LitQueuelitqueue

After

Pines

Blake Crouch2012

5 of 6 directions open — nothing faster

More like it

1 more ↓

  • Consent to kill

    Vince Flynn2006

    CIA assassin Mitch Rapp becomes the target of a multi-million dollar bounty funded by a Saudi billionaire and a former East German spy.

    Same tense register

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Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • Amberes

    Roberto Bolaño2002

    A fragmented series of fifty-six short sections follows a police officer, a redhead, and a hunchback through a series of loosely linked crimes.

    tense → cold

    pace-2·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.

    tense → dreamlike

    pace-2·prose+3·bleak0

  • American Psycho

    Bret Easton Ellis1991

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

    tense → cold

    pace-2·prose+3·bleak+1

To recover

3 more ↓

  • The Colour of Magic

    Terry Pratchett1983

    A failed wizard and a naive tourist travel across a flat world carried by a turtle. The story parodies fantasy tropes and clichés.

    tense → playful

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-2

  • The Rowan

    Anne McCaffrey1990

    A powerful telepath living in isolation connects with a distant mind to defend against an alien invasion. It follows their psychic courtship.

    tense → earnest

    pace-2·prose+1·bleak-2

  • The Kaiju Preservation Society

    John Scalzi2022

    A food delivery driver joins a secret organization that travels to an alternate Earth to care for massive, dinosaur-like creatures.

    tense → playful

    pace0·prose0·bleak-2

Slower

3 more ↓

  • Dhalgren

    Samuel R. Delany1975

    An amnesiac wanderer enters Bellona, a city cut off from the world where time and geography shift. He joins a gang and writes poetry.

    tense → dreamlike

    pace-3·prose+3·bleak0

  • 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.

    tense → playful

    pace-3·prose+3·bleak-2

  • 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-3·prose+3·bleak-1

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • The Angel's Game

    Carlos Ruiz Zafón2009

    In 1920s Barcelona, a young writer is hired by a mysterious publisher to write a book that will create a new religion.

    tense → dark, still dystopian

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

  • High-Rise

    J.G. Ballard

    Residents of a luxury apartment building descend into tribalism and violence. The social structure collapses floor by floor.

    tense → clinical, still dystopian

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1

  • The Virgin Suicides

    Jeffrey Eugenides

    A group of neighborhood boys obsessively observes five sisters in 1970s Michigan. They document the girls' lives leading up to their suicides.

    Same tense register, still mystery

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1