Reviews with content warning for Xenophobia - The Secret History (Abridged Version)

I thought I would love this book, but unfortunately, I was quite disappointed by the majority of it.

What I liked: Tartt does an excellent job at character building, creating complex characters which are lovable and despicable, and crafting the atmosphere of a scenario. To be honest, I love the writing -- it verges on gothic romance with a dark focus on environmental qualities and emotional turmoil.

What I didn't like: Was there any plot? While the writing was excellent, the majority of the book focuses on someone being drunk or doing drugs, someone being pissed at someone else, someone trying to get drunk or do drugs or cause tension..... and it drags. Had this book been 300 (or fewer) pages, I probably would have rated it higher. Maybe it's the superiority complex, immense wealth, ignorance, and privilege held by most characters, but I could not get myself to care much about their emotional turmoil as it was self-imposed.
By the last half of the book, I genuinely hated the majority of the characters and only continued because I hate not finishing a book even more. It was also dotted with racism, homophobia, and incest, all of which seemed like unnecessary shock factors.

I am glad others liked this book more than I did, but for what reason, I'm not entirely sure. Though I think Tartt is a great writer, I can't say I enjoyed this read.

Content Warnings

massivepizzacrust's review against another edition

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dark tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I'm glad I finally got to this book as it's been languishing on my TBR for probably five years. The writing is stunning and kept pulling me back in. However, the second half of the book started meandering and it was hard to keep caring. I became really disillusioned with all the characters, which I think was partly the intention, and without a connection I really stopped being invested in their self-imposed issues.
I can see why this is a classic, but I think the writing is the only reason I would recommend it.

Content Warnings

gainsandbrains's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

bleepbloop's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

stunning. balletic. gross. I feel like I could read this ten more times and find new insight in each reread.

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dakotajade's review against another edition

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4.0

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issyd23's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense 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

2.0

The OG dark academia book: basically Pretty Little Liars meets Rope but for nerds who like Dante 2🏺

Really disappointed this book didn’t live up to the hype: pacing was way too slow - like just get to the murder already.

Tbh PLL did it better and the play/Hitchcock film Rope is a way better version of this story in terms of suspense, pacing and exploring themes of ethics, academia, eruditeness, class and queerness.

NB the audiobook I listed to narrated by the author herself gave the most annoying voice to Bunny: he sounded like that little bitch in the Polar Express and so I wasn’t even sad when he was killed.

Also I found the main 6 characters so detestable I was indifferent to their

murders and suffering from trying to evade their crimes.

Content Warnings

soots's review against another edition

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dark tense slow-paced

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

1.75

I really wanted to like it, truly, but it was so boring from the protagonist's perspective (the book is written in 1st person's pov). The whole book itself felt pretentious, if that can ever happen. None of the characters were likeable, and much of the dialogues and narratives had content and mentions of topics that definitely needed trigger warnings, some of which weren't even necessary to the narrative. There was very little plot progression, safe for one plot twist in the end that got me confused and irritated. Finishing the book left me wondering why I actually did not listen to my own advice to stop this reading this book when I was at page 85. There are much better books than this that does exactly what this book was trying to do. The writing was lovely, though.

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