#38: The Likeness by Tana French
I missed Rob Ryan like you miss a real person, and I couldn’t love The Likeness like I loved In the Woods because that book hit me somewhere I’ve yet to fully understand, and I’m not ignorant of the ways in which The Likeness was probably influenced by Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, and I can’t help but wonder what it is about sinister groups of smart, hot, young friends that keeps fascinating literary mystery writers, but I have to say, without irony, that Tana French is one of the best living writers, in my reading experience, now working in today’s literary fiction market, and I think I feel this way because her language is both excellent and unpretentious, her imagery unique and interesting, and her characters well-defined and sympathetic; to those disappointed by the ending of In the Woods but fans of French’s work, this is the book for you.
