The Diamond Eye

The Phoenix Crown

Kate Quinn2024

Four women are linked by a rare tiara during the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. They later reunite in Paris to take down a con man.

Same propulsive register, still historical fiction

pace0·prose0·bleak0

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.

Same propulsive register, still historical fiction

pace0·prose+2·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.

propulsive → elegiac, still historical fiction

pace-2·prose+2·bleak+2

Beloved

Toni Morrison1987

A mother in post-Civil War Ohio is haunted by the ghost of the daughter she killed to spare from slavery. The prose is dense and non-linear.

propulsive → elegiac, still historical fiction

pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

Warrior Rising

P.C. Cast2008

Goddesses transport a modern woman to ancient Troy to seduce and distract Achilles. It is a lighthearted fish-out-of-water romance.

pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

Royally Screwed

Emma Chase2016

A crown prince visiting Manhattan pursues a bakery worker who threw a pie at him. The story follows their class-clash courtship.

pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

Untamed

Glennon Doyle2020

A woman recounts leaving her marriage and rebuilding her life after falling in love with another woman. It is a series of personal manifestos.

propulsive → earnest

pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

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.

propulsive → sardonic

pace+1·prose0·bleak0

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.

Same propulsive register

pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

The Martian

Andy Weir2011

A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.

propulsive → wry

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.

propulsive → playful

pace-2·prose+2·bleak0

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.

propulsive → clinical

pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1

Translated Accounts

James Kelman2001

Anonymous witnesses describe life under a military regime. The prose uses broken, bureaucratic syntax to mimic a literal translation.

propulsive → bleak

pace-2·prose+2·bleak+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.

propulsive → bleak, still historical fiction

pace-1·prose+1·bleak+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.

propulsive → meditative, still historical fiction

pace-1·prose+1·bleak+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.

propulsive → elegiac, still historical fiction

pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2