LitQueuelitqueue

After

The Warehouse

Rob hart2019

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

1 more ↓

  • The blue nowhere

    Jeffery Deaver2001

    The police release a convicted hacker from prison to help them track a serial killer who uses social engineering and code to trap victims.

    Same tense register, still techno thriller

    pace0·prose0·bleak-1

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • Blood on the dining-room floor

    Gertrude Stein1948

    A repetitive, circular narrative about a death in a country house. It uses experimental prose to obscure the facts of a traditional mystery.

    tense → playful

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak-1

  • The Doves Necklace

    Raja Alem2014

    A detective investigates an unidentified woman's body found in a Mecca alleyway. The city itself narrates parts of the story.

    tense → dreamlike

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak0

  • American Psycho

    Bret Easton Ellis1991

    A wealthy investment banker details his daily routines, consumer habits, and graphic murders. The narrative is cold and repetitive.

    tense → cold

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

To recover

3 more ↓

  • Digital Fortress

    Dan Brown1998

    The NSA's code-breaking supercomputer encounters an unbreakable algorithm. A cryptographer and a professor race to find the kill code.

    tense → propulsive

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

  • The President Is Missing

    Bill Clinton2018

    The U.S. President goes underground to stop a cyberattack that threatens to wipe out the nation's electrical and financial infrastructure.

    tense → propulsive, still techno thriller

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

  • Fifty Shades of Grey

    E.L. James2000

    A college student enters a sexual contract with a wealthy businessman. The story focuses on their power dynamics and BDSM encounters.

    tense → earnest

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-2

Faster

tense → propulsive, still techno thriller

3 more ↓

  • The President Is Missing

    Bill Clinton2018

    The U.S. President goes underground to stop a cyberattack that threatens to wipe out the nation's electrical and financial infrastructure.

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

  • Pines

    Blake Crouch2012

    A Secret Service agent searches for missing colleagues in an Idaho town he cannot leave. The townspeople and physics itself seem to work against him.

    Same tense register, still dystopian

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak0

  • The Housemaid's Secret

    Freida McFadden2023

    A housemaid with a criminal record takes a job for a wealthy couple. She becomes obsessed with the wife she is forbidden from seeing.

    tense → propulsive

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

Slower

3 more ↓

  • Dhalgren

    Samuel R. Delany1975

    An amnesiac wanderer enters Bellona, a city cut off from the world where time and geography shift. He joins a gang and writes poetry.

    tense → dreamlike

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak0

  • Gödel, Escher, Bach

    Douglas R. Hofstadter1979

    An exploration of how cognition emerges from hidden neurological patterns. It uses math, art, and music to explain self-referential systems.

    tense → playful

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak-2

  • 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.

    tense → playful

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak-1

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • High-Rise

    J.G. Ballard

    Residents of a luxury apartment building descend into tribalism and violence. The social structure collapses floor by floor.

    tense → clinical, still dystopian

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

  • 1984

    George Orwell2021

    In a world of total surveillance, a low-level party worker begins an illegal affair and starts a private journal.

    tense → bleak, still dystopian

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

  • American Psycho

    Bret Easton Ellis1991

    A wealthy investment banker details his daily routines, consumer habits, and graphic murders. The narrative is cold and repetitive.

    tense → cold

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1