LitQueuelitqueue

After

The Testament of Jessie Lamb

Jane Rogers2011

5 of 6 directions open — nothing heavier

More like it

1 more ↓

  • Never Let Me Go

    Kazuo Ishiguro2005

    Students at an isolated boarding school grow up and realize the specific, grim purpose for which they were created. They do not rebel.

    earnest → elegiac, still dystopian

    pace0·prose0·bleak-1

Denser prose

earnest → sardonic, still dystopian

3 more ↓

  • Seven Surrenders

    Ada Palmer2017

    The leaders of global Hives struggle to maintain a centuries-long peace as secrets emerge. The narrator is biased and uses archaic language.

    earnest → sardonic, still unreliable narrator

    pace+1·prose+2·bleak-1

  • Dhalgren

    Samuel R. Delany1975

    An amnesiac wanderer enters Bellona, a city cut off from the world where time and geography shift. He joins a gang and writes poetry.

    earnest → dreamlike, still unreliable narrator

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak-1

  • Valis

    Philip K. Dick1981

    A man experiences a beam of pink light that imparts vast information. The narrative explores his mental breakdown and search for God in California.

    earnest → meditative, still unreliable narrator

    pace0·prose+2·bleak-1

To recover

3 more ↓

  • Apprentice to the Villain

    Hannah Nicole Maehrer2024

    Evie Sage assists an evil overlord while a magical threat endangers their kingdom. The story follows their workplace dynamic and a looming siege.

    earnest → playful

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-3

  • Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

    Steven D. Levitt

    An economist uses data to investigate the incentives behind real-world phenomena like cheating teachers and falling crime rates.

    earnest → wry

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-3

  • The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible

    A.J. Jacobs

    A journalist spends one year attempting to follow every rule and commandment in the Bible as literally as possible.

    earnest → playful

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-3

Faster

3 more ↓

  • Logan's run

    William F. Nolan1967

    In a future where everyone is executed at age 21, an enforcer becomes a fugitive. He attempts to reach a rumored sanctuary.

    earnest → tense, still dystopian

    pace+2·prose0·bleak-1

  • The Running Man

    Richard Bachman

    A man enters a deadly reality show to fund medical care for his daughter. He must survive thirty days while the entire world hunts him for money.

    earnest → propulsive, still dystopian

    pace+2·prose0·bleak0

  • The Long Run

    Daniel Keys Moran1989

    A genetically engineered outlaw with the ability to interface with computers runs from a global police force. He attempts a final heist.

    earnest → propulsive, still dystopian

    pace+2·prose0·bleak-2

Slower

3 more ↓

  • Beelzebub's tales to his grandson

    Georges Ivanovitch Gurdjieff1950

    An extraterrestrial being explains the history and strange behaviors of humanity to his grandson during a long space voyage.

    earnest → meditative

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak-2

  • Translated Accounts

    James Kelman2001

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

    earnest → bleak, still dystopian

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak0

  • 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.

    earnest → playful

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak-3