LitQueuelitqueue

After

On Beauty

Zadie Smith2005

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

1 more ↓

  • The Mighty Red

    Louise Erdrich2024

    In a North Dakota town, a young woman enters a marriage of convenience while her mother and a local giant observe from the periphery.

    Same wry register, still literary fiction

    pace0·prose0·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

  • 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.

    wry → dreamlike

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

To recover

3 more ↓

  • An Offer From a Gentleman

    Julia Quinn2001

    The illegitimate daughter of an earl works as a servant for her stepmother. She sneaks into a masquerade ball and meets Benedict Bridgerton.

    wry → playful

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

  • Rich People Problems

    Kevin Kwan2017

    An extended family gathers in Singapore as their matriarch lies dying. They scheme against one another to inherit a massive estate.

    wry → playful

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

  • Royal Dad

    Leanne Banks2001

    An American tutor travels to a foreign kingdom to teach a young prince and enters a romantic relationship with his widowed father.

    wry → warm

    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 ↓

  • 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.

    wry → elegiac, still literary fiction

    pace-1·prose0·bleak+1

  • 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.

    wry → clinical

    pace-1·prose+1·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.

    wry → elegiac, still literary fiction

    pace-1·prose0·bleak+1

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • The story of a brief marriage

    Anuk Arudpragasam2016

    Two refugees enter an arranged marriage in a Sri Lankan camp during the final days of the civil war. It focuses on the physical details of survival.

    wry → meditative, still literary fiction

    pace-1·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