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megwesley's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, and Alcohol
Moderate: Classism
autumngk's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
this book is fucking insane
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Incest, Xenophobia, Grief, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, and Suicide attempt
gwen__'s review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Undeniably a brilliant and outstanding novel. Tartt manages to give a vast impression of each character whilst those descriptions do not stick out at all; they blend neatly into the story. Her writing is enchanting and compelling, and it is what I so adore about this book. The plot itself did not appeal to me as much, but regardless of that, I enjoyed The secret history tremendously. That being said, it took me a while to get through it. This is no light read at all, but I would definetly consider it worth the while.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Drug use, Gun violence, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Suicide attempt, and Alcohol
Moderate: Homophobia, Incest, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Car accident, and Classism
cecilyroseceillam's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Will always remain one of my favourite books of all time, beautifully written and harrowing, I’ve read it so many times that it feel s almost nostalgic in a sense. I love the atmosphere the most, it feels like I’m reading a Greek tragedy and I love how she writes the corruption and evilness of each character. Would highly recommend even though it has some huge content warnings.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Classism
stephbakerbooks's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
I am glad that I read this for book club, because I think there's a lot to discuss here and I'm hoping our discussion helps me get more of my thoughts out. And maybe I'll change my mind on it a bit, but my first impressions after finishing are that it didn't do (for me at least) what I think it was trying to do. If that makes sense?
The plot was interesting—I mean, I did read all 559 pages in less than a week. So I was invested in the story, though I admit I skimmed some descriptive paragraphs. And I think it could have been a much shorter story and perhaps had a greater impact. But it didn't bore me, so I'll give it that.
My main issue is with the characters. I get that they are supposed to be unlikable (and, boy, are they unlikable), but all of them still feel held at a distance. So much is left unexplained, up to the reader to decide what exactly happened, especially since our narrator, Richard, is very unreliable. I don't like unreliable narrators, so this is probably just my issue. But Richard rarely does anything; things just happen to him and he rolls with it. He often will learn some crucial info that deserves some kind of follow-up but instead he'll go sleep for twelve hours (pretty sure Richard spends half the book either sleeping or doing drugs). He has no sense of agency and no character development. Yet through him, we get to know our other main characters—Henry, Francis, Charles, Camilla, and Bunny. Yet, with possibly the exception of Henry and Bunny in the first half of the book, Richard never really seems to get to know these characters. He would often say that he was fondest of Charles and I found myself thinking, Why? You know nothing about him and are never shown spending time with him! I think the latter half of the book, when the characters start to deteriorate from guilt, it's hard to see their actions as much of a transformation since I had nothing real to gauge it with. I think Henry is developed the most, but he largely disappears from the last half of the book so his actions at the end are abrupt and out of character. Francis and Camilla felt more like stereotyped characters. I would say Camilla is the least developed out of the crew; her attributes are unmemorable, yet somehow we're supposed to believe that Richard loves her. (and Henry? That felt the most jarring, as no affection between Henry and Camilla had been previously shown. ) Bunny was fairly developed, but then since we know from the first page of the book that he ends up dead, his characterization had a timer on it the whole time, and I knew he wasn't going to have the time to redeem himself. He was also antisemitic, racist, and homophobic, and no one ever calls him out on it, so it was more of a relief when he died so I could be done with those parts of the book.
I think the story would have been more interesting if we'd gotten multiple POVs—would have loved to get the POVs of all of them, but even just having Henry's and Charles's POVs in addition to Richard's would have been welcome. Maybe then the characters would have felt more developed to me.
And then there's Julian, who is supposed to be the one who inspires these students and sets them on the journey of the book, yet he is basically absent from the whole story. Richard keeps saying they all feel great affection for Julian, but I don't believe it because it's never shown, never earned.
And then there's all the content warnings. I honestly don't know how any of these students were able to pass any classes, as all they do is drink and do drugs. Constantly. My other issues here might be considered spoilers, so I'm putting them behind the spoiler tag.The incest storyline was completely unnecessary. It added nothing to Charles's and Camilla's characters, beyond making them more unlikable, but really just confused their characterization more. I suppose it created the tension between Charles and Henry, but that could've just as easily been created by the events after Bunny's death. The racist old man who blames all Arabs for Bunny's supposed kidnapping was an unnecessary addition. It added nothing to the tension or the plot. And definitely did not need to include racial slurs in his dialogue. Richard has one line of thought where he considers raping Camilla "or something" and that also definitely did not need to be included. I could not believe that I'd actually read that, and I'm supposed to find Richard redeeming in some way?
And then there's the fact that the man they first kill is never really expounded on. We know nothing about him, these characters never feel any regret over having killed him beyond the fact that they don't want to go to jail for it. He's just an unknown man whose life meant nothing for the purposes of this book and I couldn't get over the callous way the characters didn't think about him at all. Even at the end, when they're older and more reflective, their thoughts and concerns are always for Bunny's death and the effect that had on them—they never consider the unknown man's death. It just frustrated me and I wanted all these characters to go to jail.
Anyways, I gave it 2.5 stars for now, because like I said it did keep me interested and I think it was well-written. But these characters are all terrible and irredeemable in my opinion and I'm kind of annoyed I spent five-hundred-plus pages reading about them.
The plot was interesting—I mean, I did read all 559 pages in less than a week. So I was invested in the story, though I admit I skimmed some descriptive paragraphs. And I think it could have been a much shorter story and perhaps had a greater impact. But it didn't bore me, so I'll give it that.
My main issue is with the characters. I get that they are supposed to be unlikable (and, boy, are they unlikable), but all of them still feel held at a distance. So much is left unexplained, up to the reader to decide what exactly happened, especially since our narrator, Richard, is very unreliable. I don't like unreliable narrators, so this is probably just my issue. But Richard rarely does anything; things just happen to him and he rolls with it. He often will learn some crucial info that deserves some kind of follow-up but instead he'll go sleep for twelve hours (pretty sure Richard spends half the book either sleeping or doing drugs). He has no sense of agency and no character development. Yet through him, we get to know our other main characters—Henry, Francis, Charles, Camilla, and Bunny. Yet, with possibly the exception of Henry and Bunny in the first half of the book, Richard never really seems to get to know these characters. He would often say that he was fondest of Charles and I found myself thinking, Why? You know nothing about him and are never shown spending time with him! I think the latter half of the book, when the characters start to deteriorate from guilt, it's hard to see their actions as much of a transformation since I had nothing real to gauge it with. I think Henry is developed the most, but he largely disappears from the last half of the book so his actions at the end are abrupt and out of character. Francis and Camilla felt more like stereotyped characters. I would say Camilla is the least developed out of the crew; her attributes are unmemorable, yet somehow we're supposed to believe that Richard loves her. (
I think the story would have been more interesting if we'd gotten multiple POVs—would have loved to get the POVs of all of them, but even just having Henry's and Charles's POVs in addition to Richard's would have been welcome. Maybe then the characters would have felt more developed to me.
And then there's Julian, who is supposed to be the one who inspires these students and sets them on the journey of the book, yet he is basically absent from the whole story. Richard keeps saying they all feel great affection for Julian, but I don't believe it because it's never shown, never earned.
And then there's all the content warnings. I honestly don't know how any of these students were able to pass any classes, as all they do is drink and do drugs. Constantly. My other issues here might be considered spoilers, so I'm putting them behind the spoiler tag.
And then there's the fact that the man they first kill is never really expounded on. We know nothing about him, these characters never feel any regret over having killed him beyond the fact that they don't want to go to jail for it. He's just an unknown man whose life meant nothing for the purposes of this book and I couldn't get over the callous way the characters didn't think about him at all. Even at the end, when they're older and more reflective, their thoughts and concerns are always for Bunny's death and the effect that had on them—they never consider the unknown man's death. It just frustrated me and I wanted all these characters to go to jail.
Anyways, I gave it 2.5 stars for now, because like I said it did keep me interested and I think it was well-written. But these characters are all terrible and irredeemable in my opinion and I'm kind of annoyed I spent five-hundred-plus pages reading about them.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Suicide, Blood, and Murder
Moderate: Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Racial slurs, Racism, Antisemitism, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Rape, Self harm, Medical content, Grief, and Suicide attempt
achilles_heel's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Murder, and Alcohol
Moderate: Cursing and Homophobia
ewwniamh's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
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
5.0
i would kiss henry on the mouth not sorry
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Suicide, Blood, Suicide attempt, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Homophobia and Incest
bugcollector's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
the premise of this dark academia manifesto is a clique of classics students influenced by greek lit and their charismatic teacher 'discovering' murder.
however, it was hard for me to find julian enchanting, even through the romanticizing eyes of richard,
and the connection to greek wasn't there beyond surface level.
i wish we got more than one class with him to understand why he influenced them this greatly, and what did the group come about when "meeting Dionysus".
the bit about what george orwell ("king of morals") had to say about Julian's character felt too in your face ("look, julian is actually immorall!)
also what's the deal with the homophobia
yeah, they killed off bunny so most of the slurs stopped , but then Francis is falling for the straights and merrying a gal '-'
i did love Henry's character, and how you could see him manipulate and master their daily decisions. but again what's his connection to Julian beyond that?
There's also a bit about richard, mr nothing in his soul but obsessive, daydreaming about raping camilla which came out of nowhere.
The book starts with Richard telling us 'the only story he will ever be able to tell.' i guess bexause of that i asummed there would be a reason he's telling it, or that it would sum up in something he wrote. didn't expect the 2000s disney movie ending montage about what everyone's up to today (and i mean everyone, some characters I even forgot existed)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Drug use, Homophobia, Incest, Rape, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Classism
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Addiction, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Medical trauma, and Sexual harassment
tramonta's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Gore, Gun violence, and Murder
Moderate: Homophobia, Incest, Sexual content, and Classism
Minor: Ableism and Rape
mckenziecampbell's review against another edition
dark
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
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Gun violence, Suicide, Violence, Suicide attempt, and Murder
Moderate: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Incest, and Misogyny
Minor: Rape