LitQueuelitqueue

After

A Cupboard Full of Coats

Yvvette Edwards2011

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

Same elegiac register, still mystery

1 more ↓

  • Star of the Sea

    Joseph O'Connor2002

    Hundreds of refugees flee the Irish Famine on a ship bound for New York in 1847. A killer hides among the passengers as their histories unfold.

    pace0·prose+1·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • Don Quixote

    Kathy Acker1986

    A woman undergoes an abortion and adopts the persona of Don Quixote to pursue a quest in a fragmented, postmodern landscape.

    elegiac → sardonic

    pace0·prose+2·bleak+1

  • Translated Accounts

    James Kelman2001

    Anonymous witnesses describe life under a military regime. The prose uses broken, bureaucratic syntax to mimic a literal translation.

    elegiac → bleak

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

  • Gravity's Rainbow

    Thomas Pynchon1973

    During the end of WWII, an American lieutenant's sexual encounters seem to predict where German V-2 rockets will fall. The narrative is fragmented.

    elegiac → sardonic

    pace0·prose+2·bleak0

To recover

3 more ↓

  • Two for the dough

    Janet Evanovich1996

    An inexperienced bounty hunter tracks a man who jumped bail for shooting his friend. She competes with a vice cop to find him first.

    elegiac → playful, still mystery

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

  • Catering to Nobody

    Diane Mott Davidson1990

    A Colorado caterer is accused of poisoning a guest at a wake. She investigates the murder to save her business and includes recipes in the text.

    elegiac → warm, still mystery

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

  • Real Murders

    Charlaine Harris1990

    A librarian in a small Georgia town belongs to a club that studies famous crimes. A real murder occurs that mimics a historical case.

    elegiac → wry, still mystery

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

Faster

elegiac → propulsive, still mystery

3 more ↓

  • Ten Big Ones

    Janet Evanovich2004

    Stephanie Plum witnesses a gang hit and becomes a target herself. She balances the threat with her ongoing romantic indecision.

    elegiac → playful, still mystery

    pace+2·prose-1·bleak-2

  • Private Vegas

    James Patterson2015

    Jack Morgan investigates a man who trains women to become killers in Las Vegas. The story follows multiple perspectives in short chapters.

    pace+2·prose-1·bleak-1

  • Dial A for Aunties

    Jesse Q. Sutanto2021

    A photographer accidentally kills her blind date. Her mother and aunties help hide the body during a massive luxury wedding.

    elegiac → playful

    pace+2·prose-1·bleak-2

Slower

3 more ↓

  • Umbrella

    Will Self2013

    A psychiatrist in 1971 treats a woman who has been catatonic for decades. The prose shifts between eras and consciousnesses without paragraph breaks.

    elegiac → clinical

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak0

  • Translated Accounts

    James Kelman2001

    Anonymous witnesses describe life under a military regime. The prose uses broken, bureaucratic syntax to mimic a literal translation.

    elegiac → bleak

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

  • 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.

    elegiac → playful, still mystery

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak-1

Heavier

elegiac → bleak, still mystery

3 more ↓

  • The Road

    Cormac McCarthy2006

    A father and son walk through a landscape of ash and scavengers toward the coast. They carry only what fits in a shopping cart.

    elegiac → bleak

    pace0·prose+2·bleak+1

  • The Underground Railroad

    Colson Whitehead2016

    Two slaves escape a Georgia plantation via a literal underground train system while being pursued by a slave catcher.

    elegiac → bleak

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak+1

  • Oryx and Crake

    Margaret Atwood2003

    A man survives a genetic apocalypse in a world of engineered creatures. He remembers his past with a scientist and the woman they both loved.

    elegiac → sardonic

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak+1