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After

The Painted Veil

W. Somerset Maugham1925

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More like it

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  • Gangster

    Lorenzo Carcaterra2001

    An orphan rises through the ranks of the New York City underworld in the early 20th century to become a powerful mob boss.

    wry → elegiac, still historical fiction

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • Madame Bovary

    Gustave Flaubert1856

    A doctor's wife in provincial France seeks escape from her mundane life through expensive tastes and extramarital affairs.

    wry → tense

    pace0·prose+2·bleak0

  • Paradise Logic

    Sophie Kemp2025

    A young woman follows advice from a magazine to become a perfect partner. Her quest involves surreal jobs and messages from the beyond.

    wry → epic

    pace0·prose+2·bleak0

  • War and Peace

    Leo Tolstoy1845

    Five aristocratic families navigate the social and political shifts of Russia during the Napoleonic Wars.

    wry → meditative, still historical fiction

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1

To recover

3 more ↓

  • And One Last Thing...

    Molly Harper2010

    After a public divorce, a woman moves to a small town to start over and finds herself pursued by a local deputy.

    Same wry register

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-2

  • Perfection

    R.L. Mathewson2011

    A woman tries to ignore her neighbor, a man with a massive appetite who constantly steals her food. They bicker until a relationship forms.

    wry → playful

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-2

  • On a Pale Horse

    Piers Anthony1983

    After accidentally killing the personification of Death, a man must take over the office. He navigates the bureaucracy of the afterlife.

    wry → playful

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-2

Faster

wry → propulsive

3 more ↓

  • Savage Prince

    Meghan March2018

    A powerful man in the New Orleans underworld becomes obsessed with a woman and pursues her despite the danger of his lifestyle.

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

  • 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.

    wry → tense

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

  • Victory at Prescott High

    C.M. Stunich

    A high school girl seeks revenge against the boys who bullied her while navigating a complex relationship with all of them at once.

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

Slower

wry → elegiac, still historical fiction

3 more ↓

  • Ulysses

    James Joyce1914

    Three characters wander through Dublin on a single day in 1904. Each chapter uses a different literary style to mimic thoughts and sensations.

    wry → playful, still literary fiction

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak-1

  • Lila

    Marilynne Robinson2014

    A woman with a traumatic, nomadic past settles in a small Iowa town and marries a minister. She struggles to reconcile her history with his faith.

    wry → tender, still historical fiction

    pace-2·prose+1·bleak-1

  • Absalom, Absalom!

    William Faulkner1936

    The rise and fall of Thomas Sutpen is recounted through multiple, conflicting memories. The prose uses extremely long, complex sentences.

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1

Heavier

wry → elegiac, still historical fiction

3 more ↓

  • Tess of the D’Urbervilles

    Thomas Hardy

    A country girl is sent to claim kinship with wealthy relatives. Her life is derailed by a sequence of social betrayals and rigid moral standards.

    wry → elegiac, still literary fiction

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

  • The Nickel Boys

    Colson Whitehead2019

    A studious black teenager in 1960s Florida is sent to a brutal reform school where physical abuse is systemic.

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

  • The Bluest Eye

    Toni Morrison1970

    A young Black girl in 1940s Ohio prays for blue eyes as a way to escape her reality. The narrative follows her family's collapse and trauma.

    wry → bleak, still historical fiction

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1