
Kraken
China Miéville
2010 · Fantasy
How it reads
Kraken is fantasy (urban fantasy, specifically), and its dominant mood is eerie. It's atmospheric and uncanny, with a sense that something is wrong. It moves fast: plot-driven and hard to put down, the kind of book that carries you along even when you're tired.
It's set in a big city setting, in the present day, told in the third person across several viewpoints. Its central concerns are faith, power and politics and secrets. In weight it sits in the middle: substantial without being heavy going.
It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending resolves happily. It's well known, the kind of book most keen readers have heard of.
Pick it up if…
- you're in the mood for something eerie
- you want a book that pulls you through
- you want a complete story in one book
Maybe not if…
- you need something cosy or heartwarming
- you want dense, lingering prose
All 15 dimensions
- Genre
- fantasy
- Author gender
- male
- Author experience
- established
- Setting: place
- big city
- Setting: time
- contemporary
- Mood / feeling
- eerie
- Pace
- fast paced
- Tone / weight
- balanced
- Length
- medium
- Narrative style
- third person, several viewpoints
- Publication era
- recent
- Popularity
- well known
- Series vs standalone
- standalone
- Themes
- faith, power and politics, secrets
- Ending style
- resolved and happy
What these mean: the 15 dimensions of a book.
Books with a similar reading
The closest books in Match Book's catalogue across the same dimensions, and what they share.
Black Water SisterZen ChoShares: fantasy, eerie mood, balanced tone, urban fantasy
The library at Mount CharScott HawkinsShares: fantasy, eerie mood, balanced tone, fast paced
The Sisters GrimmMenna Van PraagShares: fantasy, eerie mood, balanced tone, resolved and happy ending
The Final Girl Support GroupGrady HendrixShares: eerie mood, balanced tone, fast paced, resolved and happy ending- The Lost GirlsSarah PainterShares: fantasy, eerie mood, balanced tone, resolved and happy ending
- The Angel of Khan el-KhaliliP. Djèlí ClarkShares: fantasy, eerie mood, balanced tone, fast paced
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