Hello lovely people! I’m looking for some recommendations on that GOOD prose. You know, the kind that makes you pause.
Some favorites of mine are Beloved and The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison and Circe by Madeline Miller (read Song of Achilles as well but I thought Circe was better).
Open to all genres but bonus points to fantasy and horror (big Clive Barker fan and I’ve also read all of the horror classics) and maybe even a little romance.
by belta0
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Blood Meridian. The Great Gatsby. Malazan Book of the Fallen.
Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón is just beautifully lyrical prose.
A Farewell To Arms
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. Prose so beautiful it made me cry. All of her books are prosaically stunning but Gilead is my personal favorite.
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
White Oleander by Janet Fitch
The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter
When I read the first paragraph of Lolita, I did actually pause in awe. Nabokov’s prose is the most poetic I’ve ever read. Such beautiful writing about the most ugly subject is genius. The book’s not for everyone, but the prose is amazing, and it is very purposefully done.
The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever read. I haven’t found anything before or since that compares to his style choices in this book, unfortunately.
This may sound silly but I think Charlotte’s Web has beautiful prose.
Middle grade: Stand on the Sky by Erin Bow and The Beatryce Prophecy by Kate DiCamillo.
James Baldwin. Particularly some of his short stories.
I always recommend these two together, by Hamnet and The Marriage Portrait, both historical fiction by Maggie O’Farrell. The only word I can think to describe the prose is “lush.”
Lolita. The subject matter is rough, but the writing is gorgeous.
Fantasy cozy and charming- The House in the Cerulean Sea and sequel
The Frozen River
Flight Behavior
*All the Light We Cannot See*
A Little Life
John Crowley, Gene Wolfe, Lucius Shepard