LitQueuelitqueue

After

Novels (Angels & Demons / Da Vinci Code)

Dan Brown2003

5 of 6 directions open — nothing faster

More like it

Same propulsive register, still thriller

1 more ↓

  • Adrenaline

    Jeff Abbott2010

    A CIA agent’s life is destroyed when his wife warns him of a bombing and then vanishes. He must find her while being interrogated as a suspect.

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • Blood on the dining-room floor

    Gertrude Stein1948

    A repetitive, circular narrative about a death in a country house. It uses experimental prose to obscure the facts of a traditional mystery.

    propulsive → playful

    pace-3·prose+3·bleak0

  • The Doves Necklace

    Raja Alem2014

    A detective investigates an unidentified woman's body found in a Mecca alleyway. The city itself narrates parts of the story.

    propulsive → dreamlike

    pace-2·prose+3·bleak+1

  • American Psycho

    Bret Easton Ellis1991

    A wealthy investment banker details his daily routines, consumer habits, and graphic murders. The narrative is cold and repetitive.

    propulsive → cold

    pace-2·prose+3·bleak+2

To recover

Same propulsive register, still thriller

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    propulsive → playful

    pace-1·prose0·bleak-1

  • Another roadside attraction

    Tom Robbins1971

    A group of eccentrics at a roadside zoo discover the body of Jesus Christ. The narrative is a philosophical satire of 1960s counterculture.

    propulsive → playful

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak-1

  • The Swerve: How the World Became Modern

    Stephen Greenblatt2011

    A Renaissance book hunter discovers a lost poem by Lucretius. The text traces how this discovery reintroduced atomism and secularism to the West.

    propulsive → meditative

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak-1

Slower

3 more ↓

  • Gödel, Escher, Bach

    Douglas R. Hofstadter1979

    An exploration of how cognition emerges from hidden neurological patterns. It uses math, art, and music to explain self-referential systems.

    propulsive → playful

    pace-3·prose+3·bleak-1

  • 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-3·prose+3·bleak0

  • A maça no escuro

    Clarice Lispector1961

    A man flees into the Brazilian interior believing he killed his wife. He works on a remote farm while navigating his own internal monologue.

    propulsive → meditative

    pace-3·prose+3·bleak+1

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • Sharp Objects

    Gillian Flynn2006

    A reporter returns to her hometown to cover the murders of two girls while grappling with her own history of self-harm.

    propulsive → tense

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2

  • In Cold Blood

    Truman Capote1965

    A reconstruction of the 1959 murder of a Kansas family and the subsequent investigation. It follows both the victims and the killers.

    propulsive → clinical

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak+2

  • Lord of the Flies

    William Golding1954

    Schoolboys are stranded on an island and try to organize a society. Order collapses into tribalism and violence.

    propulsive → tense

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2