LitQueuelitqueue

After

The Vampire Lestat

Anne Rice1985

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

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  • Circe

    Madeline Miller2018

    The daughter of a sun god is exiled to a deserted island for practicing witchcraft. She interacts with figures from Greek myth over centuries.

    Same elegiac register, still historical fantasy

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

elegiac → meditative, still historical fantasy

3 more ↓

  • The Habitation of the Blessed

    Catherynne M. Valente2010

    A priest finds the lost kingdom of Prester John. The story is told through three nested layers of journals, myths, and historical accounts.

    elegiac → dreamlike, still historical fantasy

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

  • Ficciones

    Jorge Luis Borges1945

    A collection of short stories exploring philosophical paradoxes, infinite libraries, and imaginary encyclopedias.

    elegiac → meditative

    pace0·prose+1·bleak0

  • At Swim-Two-Birds

    Flann O'Brien1939

    A student writes a story about a man whose own characters rebel and plot against him. It incorporates Irish myth and multiple layers of fiction.

    elegiac → playful

    pace0·prose+1·bleak-1

To recover

3 more ↓

  • The Trouble With Vampires

    Lynsay Sands2019

    A three-thousand-year-old immortal finds his fated life mate while hunting a rogue vampire. The professor he meets has her own hidden connection.

    elegiac → playful

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

  • Apprentice to the Villain

    Hannah Nicole Maehrer2024

    Evie Sage assists an evil overlord while a magical threat endangers their kingdom. The story follows their workplace dynamic and a looming siege.

    elegiac → playful

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

  • Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

    Steven D. Levitt

    An economist uses data to investigate the incentives behind real-world phenomena like cheating teachers and falling crime rates.

    elegiac → wry

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

Faster

3 more ↓

  • Mind's Eye

    Douglas E. Richards2014

    A man discovers he has the ability to access the internet and process data directly with his mind. He is hunted by a secret organization.

    elegiac → propulsive

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak0

  • The Atlantis Gene

    A.G. Riddle2013

    A geneticist and a counter-terrorism agent uncover a global conspiracy involving human evolution and an ancient Antarctic discovery.

    elegiac → propulsive

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak0

  • Monster Hunter International

    Larry Correia2007

    An accountant kills his boss, who has become a werewolf, and is recruited by a private company that hunts monsters for government bounties.

    elegiac → propulsive

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak0

Slower

3 more ↓

  • Boneland

    Alan Garner2012

    An adult Colin searches for his lost sister while an ancient shaman performs rituals in the same landscape. The two timelines mirror one another.

    Same elegiac register

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

  • Cloud & Ashes: Three Winter's Tales

    Greer Gilman2009

    A triptych of stories set in a mythic Yorkshire, told in dense, archaic dialect. It follows the intersections of folk magic and celestial myth.

    elegiac → dreamlike, still historical fantasy

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

  • Unfinished Tales

    J.R.R. Tolkien1980

    A collection of incomplete narratives and essays that expand the history, geography, and lore of Middle-earth.

    elegiac → meditative

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • The sad tale of the brothers Grossbart

    Jesse Bullington2009

    Two murderous brothers travel across 14th-century Europe to rob Egyptian tombs. They encounter monsters and religious zealots along the way.

    elegiac → sardonic, still historical fantasy

    pace+1·prose0·bleak+2

  • The Fifth Season

    N. K. Jemisin2015

    A mother searches for her daughter across a continent undergoing a tectonic apocalypse. Some chapters address the reader in the second person.

    elegiac → bleak

    pace+1·prose0·bleak+2

  • Pet Sematary

    Stephen King1983

    A family moves to Maine and discovers a burial ground that can return the dead to life. They use it, and the consequences are absolute.

    elegiac → tense

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak+2