Reviews with content warning for Sexism - The Secret History

I thought this book was quite well written, and the characters were three-dimensional, complex, and flawed. It took me a while to get into since it is rather slow, but I enjoyed the complexity of the plot. It's not exactly my cup of tea, but I can see why it is a well-known book in dark academia.

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shireenreid's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

this book was going well then boom unnecessary racism.

I liked the book, but every time I came across racism (it was towards my people too) I contemplated not finishing it.

the writing style was good but i skipped over so many paragraphs cuz it got so slow and boring sometimes. I dont really care to read three paragraphs on what a tree looks like.

other than that, it was a good book. It actually made me shed a few tears.

I was actually so scared of reading the ending. when julian found the letterhead and starting reading bunny's letter, i just put the book down for a few mins and then carefully picked it up again lol.

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s000ul3's review against another edition

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dark funny mysterious reflective tense 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

5.0

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bookishfaye's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective 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

This book is very comparable to movie Saltburn in the sense that they both tragically fail at representing and continue to perpetuate the issues they are meant to be commentaries of. This very much reads like it was written by a rich white nepo baby & I have so many issues with it. Pretty much every -ism/-obia occurs in here in super unnecessary & gross ways & it got to the point where I was only holding on to be able to say that i’ve read it. The second star is because I’ll give Donna the grace that at times there’s some really good quotes in here, & I found Henry to be a pretty well written character, but quite frankly fuck this book overall.

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lucyford's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective relaxing tense medium-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

5.0

This book was SO GOOD. I don’t even know how to describe it in a way that truly encapsulates everything good about it. The plot is so well-written, and is really brought to life by the amazing writing style and slight poetic element to it, and all the atmospheres she creates just feel so real. Not to mention the foreshadowing (when you’re reading, you know it’s foreshadowing to something but you don’t know what it’s foreshadowing to, which is just so cool), and the fact that you’re always wondering how the story is possibly going to progress from point A to point B. The characters are all so complicated and interesting, and the themes of the books are very philosophical which makes the book all the more interesting. Overall, 10/10 read, absolutely exceeded my expectations. (ALSO THE ENDING??? CAUGHT ME SO OFF GUARD OMG)

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