LitQueuelitqueue

After

Shubeik Lubeik

Deena Mohamed2022

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

1 more ↓

  • Sister Mine

    Nalo Hopkinson2013

    Formerly conjoined twins, one with magic and one without, navigate life in Toronto. They must find their missing father, a demigod of the sea.

    tender → warm, still magical realism

    pace0·prose+1·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • Love & Sleep

    John Crowley1994

    Pierce Moffett researches the history of magic while living in a small town. The narrative shifts between his life and the Renaissance.

    tender → meditative, still magical realism

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak0

  • Tours of the Black Clock

    Steve Erickson1989

    A ghostwriter for Hitler's private pornography lives in a surreal version of the 20th century where history and memory blur.

    tender → dreamlike, still magical realism

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

  • Boneland

    Alan Garner2012

    An adult Colin searches for his lost sister while an ancient shaman performs rituals in the same landscape. The two timelines mirror one another.

    tender → elegiac

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1

To recover

3 more ↓

  • Dark Lover

    J. R. Ward2005

    A vampire king seeks revenge against the slayers who killed his parents while protecting a woman discovering her own supernatural heritage.

    tender → propulsive, still urban fantasy

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

  • On a Pale Horse

    Piers Anthony1983

    After accidentally killing the personification of Death, a man must take over the office. He navigates the bureaucracy of the afterlife.

    tender → playful, still urban fantasy

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

  • Night Pleasures

    Sherrilyn Kenyon2002

    An immortal warrior and a skeptical accountant are handcuffed together while being hunted by supernatural predators.

    tender → playful, still urban fantasy

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

Faster

tender → propulsive, still urban fantasy

3 more ↓

  • Battle Ground

    Jim Butcher2020

    A wizard leads the supernatural defense of Chicago against an invading army led by a Titan. The book is a single, continuous battle.

    pace+1·prose0·bleak+1

  • Blood Engines

    Tim Pratt2007

    A sorceress who uses blood magic to power her spells defends her city from a rival. She makes ruthless choices to maintain her power.

    tender → sardonic, still urban fantasy

    pace+1·prose0·bleak+1

  • Sandman Slim

    Richard Kadrey2009

    A magician crawls out of Hell to hunt the people who murdered his girlfriend in Los Angeles. He uses black magic and a stolen shotgun.

    tender → sardonic, still urban fantasy

    pace+1·prose0·bleak0

Slower

3 more ↓

  • Boneland

    Alan Garner2012

    An adult Colin searches for his lost sister while an ancient shaman performs rituals in the same landscape. The two timelines mirror one another.

    tender → elegiac

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1

  • The Habitation of the Blessed

    Catherynne M. Valente2010

    A priest finds the lost kingdom of Prester John. The story is told through three nested layers of journals, myths, and historical accounts.

    tender → dreamlike

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak0

  • 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.

    tender → meditative, still magical realism

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak0

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • Was

    Geoff Ryman1992

    Three timelines connect a Kansas girl in the 1880s, Judy Garland on set, and a dying man in the 1980s. It examines the reality behind the Oz myth.

    tender → elegiac, still magical realism

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2

  • A Matter of Blood

    Sarah Pinborough2010

    A detective investigates a serial killer in a London plagued by a failing economy and a supernatural virus. The tone is consistently grim.

    tender → bleak, still urban fantasy

    pace0·prose0·bleak+2

  • The Fifth Season

    N. K. Jemisin2015

    A mother searches for her daughter across a continent undergoing a tectonic apocalypse. Some chapters address the reader in the second person.

    tender → bleak

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+2