LitQueuelitqueue

After

The White Hotel

D. M. Thomas1981

5 of 6 directions open — nothing heavier

More like it

1 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.

    dreamlike → bleak, still psychological fiction

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    dreamlike → cold, still psychological fiction

    pace0·prose+1·bleak-1

  • The Wake

    Paul Kingsnorth2014

    A landowner in 1066 leads a guerrilla resistance against Norman invaders. The story is written in a modified version of Old English.

    dreamlike → bleak, still historical fiction

    pace0·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.

    dreamlike → cold, still psychological fiction

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1

To recover

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    dreamlike → earnest

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-3

  • The Martian

    Andy Weir2011

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

    dreamlike → wry

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-3

  • Ready Player One

    Ernest Cline2008

    A teenager in a dystopian future hunts for a digital easter egg inside a massive simulation. The quest relies on 1980s pop culture trivia.

    dreamlike → propulsive

    pace+2·prose-2·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.

    dreamlike → sardonic

    pace+2·prose-1·bleak-2

  • 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.

    dreamlike → propulsive

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-3

  • The Martian

    Andy Weir2011

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

    dreamlike → wry

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-3

Slower

3 more ↓

  • February

    Lisa Moore2009

    A widow in Newfoundland moves between her quiet daily routines and the memory of her husband's death on a sunken oil rig decades earlier.

    dreamlike → elegiac, still psychological fiction

    pace-1·prose0·bleak-1

  • The Wilderness

    Samantha Harvey2009

    An architect with Alzheimer's attempts to reconstruct his life story. The narrative fragments as his memory and sense of time dissolve.

    dreamlike → elegiac, still psychological fiction

    pace-1·prose0·bleak-1

  • The Next Big Thing

    Anita Brookner2002

    A seventy-three-year-old man in London contemplates his few remaining options for the future. He considers travel, marriage, and his isolation.

    dreamlike → meditative, still psychological fiction

    pace-1·prose0·bleak-1