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After

The Wish

Nicholas Sparks2021

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

Same elegiac register, still domestic fiction

1 more ↓

  • The Stories of John Cheever

    John Cheever1978

    Sixty-one short stories follow the lives of middle-class suburbanites in the mid-20th century Northeast.

    pace0·prose+1·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • The Mirror and the Light

    Hilary Mantel2020

    Thomas Cromwell navigates the final four years of his life in Henry VIII's court. He attempts to maintain power as his allies and influence erode.

    Same elegiac register

    pace0·prose+2·bleak0

  • The Sea

    John Banville2005

    A widower returns to a coastal resort to reflect on a childhood summer and his wife's death. The narrator's memory is fluid and dense.

    Same elegiac register

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak0

  • Tinkers

    Paul Harding2009

    An elderly clock repairman lies dying while his thoughts drift through his father's life as a peddler. The prose focuses on nature and mechanics.

    elegiac → meditative

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak-1

To recover

elegiac → playful, still contemporary romance

3 more ↓

  • Right Next Door

    Debbie Macomber2009

    Two separate stories follow single parents who find new romantic interests through the meddling of their children.

    elegiac → warm, still contemporary romance

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-2

  • Vision in White

    Nora Roberts2009

    A wedding photographer begins a relationship with a teacher while managing her business and her mother's demands.

    elegiac → warm, still contemporary romance

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

  • Terms and Conditions

    Lauren Asher2022

    To secure his inheritance, a businessman enters a marriage of convenience with his assistant.

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

Faster

3 more ↓

  • The Professional: Part 2 (The Game Maker, #1b)

    Kresley Cole

    A Russian enforcer continues his pursuit of a graduate student across Europe. The focus is on their sexual power dynamic and his mafia duties.

    elegiac → tense, still contemporary romance

    pace+2·prose-1·bleak-2

  • Victory at Prescott High

    C.M. Stunich

    A high school girl seeks revenge against the boys who bullied her while navigating a complex relationship with all of them at once.

    elegiac → propulsive, still contemporary romance

    pace+2·prose-1·bleak-1

  • Child 44

    Tom Rob Smith2008

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

    elegiac → tense

    pace+2·prose0·bleak0

Slower

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    elegiac → clinical

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak0

  • Translated Accounts

    James Kelman2001

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

    elegiac → bleak

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

  • 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.

    Same elegiac register

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • I'll Go to Bed at Noon

    Gerard Woodward2004

    The Jones family spends a decade succumbing to alcoholism. The book tracks their physical and social disintegration in 1970s Britain.

    elegiac → bleak, still domestic fiction

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

  • The Road

    Cormac McCarthy2006

    A father and son walk through a landscape of ash and scavengers toward the coast. They carry only what fits in a shopping cart.

    elegiac → bleak

    pace0·prose+2·bleak+1

  • The Underground Railroad

    Colson Whitehead2016

    Two slaves escape a Georgia plantation via a literal underground train system while being pursued by a slave catcher.

    elegiac → bleak

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak+1