LitQueuelitqueue

After

The Midnight Assassin

Skip Hollandsworth2016

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

Same tense register, still true crime

1 more ↓

  • There Will Be Fire

    Rory Carroll2023

    A journalistic account of the IRA's 1984 attempt to assassinate Margaret Thatcher and the subsequent police investigation.

    pace0·prose0·bleak-1

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison

    Michel Foucault

    A philosophical history examines the shift from public torture to modern prison surveillance. It analyzes how power controls the body.

    tense → clinical, still history

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak0

  • The Gulag Archipeligo 1918-1956: An Experiment In Literary Investigation I - Ii.

    Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

    A history of the Soviet forced labor camp system based on survivor reports and the author's own imprisonment. It documents state-run repression.

    tense → bleak, still history

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

  • Confessions

    Augustine of Hippo

    A 4th-century bishop writes a spiritual autobiography addressed to God. He recounts his sinful youth and his eventual conversion to Christianity.

    tense → meditative

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak-2

To recover

3 more ↓

  • Two for the dough

    Janet Evanovich1996

    An inexperienced bounty hunter tracks a man who jumped bail for shooting his friend. She competes with a vice cop to find him first.

    tense → playful

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-2

  • Better Off Dead

    Lee Child2021

    Jack Reacher investigates a staged car crash in Arizona and infiltrates a dangerous local crew to find a missing woman.

    tense → propulsive

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-2

  • Death by Darjeeling

    Laura Childs2001

    Theodosia Browning hosts a tea party where a guest is poisoned. She must find the killer among the local socialites of Charleston.

    tense → warm

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-2

Faster

3 more ↓

  • American Kingpin

    Nick Bilton2017

    This account follows Ross Ulbricht as he builds the Silk Road dark web market and the federal agents who spend years tracking him down.

    tense → propulsive, still true crime

    pace+1·prose0·bleak-1

  • The Sun and Her Flowers

    Rupi Kaur2017

    A collection of short, illustrated poems organized into five stages of growth. It covers themes of loss, trauma, and self-healing.

    tense → earnest

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

  • Pillow Thoughts

    Courtney Peppernell2016

    A collection of short poems and prose pieces organized by emotional state. It focuses on themes of heartbreak, healing, and loneliness.

    tense → tender

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

Slower

3 more ↓

  • The Frontier in American History

    Frederick Jackson Turner1920

    A series of essays arguing that the American character and democracy were shaped by the continuous expansion into the western wilderness.

    tense → clinical, still history

    pace-2·prose+1·bleak-2

  • Confessions

    Augustine of Hippo

    A 4th-century bishop writes a spiritual autobiography addressed to God. He recounts his sinful youth and his eventual conversion to Christianity.

    tense → meditative

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak-2

  • How to Read a Book

    Mortimer J. Adler1940

    This is a guide to active reading techniques for different genres. It outlines levels of reading from basic literacy to syntopical analysis.

    tense → mysterious

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak-1

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • A Thousand Lives

    Julia Scheeres2011

    This history follows the members of the Peoples Temple from their beginnings in Indiana to the mass murder-suicide in Jonestown, Guyana.

    tense → bleak, still true crime

    pace0·prose0·bleak+1

  • The Blood of Emmett Till

    Timothy B. Tyson2017

    A historical account of the 1955 lynching of a Black teenager in Mississippi. It uses new interviews and recently found trial transcripts.

    tense → elegiac, still true crime

    pace-1·prose0·bleak+1

  • The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II

    Iris Chang

    A historical account of the 1937 Japanese invasion of Nanking. It documents systematic mass execution and sexual violence.

    tense → bleak, still true crime

    pace0·prose0·bleak+1