What Was Lost

The Round House

Louise Erdrich2012

A 13-year-old boy on a North Dakota reservation seeks justice after a brutal attack on his mother. He navigates tribal and federal legal systems.

Same elegiac register, still mystery

pace0·prose+1·bleak0

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.

elegiac → sardonic

pace0·prose+2·bleak0

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.

elegiac → propulsive

pace+1·prose+2·bleak+1

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.

elegiac → dreamlike

pace0·prose+2·bleak0

Two for the dough

Janet Evanovich1996

An inexperienced bounty hunter tracks a man who jumped bail for shooting his friend. She competes with a vice cop to find him first.

elegiac → playful, still mystery

pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

Catering to Nobody

Diane Mott Davidson1990

A Colorado caterer is accused of poisoning a guest at a wake. She investigates the murder to save her business and includes recipes in the text.

elegiac → warm, still mystery

pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

Real Murders

Charlaine Harris1990

A librarian in a small Georgia town belongs to a club that studies famous crimes. A real murder occurs that mimics a historical case.

elegiac → wry, still mystery

pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

Ten Big Ones

Janet Evanovich2004

Stephanie Plum witnesses a gang hit and becomes a target herself. She balances the threat with her ongoing romantic indecision.

elegiac → playful, still mystery

pace+2·prose-1·bleak-2

Private Vegas

James Patterson2015

Jack Morgan investigates a man who trains women to become killers in Las Vegas. The story follows multiple perspectives in short chapters.

pace+2·prose-1·bleak-1

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.

elegiac → playful

pace+2·prose-1·bleak-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.

elegiac → clinical

pace-1·prose+2·bleak0

Translated Accounts

James Kelman2001

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

elegiac → bleak

pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

Blood on the dining-room floor

Gertrude Stein1948

A repetitive, circular narrative about a death in a country house. It uses experimental prose to obscure the facts of a traditional mystery.

elegiac → playful, still mystery

pace-1·prose+2·bleak-1

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.

elegiac → bleak

pace0·prose+2·bleak+1

The Underground Railroad

Colson Whitehead2016

Two slaves escape a Georgia plantation via a literal underground train system while being pursued by a slave catcher.

elegiac → bleak

pace+1·prose+1·bleak+1

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.

elegiac → sardonic

pace+1·prose+1·bleak+1