LitQueuelitqueue

After

The Ex Hex

Erin Sterling2021

5 of 6 directions open — nothing to recover from

More like it

1 more ↓

  • Can't Hardly Breathe

    Gena Showalter2017

    An innkeeper and a former Army Ranger confront their shared high school history in a small Oklahoma town. They navigate a new physical attraction.

    Same playful register, still contemporary romance

    pace0·prose+1·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • Madame Bovary

    Gustave Flaubert1856

    A doctor's wife in provincial France seeks escape from her mundane life through expensive tastes and extramarital affairs.

    playful → tense

    pace0·prose+3·bleak+2

  • Paradise Logic

    Sophie Kemp2025

    A young woman follows advice from a magazine to become a perfect partner. Her quest involves surreal jobs and messages from the beyond.

    playful → epic

    pace0·prose+3·bleak+2

  • Mad Mabel

    Sally Hepworth2025

    An eighty-one-year-old woman with a history of killing people tries to hide her past when a curious young girl moves into the neighborhood.

    playful → dark

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

Faster

3 more ↓

  • Ill Wind

    Rachel Caine2003

    A weather warden on the run from the law uses her ability to control storms to protect people from rogue elemental forces.

    playful → propulsive, still paranormal romance

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak+1

  • The Warlord Wants Forever

    Kresley Cole2011

    A vampire general hunts a valkyrie who stole his heart centuries ago. They are forced together during a magical competition.

    Same playful register, still paranormal romance

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak0

  • Wicked All Night

    Jeaniene Frost2021

    A vampire and a siren enter a marriage of convenience to protect her from a supernatural threat. They hunt a dark god across the globe.

    playful → propulsive, still paranormal romance

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak+1

Slower

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    Same playful register

    pace-2·prose+3·bleak+1

  • Absalom, Absalom!

    William Faulkner1936

    The rise and fall of Thomas Sutpen is recounted through multiple, conflicting memories. The prose uses extremely long, complex sentences.

    playful → elegiac

    pace-2·prose+3·bleak+3

  • Either/Or

    Søren Kierkegaard1992

    A collection of papers presents two life philosophies: the aesthetic pursuit of pleasure and the ethical commitment to duty.

    playful → meditative

    pace-2·prose+3·bleak+1

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • Wuthering Heights

    Emily Brontë1846

    Two families on the Yorkshire moors deal with the arrival and subsequent revenge of an adopted orphan. The story is told through nested narrators.

    playful → bleak

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+3

  • A Farewell to Arms

    Ernest Hemingway1929

    An American ambulance driver and a British nurse conduct a love affair during the Italian campaign of World War I.

    playful → elegiac

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+3

  • Tess of the D’Urbervilles

    Thomas Hardy

    A country girl is sent to claim kinship with wealthy relatives. Her life is derailed by a sequence of social betrayals and rigid moral standards.

    playful → elegiac

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+3