LitQueuelitqueue

After

Lies of Silence

Brian Moore1990

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

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Denser prose

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  • 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.

    tense → playful

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak-1

  • The Sound and the Fury

    William Faulkner1929

    The decline of a Southern family told through four perspectives, including a non-linear stream of consciousness from a man with a disability.

    tense → elegiac

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

  • 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.

    tense → dreamlike

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak0

To recover

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  • Apprentice to the Villain

    Hannah Nicole Maehrer2024

    Evie Sage assists an evil overlord while a magical threat endangers their kingdom. The story follows their workplace dynamic and a looming siege.

    tense → playful

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-2

  • Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

    Steven D. Levitt

    An economist uses data to investigate the incentives behind real-world phenomena like cheating teachers and falling crime rates.

    tense → wry

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-2

  • The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible

    A.J. Jacobs

    A journalist spends one year attempting to follow every rule and commandment in the Bible as literally as possible.

    tense → playful

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-2

Faster

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  • Oath of Loyalty

    Kyle Mills2022

    CIA assassin Mitch Rapp goes off the grid to protect his partner while navigating a political conspiracy in Washington.

    tense → propulsive, still political thriller

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

  • The President Is Missing

    Bill Clinton2018

    The U.S. President goes underground to stop a cyberattack that threatens to wipe out the nation's electrical and financial infrastructure.

    tense → propulsive, still political thriller

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

  • Transfer of Power

    Vince Flynn1999

    Terrorists seize the White House and take hostages. CIA operative Mitch Rapp infiltrates the building alone to rescue the survivors.

    tense → propulsive, still political thriller

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

Slower

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  • 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.

    tense → clinical

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak0

  • Translated Accounts

    James Kelman2001

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

    tense → bleak

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1

  • 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.

    tense → elegiac

    pace-2·prose+1·bleak0

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • The North Water

    Ian McGuire2016

    A disgraced surgeon joins a whaling expedition where a psychopathic harpooner commits a murder. The crew becomes trapped in the Arctic ice.

    tense → cold, still noir

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

  • Red April

    Santiago Roncagliolo2009

    A prosecutor in 2000s Peru investigates a series of gruesome murders during Holy Week. He uncovers a conspiracy involving the military and rebels.

    tense → bleak, still political thriller

    pace0·prose0·bleak+1

  • The Road

    Cormac McCarthy2006

    A father and son walk through a landscape of ash and scavengers toward the coast. They carry only what fits in a shopping cart.

    tense → bleak

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1