After
The Paris Novel
Ruth Reichl2024
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
5 of 6 directions open — nothing to recover from
More like it
- pace+1prose0bleak0
The Giver of Stars
Jojo Moyes2019
Five women deliver books on horseback in rural Kentucky during the Great Depression. They face local prejudice and harsh terrain to run the library.
Same warm register, still fish out of water
pace+1·prose0·bleak0
- pace+1prose0bleak0
The Guncle
Steven Rowley2021
A former sitcom star takes in his niece and nephew for the summer after a family tragedy, navigating grief through humor and palm springs life.
Same warm register, still fish out of water
pace+1·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
The Keeper of Lost Things
Ruth Hogan2017
A woman inherits a house full of lost objects and tries to return them to their owners. The story follows her and several connected strangers.
Same warm register, still found family
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Other Birds
Sarah Addison Allen2022
A young woman moves into her late mother's apartment on a South Carolina island. She interacts with eccentric neighbors and literal ghosts.
Same warm register, still found family
pace0·prose0·bleak0
1 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose0bleak0
Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop
Hwang Bo-Reum2024
A woman leaves her old life to open a small bookshop in a Seoul neighborhood. The story follows the quiet interactions between her and her customers.
Same warm register, still found family
pace0·prose0·bleak0
Denser prose
- 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.
warm → playful
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace0prose+2bleak+2
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.
warm → sardonic
pace0·prose+2·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose+2bleak+2
To the Lighthouse
Virginia Woolf1927
A family and their guests visit a house in the Hebrides. The narrative follows their internal thoughts over two days separated by ten years.
warm → elegiac
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2
- pace0prose+2bleak+2
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.
warm → sardonic
pace0·prose+2·bleak+2
- pace+1prose+2bleak+3
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.
warm → propulsive
pace+1·prose+2·bleak+3
Faster
- pace+2prose-1bleak0
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.
warm → playful
pace+2·prose-1·bleak0
- pace+2prose0bleak+2
Child 44
Tom Rob Smith2008
A Soviet security officer investigates a serial killer in a state that officially claims murder does not exist.
warm → tense
pace+2·prose0·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+2prose0bleak+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.
warm → sardonic
pace+2·prose0·bleak+1
- pace+2prose-1bleak0
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.
warm → propulsive
pace+2·prose-1·bleak0
- pace+2prose-1bleak0
The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
warm → wry
pace+2·prose-1·bleak0
Slower
- 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.
warm → 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.
warm → elegiac
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+3
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose+2bleak+2
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.
warm → clinical
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2
- pace-1prose+2bleak+3
Translated Accounts
James Kelman2001
Anonymous witnesses describe life under a military regime. The prose uses broken, bureaucratic syntax to mimic a literal translation.
warm → bleak
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+3
- pace-1prose+1bleak+2
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.
warm → elegiac
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2
Heavier
warm → bleak
- pace0prose+2bleak+3
The Road
Cormac McCarthy2006
A father and son walk through a landscape of ash and scavengers toward the coast. They carry only what fits in a shopping cart.
pace0·prose+2·bleak+3
- pace+1prose+1bleak+3
The Underground Railroad
Colson Whitehead2016
Two slaves escape a Georgia plantation via a literal underground train system while being pursued by a slave catcher.
pace+1·prose+1·bleak+3
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+1prose+1bleak+3
Oryx and Crake
Margaret Atwood2003
A man survives a genetic apocalypse in a world of engineered creatures. He remembers his past with a scientist and the woman they both loved.
warm → sardonic
pace+1·prose+1·bleak+3
- pace0prose+1bleak+3
A Little Life
Hanya Yanagihara2015
Four friends in New York over thirty years. One of them is being destroyed, and the book does not look away.
warm → bleak, still found family
pace0·prose+1·bleak+3
- pace+1prose0bleak+3
Slaughterhouse-Five
Kurt Vonnegut1969
Billy Pilgrim becomes unstuck in time, experiencing his life out of order, from his chaplaincy in WWII to his abduction by aliens.
warm → sardonic
pace+1·prose0·bleak+3
