sapphicsecrecy's favorite books!
hi! today I thought I'd give a quick summary of my favorite books as a way for you to get to know me better and maybe find something of interest. let me know how you felt about any of these! I'd love to talk about them.
1. the secret history by donna tartt
yep, no surprise here. richard papen, in a twist of fate, is thrust into an elite group of college students who find themselves spiraling into a dionysian madness of sorts. complete with relentless male gaze, drunk shenanigans, and a bacchanal gone awry. engaging, gorgeous writing, with a fascinating cast of characters.
2. coraline by neil gaiman
for me, this is a childhood favorite, both in film and book form. young coraline jones stumbles upon a small door in her family's new flat, which leads to an identical flat, except everything seems better. that is, until it's not. charming, unsettling in the best way possible, and one of my favorite fictional worlds.
3. alice in wonderland by lewis carroll
okay, okay, another childhood favorite. curious alice, chasing a peculiar white rabbit, stumbles down a rabbit hole headfirst into a world of absolute madness. alice in wonderland has my favorite imagery of any franchise (playing cards, flowers with heads, tea time, living chess pieces, etc). classic and whimsical.
4. house of leaves by mark z. danielewski
to avoid giving too much away, the basic premise of the story is that a young family moves into their new home on ash street, and find that the house is bigger on the inside than on the outside. a semiotician's dream, and a book that genuinely navigates like a labyrinth.
5. vicious by v.e. schwab
different from my standard tastes, but a bit of a staple in the dark academia community. vicious is about victor and eli, two brilliant former friends seeking revenge against one another for the follies of their youth, and the events that secured their extraordinary powers. an abundance of moral ambiguity and existential crisis wrapped in an adult fantasy. also an adorable found family.
6. lost boy: the true story of captain hook by christina henry
a retelling of the classic tale of peter pan, in which jamie, our main character, becomes peter's best friend, and eventually his greatest enemy. there's a delightful cast of characters here, with just enough of the macabre to stand out against other retellings. peter is the chilling villain in this part "lord of the flies" and part coming-of-age story. engaging and appropriately brutal.
7. the wasp factory by iain banks
I was careful not to label the list as recommendations, and this book was the main reason why. meet 16-year-old frank, a troubled and likely sociopathic boy who spends his days wreaking brutal havoc on local wildlife, receiving frightening calls from his older brother who has broken out of a psychiatric hospital, and falling into obsessive, meticulous patterns to cope with it all. not for the light of heart, but wry, sardonic, and frustratingly endearing in its tone.
8. the song of achilles by madeline miller
another retelling, this time centered around the lives of patroclus and achilles up until the trojan war. the writing in this book is dazzling, with a great mlm relationship. in classic homer fashion, it is a tragic and moving depiction of two iconic greek figures. I cried like,, four times while reading this. also a dark academia must.
