LitQueuelitqueue

After

The Driver's Seat

Muriel Spark1970

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

1 more ↓

  • The Dog

    Joseph O'Neill2014

    A lawyer moves to Dubai to manage the finances of a wealthy family after a breakup. He spends his time overthinking his moral and legal complicity.

    cold → wry, still satire

    pace-1·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • The Sound and the Fury

    William Faulkner1929

    The decline of a Southern family told through four perspectives, including a non-linear stream of consciousness from a man with a disability.

    cold → elegiac, still unreliable narrator

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

  • 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.

    cold → dreamlike, still unreliable narrator

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

  • The Vivisector

    Patrick White1970

    A painter uses the people in his life as raw material for his art. He observes their flaws and suffering to translate them onto canvas.

    Same cold register

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

To recover

3 more ↓

  • Redshirts

    John Scalzi2012

    Low-ranking crew members on a starship realize they are disposable characters in a sci-fi television show. They attempt to escape their fate.

    cold → playful, still satire

    pace0·prose-2·bleak-2

  • Walking Disaster

    Jamie McGuire2013

    This novel retells the events of 'Beautiful Disaster' from the perspective of Travis Maddox. It follows his college years and obsession with Abby.

    cold → propulsive

    pace0·prose-2·bleak-2

  • Year zero

    Reid, Robert2012

    Aliens discover that Earth's music is the best in the galaxy and they owe humanity trillions in copyright fines.

    cold → playful, still satire

    pace0·prose-2·bleak-2

Faster

3 more ↓

  • Candide

    Voltaire

    A naive young man travels the world while his tutor insists that everything is for the best. He encounters a series of global catastrophes.

    cold → sardonic, still satire

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

  • Dial A for Aunties

    Jesse Q. Sutanto2021

    A photographer accidentally kills her blind date. Her mother and aunties help hide the body during a massive luxury wedding.

    cold → playful

    pace+1·prose-2·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.

    cold → propulsive, still psychological thriller

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

Slower

3 more ↓

  • The Pale King

    David Foster Wallace2011

    An unfinished, experimental novel about the mundane daily operations of an IRS processing center in 1985 Illinois.

    cold → sardonic, still satire

    pace-2·prose+1·bleak0

  • Umbrella

    Will Self2013

    A psychiatrist in 1971 treats a woman who has been catatonic for decades. The prose shifts between eras and consciousnesses without paragraph breaks.

    cold → clinical

    pace-2·prose+1·bleak0

  • Translated Accounts

    James Kelman2001

    Anonymous witnesses describe life under a military regime. The prose uses broken, bureaucratic syntax to mimic a literal translation.

    cold → bleak

    pace-2·prose+1·bleak+1

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • We need to talk about Kevin

    Lionel Shriver2003

    A mother writes letters to her husband after their teenage son commits a school shooting. She examines her own coldness and their family history.

    Same cold register, still psychological thriller

    pace-1·prose0·bleak+1

  • Dorian

    Will Self2002

    A modern retelling of Oscar Wilde's novel set in the London drug and art scenes of the 1980s. A video installation ages while the subject does not.

    cold → sardonic, still satire

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

  • The Road

    Cormac McCarthy2006

    A father and son walk through a landscape of ash and scavengers toward the coast. They carry only what fits in a shopping cart.

    cold → bleak

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1