LitQueuelitqueue

After

The Water Cure

Sophie Mackintosh2018

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

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  • Our Missing Hearts

    Celeste Ng2022

    In a near-future US, a boy searches for his mother, a poet whose work is banned. The state forcibly relocates children of dissidents.

    dreamlike → elegiac, still dystopian

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    dreamlike → sardonic

    pace0·prose+1·bleak0

  • A Brief History of Seven Killings

    Marlon James2014

    A large cast of characters recounts the 1976 attempt on Bob Marley's life. The narrative spans decades and moves from Jamaica to New York.

    dreamlike → propulsive

    pace+1·prose+1·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.

    dreamlike → playful

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1

To recover

3 more ↓

  • The Duke and I

    Julia Quinn2000

    A duke and a debutante enter a fake courtship to avoid social pressure. They navigate Regency London's marriage market while hiding their deal.

    dreamlike → playful

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

  • On Dublin Street

    Samantha Young2012

    An American woman in Scotland enters a sex-only arrangement with her roommate's brother to avoid emotional intimacy. It is a contemporary romance.

    dreamlike → warm

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

  • Night Pleasures

    Sherrilyn Kenyon2002

    An immortal warrior and a skeptical accountant are handcuffed together while being hunted by supernatural predators.

    dreamlike → playful

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

Faster

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    dreamlike → tense, still dystopian

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak0

  • Red Rising

    Pierce Brown2014

    A laborer on Mars discovers his caste is being lied to and undergoes surgery to infiltrate the ruling elite. He joins a brutal war games academy.

    dreamlike → propulsive, still dystopian

    pace+2·prose-1·bleak0

  • Child 44

    Tom Rob Smith2008

    A Soviet security officer investigates a serial killer in a state that officially claims murder does not exist.

    dreamlike → tense

    pace+2·prose-1·bleak0

Slower

3 more ↓

  • Absalom, Absalom!

    William Faulkner1936

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

    dreamlike → elegiac

    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.

    dreamlike → clinical

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

  • 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.

    dreamlike → elegiac

    pace-1·prose0·bleak0

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • The New Wilderness

    Diane Cook2020

    A mother and daughter join a group living in the last remaining wilderness to escape a polluted city. They must survive the land and each other.

    dreamlike → bleak, still dystopian

    pace0·prose0·bleak+1

  • To Paradise

    Hanya Yanagihara2022

    Three stories set in 1893, 1993, and 2093 explore alternate versions of New York. Characters deal with illness, family legacies, and totalitarianism.

    dreamlike → elegiac, still dystopian

    pace0·prose0·bleak+1

  • Oryx and Crake

    Margaret Atwood2003

    A man survives a genetic apocalypse in a world of engineered creatures. He remembers his past with a scientist and the woman they both loved.

    dreamlike → sardonic, still dystopian

    pace+1·prose0·bleak+1