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After

The Vampire Tapestry

Suzy McKee Charnas1980

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

1 more ↓

  • A Child Across the Sky

    Jonathan Carroll1989

    A filmmaker investigates the suicide of his best friend, a famous fantasy author. He discovers the man's stories were based on a literal reality.

    clinical → dreamlike, still horror

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

clinical → meditative

3 more ↓

  • Ink

    Hal Duncan2007

    Gods and mortals clash in a shifting city where reality is written on skin. The story follows a cycle of mythic archetypes across time.

    clinical → dreamlike

    pace0·prose+1·bleak0

  • In the Night Garden

    Catherynne M. Valente2006

    A girl with tattooed eyelids tells a prince interlocking stories of monsters and folklore. The narrative is a series of nested myths.

    clinical → dreamlike

    pace0·prose+1·bleak-1

  • At Swim-Two-Birds

    Flann O'Brien1939

    A student writes a story about a man whose own characters rebel and plot against him. It incorporates Irish myth and multiple layers of fiction.

    clinical → playful

    pace0·prose+1·bleak-2

To recover

clinical → playful

3 more ↓

  • Mile High

    Liz Tomforde2023

    A professional hockey player and a flight attendant clash on the team's private plane during a season-long road trip.

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

  • Behind the Net

    Stephanie Archer2024

    A former musician becomes the live-in assistant for a professional hockey goalie she knew in high school.

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

  • She Went All the Way

    Meg Cabot2002

    A screenwriter and an actor survive a helicopter crash in the Alaskan wilderness and must hike to safety while being pursued by a killer.

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

Faster

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    clinical → propulsive

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-1

  • 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.

    clinical → propulsive

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-1

  • 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.

    clinical → propulsive

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-1

Slower

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    clinical → dreamlike

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1

  • Unfinished Tales

    J.R.R. Tolkien1980

    A collection of incomplete narratives and essays that expand the history, geography, and lore of Middle-earth.

    clinical → meditative

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1

  • Moonwise

    Greer Gilman1991

    Two women are pulled into a world created by their own folk-tales. The narrative uses dense, archaic language to describe a shifting landscape.

    clinical → dreamlike

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • The Damnation Game

    Clive Barker1985

    An ex-con becomes a bodyguard for a billionaire who made a deal with a supernatural gambler. The debt comes due through gore and resurrection.

    clinical → bleak, still horror

    pace+1·prose0·bleak+1

  • Last Days

    Brian Evenson2009

    A detective is kidnapped by a cult that practices ritual amputation and forced to investigate a murder within their ranks.

    Same clinical register, still horror

    pace+1·prose0·bleak+1

  • Let the Right One In

    John Ajvide Lindqvist2004

    A bullied boy befriends a vampire who appears to be a young girl. The story depicts their relationship alongside a series of gruesome murders.

    clinical → bleak, still vampire fiction

    pace0·prose0·bleak+1