LitQueuelitqueue

After

The Briar Club

Kate Quinn2024

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

1 more ↓

  • Violeta

    Isabel Allende2022

    A 100-year-old woman writes a letter detailing her life in South America. It spans from the 1920 pandemic to the 2020 pandemic.

    Same warm register, still historical 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.

    warm → sardonic, still historical fiction

    pace-1·prose+2·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.

    warm → playful

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak0

  • 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.

    warm → dreamlike

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

To recover

Same warm register, still mystery

3 more ↓

  • Death of a Maid

    Marion Chesney2007

    Police officer Hamish Macbeth investigates the murder of a local maid killed with a bucket. He interviews the employers whose secrets she kept.

    warm → wry, still mystery

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

  • The Trouble With Magic

    Madelyn Alt2006

    A shop clerk in a small town discovers she has heritage in witchcraft while investigating a local murder.

    warm → playful

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

  • Hot mahogany

    Stuart Woods2008

    A lawyer guards a former spy with amnesia who restores antique furniture. They uncover a conspiracy linked to the man's service in Vietnam.

    warm → wry, still mystery

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

Faster

3 more ↓

  • Tell No One

    Harlan Coben2000

    A widower receives an email from his wife eight years after her murder. He flees the FBI to discover if she is still alive.

    warm → propulsive, still mystery

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak0

  • Ten Big Ones

    Janet Evanovich2004

    Stephanie Plum witnesses a gang hit and becomes a target herself. She balances the threat with her ongoing romantic indecision.

    warm → playful, still mystery

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

  • Private Vegas

    James Patterson2015

    Jack Morgan investigates a man who trains women to become killers in Las Vegas. The story follows multiple perspectives in short chapters.

    warm → propulsive, still mystery

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak0

Slower

warm → elegiac, still historical fiction

3 more ↓

  • 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·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.

    warm → playful

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak0

  • Lila

    Marilynne Robinson2014

    A woman with a traumatic, nomadic past settles in a small Iowa town and marries a minister. She struggles to reconcile her history with his faith.

    warm → tender, still historical fiction

    pace-2·prose+1·bleak0

Heavier

warm → bleak, still historical fiction

3 more ↓

  • The Confessions of Nat Turner

    William Styron1967

    A fictionalized confession of the leader of an 1831 slave revolt while he awaits execution in a Virginia jail cell.

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2

  • The Known World

    Edward P. Jones2003

    A black man who was once a slave becomes a slave owner in antebellum Virginia. The story follows the fallout on the plantation after his death.

    warm → meditative, still historical fiction

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2

  • A Long Long Way

    Sebastian Barry2005

    A young Irishman joins the British Army to fight in the trenches of World War I while his home country moves toward rebellion.

    warm → elegiac, still historical fiction

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2