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The Secret History (spoilers for the unread) what next?

32 replies

3kidsareenough · 06/08/2019 14:36

So I'm back in the same place I was after reading the Goldfinch. Feeling totally lost now I've finished the secret history. I loved every page of it...Donna Tartts writing just makes me melt...and poor Henry totally devastated with the ending. Each character was so vivid they stay with me, just like Theo & Borris....So what do I read next good readers of Mums net?. After the Goldfinch you recommended A little life and I loved it (again felt lost when it ended). I'm not necessarily looking for something along the same topic of the secret history but definitely something with the same writing style and as interesting....any suggestions Mumsnetters?? Many thanks in advance Smile

OP posts:
Original poster
3kidsareenough · 13/08/2019 19:46

Thanks for the recommendations will definitely check them out The Interestings & cousins. I haven't read The Little Friend yet, I do have it but keep putting it off (don't know why!!) I had read so many bad reviews that I think it has put me off a bit but I will still read it. Yes I get what you mean about A Little Life that piece of Jude's life before college was very difficult to read, porn misery is a good way of describing it really....

Yes welchwabbit I have read the Tanya French Murder squad books and really enjoyed them - will check out the Wych Elm too

Someone at work recommended Kate Morton, in that they are long descriptive books with characters that develop over time...anyone else recommend them?

Thanks again Smile

OP posts:
TheLidoOfThighs · 11/08/2019 20:22

I haven’t read A Little Life yet, it’s been sitting on my bookshelf for months. I half wondered if the OP meant The Little Friend instead, as it seems odd not to mention it.

TheLidoOfThighs · 11/08/2019 20:21

What I liked about The Interestings was seeing the characters develop over that long time span and the attention paid to the dark side of friendships and relationships.

SperanzaWilde · 11/08/2019 17:39

I was just about to recommend The Interestings by Meg Wollitzer, too. It has the intense/glamorous friendship group dynamic in a privileged American setting, without the misery porn element of Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life, which I loathed. In fact The Interestings is more or less what I thought A Little Life was going to be.

Welshwabbit · 10/08/2019 09:21

You could try Tana French. I think her latest standalone (The Wych Elm) is the most like Donna Tartt, but all of her Dublin Murder Squad series have a similar sort of feel, for me at least.

TheLidoOfThighs · 10/08/2019 00:38

I liked The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer and Cousins by Salley Vickers.

TheLidoOfThighs · 10/08/2019 00:37

Have you read The Little Friend already?

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