Reviews

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

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fionaross's review against another edition

dark emotional tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Judy Poovey was my favorite character. Lots going on here and, honestly, for what?? Loved some bits but mostly I wanted things to pick up much faster.

niamhgill's review against another edition

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5.0

this book is so fucking insane i don’t know what to think

im so obsessed with this it’s been a week and i still can’t stop thinking about it

lilylis's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

4.75

cates11's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

uxue's review against another edition

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2.0

2’5

dnrsht's review against another edition

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4.0

There is nothing wrong with the love of Beauty. But Beauty - unless she is wed to something more meaningful - is always superficial.

I remember watching few years ago a whole video about The Secret History and being so drawn to it, 'cause I thought that reading it would make me so "mysterious" and "smart", that thoughts about this book didn't leave until I finally bought it. Waiting for the translaition was quite tiering but on the other hand I'm happy that I read it now. 2 years ago I was just incapable of understanding it. I still think that being a bit older, like in my 20 and not in teenage years, would help me to "see more in the book" but I already read it so anyways.

I think that everything was already said about this book. The epitome of dark academia, elitism and morally grey characters. Well, grey but to the side of black. All I can say here is just my opinion and impression and believe me I have something to say.

Let me start like this - I knew everything from the begining. Not because I'm very smart or smth, no, as you remember I saw a full review with spoilers, so none of the things that happened were shocking to me. Who's gonna die, who sleep's with who, who's going to end sadly (lol, everyone). But I'm quite strange at this point, 'cause I like spoilers. They make me feel involved in the story as if I'm the character that already knows everything and is just observing everything that happens around. So yeah, no "wows" from me. Just a scilent admiration.

So, back to the point. The Secret History. I liked it a 1000 times more than The Goldfinch. Not that long, less descriptions, more characters, less drugs and alcohol (funny, right?). Though the second part reminded me of it, 'cause it was so slow. But the first part was great. And the ending. Oh, that ending. Everybody gets what they deserved (we'll talk about this).
I think about this book and how it managed to trick all the readers into making the same mistake as the characters did. Doing something for the aestetics. The point of the book is critisism of "longing for picturesque". Their downfall started when they decided to do the Bacchanalia just...because? There is no sertain reason exept "we always wanted to try it". They are the elite who can afford to make mistakes and not be responsible for them and when they face the consequenses of their actions no-one is ready to accept them. Everybody is just ignoring it. And you know what's the point? We, the readers, also want to feel that way. We romantisize awful characters because they are rich, beautiful and mainly priviliged. How wonderfull of Donna turning us into them and making us feel as if beauty can change the rotten insides.

When talking about characters I'm quite confused. We have Richard, who is basically showing us another critique in The Secret History - friendship. And you know what I'm talking about. Do you really consider them friends? No. Henry is using everyone, Camilla is just a subject of everyone's desire, Charles is an abuser, Bunny...well you know. And only Francis kind of cares about Richard. They spend most of the book together and this was the best character dynamic. I honestly think that out of all Francis is the best. At least not the worst. He has his flaws (actually awful ones like nicotin/alcohol addiction and using people for hook up, but that's not the worst out of what we've seen) but he is the most real one. Anxious, scared to hurt someone, pissed of when somebody is trying to use him. A mess but I can forgive everything just because he really cared about Richard and because of "Forgive me for all the things I did, but mostly for the ones that I did not." Basically, this was my love letter to Francis (Love him. Still pissed of bcs he didn't end up with Richard. Should've been an end game!!)
Everyone else is just reinforcement of the main idea of criticism (sounds as if I underestimate their importance, but that's not the truth). But I want to talk about Julian and how he is also guilty in everything that happened. We know that all of the students thought higly about themselves way before uni, but when they started attending Julian's lessons something changed. They weren't just obnoxious young people anymore. They thought they could be gods, because Juluan told them this. Students saw him as that kind of Dyonisis that could make them lose their minds and turn them into immortal beings. They wanted to become them. So now we have a question - is the teacher guilty in the crime of his student? He is dissapointed in the result, he doesn't want to believe that it actually happened but that's what it is. Should he be responsible? Well, one more thing that Donna Tartt decided to critisize.

In the end - I recommend The Secret History to everyone who thinks that he can't be tricked by the author. And to those who thinks, that they are not capable of doing awful things.