Books like Women

Women by Charles Bukowski reads as cynical, raw. These 12 books share its genome — matched by how they actually read, not just their shelf label.

Run with the hunted

Charles Bukowski · 1993

Shares the bleak + vspare thread

81% genome match

Knockemstiff

Donald Ray Pollock · 2008

Shares the transgress + bleak thread

69% genome match

La Virgen de los Sicarios / Our Lady of the Assassins

Fernando Vallejo · 1994

Shares the transgress + bleak thread

70% genome match

Call if you need me

Raymond Carver · 2000

Shares the bleak + vspare thread

71% genome match

Death Wish

Iceberg Slim · 1977

Shares the bleak + vspare thread

69% genome match

Junky

William S. Burroughs · 1953

Shares the vspare + vvoice thread

69% genome match

The End of the Fucking World

Charles Forsman · 2013

Shares the transgress + bleak thread

69% genome match

Less Than Zero

Bret Easton Ellis · 1985

Shares the transgress + bleak thread

69% genome match

Midnight cowboy ; a novel

James Leo Herlihy · 1965

Shares the vspare + vvoice thread

70% genome match

Between Here and the Yellow Sea

Nic Pizzolatto · 2006

Shares the transgress + bleak thread

69% genome match

Red Harvest

Dashiell Hammett · 1929

Shares the transgress + bleak thread

69% genome match

Angels

Denis Johnson · 1983

Shares the bleak + vspare thread

69% genome match