Sarah's Key

Those Who Save Us

Jenna Blum2004

A history professor investigates her mother’s hidden life in Nazi Germany, centering on a photograph of a high-ranking SS officer.

Same elegiac register, still historical fiction

pace-1·prose0·bleak0

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.

elegiac → cold

pace-1·prose+2·bleak0

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.

elegiac → playful

pace-2·prose+2·bleak-1

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.

elegiac → dreamlike

pace-1·prose+2·bleak0

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.

elegiac → earnest

pace-1·prose-1·bleak-2

The Score

Elle Kennedy2016

A college senior has a one-night stand with a hockey player to get over a breakup. They continue the arrangement as graduation approaches.

elegiac → playful

pace0·prose-1·bleak-2

To Sir Phillip, With Love

Julia Quinn2003

Eloise Bridgerton travels to meet a widowed baronet she has only known through letters. They consider a marriage of convenience.

elegiac → warm

pace0·prose-1·bleak-2

Behind Closed Doors

B.A. Paris2016

A woman is held captive by her husband in a high-security home. She must find a way to escape before her sister moves in with them.

pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

Kiss the Girls

James Patterson1995

Detective Alex Cross tracks two serial killers operating on opposite coasts who are communicating and competing with one another.

elegiac → tense

pace+1·prose-1·bleak0

Verity

Colleen Hoover2018

A ghostwriter moves into a secluded estate to finish a series for an injured author and finds a hidden, disturbing autobiography.

elegiac → tense

pace+1·prose-1·bleak0

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.

elegiac → playful

pace-2·prose+2·bleak-1

Kolyma tales

Varlam SHALAMOV1980

Short stories documenting daily life and survival in a Soviet labor camp. The prose is detached and focuses on the physical reality of starvation.

elegiac → clinical, still historical fiction

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.

pace-2·prose+1·bleak0

Affinity

Sarah Waters1999

A grieving socialite visits a medium in a Victorian women's prison. Their relationship develops through diary entries and clandestine meetings.

elegiac → bleak, still historical fiction

pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

Libra

Don DeLillo1988

A fictionalized biography of Lee Harvey Oswald. It follows his life and the CIA conspiracy that leads to the assassination of JFK.

elegiac → eerie, still historical fiction

pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

A Fine Balance

Rohinton Mistry1995

Four people from different castes share a small apartment during the 1975 Indian Emergency. Their lives are upended by state-sanctioned violence.

elegiac → bleak, still historical fiction

pace-1·prose0·bleak+1