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After

This Perfect Day

Ira Levin1970

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

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  • Vox

    Christina Dalcher2018

    In a near-future America, women are fitted with bracelets that deliver electric shocks if they speak more than 100 words a day.

    sardonic → tense, still dystopian

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

sardonic → dreamlike

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak0

  • Ficciones

    Jorge Luis Borges1945

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

    sardonic → meditative

    pace-1·prose+2·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.

    sardonic → playful

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak-2

To recover

3 more ↓

  • Fifty Shades Darker

    E.L. James2011

    A young woman resumes her relationship with a wealthy businessman while starting a new job. They navigate his past and his specific sexual needs.

    sardonic → earnest

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-2

  • Hardline

    Meredith Wild2015

    A software executive and a billionaire navigate a relationship complicated by corporate takeover attempts and sexual power dynamics.

    sardonic → tense

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-2

  • The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek

    Rhett McLaughlin2019

    Two friends investigate a reform school in 1990s North Carolina after a classmate disappears. It is a mystery involving local conspiracies.

    sardonic → playful

    pace0·prose-1·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.

    sardonic → propulsive

    pace+1·prose-1·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.

    sardonic → propulsive

    pace+1·prose-1·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.

    sardonic → propulsive

    pace+1·prose-1·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.

    sardonic → dreamlike

    pace-2·prose+2·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.

    sardonic → meditative

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak-1

  • Translated Accounts

    James Kelman2001

    Anonymous witnesses describe life under a military regime. The prose uses broken, bureaucratic syntax to mimic a literal translation.

    sardonic → bleak, still dystopian

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • Bullettime

    Nick Mamatas2012

    A teenager about to commit a school shooting is intercepted by his future self. He explores various timelines of his own life and death.

    Same sardonic register, still speculative fiction

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

  • Doctor Rat

    William Kotzwinkle1976

    A laboratory rat loyal to his human captors defends the practice of vivisection while animals worldwide begin a bloody revolt.

    Same sardonic register, still dystopian

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

  • The Gradual

    Christopher Priest2016

    A composer travels between islands where time passes at different rates. He observes how these temporal shifts isolate him from his family.

    sardonic → melancholy, still dystopian

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1