LitQueuelitqueue

After

Hold

Claire Kent2007

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

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  • Doc

    K.L. Savage

    A motorcycle club medic is forced to protect a woman from her past. They hide out together while the club deals with external threats.

    Same propulsive register, still forced proximity

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • Madame Bovary

    Gustave Flaubert1856

    A doctor's wife in provincial France seeks escape from her mundane life through expensive tastes and extramarital affairs.

    propulsive → tense

    pace0·prose+3·bleak+1

  • Paradise Logic

    Sophie Kemp2025

    A young woman follows advice from a magazine to become a perfect partner. Her quest involves surreal jobs and messages from the beyond.

    propulsive → epic

    pace0·prose+3·bleak+1

  • Mad Mabel

    Sally Hepworth2025

    An eighty-one-year-old woman with a history of killing people tries to hide her past when a curious young girl moves into the neighborhood.

    propulsive → dark

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak0

To recover

3 more ↓

  • Lauren's Barbarian

    Ruby Dixon2017

    A woman is abducted by aliens and abandoned on an ice planet, where she is found by a blue-skinned hunter who believes she is his mate.

    propulsive → playful

    pace0·prose0·bleak-1

  • Polaris Rising

    Jessie Mihalik2019

    A princess on the run from an arranged marriage hides on a ship with a notorious criminal. They navigate a galaxy-wide power struggle together.

    Same propulsive register, still science fiction romance

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak-1

  • Drop Dead Gorgeous

    Linda Howard2006

    While planning her wedding, a former cheerleader survives a hit-and-run and tries to convince her detective fiancé she is being targeted.

    propulsive → playful

    pace0·prose+1·bleak-1

Faster

3 more ↓

  • Hounded

    Kevin Hearne2011

    A two-thousand-year-old Druid lives in modern Arizona and runs an occult bookshop. He must fight a vengeful Irish god who wants his sword.

    propulsive → wry

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak0

  • Ivanhoe

    Walter Scott1800

    A Saxon knight returns to 12th-century England to win back his inheritance and the woman he loves amidst Norman conflict.

    propulsive → epic

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak0

  • How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying

    Django Wexler2023

    A woman stuck in a time loop decides to stop trying to save the kingdom and instead attempts to become its villain. She uses past lives to plan.

    propulsive → sardonic

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak0

Slower

3 more ↓

  • Ulysses

    James Joyce1914

    Three characters wander through Dublin on a single day in 1904. Each chapter uses a different literary style to mimic thoughts and sensations.

    propulsive → playful

    pace-2·prose+3·bleak0

  • Absalom, Absalom!

    William Faulkner1936

    The rise and fall of Thomas Sutpen is recounted through multiple, conflicting memories. The prose uses extremely long, complex sentences.

    propulsive → elegiac

    pace-2·prose+3·bleak+2

  • Either/Or

    Søren Kierkegaard1992

    A collection of papers presents two life philosophies: the aesthetic pursuit of pleasure and the ethical commitment to duty.

    propulsive → meditative

    pace-2·prose+3·bleak0

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • Tess of the D’Urbervilles

    Thomas Hardy

    A country girl is sent to claim kinship with wealthy relatives. Her life is derailed by a sequence of social betrayals and rigid moral standards.

    propulsive → elegiac

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2

  • Brokeback Mountain

    Annie Proulx1997

    Two ranch hands begin a secret sexual and emotional relationship in 1963 Wyoming. The story follows their occasional meetings over twenty years.

    propulsive → elegiac

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2

  • Bright Side

    Kim Holden2014

    An optimistic college student moves to Minnesota for a fresh start while hiding a terminal diagnosis from her best friend.

    propulsive → tender

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+2