LitQueuelitqueue

After

Matrix

Lauren Groff2021

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

1 more ↓

  • Generosity: An Enhancement

    Richard Powers2009

    A creative writing teacher discovers a student who is genetically predisposed to happiness. Scientists and media outlets try to exploit her.

    Same meditative register, still literary fiction

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • Too Like the Lightning

    Ada Palmer2016

    In a 25th-century utopia, a convict narrates the discovery of a boy who can perform miracles. The prose uses 18th-century styles and gender terms.

    meditative → sardonic

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

  • Valis

    Philip K. Dick1981

    A man experiences a beam of pink light that imparts vast information. The narrative explores his mental breakdown and search for God in California.

    Same meditative register

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

  • Shadow & Claw

    Gene Wolfe1983

    A torturer travels across a far-future Earth where technology is indistinguishable from magic. He recounts his exile in dense, archaic prose.

    Same meditative register

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

To recover

3 more ↓

  • Beautiful Bastard

    Christina Lauren2013

    An MBA intern and her demanding media executive boss engage in a series of sexual encounters while competing at work. It is an erotic romance.

    meditative → playful

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

  • The Hating Game

    Sally Thorne2016

    Two executive assistants at a publishing house compete for a single promotion through a series of psychological games and mutual sabotage.

    meditative → playful

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

  • The Score

    Elle Kennedy2016

    A college senior has a one-night stand with a hockey player to get over a breakup. They continue the arrangement as graduation approaches.

    meditative → playful

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

Faster

3 more ↓

  • All Systems Red

    Martha Wells2017

    A self-aware security android hacks its own governor module to watch soap operas while protecting a team of scientists on a distant planet.

    meditative → wry, still found family

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-1

  • Skin Game

    Jim Butcher2014

    Wizard Harry Dresden joins a team of villains to rob a vault in the Underworld. It is a fast-paced heist set in a modern fantasy Chicago.

    meditative → propulsive

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak0

  • The Kaiju Preservation Society

    John Scalzi2022

    A food delivery driver joins a secret organization that travels to an alternate Earth to care for massive, dinosaur-like creatures.

    meditative → playful, still found family

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-1

Slower

meditative → elegiac, still historical fiction

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    meditative → dreamlike

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

  • Invisible Cities

    Italo Calvino1972

    Marco Polo describes fifty-five imaginary cities to Kublai Khan. The book is a series of short, prose-poem meditations on urban existence.

    Same meditative register

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

  • 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.

    meditative → playful, still literary fiction

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • The Nickel Boys

    Colson Whitehead2019

    A studious black teenager in 1960s Florida is sent to a brutal reform school where physical abuse is systemic.

    meditative → elegiac, still historical fiction

    pace+1·prose0·bleak+2

  • The Bluest Eye

    Toni Morrison1970

    A young Black girl in 1940s Ohio prays for blue eyes as a way to escape her reality. The narrative follows her family's collapse and trauma.

    meditative → bleak, still historical fiction

    pace0·prose0·bleak+2

  • The Prophets

    Robert Jones Jr.2021

    Two enslaved men on a Mississippi plantation find refuge in their love for each other. Their relationship is threatened by a betrayal.

    meditative → elegiac, still historical fiction

    pace0·prose0·bleak+2