After
The Van
Roddy Doyle1991
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
5 of 6 directions open — nothing to recover from
More like it
- pace0prose0bleak0
Cooking with Fernet Branca
James Hamilton-Paterson2004
An Englishman in Tuscany attempts to write a cookbook while feuding with his neighbor. The recipes are intentionally disgusting.
warm → sardonic, still comic fiction
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Still Me
Jojo Moyes2018
Louisa Clark moves to New York to work for a wealthy family. She navigates a long-distance relationship while adjusting to high society.
Same warm register
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
City of Girls
Elizabeth Gilbert2019
A nineteen-year-old dropout becomes a seamstress at her aunt's Manhattan theater in 1940. She navigates the city's nightlife and wartime culture.
Same warm register
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
The Bookish Life of Nina Hill
Abbi Waxman2019
A trivia-loving bookstore employee discovers she has a family she never knew. She must manage her introversion while navigating new relationships.
Same warm register
pace0·prose0·bleak0
1 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose0bleak0
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
Gabrielle Zevin2014
A grieving bookstore owner isolates himself on an island until an abandoned child and a persistent sales rep force him to engage with his community.
Same warm register
pace0·prose0·bleak0
Denser prose
- pace-1prose+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
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2
- pace0prose+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
pace0·prose+2·bleak+3
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-2prose+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-2·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+2bleak+3
The Sound and the Fury
William Faulkner1929
The decline of a Southern family told through four perspectives, including a non-linear stream of consciousness from a man with a disability.
warm → elegiac
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+3
- pace-1prose+2bleak+2
Briefing for a Descent into Hell
Doris Lessing1971
A man is found wandering London and placed in a psychiatric ward. The narrative shifts between the hospital and his internal cosmic hallucinations.
warm → dreamlike
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2
Faster
- pace+1prose-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+1·prose-1·bleak0
- pace+1prose0bleak+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+1·prose0·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+1prose0bleak+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+1·prose0·bleak+1
- pace+1prose-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+1·prose-1·bleak0
- pace+1prose-1bleak0
The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
warm → wry
pace+1·prose-1·bleak0
Slower
- pace-2prose+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-2·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+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-2·prose+2·bleak+3
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-2prose+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-2·prose+2·bleak+2
- pace-2prose+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-2·prose+2·bleak+3
- pace-2prose+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-2·prose+1·bleak+2
Heavier
warm → bleak
- pace-1prose+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.
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+3
- pace0prose+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.
pace0·prose+1·bleak+3
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose+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
pace0·prose+1·bleak+3
- pace-1prose+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.
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+3
- pace0prose0bleak+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
pace0·prose0·bleak+3
