White Cat, Black Dog

Glass Soup

Jonathan Carroll2005

A group of people in Vienna and the afterlife navigate a cosmic battle between order and chaos. The story uses surreal logic and dream imagery.

pace0·prose0·bleak0

Tours of the Black Clock

Steve Erickson1989

A ghostwriter for Hitler's private pornography lives in a surreal version of the 20th century where history and memory blur.

Same dreamlike register, still magical realism

pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

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

The Light and the Dark

Mikhail Shishkin2013

Two lovers exchange letters that transcend time and space. One writes from a domestic life while the other writes from the front lines of a war.

dreamlike → elegiac

pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

The Score

Elle Kennedy2016

A college senior has a one-night stand with a hockey player to get over a breakup. They continue the arrangement as graduation approaches.

dreamlike → playful

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

To Sir Phillip, With Love

Julia Quinn2003

Eloise Bridgerton travels to meet a widowed baronet she has only known through letters. They consider a marriage of convenience.

dreamlike → warm

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

All Rhodes Lead Here

Mariana Zapata2021

A woman moves back to her Colorado hometown after a breakup and rents a garage apartment from a grumpy single father.

dreamlike → warm

pace0·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

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

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

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