My novels are dark fantasy thrillers, so I thought I'd make a list with quality dark fiction, particularly dark genre fiction and include books that have appealed to me or that have inspired my writing over the years.
2,509 books ·
3,223 voters ·
list created August 23rd, 2009
by Alan Baxter (votes) .
Tags:
action, adult-fiction, dark, fantasy, fiction, horror, literary-fiction, quality, speculative, thriller
Alan
883 books
379 friends
379 friends
Greyweather
2660 books
65 friends
65 friends
Annie
128 books
470 friends
470 friends
John
857 books
53 friends
53 friends
Oscar
98 books
4 friends
4 friends
Kgb
38 books
9 friends
9 friends
Paul
364 books
281 friends
281 friends
Belinda
816 books
30 friends
30 friends
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Maybe the list should have been called Quality Dark Genre Fiction instead. As I said in the description, "I thought I'd make a list with quality dark fiction, particularly dark genre fiction..." I don't necessarily draw a big distinction between fantasy and sci fi. I Am Legend, a sci fi book with vampires - is it sci fi or horror? Or horror sci fi? Or fantasy sci fi? It's all speculative fiction. Beyond that I don't really care.I think there is an underlying darkness to Replay, given that what's happening to the MC is pretty horrible, at least initially.
I have to agree with greayweather, i find your definition of "dark" pretty confusing. Replay feels a little out of place here.
Fair enough. It's certainly the least dark given the rest of the list. Perhaps it's something to do with when I read it! :)Vote for others that you do agree with and add some more to help refine the definition.
I am interested... I will read this whole list and give my feedback. How exciting, Red Dragon however not that dark to me. Its strange what I find dark, Interview with the vampire was dark, beautiful but dark. So lets see your list chamep... I'm excited.
God this whole list is just what I'm looking for. All I need is one similar to this, but with some twisted romance and I am set. A hundred thank yous to whoever made this list!
Very mixed list, but I've read a lot of them and Gormenghast the big edition of all three deserves to be at the top! Agree!
Anathem isn't dark! A lot of these are just books where yes, there might be a death, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's "dark." The term "dark fiction" usually denotes a story that revolves around death or horror. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time? Moby-Dick?
System found and removed one duplicate.Removed from page 9 for being nonfiction: Helter Skelter
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
Also, I want to advocate for one of the books I have added. If you think that Fannie Farmer's Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe deserves to be higher on this list, go to the back page and vote for it. Thanks.
WOW! I've read 42 of the top 100 on this list and have never thought that I particularly liked "dark fiction"! I'm very stingy with my five star ratings, but two of the most beautiful books I've ever read appear here: Lolita and Titus Groan, both of which I rated 5 stars.
The system found and removed 3 duplicates.I really like this list also. If you see a title that plainly does not belong--nonfiction, or something sunny and joyous--please indicate the page number it's on, and if you can include a link, that's the best. Thus far however, it looks great.
I think that the problem with this list is that many of the titles on it are simply science-fiction, which often appears "dark" to those unfamiliar with the genre. There is very little to none "sunny" sci-fi. Then there are dark fantasy books listed like The Gunslinger, and truly dark fiction novels such as Lolita and Breakfast of Champions mixed in with the science-fiction, making it the smoothie book list from hell. Personally, I would not put all of these books together on the same list. Yes, I voted, but honestly they really don't all fit together.
Rachel Adiyah wrote: "I think that the problem with this list is that many of the titles on it are simply science-fiction, which often appears "dark" to those unfamiliar with the genre. There is very little to none "sun..."The list maker included fantasy with the tags, so as far as intent, The Gunslingers are legit. Sounds like you don't care for mixed genre lists.
The system found and removed 3 duplicates. Whatever other problems may or may not exist with this list, having a working duplicate link is a huge win.
Vicki wrote: "#8 and #48 also #466 = Fahrenheit 451"Should be solved now, as I had the system perform another duplicate check.
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And Replay? Dark? I strongly disagree.