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The Birth-Mark

Nathaniel Hawthorne

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Similar in tone + premise

These books are ranked using the tone + premise labels extracted for The Birth-Mark. Books rank higher when they are close on every selected axis.

Tone labels used: gothic, tragic, moralistic, cautionary, dark, serious, uncomfortable, thought-provoking, depressing

Premise labels used: perfection obsession, beauty flaw, scientific intervention, marital fixation, man vs nature

This does not mean the books share the same plot, setting, quality, or difficulty. It means their tone + premise embeddings are close.

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Rappaccini's Daughter

Nathaniel Hawthorne · 2004

A student in Padua falls for a mysterious woman raised in a deadly garden of poisonous plants.

Why this is here

Tone labels: gothic · haunting · dark · tragic · melancholic · mysterious · unsettling · dreamy · ethereal · eerie · macabre · romantic · sensual

Premise labels: poisoned garden · scientist father · fatal attraction · forbidden love · toxic beauty · science versus nature · medical experimentation · inverted Eden · moral ambiguity · tragic romance

Semantic match: ranked by tone + premise

Distance: 0.1821

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Only Ever Yours

Louise O'Neill · 2014

In a brutal future school, manufactured girls compete for roles as wives, sex objects, or teachers under male rule.

Why this is here

Tone labels: bleak · dark · horrifying · disturbing · claustrophobic · angry · depressing · uncomfortable · hopeless · thought-provoking

Premise labels: manufactured women · male gaze · gender oppression · beauty competition · female conditioning · school-to-wife pipeline · breeding program

Semantic match: ranked by tone + premise

Distance: 0.1850

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Electric Forest

Tanith Lee · 1979

In a genetically perfect future, an ostracized woman accepts a new body from a mysterious benefactor with hidden motives.

Why this is here

Tone labels: dark · creepy · disturbing · unnerving · psychological · gothic · dreamlike · sinister · cold · haunting · lush

Premise labels: body transfer · beauty standards · identity crisis · social ostracism · scientific manipulation · espionage thriller · consciousness transfer · dystopian society · altered self

Semantic match: ranked by tone + premise

Distance: 0.1908

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The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories

Robert Louis Stevenson · 1950

A Victorian doctor’s chemical experiment splits off his darkest self, and the consequences spread through a shadowy London.

Why this is here

Tone labels: creepy · eerie · dark · psychological · intense · gothic · tragic · suspenseful · moralizing · chilling

Premise labels: dual identity · good and evil · inner self · forbidden experiment · scientific hubris · split personality · moral duality · hidden self

Semantic match: ranked by tone + premise

Distance: 0.1909

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Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: A Dark Graphic Novel

Sergio A. Sierra · 2012

A dark graphic adaptation of Frankenstein follows a scientist’s fatal experiment and the abandoned creature it unleashes.

Why this is here

Tone labels: dark · sad · tragic · lugubrious · melancholy · moody · chilling · serious · philosophical · poignant · heartfelt · depressing

Premise labels: creation gone wrong · mad scientist · man-made monster · abandonment · revenge · rejection · loneliness · responsibility · dangerous knowledge · ethical science

Semantic match: ranked by tone + premise

Distance: 0.1953

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Feed Them Silence

Lee Mandelo · 2023

A scientist links her mind to a wild wolf, chasing intimacy, knowledge, and belonging as her marriage and ethics unravel.

Why this is here

Tone labels: bleak · dark · miserable · depressing · eerie · uncanny · melancholic · bittersweet

Premise labels: neural interface · animal consciousness · wolf perspective · interspecies empathy · research ethics · conservation science · workplace obsession · failing marriage

Semantic match: ranked by tone + premise

Distance: 0.1958

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The Shrinking Man

Richard Matheson · 2002

A man exposed to radiation begins shrinking daily, forcing him into a desperate fight for survival and selfhood.

Why this is here

Tone labels: dark · bleak · angsty · anxious · horrifying · disturbing · sad · tense · oppressive · melancholy

Premise labels: shrinking protagonist · survival against environment · body transformation · loss of size · radiation accident · toxic exposure · man vs nature · masculinity crisis · loss of control

Semantic match: ranked by tone + premise

Distance: 0.1963

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Strange Bodies

Marcel Theroux · 2013

A dead academic seems to return in a new body, pulling a psychiatrist and a conspiracy into questions of identity and immortality.

Why this is here

Tone labels: bleak · dour · nightmarish · melancholic · creepy · eerie · unsettling · intellectual · thought-provoking · dark · mysterious · suspenseful · sad · paralysing dread

Premise labels: identity theft · consciousness transfer · body swap · immortality quest · forgery · metaphysical conspiracy · mad science · authenticity crisis

Semantic match: ranked by tone + premise

Distance: 0.2004

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Hum

Helen Phillips · 2024

After losing her job to AI, a mother takes a risky deal that buys her family a brief escape into a climate-ravaged, overtracked future.

Why this is here

Tone labels: anxious · disturbing · uneasy · bleak · urgent · claustrophobic · chilling · unsettling · grim · oppressive · plausible horror

Premise labels: AI job loss · surveillance state · face-alteration experiment · technology dependence · family survival · nature refuge · parental protection · consumerism critique · climate collapse

Semantic match: ranked by tone + premise

Distance: 0.2025

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The Warren

Brian Evenson · 2016

An amnesiac, many-minded survivor in a sealed refuge questions his humanity after finding another person outside.

Why this is here

Tone labels: bleak · alienating · mysterious · oppressive · disorienting · haunting · grim · claustrophobic · uneasy · intense · cerebral

Premise labels: identity crisis · multiple selves · memory loss · humanity question · last survivor · underground refuge · hostile surface · post-human survival · personhood test · alienation

Semantic match: ranked by tone + premise

Distance: 0.2029

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Flawed

Cecelia Ahern · 2016 · Flawed

In a perfection-obsessed dystopia, one compassionate mistake marks a model teen as a social outcast.

Why this is here

Tone labels: dark · tense · haunting · brutal · thought-provoking · emotionally intense · disturbing · bleak · urgent

Premise labels: perfectionist society · moral policing · punishment for mistakes · branded outcasts · public trial · resistance movement · forced conformity · social control

Semantic match: ranked by tone + premise

Distance: 0.2030

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The Two Doctors Górski

Isaac Fellman · 2022

A traumatized graduate student in magical psychiatry confronts an abusive mentor, mind reading, and a split self.

Why this is here

Tone labels: dark · oppressive · intense · haunting · bleak · melancholy · disturbing · somber · biting · thoughtful · dreamlike · quiet · tense · brutal

Premise labels: academic abuse · mind reading · identity crisis · self-splitting · magical psychiatry · toxic mentorship · trauma recovery · ethical mind alteration

Semantic match: ranked by tone + premise

Distance: 0.2031

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