The Secret History by Donna Tartt
I know, I know, I know. Donna Tartt wrote this forever ago. Well, you know what? I'm a follower. So after I read (and "meh'd") The Goldfinch because everyone was reading it due to it's Pulitizer win... I figured I'd have to now follow a decade-old trend. So, I used one of my precious Audible credits to listen to The Secret History (narrated by Tartt herself).
There were many mornings listening to this where I wanted to drive right by my office and continue on to Canada. Although, I suck at geography and have no sense of direction... so who knows if I would have ended up in Canada. Alas, my point to this is that I wanted to keep driving so I could keep listening to this tale about the misdeeds of Richard, Henry, Bunny, Francis and The Twins. I caught myself driving along, wide-eyed and with my jaw practically on my lap as I got caught up in the story of Julian's scholars.
One of my favorite messages of this story was the idea that we never know what lies underneath. What warmth or demons potentially lie under a personality seemingly made of ice? What heinous crime lies underneath the accumulated snow in the ravine? What reality lies underneath a facade of expensive clothing and immaculate breeding? We never know until a pivotal moment that not only exposes the truth to us once and for all, but also might be our undoing.
Synopsis:
Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries. But when they go beyond the boundaries of normal morality their lives are changed profoundly and forever, and they discover how hard it can be to truly live and how easy it is to kill.