Some time ago I read "The Shards" by my favourite writer Bret Easton Ellis and enjoyed it a lot. The next book I read was Donna Tartt's "The Secret History", which was – coincidentally – a perfect follow-up to Ellis's novel. Both of them gave me a similar feeling I haven't had before with any other book. Since then, I've been looking for thematically and narratively similar novels that can trigger something similar. I've seen a few suggestions for Secret History epigones, but this may not be exactly it.
What I love about The Shards and The Secret History is the narrative stance, the elegant language and the reflective capacity of the narrator, who tells from the present about something past. And of course the whole setting: a group of young people, a secret between them, the campus, intellectual and aesthetic questions, but also the whole field of relationships, love, and jealousy.
There probably won't be a third one like "The Shards" and "The Secret History", but perhaps you know of a book that goes in a similar direction. Thank you!
by count_fab