Writing style

[Portia]

http://theboard.byu.edu/questions/68962/

The Harry Potter series is aimed at schoolchildren, uses fantasy tropes, and is plot-heavy. If you want to expand your reading horizons, I'd go for realist, adult-oriented, character- or text-based fiction. I'd try Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Ondaatje, Nabokov, Wharton, Hardy, McEwan, Gardam, Joyce. . . You might not like all of it, but they all write at a different level and in a very different style from Rowling. (Thinking about which might be most similar to Rowling, I'd probably have to go with the women on the list, as they tend to focus more on relationships.) The almost-stream-of-consciousness, populist, informal style is huge right now, and I'd argue it's been heavily influenced by the success of children's fiction and multimedia platforms: just look at Super Sad True Love Story, A Visit From the Good Squad, Where'd You Go, Bernadette . . . Their content is not very Potteresque but I think the style of contemporary fiction has changed hugely from the late 20th century (which itself was a reaction to the Art Deco period, which I don't have a fondness for or anything (cough), which was a reaction to the pre-War High Romanticism, which is suspiciously absent from my list, because I feel like J. K. Rowling really is just Dumas or Bronte for a new generation).

[Emiliana]

Wait, Dumas or Bronte? Which Bronte? And what criteria are you using to lump those two together?