LitQueuelitqueue

After

Hotel du Lac

Anita Brookner1984

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

Same wry register, still literary fiction

1 more ↓

  • Still Here

    Linda Grant2002

    A middle-aged woman returns to Liverpool to care for her dying mother and begins an unexpected relationship with an American architect.

    pace0·prose-1·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    wry → sardonic

    pace0·prose+1·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.

    wry → propulsive

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak+2

  • Moby Dick

    Herman Melville1851

    A sailor joins a whaling voyage led by a captain seeking revenge on a specific whale. Large sections digress into the mechanics of 1850s whaling.

    wry → meditative, still literary fiction

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

To recover

wry → warm

3 more ↓

  • To the nines

    Janet Evanovich2003

    A bounty hunter travels to Las Vegas to track down a missing person while being targeted by a serial killer. The tone is comedic.

    wry → playful

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-1

  • Love Bites

    Lynsay Sands2004

    A vampire turns a coroner into an immortal to save her life after an accident. They navigate their new bond while being pursued by others.

    wry → playful

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

  • This Girl

    Colleen Hoover2013

    A husband retells the story of his early relationship to his wife. It uses dual timelines to revisit events from the first book in the series.

    wry → earnest

    pace0·prose-2·bleak-1

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.

    wry → sardonic

    pace+2·prose-1·bleak0

  • 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.

    wry → propulsive

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-1

  • The Martian

    Andy Weir2011

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

    Same wry register

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-1

Slower

3 more ↓

  • Orbital

    Samantha Harvey2024

    Six astronauts orbit Earth over twenty-four hours. The narrative focuses on their routine tasks and observations of the planet below.

    wry → meditative, still literary fiction

    pace-1·prose0·bleak0

  • The Waters of Kronos

    Conrad Richter1960

    An elderly man travels back in time to his childhood Pennsylvania town, which in his present day is submerged beneath a reservoir.

    wry → elegiac, still literary fiction

    pace-1·prose0·bleak0

  • 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.

    wry → elegiac, still literary fiction

    pace-1·prose0·bleak+1

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • A Distant Shore

    Caryl Phillips2003

    A retired teacher and an African refugee form a quiet bond in a xenophobic English village. Their past traumas emerge through alternating stories.

    wry → bleak, still literary fiction

    pace0·prose0·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.

    wry → bleak, still literary fiction

    pace0·prose0·bleak+2

  • The Nickel Boys

    Colson Whitehead2019

    A studious black teenager in 1960s Florida is sent to a brutal reform school where physical abuse is systemic.

    wry → elegiac, still literary fiction

    pace+1·prose0·bleak+2