LitQueuelitqueue

After

The Dancers of Arun

Elizabeth A. Lynn1979

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

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  • Loving Reaper

    Jenny Jinya2021

    A collection of short comics follows the personification of Death as he gently collects the souls of animals. It focuses on human-animal bonds.

    Same tender register, still fantasy

    pace0·prose-1·bleak0

Denser prose

tender → meditative

3 more ↓

  • Ink

    Hal Duncan2007

    Gods and mortals clash in a shifting city where reality is written on skin. The story follows a cycle of mythic archetypes across time.

    tender → dreamlike

    pace0·prose+2·bleak+1

  • The Light and the Dark

    Mikhail Shishkin2013

    Two lovers exchange letters that transcend time and space. One writes from a domestic life while the other writes from the front lines of a war.

    tender → elegiac

    pace0·prose+2·bleak+1

  • In the Night Garden

    Catherynne M. Valente2006

    A girl with tattooed eyelids tells a prince interlocking stories of monsters and folklore. The narrative is a series of nested myths.

    tender → dreamlike

    pace0·prose+2·bleak0

To recover

tender → playful

3 more ↓

  • Love in the Time of Dragons

    Katie MacAlister2010

    A mother wakes up in a world of dragon-shifters who believe she is a historical figure and sentence her to death for her past crimes.

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

  • Romancing Mister Bridgerton

    Julia Quinn2002

    A long-time wallflower and her friend's brother discover each other's secrets in Regency London. The plot centers on the identity of a gossip writer.

    tender → warm

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

  • The Rosie Project

    Graeme Simsion2013

    A genetics professor uses a detailed questionnaire to find a wife, then meets a woman who fails every criteria. He helps her find her father.

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

Faster

3 more ↓

  • Mind's Eye

    Douglas E. Richards2014

    A man discovers he has the ability to access the internet and process data directly with his mind. He is hunted by a secret organization.

    tender → propulsive

    pace+2·prose-1·bleak0

  • The Atlantis Gene

    A.G. Riddle2013

    A geneticist and a counter-terrorism agent uncover a global conspiracy involving human evolution and an ancient Antarctic discovery.

    tender → propulsive

    pace+2·prose-1·bleak0

  • Monster Hunter International

    Larry Correia2007

    An accountant kills his boss, who has become a werewolf, and is recruited by a private company that hunts monsters for government bounties.

    tender → propulsive

    pace+2·prose-1·bleak0

Slower

3 more ↓

  • The Habitation of the Blessed

    Catherynne M. Valente2010

    A priest finds the lost kingdom of Prester John. The story is told through three nested layers of journals, myths, and historical accounts.

    tender → dreamlike

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak0

  • Unfinished Tales

    J.R.R. Tolkien1980

    A collection of incomplete narratives and essays that expand the history, geography, and lore of Middle-earth.

    tender → meditative

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak0

  • A Slow Regard of Silent Things

    Patrick Rothfuss2013

    A young woman lives alone in the tunnels beneath a university, finding meaning in discarded objects and daily rituals.

    Same tender register, still fantasy

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • The Fifth Season

    N. K. Jemisin2015

    A mother searches for her daughter across a continent undergoing a tectonic apocalypse. Some chapters address the reader in the second person.

    tender → bleak

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak+2

  • Pet Sematary

    Stephen King1983

    A family moves to Maine and discovers a burial ground that can return the dead to life. They use it, and the consequences are absolute.

    tender → tense

    pace+1·prose0·bleak+2

  • The Poppy War

    R.F. Kuang2018

    A war orphan enters a military academy and discovers shamanic powers. She leads a unit into a total war inspired by 20th-century Chinese history.

    tender → bleak

    pace+1·prose0·bleak+2