psychological fiction

Donna Tartt  has been on my radar for quite awhile, and I finally picked up The Secret History at the recommendation of multiple coworkers. To be honest, I finished this novel over a week ago, and I am still unsure how I feel. I was unimpressed with much of the book, but something about it is still stuck in the back of my brain. The entire book is a psychological analysis of the six main characters before and after murdering their friend. Tartt opens the book with a prologue describing Bunny’s murder from the point of view of Richard, the narrator. The rest of the novel is then split up into

Small town.  Urban Legends.  A gruesome stabbing.

Before She Was Found definitely felt like it could be the ripped from the headlines fictionalized retelling of the Slender Man stabbing.  For those unfamiliar, in 2014 two 12 year old girls lured their 12 year old friend into the woods and proceeded to stab her 19 times to appease the entity known as 'Slender Man'.  For the first couple of chapters I was worried that this book was going to be nothing more than a retelling of true events with the names changed.  Though the plot does concern the aftermath of a brutal stabbing involving three 12

The house where so much of The Girl Before takes place is a minimalist’s dream; a testament to how we can get by with barely any material goods. The latter may seem impossible to those of us who carry our many belongings with us wherever we go. Yet, reading this book, I can see the lure of an uncluttered life.

The house, in fact, becomes a character in the story. More than just a backdrop, the house affects the main characters and seems at times to be an extension of Edward Monkton, the architect of this rule-bound home.

Two women, separated by time, are deemed worthy by Monkton to live in

"After their English aunt dies, listless American twins Julia and Valentina travel to London to live in their aunt's now empty flat overlooking Highgate Cemetery. There they become embroiled in the day-to-day sagas of their eccentric neighbors. But soon they discover that something is alive in Highgate--something unable to move on."

A haunted, aging apartment in north London, bordering one of the most famous cemeteries in the world, complete with an unusual set of inhabitants and a bit of London's darker history sprinkled throughout . . . no one had to convince me to pick this one up. 

Un

A few years after losing his wife and daughter in an automobile accident, Michael Reed finds himself working at a university for a nameless humanities department with a specialty so vague it’s impossible to imagine what he does for income, if anything.  Not that Mr. Reed isn’t busy.  His insights into humanity’s rougher edges are realized by a relentless labor of the mind. He’s strenuously alert to the injustices of middle age, the sublime beauty of reckless youth and the absence of the two people who once defined his life.

Acute physiological awareness is something author Denis Johnson does

Charlie Giles is an up and coming tech guru who, with his elite team, invented a digital entertainment system for automobiles.  Charlie’s company has been purchased by a larger company and Charlie, along with his team, is in charge of product development.  To get where he has gotten in the business world Charlie has been open and above board as well as ruthless.  One day, while in a high power meeting with company executives, Charlie has a meltdown and begins accusing a colleague of trying to sabotage his invention.  Things go downhill from there.  He finds notes that are written in his

Why is Duncan so warm in his flat during the coldest of winters in London? An efficient heating system and good insulation, he tells his neighbors.  But why is Duncan so warm in April with the heating system turned off and the windows open? And who is this good-looking new guy, who admires his reflection in every shop window he passes? He has fallen in love at first sight with the woman that Duncan has inventively named Tigerlily, who lives next door. Old hippies, young college students, a professional couple, and an unrepentant drunk all occupy the six flats in Lichfield House.  Duncan

The Solitude of Prime Numbers by Paolo Giordano could probably be called an anti relationship book. The story revolves around two people who come together and move apart throughout the book. They each each an intense experience when young, which affects their personalities and the rest of their lives. Will they end up together? Should they end up together? I suppose that a deeper, more relevant question is whether or not it is possible for people who have deep wounds, who are just that little bit more different, can find happiness with another person. The Solitude of Prime Numbers may or may