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Nisida

Alexandre Dumas2003

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

Same elegiac register, still historical fiction

1 more ↓

  • Comrade Koba

    Robert Littell2020

    A ten-year-old boy hiding in the Kremlin walls meets an aging Joseph Stalin. They engage in a series of cynical dialogues about power.

    elegiac → sardonic, still historical fiction

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • Amberes

    Roberto Bolaño2002

    A fragmented series of fifty-six short sections follows a police officer, a redhead, and a hunchback through a series of loosely linked crimes.

    elegiac → cold

    pace0·prose+1·bleak0

  • 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

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1

  • 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

    pace0·prose+1·bleak0

To recover

3 more ↓

  • Orchard Valley Grooms

    Debbie Macomber2010

    Three sisters return to their Oregon hometown after their father's heart attack. The first story follows Valerie and her father's surgeon.

    elegiac → warm

    pace0·prose-2·bleak-2

  • 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.

    elegiac → earnest

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

  • 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.

    elegiac → playful

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

Faster

elegiac → propulsive

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-1

  • 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

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak0

  • Verity

    Colleen Hoover2018

    A ghostwriter moves into a secluded estate to finish a series for an injured author and finds a hidden, disturbing autobiography.

    elegiac → tense

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak0

Slower

Same elegiac register, still historical fiction

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.

    elegiac → playful

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1

  • Kolyma tales

    Varlam SHALAMOV1980

    Short stories documenting daily life and survival in a Soviet labor camp. The prose is detached and focuses on the physical reality of starvation.

    elegiac → clinical, still historical fiction

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

  • The English Patient

    Michael Ondaatje1992

    Four people shelter in a ruined Italian villa at the end of WWII. They care for a burned, anonymous man who recounts his past in the desert.

    pace-1·prose0·bleak0

Heavier

3 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.

    elegiac → bleak, still historical fiction

    pace0·prose0·bleak+1

  • Libra

    Don DeLillo1988

    A fictionalized biography of Lee Harvey Oswald. It follows his life and the CIA conspiracy that leads to the assassination of JFK.

    elegiac → eerie, still historical fiction

    pace+1·prose0·bleak+1

  • A Fine Balance

    Rohinton Mistry1995

    Four people from different castes share a small apartment during the 1975 Indian Emergency. Their lives are upended by state-sanctioned violence.

    elegiac → bleak, still historical fiction

    pace0·prose-1·bleak+1