After
The Girl from Montana
Grace Livingston Hill2006
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
5 of 6 directions open — nothing to recover from
More like it
- pace0prose0bleak0
Head of the house
Grace Livingston Hill1940
After their parents die, Jennifer struggles to keep her five siblings together. They deal with difficult relatives and a mysterious guardian.
Same earnest register, still christian fiction
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak+1
Eyes of Silver, Eyes of Gold
Ellen O'Connell2010
A social outcast and a rancher's biracial son are forced into marriage after a violent encounter. They build a life on a Colorado ranch in 1885.
Same earnest register, still western
pace0·prose0·bleak+1
- pace0prose0bleak+1
Waiting for Summers Return
Kim Vogel Sawyer2006
A widow takes a teaching job in a Kansas Mennonite community to stay near her family's graves. She enters a marriage of convenience with a widower.
Same earnest register, still christian fiction
pace0·prose0·bleak+1
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Gabriel's Inferno
Sylvain Reynard2011
A Dante professor begins a relationship with his graduate student. He struggles with his past while she navigates his academic authority.
Same earnest register
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1 more ↓ ↑
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The Valley of Horses
Jean M. Auel1899
A woman lives alone in a valley after being exiled from her tribe. She tames a horse and eventually meets a man from her own ethnic group.
Same earnest register
pace0·prose0·bleak0
Denser prose
- pace0prose+2bleak+1
Middlemarch
George Eliot1800
Interconnected families in a 1830s English town navigate marriage, debt, and political change. The focus is on social realism and internal life.
earnest → elegiac
pace0·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace+1prose+2bleak+2
Lolita
Vladimir Nabokov
A middle-aged professor documents his obsession with his twelve-year-old stepdaughter. He uses complex prose to justify his crimes.
earnest → tense
pace+1·prose+2·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
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Madame Bovary
Gustave Flaubert1856
A doctor's wife in provincial France seeks escape from her mundane life through expensive tastes and extramarital affairs.
earnest → tense
pace+1·prose+2·bleak+2
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Paradise Logic
Sophie Kemp2025
A young woman follows advice from a magazine to become a perfect partner. Her quest involves surreal jobs and messages from the beyond.
earnest → epic
pace+1·prose+2·bleak+2
- pace0prose+1bleak+1
Mad Mabel
Sally Hepworth2025
An eighty-one-year-old woman with a history of killing people tries to hide her past when a curious young girl moves into the neighborhood.
earnest → dark
pace0·prose+1·bleak+1
Faster
earnest → propulsive
- pace+2prose-1bleak+1
Quantum Radio
A.G. Riddle2023
A scientist at CERN discovers a signal from a parallel universe. He must flee a conspiracy while exploring the implications of the data.
pace+2·prose-1·bleak+1
- pace+2prose-1bleak+1
Paper Princess
Erin Watt2016
An orphaned girl is taken in by a wealthy family with five hostile sons. She must navigate high school bullying and mansion politics.
pace+2·prose-1·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
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Savage Prince
Meghan March2018
A powerful man in the New Orleans underworld becomes obsessed with a woman and pursues her despite the danger of his lifestyle.
pace+2·prose-1·bleak+1
- pace+2prose-1bleak0
The Professional: Part 2 (The Game Maker, #1b)
Kresley Cole
A Russian enforcer continues his pursuit of a graduate student across Europe. The focus is on their sexual power dynamic and his mafia duties.
earnest → tense
pace+2·prose-1·bleak0
- pace+2prose-1bleak+1
Victory at Prescott High
C.M. Stunich
A high school girl seeks revenge against the boys who bullied her while navigating a complex relationship with all of them at once.
pace+2·prose-1·bleak+1
Slower
- pace-1prose+2bleak+2
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.
earnest → dreamlike
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2
- pace-1prose+2bleak0
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.
earnest → playful
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3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose+2bleak+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.
earnest → playful
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+2bleak+3
Absalom, Absalom!
William Faulkner1936
The rise and fall of Thomas Sutpen is recounted through multiple, conflicting memories. The prose uses extremely long, complex sentences.
earnest → elegiac
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+3
- pace-1prose+2bleak+1
Either/Or
Søren Kierkegaard1992
A collection of papers presents two life philosophies: the aesthetic pursuit of pleasure and the ethical commitment to duty.
earnest → meditative
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
Heavier
- pace0prose+1bleak+3
Brokeback Mountain
Annie Proulx1997
Two ranch hands begin a secret sexual and emotional relationship in 1963 Wyoming. The story follows their occasional meetings over twenty years.
earnest → elegiac, still western
pace0·prose+1·bleak+3
- pace0prose+1bleak+3
Wuthering Heights
Emily Brontë1846
Two families on the Yorkshire moors deal with the arrival and subsequent revenge of an adopted orphan. The story is told through nested narrators.
earnest → bleak
pace0·prose+1·bleak+3
3 more ↓ ↑
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A Farewell to Arms
Ernest Hemingway1929
An American ambulance driver and a British nurse conduct a love affair during the Italian campaign of World War I.
earnest → elegiac
pace0·prose0·bleak+3
- pace0prose+1bleak+3
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Thomas Hardy
A country girl is sent to claim kinship with wealthy relatives. Her life is derailed by a sequence of social betrayals and rigid moral standards.
earnest → elegiac
pace0·prose+1·bleak+3
- pace+1prose0bleak+3
Bright Side
Kim Holden2014
An optimistic college student moves to Minnesota for a fresh start while hiding a terminal diagnosis from her best friend.
earnest → tender
pace+1·prose0·bleak+3
