LitQueuelitqueue

After

The accident on the A35

Raymond Brunet2017

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

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  • Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead

    Sara Gran2011

    A private investigator uses esoteric methods to find a missing person in post-Katrina New Orleans. She follows the teachings of a French mystic.

    meditative → elegiac, still noir

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • Trainspotting

    Irvine Welsh1993

    A group of heroin addicts in Edinburgh navigate poverty, violence, and withdrawal. The narrative uses heavy phonetic Scottish dialect.

    meditative → sardonic, still noir

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak+1

  • 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.

    meditative → playful, still mystery

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1

  • American Psycho

    Bret Easton Ellis1991

    A wealthy investment banker details his daily routines, consumer habits, and graphic murders. The narrative is cold and repetitive.

    meditative → cold

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

To recover

meditative → warm, still mystery

3 more ↓

  • Single White Vampire

    Lynsay Sands2003

    A book editor travels to meet a reclusive author who writes vampire novels. She does not realize he is an actual vampire.

    meditative → playful

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

  • The Trouble With Magic

    Madelyn Alt2006

    A shop clerk in a small town discovers she has heritage in witchcraft while investigating a local murder.

    meditative → playful, still small town

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

  • The Da Vinci Code

    Dan Brown2003

    A symbologist and a cryptologist flee the police while solving puzzles hidden in art. They search for a secret regarding the Holy Grail.

    meditative → propulsive, still mystery

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2

Faster

meditative → propulsive, still mystery

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    meditative → playful, still mystery

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2

  • Private Vegas

    James Patterson2015

    Jack Morgan investigates a man who trains women to become killers in Las Vegas. The story follows multiple perspectives in short chapters.

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-1

  • Pines

    Blake Crouch2012

    A Secret Service agent searches for missing colleagues in an Idaho town he cannot leave. The townspeople and physics itself seem to work against him.

    meditative → tense, still mystery

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak0

Slower

3 more ↓

  • Gödel, Escher, Bach

    Douglas R. Hofstadter1979

    An exploration of how cognition emerges from hidden neurological patterns. It uses math, art, and music to explain self-referential systems.

    meditative → playful

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-2

  • 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

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1

  • A maça no escuro

    Clarice Lispector1961

    A man flees into the Brazilian interior believing he killed his wife. He works on a remote farm while navigating his own internal monologue.

    Same meditative register

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • The Killer Inside Me

    Jim Thompson1952

    A small-town Texas deputy maintains a boring public persona to hide his identity as a serial killer. He describes his crimes in a flat, cold voice.

    meditative → cold, still noir

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak+1

  • Shutter Island

    Dennis Lehane2003

    meditative → tense, still noir

    pace+1·prose0·bleak+1

  • Every Dead Thing

    John Connolly1999

    A former detective haunted by his family's murder tracks a serial killer known as the Traveling Man. The story includes supernatural elements.

    meditative → bleak, still noir

    pace+1·prose0·bleak+1