
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Edgar Allen Poe (Black Cat / Cask of Amontillado / Fall of the House of Usher / Gold Bug / Metzengerstein / Murders in the Rue Morgue / Narrative of Arthur Gordn Pym / Never Bet the Devil Your Head / Pit and the Pendulum / Purloined Letter / Tell-Tale Heart)
Edgar Allan Poe2005
A collection of gothic stories and a novel. Narrators deal with psychological collapse, premature burial, and macabre crimes.
tense → bleak
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2
- pace-1prose+2bleak+2
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+2
To recover
- pace+1prose-1bleak-1
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.
tense → sardonic, still horror
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace0prose-1bleak-1
Craven Manor
Darcy Coates2018
A man takes a job as a groundskeeper at a decaying estate. He finds a crypt, a strange employer, and evidence that the house is not empty.
Same tense register, still haunted house
pace0·prose-1·bleak-1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+1prose-1bleak-1
The Kaiju Preservation Society
John Scalzi2022
A food delivery driver joins a secret organization that travels to an alternate Earth to care for massive, dinosaur-like creatures.
tense → playful
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace0prose-1bleak-1
Smokin' Seventeen
Janet Evanovich2011
A bounty hunter investigates bodies found in her boss's lot while choosing between three suitors. The story follows her daily mishaps in New Jersey.
tense → playful
pace0·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace0prose-1bleak-1
Miss Butterworth and the Mad Baron
Julia Quinn2022
A graphic novel adaptation of a fictional melodrama where an orphan flees a cruel aunt and encounters a man in a remote castle.
tense → playful
pace0·prose-1·bleak-1
Faster
- pace+1prose-1bleak0
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·bleak0
- pace+1prose-1bleak-1
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.
tense → sardonic, still horror
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+1prose-1bleak+2
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+2
- pace+1prose-1bleak+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·bleak+1
- pace+1prose-1bleak0
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.
tense → propulsive, still horror
pace+1·prose-1·bleak0
Slower
- pace-2prose+2bleak+1
Dhalgren
Samuel R. Delany1975
An amnesiac wanderer enters Bellona, a city cut off from the world where time and geography shift. He joins a gang and writes poetry.
tense → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+2bleak-1
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-1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-2prose+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.
tense → playful
pace-2·prose+2·bleak0
- pace-2prose+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.
tense → elegiac
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+2
- pace-2prose+2bleak0
Either/Or
Søren Kierkegaard1992
A collection of papers presents two life philosophies: the aesthetic pursuit of pleasure and the ethical commitment to duty.
tense → meditative
pace-2·prose+2·bleak0
Heavier
- pace+1prose0bleak+2
Desperation
Stephen King1996
A demonic entity possesses a small-town sheriff and begins slaughtering travelers. A young boy who hears God leads the survivors.
tense → bleak, still horror
pace+1·prose0·bleak+2
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3 more ↓ ↑
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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.
tense → elegiac, still horror
pace0·prose+1·bleak+2
- pace0prose0bleak+2
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+2
- pace0prose0bleak+2
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+2
