LitQueuelitqueue

After

Beyond the glass

Antonia White1954

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

1 more ↓

  • Hot Milk

    Deborah Levy2016

    A woman takes her chronically ill mother to a clinic in Spain. She examines their symbiotic relationship while exploring her own identity.

    Same dreamlike register, still psychological fiction

    pace0·prose0·bleak-1

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    Same dreamlike register, still psychological fiction

    pace0·prose+1·bleak0

  • As I Lay Dying

    William Faulkner1915

    The Bundren family travels by wagon to bury their matriarch. Fifteen different narrators describe the journey as the corpse decomposes.

    dreamlike → sardonic, still literary fiction

    pace0·prose+1·bleak0

  • Don Quixote

    Kathy Acker1986

    A woman undergoes an abortion and adopts the persona of Don Quixote to pursue a quest in a fragmented, postmodern landscape.

    dreamlike → sardonic

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

To recover

dreamlike → playful

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.

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

  • 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.

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

  • Behind the Net

    Stephanie Archer2024

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

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

Faster

3 more ↓

  • Candide

    Voltaire

    A naive young man travels the world while his tutor insists that everything is for the best. He encounters a series of global catastrophes.

    dreamlike → sardonic

    pace+2·prose-1·bleak-1

  • The Da Vinci Code

    Dan Brown2003

    A symbologist and a cryptologist flee the police while solving puzzles hidden in art. They search for a secret regarding the Holy Grail.

    dreamlike → propulsive

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2

  • The Martian

    Andy Weir2011

    A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.

    dreamlike → wry

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2

Slower

3 more ↓

  • Tinkers

    Paul Harding2009

    An elderly clock repairman lies dying while his thoughts drift through his father's life as a peddler. The prose focuses on nature and mechanics.

    dreamlike → meditative, still psychological fiction

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1

  • Blackouts

    Justin Torres2023

    A young man cares for a dying elder in a medical facility. They use a 1930s study on homosexuality to reconstruct their personal histories.

    dreamlike → elegiac, still literary fiction

    pace-1·prose0·bleak0

  • February

    Lisa Moore2009

    A widow in Newfoundland moves between her quiet daily routines and the memory of her husband's death on a sunken oil rig decades earlier.

    dreamlike → elegiac, still psychological fiction

    pace-1·prose0·bleak0

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • The Gathering

    Anne Enright2007

    A woman gathers with her siblings in Dublin for her brother's wake. She reconstructs a childhood trauma to understand his suicide.

    dreamlike → elegiac, still psychological fiction

    pace0·prose0·bleak+1

  • Girls Burn Brighter

    Shobha Rao2018

    Two girls in India are separated by a brutal act of violence. They endure trafficking and labor across continents to find each other.

    dreamlike → bleak, still literary fiction

    pace+1·prose0·bleak+1

  • No Longer Human

    太宰 治2024

    A man describes his life through three notebooks, detailing his inability to connect with others and his social alienation.

    dreamlike → bleak, still psychological fiction

    pace0·prose0·bleak+1