The Shadow Year

Kafka on the Shore

Haruki Murakami2002

A teenage runaway and an elderly man who talks to cats move toward each other in a world of talking fish and metaphysical portals.

pace0·prose0·bleak0

The Claw of the Conciliator

Gene Wolfe1981

An exiled torturer travels with a gem that can heal the dead. The narrative uses archaic vocabulary and an unreliable perspective.

Same dreamlike register

pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

Ficciones

Jorge Luis Borges1945

A collection of short stories exploring philosophical paradoxes, infinite libraries, and imaginary encyclopedias.

dreamlike → meditative, still magical realism

pace0·prose+1·bleak0

Boneland

Alan Garner2012

An adult Colin searches for his lost sister while an ancient shaman performs rituals in the same landscape. The two timelines mirror one another.

dreamlike → elegiac

pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

Truly, Madly

Heather Webber2010

A woman with the psychic ability to find lost objects takes over her family's matchmaking business. She teams up with a cynical private investigator.

dreamlike → playful, still mystery

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

A Veiled Deception

Annette Blair2009

A vintage shop owner investigates a murder during her sister's wedding preparations to clear her family's name.

dreamlike → playful

pace0·prose-2·bleak-1

It Starts with Us

Colleen Hoover2022

A single mother navigates a new relationship with her first love while managing a jealous ex-husband. The story alternates perspectives.

dreamlike → earnest

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

Mind's Eye

Douglas E. Richards2014

A man discovers he has the ability to access the internet and process data directly with his mind. He is hunted by a secret organization.

dreamlike → propulsive

pace+2·prose-2·bleak0

The Atlantis Gene

A.G. Riddle2013

A geneticist and a counter-terrorism agent uncover a global conspiracy involving human evolution and an ancient Antarctic discovery.

dreamlike → propulsive

pace+2·prose-2·bleak0

Monster Hunter International

Larry Correia2007

An accountant kills his boss, who has become a werewolf, and is recruited by a private company that hunts monsters for government bounties.

dreamlike → propulsive

pace+2·prose-2·bleak0

The Habitation of the Blessed

Catherynne M. Valente2010

A priest finds the lost kingdom of Prester John. The story is told through three nested layers of journals, myths, and historical accounts.

Same dreamlike register

pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

Invisible Cities

Italo Calvino1972

Marco Polo describes fifty-five imaginary cities to Kublai Khan. The book is a series of short, prose-poem meditations on urban existence.

dreamlike → meditative, still magical realism

pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

Among Others

Jo Walton2011

A teenage girl at a 1970s boarding school copes with her twin's death through books and subtle magic. It is written as a series of diary entries.

dreamlike → tender, still magical realism

pace-1·prose-1·bleak0

Pet Sematary

Stephen King1983

A family moves to Maine and discovers a burial ground that can return the dead to life. They use it, and the consequences are absolute.

dreamlike → tense

pace+1·prose-1·bleak+2

The Poppy War

R.F. Kuang2018

A war orphan enters a military academy and discovers shamanic powers. She leads a unit into a total war inspired by 20th-century Chinese history.

dreamlike → bleak

pace+1·prose-1·bleak+2

The Traitor Baru Cormorant

Seth Dickinson2015

An accountant infiltrates the empire that conquered her home to destroy it from within. She uses economics and politics as her primary weapons.

dreamlike → cold

pace+1·prose0·bleak+2