Snap

Dude On Arrival

J. S. Borthwick1992

A mystery following Sarah Kelling and Max Bittersohn as they investigate a murder at a Maine estate during a winter gathering.

pace-1·prose0·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.

tense → playful

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Translated Accounts

James Kelman2001

Anonymous witnesses describe life under a military regime. The prose uses broken, bureaucratic syntax to mimic a literal translation.

tense → bleak

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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.

tense → sardonic

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The Manning Brides

Debbie Macomber2008

Two brothers navigate unconventional paths to marriage. One enters a marriage of convenience for a child, while the other finds love after loss.

tense → warm

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The Takeover

T.L. Swan

A billionaire attempts to acquire a widow's family company but ends up moving into her home. It follows their power struggle and her three sons.

tense → playful

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Body Movers

Stephanie Bond2006

A department store employee joins a body-transport service for a trip to Florida that involves a missing socialite and a loan shark.

tense → playful

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Angels & Demons

Dan Brown2000

A symbologist and a scientist race through Rome to stop an ancient secret society from destroying the Vatican. It takes place over 24 hours.

tense → propulsive, still mystery

pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

Ten Big Ones

Janet Evanovich2004

Stephanie Plum witnesses a gang hit and becomes a target herself. She balances the threat with her ongoing romantic indecision.

tense → playful, still mystery

pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

Gone

James Patterson2013

A drug lord escapes prison and hunts Detective Michael Bennett, who is hiding in the California woods with his ten children.

tense → propulsive, still crime

pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

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.

tense → clinical

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Translated Accounts

James Kelman2001

Anonymous witnesses describe life under a military regime. The prose uses broken, bureaucratic syntax to mimic a literal translation.

tense → bleak

pace-2·prose+2·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.

tense → elegiac

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Havoc, in Its Third Year

Ronan Bennett2004

A magistrate in a 1630s English town tries to maintain order as religious extremism and plague take hold. The social fabric slowly dissolves.

tense → bleak, still mystery

pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

The Virgin Suicides

Jeffrey Eugenides

A group of neighborhood boys obsessively observes five sisters in 1970s Michigan. They document the girls' lives leading up to their suicides.

Same tense register, still mystery

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The Doomsday Book

Joel Levy2006

This nonfiction guide analyzes various global catastrophe scenarios, from nuclear war to pandemics, and calculates the probability of each.

Same tense register, still mystery

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