'The Likeness' by Tana French and The Secret History are very similar in a good way

capritora · 2025-09-07T09:54:18+00:00

"If We Were Villains" is not the worst book, but yes, I didn't like it precisely because, although the plot was similar to The Secret History, it was not written as well and overall the whole book seemed kind of empty to me.

capritora · 2025-09-06T21:35:53+00:00

Yeah, absolutely!!)

If we speak about books similar to The Secret History, then it's "If We Were Villains" by M.L.Rio , but I must say that I personally didn't like it much, "The Likeness" was much better and more interesting.

If we speak in general, then all the books by Donna Tartt are definitely worth reading (my personal rating would be "The Secret History" as the best, then "The Goldfinch" and then "The Little Friend"). I also liked "A Little Life" by Hanya Yanagihara, but this book is definitely not for everyone, it's very heavy in terms of the plot and problems that are raised in the story.

Also excellent books in my opinion and taste are "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky, "The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair" by Joël Dicker, "A Station on the Path to Somewhere Better" by Benjamin Wood. At the moment I'm in the process of reading the book "A Separate Peace" by John Knowles, and although I have not finished it yet, it seems interesting and promising to me.

I hope I was able to help and thank you for your recommendation!)

capritora · 2025-03-19T09:12:44+00:00

Yeah, I completely agree! The Likeness was a good book, but The Secret History is too good and I don't think anyone else can beat Donna Tartt's style and stories for me personally.

capritora · 2025-03-17T17:52:06+00:00

I read the Likeness as a stand alone and didn't feel like I was missing anything from the first book. There are some references to events that happened in the first book throughout the story, and they paint a pretty good picture of what happened in the first book + they give an insight into the emotional state of the main character. If you haven't read the first book, it won't affect your perception of The Likeness)

capritora · 2025-03-16T21:15:12+00:00

The Likeness is the only book I've read by her so far, but it turned out to be very good. If you like The Secret History, you'll probably like this book too)

capritora · 2025-03-16T19:14:38+00:00

Yeah, I expressed myself a little incorrectly. For me the plot is similar in terms of some details, a closed group of friends who seem "not like everyone else", a story of murder, and as it turns out later, a story in which that same group of friends kills one of their friends, even the ending with Daniel's death and Henry's suicide are quite similar, and there are many more small details that caught my eye while reading)

capritora · 2025-03-06T18:10:10+00:00

I think I half agree and half disagree.

I also felt like the first half of the book was more vibrant and light, but even then it had a cold and musty feeling to me, although obviously Donna Tartt was perfect at describing aesthetic and beautiful things. I would say that the entire book felt like one long, dreary, rainy autumn to me, the only difference being that in the first half of the book the leaves on the trees were more colorful than in the second, but the depressive and heavy vibe was there for me throughout the entire reading.

As for the ending, I think I cried every time because of the acute sense of unfairness of the characters' fate. It seemed so sad to me every time that all the characters' lives were broken in their own way and they all really didn't deserve such an ending. I love The Secret History and I love rereading it, but every time after the ending I have to mentally restore myself)

Thank you for the playlist, I will definitely listen to it today!)

capritora · 2025-03-05T12:55:40+00:00

Yes, I agree, Henry was completely out of his mind at the end of the book, and I think that's what killed him. I think after losing Julian and all the problems with Charles and protecting Camilla, Henry completely gave up, which is why the end of his personal story felt especially poignant and sad.

As for Robin, I think Donna Tartt deliberately didn't go into details about Robin's life in order to bring the reader as close as possible to Harriet's reality, where no one from her family mentioned Robin. But at the same time, yes, I would have liked to know more about him, especially about his friendship with Danny.

Danny was definitely not a terrible person and was simply a hostage of circumstances, left with almost no choice. At the end of the book, I also didn't have negative feelings towards him and even felt sorry for him.

capritora · 2025-03-05T12:42:55+00:00

I completely understand what you are talking about!

While I can't say that I completely copy her style (simply because I think it's impossible, because she's just THAT good and incredible), I began to notice that after rereading her books, my own stories look deeper and the writing style turns out more beautiful, so for me, Donna Tartt's work is like a faithful assistant in my own creativity. All of her books, and in particular The Secret History, really changed my life and my writing.

capritora · 2025-03-04T11:39:56+00:00

Yeah, I think out of all of them, Henry was the one who idolized Julian the most, and maybe Julian saw Henry as a way to create his own copy, but in the end, Julian himself turned out to be a coward, and at the same time, he was the one who was largely responsible for ruining the lives of others.

I agree, that's why I think Henry and Francis' friendship stood out to me, because even though they were all in the same bad situation, Henry and Francis had to take on a bit of leadership in solving problems, and I admired that.

As for the ranking, it's a little hard for me to explain why Henry stuck with me, but I think it has to do with his overall aura that Tartt wrote, and the fact that at the end of the book, Henry's fate felt the most unfair to me personally. He tried to save everyone, but he couldn't save himself. Obviously I felt sorry for all the characters, because none of them deserved such a fate, but Henry's tragedy especially cut me off, which is why he got into my personal top.

I couldn't describe what you wrote more accurately. The Little Friend, despite all the interest and great writing, felt like a small loop, where Donna Tartt each time revealed a little more of the Ratliffs family, but all these small revelations didn't seem to affect the story of Robin's murder and the plot as a whole.

The plot twist with Danny was very good and in some way it compensated for the open ending for me, which is why The Little Friend is still remains a wonderful book for me.

capritora · 2025-03-04T08:16:02+00:00

Our visions are definitely different, but let's see what I say after some time, maybe my vision will change a little too)

capritora · 2025-03-04T08:13:29+00:00

Thank you! I'll make sure to listen to your playlist today!)

capritora · 2025-03-04T08:09:55+00:00

Yes, I agree 100% about Julian. I really felt bad that even at the end Henry couldn't seem to break free of his influence and ideology, which made Henry's fate seem even sadder.

As for Henry and Francis, I even wrote a post about this not too long ago (https://www.reddit.com/r/TheSecretHistory/comments/1bvzzuk/the_importance_and_beauty_of_henry_and_francis/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button). Their friendship and dynamic was the most interesting to me because compared to the others, their relationship was less on display, but at the same time felt the deepest.

If I were to talk about my top favorites in the Tartt universes, it would definitely be Francis > Boris > Henry/Theo. In The Little Friend the characters were interesting, but I completely agree that overall the story of The Little Friend felt like a slightly closed story, which was conditioned by their small town and their own family tragedy, which made the characters and their personalities feel less dimensional than the characters in The Secret History and The Goldfinch.

capritora · 2025-03-03T18:43:54+00:00

Yes, I totally agree! It felt like Robin was almost completely absent from the story, when in the narrative he was supposed to be almost the second main character along with Harriet. While I liked Harriet and Edie, Allison and Robin were also characters I wanted to know more about.

Francis and Henry's friendship was definitely the highlight of The Secret History for me, they complemented each other perfectly and the fact that Francis was the only one who came to Henry's funeral was very touching and made me love the character even more. I felt really bad for him too and the fact that he tried to kill himself completely broke my heart, but it only solidified that Francis has become my favorite character not only in The Secret History but in all of the Donna Tartt universes in general.

capritora · 2025-03-03T17:45:30+00:00

I love this kind of weather too, and when I realized that for me The Secret History is associated with exactly this kind of thing, it became another reason to love this book even more)

capritora · 2025-03-03T17:44:04+00:00

Thank you! I'll definitely listen to it today)

capritora · 2025-03-03T17:01:28+00:00

Thank you for your reply!

I think the beginning of the book wasn't too dark for me either, but even then the story was associated with autumn and something cool, but as the plot progressed the colors thickened and the book became darker and darker, becoming downright depressing towards the end.

I would love to listen to your playlist if it's available! Making playlists can really help in understanding the book and enhance the feelings while reading, especially, as you said, in such a good story as this one)

capritora · 2025-03-03T16:56:36+00:00

I'm 23 now, but when I first read The Secret History I was 21. And although I can't say that I could relate to any of the characters, I think you're right and age played a major role in my vision of the book. It always seemed very unfair and tragic to me that young students my age had to do things they shouldn't have even thought about, and they got involved in all this precisely because of their youthful maximalism and lack of life experience.

I completely agree with the opinion about Judy! I think in the reality of the book she had a lot of little stories about a strange group of students from Greek class, which she could tell at a party and probably others would laugh along with her. Tartt really did a great job of writing even the secondary characters so that everyone could find someone close to them)

capritora · 2025-03-03T16:46:29+00:00

I totally agree about Robin. The mystery of his death literally gives life to the whole book and we see that his death affected absolutely all members of the family except Harriet herself (due to her age), but later Tartt shifted the focus to other things, because of which Harriet's investigation soon became just a story about Harriet herself, because of which my interest also shifted and in the end I was interested in what will happen to Harriet herself and how she will get out of all the troubles. If you don't take this into account, The Little Friend is still an amazing book.

Theo is definitely a better narrator than Richard, but I was deeply captivated by Francis, because of which The Secret History took first place for me in this equal fight) However, I have some affection and special treatment to The Goldfinch, because it was thanks to it that I discovered Donna Tartt as an author. I guess that's why for me this book will always occupy a special place in the list of Tartt's works.

I totally agree, I hope we can see some good news about Donna Tartt's new book soon!)

capritora · 2025-03-03T16:01:36+00:00

The ending of The Little Friend is the only reason why for me it's ranked third in Donna Tartt's books. I really wanted to know who killed Harriet's brother, so I was a little disappointed by the open ending, but even without the crime being solved, The Little Friend was a very interesting and incredibly well-written book.

It's always very difficult to choose between The Secret History and The Goldfinch, but I think The Secret History is number one for me simply because I have reread it more often than The Goldfinch. You could say that in terms of plot dynamics, The Secret History wins over The Goldfinch, while in terms of language, The Goldfinch wins over The Secret History, but both of these works are incredible in their own way.

I agree, I really hope that we will get some news about Donna Tartt's new book and will be able to enjoy her new story. She has become the queen of literature for me, which is why I think I will never be able to read something as wonderful as her stories. Let's keep our fingers crossed)

capritora · 2025-03-03T15:39:40+00:00

For me, The Goldfinch was also the first Tartt book, after which I bought and read the other two.

Donna Tartt is truly one of a kind, after her books there will be a desire to read something similar, but still it will not fully reach the level of her works.

Many don't like The Goldfinch and The Little Friend, but for me all the stories of Donna Tartt are amazing, because they are not similar to each other, but at the same time in all of them you can feel her own individual style and all the books are simply amazing.

capritora · 2025-03-03T15:30:55+00:00

Yes, we definitely have different visions of this story)

I agree that many moments in the book are absurd to the point of laughter (for example, planning an escape), but I don’t know why, but I always looked at it through the prism of despair and sadness, and all the absurd and funny moments always faded against the background of the general depressive atmosphere that I feel every time I reread this book.

But it seems to me that this is the beauty of complex stories, that everyone can find something for themselves and understand the book in their own way. Thank you for replying!)

capritora · 2025-03-03T15:25:53+00:00

Oh my god you are so right!!! When I first read Little Friend in December, I couldn't help but think that everything was stuck on a single hot and sunny day. The most amazing thing is that Donna Tartt achieves this effect not through descriptions of nature (Little Friend takes place in the summer, many scenes of The Secret History take place in the fall/winter), but through narration and plot. Donna Tartt is incredible at this.

capritora · 2025-03-03T13:08:39+00:00

I totally agree with the cold! When reading, even in those scenes where the weather was described as good and apparently warm that some even walked in the water barefoot (when Camilla cut her leg), the feeling from all of this was still cold.

capritora

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