The Secret History

Donna Tartt's bestselling debut novel is not generally considered a supernatural book. Most people probably remember it as a sort of elite college murder mystery, as a tight group of brainiac students studying ancient Greek degenerate into murderous monsters. At the core of the story, however, is a ritual that invokes atavistic horrors and blood-soaked Dionysian revelry. Tartt tells, and doesn't show, this chilling episode, which paradoxically heightens its creepy intensity.