LitQueuelitqueue

After

Shadow of Night

Deborah Harkness2012

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

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  • The Book of Kells

    R. A. MacAvoy1985

    An artist and his partner travel from the present day to 9th-century Ireland to protect a sacred manuscript from Vikings.

    meditative → tender, still historical fantasy

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Denser prose

2 more ↓

  • Madame Bovary

    Gustave Flaubert1856

    A doctor's wife in provincial France seeks escape from her mundane life through expensive tastes and extramarital affairs.

    meditative → tense

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  • Paradise Logic

    Sophie Kemp2025

    A young woman follows advice from a magazine to become a perfect partner. Her quest involves surreal jobs and messages from the beyond.

    meditative → epic

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To recover

meditative → playful, still paranormal romance

3 more ↓

  • How to Marry a Millionaire Vampire

    Kerrelyn Sparks2005

    A vampire who broke a fang kidnaps a dentist who is afraid of blood. She is hiding from the mafia while he needs his smile repaired.

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  • Undead and Unwed

    MaryJanice Davidson2004

    After dying in a car crash, a fashion-obsessed woman wakes up as a vampire. She resists the local undead community's claim that she is their queen.

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

  • My Roommate Is a Vampire

    Jenna Levine2023

    An artist moves in with a man who sleeps all day and speaks in an archaic style. She eventually discovers he is a vampire from the 1800s.

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Faster

3 more ↓

  • Ill Wind

    Rachel Caine2003

    A weather warden on the run from the law uses her ability to control storms to protect people from rogue elemental forces.

    meditative → propulsive, still paranormal romance

    pace+2·prose-1·bleak0

  • Paper Princess

    Erin Watt2016

    An orphaned girl is taken in by a wealthy family with five hostile sons. She must navigate high school bullying and mansion politics.

    meditative → propulsive

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  • Savage Prince

    Meghan March2018

    A powerful man in the New Orleans underworld becomes obsessed with a woman and pursues her despite the danger of his lifestyle.

    meditative → propulsive

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak0

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.

    meditative → dreamlike

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

  • 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.

    meditative → playful

    pace-1·prose+1·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.

    meditative → playful

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Heavier

3 more ↓

  • Tess of the D’Urbervilles

    Thomas Hardy

    A country girl is sent to claim kinship with wealthy relatives. Her life is derailed by a sequence of social betrayals and rigid moral standards.

    meditative → elegiac

    pace0·prose0·bleak+2

  • Brokeback Mountain

    Annie Proulx1997

    Two ranch hands begin a secret sexual and emotional relationship in 1963 Wyoming. The story follows their occasional meetings over twenty years.

    meditative → elegiac

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  • Bright Side

    Kim Holden2014

    An optimistic college student moves to Minnesota for a fresh start while hiding a terminal diagnosis from her best friend.

    meditative → tender

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak+2