LitQueuelitqueue

After

The Confessions of Nat Turner

William Styron1967

5 of 6 directions open — nothing heavier

More like it

1 more ↓

  • The Man Who Saw Everything

    Deborah Levy2019

    A historian travels to 1988 East Berlin while his memories of a car accident and his girlfriend begin to blur and repeat.

    bleak → meditative, still historical fiction

    pace0·prose0·bleak-2

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • The Wake

    Paul Kingsnorth2014

    A landowner in 1066 leads a guerrilla resistance against Norman invaders. The story is written in a modified version of Old English.

    Same bleak register, still historical fiction

    pace0·prose+1·bleak0

  • 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.

    bleak → sardonic, still historical fiction

    pace0·prose+1·bleak-1

  • This Other Eden

    Paul Harding2023

    A multiracial community on a small island off the coast of Maine faces forced displacement by state officials in the early 20th century.

    bleak → elegiac, still historical fiction

    pace0·prose+1·bleak-1

To recover

3 more ↓

  • The Secret Life of Bees

    Sue Monk Kidd2000

    In 1964, a fourteen-year-old girl and her nanny flee to a South Carolina town where they are sheltered by three beekeeping sisters.

    bleak → warm, still historical fiction

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-3

  • Behind Every Good Man

    Sara Goodman Confino2024

    After her husband's infidelity, a woman in 1960s D.C. manages a political campaign to get revenge.

    bleak → wry, still historical fiction

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-3

  • Redshirts

    John Scalzi2012

    Low-ranking crew members on a starship realize they are disposable characters in a sci-fi television show. They attempt to escape their fate.

    bleak → playful

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-3

Faster

3 more ↓

  • Candide

    Voltaire

    A naive young man travels the world while his tutor insists that everything is for the best. He encounters a series of global catastrophes.

    bleak → sardonic

    pace+2·prose-1·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.

    bleak → propulsive

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-3

  • The Martian

    Andy Weir2011

    A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.

    bleak → wry

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-3

Slower

bleak → elegiac, still historical fiction

3 more ↓

  • 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·bleak-1

  • 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.

    bleak → playful

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-2

  • 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.

    bleak → clinical

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1