LitQueuelitqueue

After

The Overdue Life of Amy Byler

Kelly Harms2019

5 of 6 directions open — nothing to recover from

More like it

Same playful register, still contemporary romance

1 more ↓

  • King of Pride

    Ana Huang2023

    A buttoned-up billionaire heir falls for an impulsive bartender while trying to secure a CEO position. They navigate a forbidden workplace romance.

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • Don Quixote

    Kathy Acker1986

    A woman undergoes an abortion and adopts the persona of Don Quixote to pursue a quest in a fragmented, postmodern landscape.

    playful → sardonic

    pace-1·prose+3·bleak+3

  • 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.

    playful → sardonic

    pace-1·prose+3·bleak+2

  • A Brief History of Seven Killings

    Marlon James2014

    A large cast of characters recounts the 1976 attempt on Bob Marley's life. The narrative spans decades and moves from Jamaica to New York.

    playful → propulsive

    pace0·prose+3·bleak+3

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.

    playful → sardonic

    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.

    Same playful register

    pace+1·prose0·bleak0

  • The Professional: Part 2 (The Game Maker, #1b)

    Kresley Cole

    A Russian enforcer continues his pursuit of a graduate student across Europe. The focus is on their sexual power dynamic and his mafia duties.

    playful → tense, still contemporary romance

    pace+1·prose0·bleak0

Slower

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    playful → clinical

    pace-2·prose+3·bleak+2

  • Translated Accounts

    James Kelman2001

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

    playful → bleak

    pace-2·prose+3·bleak+3

  • 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.

    playful → elegiac

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak+2

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • The Underground Railroad

    Colson Whitehead2016

    Two slaves escape a Georgia plantation via a literal underground train system while being pursued by a slave catcher.

    playful → bleak

    pace0·prose+2·bleak+3

  • Oryx and Crake

    Margaret Atwood2003

    A man survives a genetic apocalypse in a world of engineered creatures. He remembers his past with a scientist and the woman they both loved.

    playful → sardonic

    pace0·prose+2·bleak+3

  • A Little Life

    Hanya Yanagihara2015

    Four friends in New York over thirty years. One of them is being destroyed, and the book does not look away.

    playful → bleak

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+3