By Ava Shaffer
My reading in 2023 began with the subtle reminder that I am a woman of variety and possess the range to simultaneously read both trashy romance books and classic greek mythology! To be fair, I was taking a J-Term classic greek mythology literature class that forced me to read a lot of these lofty titles, but I got through them anyway.
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
I said 2020 was the year I was finally going to read The Secret History. Then I said 2021 was the year I was finally going to read The Secret History. Then, in 2022 I picked up The Secret History, read the first chapter, promptly fell asleep, and left it on my bookshelf for 12 more months. But alas, rejoice! It is 2023 and my procrastinating has come to an end! I read this whole book! It was dense and heavy and depressing as hell, and I enjoyed every minute of it.
To nobody's surprise, this book was just as good as everyone said it was. Sometimes I avoid popular books, because the hype surrounding them gives me unrealistic expectations for just words on a paper. The conversation around The Secret History made me believe my life was going to be forever altered through these pages and I would emerge a new woman. While that didn't actually happen, I found that the praise this book receives is rightly well-deserved.
The Secret History is a phenomenal character study that really sucks you into the bleak, dreary, pretentious world of Hampden College in rural Vermont. Despite the fact this book was a heavy brick with bible-thin pages, every sentence in the story felt purposeful and beautifully crafted.
This book also perfectly coincided with the classic greek mythology class I was taking over winter break. I spent my snowy days cooped up inside somewhere warm, bent over a wooden desk, studying greek classics. When I finished my schoolwork for the day, I would sit down and read about the characters in The Secret History spending their snowy days cooped up inside somewhere warm, bent over wooden desks, studying greek. Basically, the immersion was THERE, making me enjoy the book even more. (This is a fall/winter book! Do not read this book in the spring/summertime that would be very silly of you!)
A lot of times this story had no plot at all, but I didn't mind! When something is so well written that you can just enjoy wandering aimlessly down the gravel, blood-spattered path it leads you on, you know it's a good read.
Since I paid my hard-earned $5.01 on this GoodNotes book journal from Etsy, my reviews will now contain cute little journal pages for each book I've read. Here's The Secret History's! (PS: I highly recommend scrolling through the "secret history aesthetic" tag on Pinterest for dark academia fashion inspiration).
The Illiad by Homer
(Please don't expect an academic or cerebral review of any of these greek classics because you will not be getting one! I read these for a grade and for the vibes alone, all deep thought was spent on my multiple essays a week that almost made my brain implode).
Geeze oh pete was this book sad! But I do love me some parallelism, so I enjoyed this very much.
The translation I read put the eloquent similes in italics which was really helpful for reading and differentiating between the main story and the background. These similies were probably some of my favorite parts of the poem.
I also enjoyed the descriptions of Achilles’ shield! It did go on for maybe 6 pages but it was so good I didn't even mind.
The Illiad allows for a lot of interesting discussions about fate/destiny, rage, gender, violence, and grief which make it a worthwhile read. (Spoiler alert guys this book that has been famous for over 2000 years is pretty good).
The Oresteia by Aeschylus
Murder! Treachery! Adultery! Female rage! A lengthy monologue about changing baby diapers! What else could you want from a greek tragedy?
Reading this was an exciting time! I enjoyed the focus on revenge and the female character's points of view, which are oftentimes absent in greek myth. I also enjoyed the setting of Athens, as well as the trial scenes.
To quote my roommate after I told her I was reading this, "I support women's rights and women's wrongs." There's just so much here to discuss about Clytemenstra! Her morals, her revenge, her relationship to men, her duty to her children, her role as both a woman and a rich powerful head of the house. It's nuanced and juicy and highly debated- oh the DRAMA of it all. I highly recommend this exciting tale to beginners of greek mythology, because if this doesn't hook you then I don't know what will.
Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover
The epitome of “I can fix him”.
My love-hate guilty pleasure relationship with Colleen Hoover prevails as I read my third book from her. I bought this on PangoBooks for $2, which is coincidentally how many starts I am giving it.
All jokes aside about Colleen Hoover, I do enjoy reading her books and frequently find myself entertained by them. Where my apprehension comes from is due to the way these books are marketed, specifically on TikTok and social media, to younger female audiences.
Sure there are content warnings in the front of her books, but I don’t think that does enough to prepare younger people for reading them. I feel like this book could be very detrimental for young girls, specifically teenagers in high school navigating their relationship with romantic love for the first time. That’s not to say that Colleen Hoover's books are morally bad, but her books are ones that need to be taken with a lot of critical thought. Critical thought that I don’t think is very available to some younger people just experiencing love and sex and relationships for the first time. All the media and recommendations around her books depict them as steamy, dramatic, popular books on Tiktok that everyone just has read. I really feel like we should avoid that narrative because it undermines a lot of what her books try to tackle, and when they're marketing solely as steamy, dramatic romances then no doubt the message will be misconstrued. I think people can definitely still read Colleen Hoover's books and enjoy them as works of fiction, it just puts a sick feeling in my stomach the way they are constantly marketed to readers, especially teenage girls.
Ok, off my soap box now. Back to the review.
Usually, I can suspend my disbelief with dumb romance books depicting somewhat toxic relationships. But this was just so bad! Miles had no redeeming qualities besides being a hottie and this was just so unromantic. A lot of the writing (especially in the chapters narrated by Miles) was very juvenile.
One thing colleen hoover can always do well is write an entertaining page-turner, which this was! But that doesn’t mean it was good.
Antigone & Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
I think at this point I was greek-mythed out from my classics class. Like i get it! Men hated women! Men loved violence! That's the whole story!
I’m sure Oedipus Rex was the biggest plot twist of the time for the greeks but if you go into the play knowing what happens then it feels kinda pointless reading it with the end spoiled (because nothing else happens!) Antigone was also fine and cool to see a morsel, a crumb, of female independence in greek tragedies.
House of Names by Colm Toibin
This retelling of The Oresteia excited me at first because I was expecting a more modern, feminist angle on the myth. However, some parts of this were very boring, mainly the scenes just retelling The Oresteia with no new information or perspective being presented.
When the book actually deviated from the original myth, those unique plot points really grabbed and held my attention. I loved the way relationships were developed, particularly between Orestes and Leander, and the ending.
Electra was also unhinged and I love that for her.
Lore Olympus by Rachel Smythe
Remember when I said I was greek-mythed out? Skye! There is always room in my reading world for steamy retellings of Greek romance. I read a few of Katee Robert's books, and this was a more toned-down and artistic version of those. If Love Island was a modern greek-retelling it would be this book.
I am taking a class this spring semester called YA Literature and it is an absolute delight! Every Wednesday we meet and it feels more like a book club than a class, I really look forward to it. Each week we read a book based on a loose theme, and then come to class ready to chat about it. The first theme was "graphic novel" so I chose Lore Olympus. I have heard so many good things about it and was grateful my professor had a copy she could lend me!
In this humorous and glamorous retelling of the classic greek myth of Hades and Persephone, this graphic novel takes its reader through the drama, gossip, and romance of a contemporary Olympus. The character designs of each God or Goddess were stunning, as well as the entire art style in general. The dialogue and character interactions were also much funnier than I expected going into this book. Also, I enjoyed how many of the female characters were retold through a feminist lens (even if the art style of the women's bodies tended to lean towards the male gaze). Read this if you’ve got a hankering for mutual pining, unique art, and drama!
Verity by Colleen Hoover
I ended my January reading with the best Colleen Hoover I have read to date! It's not saying much, but it's something!
I won’t even lie this book really spooked me! Verity is a thrilling page-turner about the evils of women and I ate that shit up! While reading this, any creek in the wooden floors or slam of a door across the hall made me jump. I'm not typically one for thrillers, but the setting and intrigue of this one got me to read it. I enjoyed the heavy focus on writing and publishing too.
This was such an interesting concept and it kind of reminded me of Misery by Stephen King (which I have yet to work up the nerve to read). The execution of toggling back and forth between the main story and the manuscript was entertaining too, if a little unbalanced at times. I still think some of the writing and characters could’ve been deeper (mainly Lowen) but hey this was a fun yet heavy quick read!
I disliked the ending the closer I got to finishing the book, but that’s ok! Stories you can devour quickly are worthwhile in the book world and don’t always need to be super good!
My January Reading Stats
Books Finished: 8
Pages Read: 2,391
Book images courtesy of GoodReads