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This Census-Taker

China Miéville

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Similar in tone + premise

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

Tone labels used: creepy, weird, uncanny, haunting, bleak, oppressive, atmospheric, ominous, melancholic, dreamlike, anxiety-inducing, poetic

Premise labels used: isolated child, traumatic event, missing parent, mysterious authority, unreliable memory, family secret, investigation

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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Quicksand House

Carlton Mellick III · 2013

Two sheltered children leave their nursery to search a vast, deadly house for parents they’ve never met.

Why this is here

Tone labels: creepy · surreal · bizarre · emotional · heartbreaking · tender · tense · disturbing · inquisitive · beautiful · dreamlike · claustrophobic · hopeful

Premise labels: isolated children · missing parents · nursery confinement · house exploration · survival quest · coming of age · childhood fears

Semantic match: ranked by tone + premise

Distance: 0.1230

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Mothtown

Caroline Hardaker · 2023

A lonely boy grows up amid disappearances and family secrets, chasing clues to his grandfather and a possible other world.

Why this is here

Tone labels: haunting · eerie · unsettling · dark · bleak · melancholy · dreamlike · suffocating · disturbing · tender · surreal

Premise labels: missing persons · family secret · search for truth · alternate worlds · grief journey · identity crisis · belonging · unreliable reality

Semantic match: ranked by tone + premise

Distance: 0.1275

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The Forbidden Territory of a Terrifying Woman

Molly Lynch · 2023

When mothers begin vanishing worldwide, one anxious mother’s disappearance exposes a family and planet in crisis.

Why this is here

Tone labels: haunting · eerie · dark · dreamlike · uncanny · atmospheric · uneasy · melancholic · ominous · strange · cerebral · existential · unsettling · playfully depressing · haunted · mysterious

Premise labels: missing mothers · maternal disappearance · ecological collapse · climate anxiety · motherhood crisis · marriage under strain · family search · nature pull · mystery of disappearance · metamorphosis

Semantic match: ranked by tone + premise

Distance: 0.1360

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Blink

Christopher Sebela, Nick Filardi, Frank Cvetkovic · 2023 · Blink

A traumatized journalist follows a strange CCTV trail into a maze-like facility tied to her forgotten childhood.

Why this is here

Tone labels: haunting · claustrophobic · uneasy · paranoid · surreal · dark · mysterious · disorienting · creepy · nightmarish · dread-filled

Premise labels: memory mystery · lost childhood · trauma search · surveillance conspiracy · urban exploration · social experiment · missing parents · identity quest · obsessive investigation · mysterious website

Semantic match: ranked by tone + premise

Distance: 0.1366

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The Memory Police

Yōko Ogawa · 2019

On an unnamed island, disappearing things erase memory itself, and one novelist risks everything to shelter a man who still remembers.

Why this is here

Tone labels: haunting · quiet · eerie · surreal · melancholy · claustrophobic · unsettling · dreamlike · oppressive · meditative

Premise labels: memory loss · disappearing objects · author protagonist · surveillance state · authoritarian control · hidden person

Semantic match: ranked by tone + premise

Distance: 0.1367

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The Water Cure

Sophie Mackintosh · 2019

Three sisters on an isolated island confront fear, desire, and control when strangers arrive from the sea.

Why this is here

Tone labels: haunting · eerie · atmospheric · claustrophobic · disturbing · hypnotic · melancholy · unsettling · dreamlike · bleak · dark · tense

Premise labels: isolated family · remote island · sheltered daughters · fear of men · toxic outside world · survival rituals · cult-like protection · strangers ashore · sibling rivalry · female fear

Semantic match: ranked by tone + premise

Distance: 0.1411

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Best of All Worlds

Kenneth Oppel · 2025

A teen wakes trapped in a mysterious dome with his family, and a later-arriving family turns survival into conflict.

Why this is here

Tone labels: claustrophobic · uneasy · tense · creepy · thought-provoking · unsettling · psychological · existential · eerie

Premise labels: mysterious confinement · sudden relocation · trapped family · isolation · survival · central mystery · escape attempt · second family arrival

Semantic match: ranked by tone + premise

Distance: 0.1415

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Lost Boys

Orson Scott Card · 1994

A Mormon family’s move to North Carolina brings everyday tensions, eerie friendships, and a slow-building threat to their young son.

Why this is here

Tone labels: creepy · eerie · subtle horror · somber · heartbreaking · depressing · disturbing · tense · melancholy · heart-wrenching · quietly unsettling · emotionally intense

Premise labels: missing children · family crisis · imaginary friends · child endangerment · small-town mystery · secret evil · parental fear

Semantic match: ranked by tone + premise

Distance: 0.1418

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The Garden

Nick Newman · 2025

Two elderly sisters in a walled garden face upheaval when a mysterious boy breaches the boundaries of their secluded world.

Why this is here

Tone labels: eerie · haunting · atmospheric · claustrophobic · melancholy · dreamlike · unsettling · creepy · hypnotic · darkly beautiful · quietly emotional · foreboding

Premise labels: isolated sisters · walled enclosure · intruder arrives · post-collapse survival · sibling dependency · hidden world · sanctuary under threat · family secrets

Semantic match: ranked by tone + premise

Distance: 0.1421

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The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again

M. John Harrison · 2020

Two troubled lovers drift through riverside Britain while a hidden, uncanny current of conspiracy and change presses in.

Why this is here

Tone labels: eerie · uncanny · bleak · brooding · dreamlike · anxious · menacing · melancholic · slimy · puzzling

Premise labels: breakdown recovery · conspiracy theory · mysterious disappearance · mysterious inheritance · relationship strain · midlife crisis · hidden conspiracy · uncanny everyday

Semantic match: ranked by tone + premise

Distance: 0.1428

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Sunbirth

An Yu · 2025

In an isolated desert village, two sisters endure a fading sun, strange beacons, and a family mystery tied to their missing father.

Why this is here

Tone labels: atmospheric · surreal · dreamlike · melancholy · bleak · quiet · haunting · eerie · hypnotic · philosophical · thought-provoking · gloomy · somber · intimate

Premise labels: vanishing sun · isolated village · sisterhood · family mystery · survival · quiet apocalypse · mysterious transformation · unknowable phenomenon

Semantic match: ranked by tone + premise

Distance: 0.1444

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The Door to December

Richard Paige, Dean Koontz · 2002

A mother and detective race to protect a traumatized girl whose kidnapping led to brutal experiments and a terrifying unseen force.

Why this is here

Tone labels: eerie · dark · creepy · tense · suspenseful · grim · gory · disturbing · emotionally stirring (mixed) · uneasy

Premise labels: missing child · abduction aftermath · traumatized child · paranormal investigation · unethical experiment · catatonia · sensory deprivation · mind control · mother-daughter reunion · murder mystery

Semantic match: ranked by tone + premise

Distance: 0.1465

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