After You

Happy Place

Emily Henry2023

A couple who broke up six months ago pretends to be together during a week-long summer trip to avoid upsetting their group of best friends.

pace0·prose0·bleak0

Gravity's Rainbow

Thomas Pynchon1973

During the end of WWII, an American lieutenant's sexual encounters seem to predict where German V-2 rockets will fall. The narrative is fragmented.

tender → sardonic

pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

A Brief History of Seven Killings

Marlon James2014

A large cast of characters recounts the 1976 attempt on Bob Marley's life. The narrative spans decades and moves from Jamaica to New York.

tender → propulsive

pace0·prose+2·bleak+2

Briefing for a Descent into Hell

Doris Lessing1971

A man is found wandering London and placed in a psychiatric ward. The narrative shifts between the hospital and his internal cosmic hallucinations.

tender → dreamlike

pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

Wanted

Kelly Elliott2012

A woman returns to her small hometown and reconnects with a childhood friend. They navigate their past while developing a new relationship.

pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

The Will

Kristen Ashley

A woman inherits a house and a family legacy in a small town. She enters a relationship with the man appointed as her protector in the will.

pace-1·prose-1·bleak-1

When You're Ready

J.L. Berg

A widow moving back to her hometown with her daughter encounters a man from her past. They navigate grief while rekindling a relationship.

Same tender register, still contemporary romance

pace-1·prose-1·bleak-1

The Professional: Part 2 (The Game Maker, #1b)

Kresley Cole

A Russian enforcer continues his pursuit of a graduate student across Europe. The focus is on their sexual power dynamic and his mafia duties.

tender → tense, still contemporary romance

pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

Victory at Prescott High

C.M. Stunich

A high school girl seeks revenge against the boys who bullied her while navigating a complex relationship with all of them at once.

tender → propulsive, still contemporary romance

pace+1·prose-1·bleak0

Child 44

Tom Rob Smith2008

A Soviet security officer investigates a serial killer in a state that officially claims murder does not exist.

tender → tense

pace+1·prose0·bleak+1

Umbrella

Will Self2013

A psychiatrist in 1971 treats a woman who has been catatonic for decades. The prose shifts between eras and consciousnesses without paragraph breaks.

tender → clinical

pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1

Translated Accounts

James Kelman2001

Anonymous witnesses describe life under a military regime. The prose uses broken, bureaucratic syntax to mimic a literal translation.

tender → bleak

pace-2·prose+2·bleak+2

The English Patient

Michael Ondaatje1992

Four people shelter in a ruined Italian villa at the end of WWII. They care for a burned, anonymous man who recounts his past in the desert.

tender → elegiac

pace-2·prose+1·bleak+1

The Underground Railroad

Colson Whitehead2016

Two slaves escape a Georgia plantation via a literal underground train system while being pursued by a slave catcher.

tender → bleak

pace0·prose+1·bleak+2

Oryx and Crake

Margaret Atwood2003

A man survives a genetic apocalypse in a world of engineered creatures. He remembers his past with a scientist and the woman they both loved.

tender → sardonic

pace0·prose+1·bleak+2

A Little Life

Hanya Yanagihara2015

Four friends in New York over thirty years. One of them is being destroyed, and the book does not look away.

tender → bleak

pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2