Reviews with content warning for Murder - The Secret History

Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

1733 reviews

clangenskiold's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

One of my all-time favourite books. I love an unreliable, morally-ambiguous narrator, and this one makes you question what you read. To be fair, the middle section (no spoiler: during winter break) was a bit tedious and slow, but the pace picked back up after this deviation from the plot.

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librerin's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

4.25

~ the intrigue ~
It was a really compelling story where I never really knew how it would end. However, I didn't always buy the characters or their actions. I wish there had been more time given to flushing out their relationships (part of the lack seems to have been intentional to add to the air of mystery, but sometimes that made the reveals feel underwhelming or undeserved). A neat aesthetic trek into dark academia, but with all its flaws too (whiteness, elitism, wealth).

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norabeideineroma's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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nclovelock's review against another edition

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dark hopeful mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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amren's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

One of the best books I have ever read… Donna Tartt slowly fed you with fear of secrets, exponentially making you develop hatred to a character and at the end still surprise you.

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hayejay13's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

3.5

Was really engaged in the beginning and end, but definitely dragged through the middle.

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secre's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

5.0

I can't believe it's taken me this long to read this novel. It's been on my list for years and I finally settled down to read it and found one of my all time favourite novels, I think. Few novels have the daring to tell you exactly what is going to happen in the first two pages of the novel, and yet that is what Tartt does here, opening the novel with the murder and then skipping back in time to march you through to the inevitable conclusion. She also does it with a spectacularly unlikable cast of characters; every single one of them is at best morally grey and at worst a genuinely bad person. Yet despite this, her writing drew me in completely. It's a story about friendships, betrayals, guilt and a need to belong. It's beautifully written and captivating to fall into.

This is one of those books that just captivates you. Tartt excels at bringing the small university in Vermont to life and she excels at her characterisations, with every single one of the characters being vividly imagined, even at their most distasteful. She knits this group of arrogant young academics together as the plot draws on inexorably to Bunny's death. There's no whodunnit here. We know that from the start. What there is however is a wonderful portrayal of the relationships, the clashes, the self destruction and of course the descent into murder, all interwoven with an intellectual flair and a focus on the academics.

All in all, this was very much a book that I adored. I savoured it, reading it relatively slowly and enjoying being immersed in the group's insular little world. It's a book I will undoubtedly come back to again, and has convinced me to give The Goldfinch another try.

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