LitQueuelitqueue

After

There Will Be Fire

Rory Carroll2023

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

Same tense register, still true crime

1 more ↓

  • Eden Undone

    Abbott Kahler2024

    A group of European settlers attempts to build a utopia on a Galapagos island in the 1930s. Disappearances and mysterious deaths follow.

    pace0·prose0·bleak+1

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison

    Michel Foucault

    A philosophical history examines the shift from public torture to modern prison surveillance. It analyzes how power controls the body.

    tense → clinical, still history

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

  • The Gulag Archipeligo 1918-1956: An Experiment In Literary Investigation I - Ii.

    Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

    A history of the Soviet forced labor camp system based on survivor reports and the author's own imprisonment. It documents state-run repression.

    tense → bleak, still history

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2

  • Confessions

    Augustine of Hippo

    A 4th-century bishop writes a spiritual autobiography addressed to God. He recounts his sinful youth and his eventual conversion to Christianity.

    tense → meditative

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak-1

To recover

3 more ↓

  • Speaking for Myself: Faith, Freedom, and the Fight of Our Lives Inside the Trump White House

    Sarah Huckabee Sanders

    The former Press Secretary recounts her time in the Trump administration. She describes daily operations and her defense of the president's policies.

    tense → earnest

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

  • Redshirts

    John Scalzi2012

    Low-ranking crew members on a starship realize they are disposable characters in a sci-fi television show. They attempt to escape their fate.

    tense → playful

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

  • 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.

    tense → propulsive

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

Faster

3 more ↓

  • American Kingpin

    Nick Bilton2017

    This account follows Ross Ulbricht as he builds the Silk Road dark web market and the federal agents who spend years tracking him down.

    tense → propulsive, still true crime

    pace+1·prose0·bleak0

  • The Sun and Her Flowers

    Rupi Kaur2017

    A collection of short, illustrated poems organized into five stages of growth. It covers themes of loss, trauma, and self-healing.

    tense → earnest

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak0

  • Pillow Thoughts

    Courtney Peppernell2016

    A collection of short poems and prose pieces organized by emotional state. It focuses on themes of heartbreak, healing, and loneliness.

    tense → tender

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

Slower

3 more ↓

  • The Frontier in American History

    Frederick Jackson Turner1920

    A series of essays arguing that the American character and democracy were shaped by the continuous expansion into the western wilderness.

    tense → clinical, still history

    pace-2·prose+1·bleak-1

  • Confessions

    Augustine of Hippo

    A 4th-century bishop writes a spiritual autobiography addressed to God. He recounts his sinful youth and his eventual conversion to Christianity.

    tense → meditative

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak-1

  • How to Read a Book

    Mortimer J. Adler1940

    This is a guide to active reading techniques for different genres. It outlines levels of reading from basic literacy to syntopical analysis.

    tense → mysterious

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak0

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • A Thousand Lives

    Julia Scheeres2011

    This history follows the members of the Peoples Temple from their beginnings in Indiana to the mass murder-suicide in Jonestown, Guyana.

    tense → bleak, still true crime

    pace0·prose0·bleak+2

  • The Blood of Emmett Till

    Timothy B. Tyson2017

    A historical account of the 1955 lynching of a Black teenager in Mississippi. It uses new interviews and recently found trial transcripts.

    tense → elegiac, still true crime

    pace-1·prose0·bleak+2

  • The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II

    Iris Chang

    A historical account of the 1937 Japanese invasion of Nanking. It documents systematic mass execution and sexual violence.

    tense → bleak, still true crime

    pace0·prose0·bleak+2