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After

La sombra del viento

Carlos Ruiz Zafón2001

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

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  • The Anatomist's Wife

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    elegiac → tense, still gothic

    pace-1·prose-1·bleak0

Denser prose

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    Gertrude Stein1948

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    elegiac → playful

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  • 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.

    elegiac → dreamlike

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To recover

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  • Ready Player One

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

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

  • 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

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Faster

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  • 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.

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  • Behind Closed Doors

    B.A. Paris2016

    A woman is held captive by her husband in a high-security home. She must find a way to escape before her sister moves in with them.

    elegiac → propulsive

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  • Kiss the Girls

    James Patterson1995

    Detective Alex Cross tracks two serial killers operating on opposite coasts who are communicating and competing with one another.

    elegiac → tense

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Slower

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  • 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.

    elegiac → dreamlike

    pace-2·prose+1·bleak+1

  • The Anatomist's Wife

    Anna Lee Huber2012

    In 1830s Scotland, a widow who draws anatomical diagrams is suspected of murder. She must use her skills to find the real killer.

    elegiac → tense, still gothic

    pace-1·prose-1·bleak0

  • The House at Riverton

    Kate Morton2005

    A 98-year-old housemaid recalls a 1924 society party at a grand estate that ended in a poet's suicide and a family secret.

    Same elegiac register, still gothic

    pace-1·prose0·bleak0

Heavier

3 more ↓