Donna Tartt 1992
- What it is
-
A narrator who doesn't tell you the truth · it messes with your head
- Genre
- Literary Mystery Thriller
- Feels
- Morally grey Cerebral Unsettling Dark Tense
Everything below shares at least two of these traits, or sits with it in some reader's stack. We tell you why as you go.
Books similar to The secret history
Coming from The secret history? Start with Notes on a Scandal, The Talented Mr Ripley. 46 more below, each with why it fits.
1 book
The closest to yours
Notes on a Scandal
Zoe Heller 2003
It ties your stomach in a knot · pitch-black comedy
2 books
A threat that keeps growing and school setting
The School for Good Mothers
Jessamine Chan 2022
It stirs you up inside · pitch-black comedy
King Sorrow
Joe Hill 2025
It stirs you up inside · within the walls of a school
11 books
A threat that keeps growing and unreliable narrator
Gone Girl
Gillian Flynn 2011
It ties your stomach in a knot · the truth comes out bit by bit
Defending Jacob
William Landay 2012
It ties your stomach in a knot · it leaves you shaken
I'm Thinking of Ending Things
Iain Reid 2016
You'll keep turning it over for days · a twist at the end that changes everything
Sharp Objects
Gillian Flynn 2007
It gets under your skin · it tells it with no filter
We Have Always Lived in the Castle
Shirley Jackson 1962
It gets under your skin · pitch-black comedy
The Silent Patient
Alex Michaelides 2018
Grouped with yours in Novels where the killer is known on page one
You
Caroline Kepnes 2014
It gets under your skin · a narrator who doesn't tell you the truth
The Housemaid
Freida McFadden 2022
It ties your stomach in a knot · the truth comes out bit by bit
The woman in the window
A. J. Finn 2017
It ties your stomach in a knot · the truth comes out bit by bit
The girl on the train
Paula Hawkins 2014
You end up rooting for the wrong people · the truth comes out bit by bit
Verity
Colleen Hoover 2018
Nobody is entirely good · properly scary
7 books · Alike in just one
Only a threat that keeps growing
The Talented Mr Ripley
Patricia Highsmith 1973
A reader shelved it with yours in Crimes that aren't the usual kind
We Need to Talk about Kevin
Lionel Shriver 2003
A reader shelved it with yours in Novels where the killer is known on page one
My Sister, the Serial Killer
Oyinkan Braithwaite 2018
Grouped with yours in Crimes that aren't the usual kind
Asylum
Patrick McGrath 1998
It stirs you up inside · a place nobody can leave
Mejor muerto
Susana Rodríguez Lezaun 2024
It gets under your skin · it's hiding a secret
Lincoln Lawyer
Michael Connelly 1895
Nobody is entirely good · you can't put it down
The Legacy
Yrsa Sigurdardóttir 2025
It stirs you up inside · it tells it with no filter
4 books · Alike in just one
Only school setting
Red Sparrow
Jason Matthews 2013
You end up rooting for the wrong people · it tells it with no filter
Vita Nostra
Marina & Sergey Dyachenko 2018
You'll keep turning it over for days, but in fantasy
8 books · Alike in just one
Only unreliable narrator
American Psycho
Bret Easton Ellis 1991
Readers put them together in Crimes that aren't the usual kind
Rebecca
Daphne du Maurier 1938
Unsettling from the first page · it won't tell you everything at once
Fight Club
Chuck Palahniuk 1996
It ties your stomach in a knot · it tells it straight
Spy Who Came in from the Cold
John le Carré 1964
Nobody is entirely good · it tells it straight
The Thirteenth Tale
Diane Setterfield 2006
Like yours: unreliable narrator · it leaves you thinking
The devotion of suspect X
Keigo Higashino 2011
Readers put them together in Crimes that aren't the usual kind
Lolita
Vladimir Nabokov 1777
In common with yours: unreliable narrator
Use of Weapons
Iain Banks 1990
A reader shelved it with yours in Morally grey main characters you root for anyway
15 books
More similar books
Crime and Punishment
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A reader shelved it with yours in Crimes that aren't the usual kind
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Nobody is entirely good · fierce and defiant
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You end up rooting for the wrong people · it leaves you shaken
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It stirs you up inside · it tells it with no filter
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You end up rooting for the wrong people · it stays with you
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No clean hands here · a mystery you want to solve
Fingersmith Msr
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Nobody is entirely good · it's hiding a secret
Couples
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A reader shelved it with yours in Friendship novels where the group falls apart
The Godfather
Mario Puzo 2004
Readers put them together in Morally grey main characters you root for anyway
The God of the Woods
Liz Moore 2024
You end up rooting for the wrong people · it leaves you thinking
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Nobody is entirely good · it tells it straight
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Nobody is entirely good · it tells it with no filter
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No clean hands here · a trial at the heart of the story
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