LitQueuelitqueue

After

Warping Minds & Other Misdemeanors

Annette Marie2020

5 of 6 directions open — nothing to recover from

More like it

1 more ↓

  • First Grave on the Right

    Darynda Jones

    A private investigator who can see ghosts helps the police solve murders. She is also pursued by a mysterious entity from her dreams.

    Same playful register, still urban fantasy

    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.

    playful → tense

    pace0·prose+2·bleak+2

  • 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.

    playful → epic

    pace0·prose+2·bleak+2

  • 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.

    playful → dark

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

Faster

3 more ↓

  • Magic Bites

    Ilona Andrews2007

    In a future Atlanta where magic and technology fluctuate, mercenary Kate Daniels investigates her guardian's murder. It is an urban fantasy.

    playful → sardonic, still urban fantasy

    pace+1·prose0·bleak+1

  • Touch the dark

    Karen Chance2006

    A clairvoyant woman is forced to work for a vampire senator to escape a mob boss. She navigates a supernatural underworld with high-speed action.

    playful → propulsive, still urban fantasy

    pace+1·prose0·bleak+1

  • Ill Wind

    Rachel Caine2003

    A weather warden on the run from the law uses her ability to control storms to protect people from rogue elemental forces.

    playful → propulsive, still urban fantasy

    pace+1·prose0·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.

    Same playful register

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1

  • Absalom, Absalom!

    William Faulkner1936

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

    playful → elegiac

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak+3

  • Either/Or

    Søren Kierkegaard1992

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

    playful → meditative

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    playful → elegiac

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+3

  • Brokeback Mountain

    Annie Proulx1997

    Two ranch hands begin a secret sexual and emotional relationship in 1963 Wyoming. The story follows their occasional meetings over twenty years.

    playful → elegiac

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+3

  • Bright Side

    Kim Holden2014

    An optimistic college student moves to Minnesota for a fresh start while hiding a terminal diagnosis from her best friend.

    playful → tender

    pace0·prose0·bleak+3