The Secret History Set In The Modern Day And Everything Is The Same Except Francis Has No Less Than Four

If We Were Villains and The Secret History are siblings. One is the pretentious, intellectual older sibling and the other is the earnest, romantic younger sibling. One makes tongue-in-cheek jokes at the expense of the other and one rolls their eyes at the drama of it all, but they share the same nose and have the same taste in red wine because they're in the same FAMILY.

UNDERSTOOD??????

the greek class has hands soft as silk, except for richard. his are full of calluses

The urge to learn every language and play every instrument and travel the world and live through every historical time period and be a writer and a poet and an actor and

Alignment chart of dark academia books, emphasis on the academia. I have read them all and this is my take on it all.

Is the novel a dark academia because it takes place in a school and there are a lot of "dark" themes or is it a dark academia because the atmosphere is grim and the characters are pursuing knowledge.

Also book recommendations, I think people would like the books that fall in the same quadrant.

Books under the read more.

Top Left: My favourite corner where I just want the author to flex their niche knowledge.

Piranesi - Susanna Clarke

The Historian - Elizabeth Kostova

If We Were Villains - M. L. Rio

Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Fairies - Heather Fawcett

Ninth House - Leigh Bardugo

The Raven Boys - Maggie Steifvater

The Secret History - Donna Tarte

Babel - R. F. Kuang

Bottom right: The intersection between lots of deaths and some niche knowledge. This one is a bit more hand wavey so here are some explanations.

Blood Over Bright Haven - M. L. Wang: Often compared to Babel but has way less niche knowledge and more transactional deaths.

Harrow the Ninth - Tamsyn Muir: This one is a sequel but the convoluted plot lives in my head rent free and it’s Dark (Goth) Academia.

Bunny - Mona Awad: Lots of allusion to literature and mythology. Also lots of dark, bunnies and swans.

Bottom Left: Takes place in a school that people are trying to survive.

The Magicians - Lev Grossman

Vicious - V. E. Schwab

Legendborn - Tracy Deonn

Ace of Spades - Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

Atlas Six - Olivie Blake

Deadly Education - Naomi Naovik

Top Left: Happens in a school and pretty light on death but has “dark” themes.

The River King - Alice Hoffman

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder - Holly Jackson

The Initial Insult - Mindy McGinnis

A Study in Drowning - Ava Reid

To Shape a Dragon’s Breath - Moniquill Blackgoose

Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro

You Feel It Just Below the Ribs - Janina Matthewson and Jeffrey Cranor

Am I the only one who thinks The Secret History would be way more interesting as a stage play than a movie? It could be put on in the same style as a Greek tragedy, taking inspiration from ancient performances. Or there could be constant rotating sets and backgrounds, but the mountains and the cliffs always being present onstage, reminding us that what no matter what Richard is telling us, and no matter how much Richard and the Greek class try to rationalize it, they will always be haunted by what they have done. THINK ABOUT HOW THE BACCHANAL COULD BE SHOWN

Penelope: Would I fall in love with you again? Hmmm, well. Can you also move our marriage bed over there? Hmmm? What? I thought we were pretending to be stupid by asking the most idiotic questions.

My peak comedy moment

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

The Atsushi effect is real

so soft it hurts