LitQueuelitqueue

After

All This & More

Peng Shepherd

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

1 more ↓

  • Lost in a Good Book

    Jasper Fforde2002

    Thursday Next enters the world of literature to rescue her husband from erasure. She trains as a book-world detective under Miss Havisham.

    Same playful register, still time travel

    pace0·prose0·bleak-1

Denser prose

playful → dreamlike

3 more ↓

  • Ficciones

    Jorge Luis Borges1945

    A collection of short stories exploring philosophical paradoxes, infinite libraries, and imaginary encyclopedias.

    playful → meditative

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak0

  • Midnight's Children

    Salman Rushdie1981

    Saleem Sinai is born at the moment of India's independence and possesses a telepathic link to others born that night. His life mirrors the nation.

    playful → sardonic

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

  • Six-Gun Snow White

    Catherynne M. Valente2013

    A half-Native American girl flees her silver baron father and stepmother to become a gunslinger in a reimagined American West.

    playful → sardonic

    pace0·prose+2·bleak+1

To recover

Same playful register

3 more ↓

  • She Went All the Way

    Meg Cabot2002

    A screenwriter and an actor survive a helicopter crash in the Alaskan wilderness and must hike to safety while being pursued by a killer.

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

  • Mile High

    Liz Tomforde2023

    A professional hockey player and a flight attendant clash on the team's private plane during a season-long road trip.

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

  • Behind the Net

    Stephanie Archer2024

    A former musician becomes the live-in assistant for a professional hockey goalie she knew in high school.

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

Faster

Same playful register, still science fiction

3 more ↓

  • Dungeon Crawler Carl

    Matt Dinniman2020

    Earth is converted into an 18-level televised death game. A man and a cat must navigate traps and monsters to survive.

    playful → sardonic

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak0

  • Mind's Eye

    Douglas E. Richards2014

    A man discovers he has the ability to access the internet and process data directly with his mind. He is hunted by a secret organization.

    playful → propulsive

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak0

  • The Atlantis Gene

    A.G. Riddle2013

    A geneticist and a counter-terrorism agent uncover a global conspiracy involving human evolution and an ancient Antarctic discovery.

    playful → propulsive

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak0

Slower

3 more ↓

  • Among Others

    Jo Walton2011

    A teenage girl at a 1970s boarding school copes with her twin's death through books and subtle magic. It is written as a series of diary entries.

    playful → tender

    pace-2·prose0·bleak0

  • Little, Big

    John Crowley1981

    A man marries into a family living in a massive house where the borders of the natural world blur. It follows several generations over a century.

    playful → dreamlike

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak0

  • Unfinished Tales

    J.R.R. Tolkien1980

    A collection of incomplete narratives and essays that expand the history, geography, and lore of Middle-earth.

    playful → meditative

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak0

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • The Fifth Season

    N. K. Jemisin2015

    A mother searches for her daughter across a continent undergoing a tectonic apocalypse. Some chapters address the reader in the second person.

    playful → bleak

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+2

  • Pet Sematary

    Stephen King1983

    A family moves to Maine and discovers a burial ground that can return the dead to life. They use it, and the consequences are absolute.

    playful → tense

    pace0·prose0·bleak+2

  • The Poppy War

    R.F. Kuang2018

    A war orphan enters a military academy and discovers shamanic powers. She leads a unit into a total war inspired by 20th-century Chinese history.

    playful → bleak

    pace0·prose0·bleak+2