LitQueuelitqueue

After

Lapvona

Ottessa Moshfegh2022

5 of 6 directions open — nothing heavier

More like it

1 more ↓

  • Andersonville

    MacKinlay Kantor1955

    An ensemble cast experiences the conditions of a Confederate prisoner-of-war camp. It follows prisoners, guards, and local civilians.

    Same bleak register, still historical fiction

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    bleak → sardonic, still historical fiction

    pace0·prose+1·bleak-1

  • Ulysses

    James Joyce1914

    Three characters wander through Dublin on a single day in 1904. Each chapter uses a different literary style to mimic thoughts and sensations.

    bleak → playful

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-2

  • Briefing for a Descent into Hell

    Doris Lessing1971

    A man is found wandering London and placed in a psychiatric ward. The narrative shifts between the hospital and his internal cosmic hallucinations.

    bleak → dreamlike

    pace0·prose+1·bleak-1

To recover

bleak → propulsive

3 more ↓

  • Love Comes Softly

    Janette Oke1979

    A widow on the 19th-century frontier enters a marriage of convenience with a widower to survive the winter and care for his daughter.

    bleak → tender

    pace0·prose-2·bleak-3

  • The perfect Christmas

    Debbie Macomber2009

    A woman hires a grumpy matchmaker to find a husband. He assigns her three tasks to complete before he will introduce her to his chosen candidate.

    bleak → warm

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-3

  • Danger in the Shadows

    Dee Henderson2002

    A woman in witness protection hides from a kidnapper while a FBI agent works to keep her safe. The story incorporates elements of Christian faith.

    bleak → earnest

    pace+1·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.

    bleak → sardonic

    pace+2·prose-1·bleak-2

  • Hellsing

    Kohta Hirano2003

    A secret British organization uses a powerful vampire to fight a supernatural Nazi uprising. The Vatican intervenes as London is besieged.

    bleak → sardonic, still dark fantasy

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-1

  • Something is Killing the Children, Book One

    James Tynion IV2021

    A monster hunter arrives in a town where children are being eaten by invisible creatures. It is a graphic novel about systemic violence.

    bleak → tense, still dark fantasy

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-1

Slower

bleak → elegiac, still historical fiction

3 more ↓

  • Ulysses

    James Joyce1914

    Three characters wander through Dublin on a single day in 1904. Each chapter uses a different literary style to mimic thoughts and sensations.

    bleak → playful

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-2

  • 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.

    bleak → clinical

    pace-1·prose+1·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.

    Same bleak register

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak0