LitQueuelitqueue

After

Tryst Six Venom

Penelope Douglas2021

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

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  • Cruel Prince

    Ashley Jade2019

    A girl returns to her hometown for senior year and becomes the target of her former best friend's cruelty. It follows their hostile interactions.

    Same tense register, still dark romance

    pace0·prose0·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.

    Same tense register

    pace0·prose+2·bleak+1

  • 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.

    tense → epic

    pace0·prose+2·bleak+1

  • 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.

    tense → dark

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

To recover

3 more ↓

  • Faking It

    Cora Carmack2013

    A woman hires a man to pose as her boyfriend to impress her parents. They navigate the ruse while dealing with their actual attraction.

    tense → playful, still new adult

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

  • Imperfect Chemistry

    Mary Frame2014

    A female scientist attempts to study the chemistry of attraction by dating her friend. The experiment tests their platonic boundaries.

    tense → playful, still new adult

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

  • Dearest Clementine

    Lex Martin2014

    A college student signs up for a creative writing class and discovers her professor is the boy who lived next door. They become roommates.

    tense → playful, still new adult

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

Faster

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    tense → propulsive, still dark romance

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak0

  • The Risk

    S.T. Abby2016

    A serial killer seeking revenge on her childhood tormentors falls for the FBI profiler hunting her. She kills while he investigates.

    tense → propulsive, still dark romance

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak+1

  • Chased

    Clarissa Wild2018

    A wealthy man buys a blind woman and keeps her captive to satisfy his desires. The story follows his obsession and her forced isolation.

    tense → dark, still dark 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.

    tense → playful

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak0

  • Absalom, Absalom!

    William Faulkner1936

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

    tense → elegiac

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak+2

  • Either/Or

    Søren Kierkegaard1992

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

    tense → meditative

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak0

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.

    tense → bleak

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2

  • 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.

    tense → elegiac

    pace-1·prose0·bleak+2

  • 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.

    tense → elegiac

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2