LitQueuelitqueue

After

Something Borrowed

Emily Giffin2004

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

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  • You Don't Have to Say You Love Me

    Sarra Manning2011

    A woman enters a fake relationship with her sister's colleague to gain romantic experience before her long-term crush returns to town.

    Same wry register, still contemporary romance

    pace0·prose+1·bleak-1

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • Madame Bovary

    Gustave Flaubert1856

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

    wry → tense

    pace0·prose+3·bleak+1

  • 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.

    wry → epic

    pace0·prose+3·bleak+1

  • Mad Mabel

    Sally Hepworth2025

    An eighty-one-year-old woman with a history of killing people tries to hide her past when a curious young girl moves into the neighborhood.

    wry → dark

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak0

To recover

3 more ↓

  • Can You Keep a Secret?

    Sophie Kinsella2003

    A woman confesses her deepest secrets to a stranger on a plane, only to discover he is her company's CEO. They navigate a workplace romance.

    wry → playful, still contemporary romance

    pace0·prose0·bleak-1

  • Queen of Babble Gets Hitched

    Meg Cabot2008

    A talkative woman plans her wedding at a French chateau while dealing with her ex-boyfriend and career complications.

    wry → playful, still contemporary romance

    pace0·prose0·bleak-1

  • Something Blue

    Emily Giffin2005

    A pregnant woman moves to London to rebuild her life after her fiancé leaves her. She navigates new friendships and a loss of status.

    Same wry register, still contemporary romance

    pace0·prose0·bleak-1

Faster

3 more ↓

  • Victory at Prescott High

    C.M. Stunich

    A high school girl seeks revenge against the boys who bullied her while navigating a complex relationship with all of them at once.

    wry → propulsive, still contemporary romance

    pace+1·prose0·bleak0

  • Burn for Me

    Ilona Andrews2014

    A private investigator with the ability to tell truth from lies is hired to find a fire-user. She is forced to work with a dangerous billionaire.

    wry → propulsive

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak0

  • Hounded

    Kevin Hearne2011

    A two-thousand-year-old Druid lives in modern Arizona and runs an occult bookshop. He must fight a vengeful Irish god who wants his sword.

    Same wry register

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak0

Slower

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    wry → playful

    pace-2·prose+3·bleak0

  • Absalom, Absalom!

    William Faulkner1936

    The rise and fall of Thomas Sutpen is recounted through multiple, conflicting memories. The prose uses extremely long, complex sentences.

    wry → elegiac

    pace-2·prose+3·bleak+2

  • Either/Or

    Søren Kierkegaard1992

    A collection of papers presents two life philosophies: the aesthetic pursuit of pleasure and the ethical commitment to duty.

    wry → meditative

    pace-2·prose+3·bleak0

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • Wuthering Heights

    Emily Brontë1846

    Two families on the Yorkshire moors deal with the arrival and subsequent revenge of an adopted orphan. The story is told through nested narrators.

    wry → bleak

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2

  • A Farewell to Arms

    Ernest Hemingway1929

    An American ambulance driver and a British nurse conduct a love affair during the Italian campaign of World War I.

    wry → elegiac

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2

  • 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.

    wry → elegiac

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2