LitQueuelitqueue

After

Unless

Carol Shields2002

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

1 more ↓

  • The Sea, the Sea

    Iris Murdoch1978

    A retired theater director writes a memoir in a house by the sea while becoming obsessed with a past lover he finds in the village.

    earnest → sardonic, still psychological fiction

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • Milkman

    Anna Burns2018

    An unnamed 18-year-old girl is stalked by an older paramilitary figure in 1970s Northern Ireland. The prose uses long, circuitous sentences.

    earnest → tense, still psychological fiction

    pace0·prose+2·bleak+1

  • The Conservationist

    Nadine Gordimer1974

    A wealthy white industrialist buys a farm outside Johannesburg. He struggles to maintain control over the land and the people on it.

    earnest → cold, still psychological fiction

    pace0·prose+2·bleak+1

  • Study for Obedience

    Sarah Bernstein2023

    A woman moves to a remote northern country to care for her brother. The local community grows hostile as she observes them.

    earnest → cold, still psychological fiction

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

To recover

3 more ↓

  • To Sir Phillip, With Love

    Julia Quinn2003

    Eloise Bridgerton travels to meet a widowed baronet she has only known through letters. They consider a marriage of convenience.

    earnest → warm

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

  • All Rhodes Lead Here

    Mariana Zapata2021

    A woman moves back to her Colorado hometown after a breakup and rents a garage apartment from a grumpy single father.

    earnest → warm

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

  • Hannah's List

    Debbie Macomber2010

    A widower receives a letter from his late wife suggesting three women he should date. He begins to interact with each woman over the following year.

    earnest → warm

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

Faster

3 more ↓

  • Candide

    Voltaire

    A naive young man travels the world while his tutor insists that everything is for the best. He encounters a series of global catastrophes.

    earnest → sardonic

    pace+2·prose0·bleak0

  • The Da Vinci Code

    Dan Brown2003

    A symbologist and a cryptologist flee the police while solving puzzles hidden in art. They search for a secret regarding the Holy Grail.

    earnest → propulsive

    pace+2·prose-1·bleak-1

  • The Martian

    Andy Weir2011

    A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.

    earnest → wry

    pace+2·prose-1·bleak-1

Slower

3 more ↓

  • The Wilderness

    Samantha Harvey2009

    An architect with Alzheimer's attempts to reconstruct his life story. The narrative fragments as his memory and sense of time dissolve.

    earnest → elegiac, still psychological fiction

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

  • Study for Obedience

    Sarah Bernstein2023

    A woman moves to a remote northern country to care for her brother. The local community grows hostile as she observes them.

    earnest → cold, still psychological fiction

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

  • The Next Big Thing

    Anita Brookner2002

    A seventy-three-year-old man in London contemplates his few remaining options for the future. He considers travel, marriage, and his isolation.

    earnest → meditative, still psychological fiction

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • The Lighthouse

    Alison Moore2012

    A recently separated man takes a walking tour of Germany while reflecting on his childhood abandonment and his failing marriage.

    earnest → bleak, still psychological fiction

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+2

  • The White Hotel

    D. M. Thomas1981

    A woman's life is told through poems, a Freudian case study, and a narrative. It moves from her sexual fantasies to her death in the Holocaust.

    earnest → dreamlike, still psychological fiction

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+2

  • My Dark Vanessa

    Kate Elizabeth Russell2020

    Vanessa reflects on her teenage relationship with a teacher after he is accused of abuse. The narrative shifts between 2000 and 2017.

    earnest → bleak, still psychological fiction

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak+2