LitQueuelitqueue

After

The Next Big Thing

Anita Brookner2002

5 of 6 directions open — nothing slower

More like it

1 more ↓

  • Astonishing Splashes of Colour

    Clare Morrall2003

    Kitty struggles with the grief of a stillbirth while navigating her eccentric family. She perceives her life through a filter of distinct colors.

    Same meditative register, still psychological fiction

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • Milkman

    Anna Burns2018

    An unnamed 18-year-old girl is stalked by an older paramilitary figure in 1970s Northern Ireland. The prose uses long, circuitous sentences.

    meditative → tense, still psychological fiction

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak0

  • The Conservationist

    Nadine Gordimer1974

    A wealthy white industrialist buys a farm outside Johannesburg. He struggles to maintain control over the land and the people on it.

    meditative → cold, still psychological fiction

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak0

  • Study for Obedience

    Sarah Bernstein2023

    A woman moves to a remote northern country to care for her brother. The local community grows hostile as she observes them.

    meditative → cold, still psychological fiction

    pace0·prose+1·bleak0

To recover

meditative → warm

3 more ↓

  • RoomHate

    Penelope Ward2016

    A woman returns to her childhood home and must share it with her former best friend. They navigate past betrayals and current attraction.

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2

  • The Unidentified Redhead

    Alice Clayton2013

    A 33-year-old actress returns to LA and begins a secret relationship with a younger, famous leading man. It follows their career and dating hurdles.

    meditative → playful

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2

  • A Peach of a Murder

    Livia J. Washburn2006

    A retired teacher and her friends investigate a murder at a peach festival in a small Texas town. The story includes recipes for peach-based dishes.

    pace+1·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.

    meditative → sardonic

    pace+3·prose-1·bleak-1

  • The Da Vinci Code

    Dan Brown2003

    A symbologist and a cryptologist flee the police while solving puzzles hidden in art. They search for a secret regarding the Holy Grail.

    meditative → propulsive

    pace+3·prose-2·bleak-2

  • The Martian

    Andy Weir2011

    A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.

    meditative → wry

    pace+3·prose-2·bleak-2

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • The Lighthouse

    Alison Moore2012

    A recently separated man takes a walking tour of Germany while reflecting on his childhood abandonment and his failing marriage.

    meditative → bleak, still psychological fiction

    pace+1·prose0·bleak+1

  • The White Hotel

    D. M. Thomas1981

    A woman's life is told through poems, a Freudian case study, and a narrative. It moves from her sexual fantasies to her death in the Holocaust.

    meditative → dreamlike, still psychological fiction

    pace+1·prose0·bleak+1

  • My Dark Vanessa

    Kate Elizabeth Russell2020

    Vanessa reflects on her teenage relationship with a teacher after he is accused of abuse. The narrative shifts between 2000 and 2017.

    meditative → bleak, still psychological fiction

    pace+2·prose0·bleak+1