LitQueuelitqueue

After

What Came Before He Shot Her

Elizabeth George2006

5 of 6 directions open — nothing heavier

More like it

1 more ↓

  • Affinity

    Sarah Waters1999

    A grieving socialite visits a medium in a Victorian women's prison. Their relationship develops through diary entries and clandestine meetings.

    Same bleak register

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

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.

    bleak → playful

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-2

  • 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.

    bleak → dreamlike

    pace0·prose+1·bleak-1

  • Trainspotting

    Irvine Welsh1993

    A group of heroin addicts in Edinburgh navigate poverty, violence, and withdrawal. The narrative uses heavy phonetic Scottish dialect.

    bleak → sardonic

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak0

To recover

3 more ↓

  • It Starts with Us

    Colleen Hoover2022

    A single mother navigates a new relationship with her first love while managing a jealous ex-husband. The story alternates perspectives.

    bleak → earnest

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-3

  • Assistant to the Villain

    Hannah Nicole Maehrer2023

    A woman takes a job as an administrative assistant to a local villain to support her family. She manages his office while ignoring his evil deeds.

    bleak → playful

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-3

  • The Marriage Bargain

    Jennifer Probst2012

    A bookstore owner enters a one-year contract marriage with a billionaire to save her family's land. They must follow a set of rules to stay platonic.

    bleak → playful

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-3

Faster

bleak → propulsive, still crime

3 more ↓

  • Run Away

    Harlan Coben2019

    A father searches for his estranged, drug-addicted daughter in New York. The search uncovers a conspiracy involving a cult and multiple murders.

    pace+2·prose-2·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.

    bleak → propulsive

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-3

  • 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.

    bleak → propulsive

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2

Slower

3 more ↓

  • Tinkers

    Paul Harding2009

    An elderly clock repairman lies dying while his thoughts drift through his father's life as a peddler. The prose focuses on nature and mechanics.

    bleak → meditative, still psychological fiction

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-2

  • 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.

    bleak → 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.

    bleak → elegiac, still psychological fiction

    pace-1·prose0·bleak-1