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pshafer's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Body horror, Drug use, Alcoholism, and Incest
Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death
whatellisreadnext's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
๐๐ฆ๐ข๐ถ๐ต๐บ ๐ช๐ด ๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ณ. ๐๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ข๐ฏ๐ต ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฃ๐บ ๐ช๐ต, ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฉ๐ช๐ฅ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ๐ด๐ฆ๐ญ๐ท๐ฆ๐ด ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ง๐ช๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ช๐ค๐ฉ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ง๐ช๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ถ๐ด.
Richard worms his way into an elite Greek class, with five eccentric, and seemingly rich students. He soon falls under the influence of these charismatic characters, but it all turns out to be much more than he bargained for.
People either love this book or they hate it. Well I think I'm both. Some parts I loved, and other parts felt like my soul was being sucked out of my body๐๐ปโโ๏ธ
The Secret History starts off strong, the prologue making us aware of a murder, then taking us back to where it all began for our main protagonist, Richard. The story is split into two parts, Book 1 as it's called, I absolutely devoured. I was staying up till gone 1am, which is pretty unheard of for me; it was mysterious and compulsively readable.
Book 2 however, lost me big time. There were 200 pages where nothing happens, which took me ages to get through. I felt like I was walking through thick mud, during a hail storm. The last 100 pages redeemed it somewhat, giving us a decent conclusion to the story. But then there's the bloody epilogue. Why, oh why do they exist? I hate having everything wrapped up with a bow on top. It has to be my biggest pet peeve. Why can't the author leave us with some mystery or atleast some freedom to draw our own conclusions? The book could have done without it.
I know it sounds like I didn't enjoy this one, I did. I live for a pretentious dark academic setting, give me all the tweed blazers, murders, sex rituals etc. And I've got to give this book some credit, for a 1992 release, it has done amazing things for Dark Academia, inspiring so many other writers to take a stab at the genre. Which is definitely one of my favourite corners of fiction.
If The Secret History is sat on your shelf collecting dust, I urge you to give it a read. Yeah, I didn't love it as much as I hoped, but that doesn't mean you won't!
Richard worms his way into an elite Greek class, with five eccentric, and seemingly rich students. He soon falls under the influence of these charismatic characters, but it all turns out to be much more than he bargained for.
People either love this book or they hate it. Well I think I'm both. Some parts I loved, and other parts felt like my soul was being sucked out of my body๐๐ปโโ๏ธ
The Secret History starts off strong, the prologue making us aware of a murder, then taking us back to where it all began for our main protagonist, Richard. The story is split into two parts, Book 1 as it's called, I absolutely devoured. I was staying up till gone 1am, which is pretty unheard of for me; it was mysterious and compulsively readable.
Book 2 however, lost me big time. There were 200 pages where nothing happens, which took me ages to get through. I felt like I was walking through thick mud, during a hail storm. The last 100 pages redeemed it somewhat, giving us a decent conclusion to the story. But then there's the bloody epilogue. Why, oh why do they exist? I hate having everything wrapped up with a bow on top. It has to be my biggest pet peeve. Why can't the author leave us with some mystery or atleast some freedom to draw our own conclusions? The book could have done without it.
I know it sounds like I didn't enjoy this one, I did. I live for a pretentious dark academic setting, give me all the tweed blazers, murders, sex rituals etc. And I've got to give this book some credit, for a 1992 release, it has done amazing things for Dark Academia, inspiring so many other writers to take a stab at the genre. Which is definitely one of my favourite corners of fiction.
If The Secret History is sat on your shelf collecting dust, I urge you to give it a read. Yeah, I didn't love it as much as I hoped, but that doesn't mean you won't!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Homophobia, Incest, Misogyny, Rape, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Vomit
Moderate: Cursing, Infidelity, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide
fraboo's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This book was a ride.
I loved the atmosphere, I totally get the hype around dark academia. It rules.
The story touches on some pretty dark topics, so I would recommend checking the trigger warnings, before reading. Still, I adored this story strongly. I fell in love with the characters and their humanity, I loved how thoroughly they were described. I'm so sad about everything they went through, I wish it hadn't gone that way.
I found very interesting the subtle reflection, throughout the entire novel, on evil and immoral behavior. The gray morality of our cast of characters, that leaves you sympathizing with them, even though they did some pretty messed up things.
I'm not one to like books lacking plot, but I actually didn't mind. I have to specify that the first part of this novel is, in my opinion, void of action. This is usually a thing that throws me off, but in this case, I actually enjoyed it.
Needless to say, this book left a strong mark on me, and I don't think I will forget it easily.
I loved the atmosphere, I totally get the hype around dark academia. It rules.
The story touches on some pretty dark topics, so I would recommend checking the trigger warnings, before reading. Still, I adored this story strongly. I fell in love with the characters and their humanity, I loved how thoroughly they were described. I'm so sad about everything they went through, I wish it hadn't gone that way.
I found very interesting the subtle reflection, throughout the entire novel, on evil and immoral behavior. The gray morality of our cast of characters, that leaves you sympathizing with them, even though they did some pretty messed up things.
I'm not one to like books lacking plot, but I actually didn't mind. I have to specify that the first part of this novel is, in my opinion, void of action. This is usually a thing that throws me off, but in this case, I actually enjoyed it.
Needless to say, this book left a strong mark on me, and I don't think I will forget it easily.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Grief, Gore, Incest, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide
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