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A review by ranee_samaniego
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
1.0
1.5 / 5 Stars
Rating = R
Trigger Warnings = substance abuse, alcohol abuse, incest, physical abuse, murder
My goodness. I think I may be a minority here, but I was greatly disappointed in this book. I had heard so much hype around The Secret History that I couldn’t wait to dive a dark academia novel. Instead, I found myself bored and struggled to have any wish to continue reading. And instead of cozy, dark academia vibes, I was in the middle of a group of selfish, privileged, drug-abusing, and perpetually drunk college students whose self-centeredness reached so far as to murder twice - once because they viewed themselves as better and smarter than everyone else, and once because they were miffed at being (to be fair, ruthlessly) teased by a friend.
Additionally, I have heard on Bookstagram that The Secret History contains well-developed, complex, morally-gray characters. I would instead describe them as black characters with one or two instances of acting in a humane manner. This hardly makes them gray - instead, they were immoral people who rarely seemed like complex humans.
Finally, I found the writing style not at all to my taste. I felt that it was pretentious and required a prior understanding of the Classic languages and myths to get a full understanding. Donna Tartt also would get distracted mid-action or conversation, inserting unnecessary asides.
Rating = R
Trigger Warnings = substance abuse, alcohol abuse, incest, physical abuse, murder
My goodness. I think I may be a minority here, but I was greatly disappointed in this book. I had heard so much hype around The Secret History that I couldn’t wait to dive a dark academia novel. Instead, I found myself bored and struggled to have any wish to continue reading. And instead of cozy, dark academia vibes, I was in the middle of a group of selfish, privileged, drug-abusing, and perpetually drunk college students whose self-centeredness reached so far as to murder twice - once because they viewed themselves as better and smarter than everyone else, and once because they were miffed at being (to be fair, ruthlessly) teased by a friend.
Additionally, I have heard on Bookstagram that The Secret History contains well-developed, complex, morally-gray characters. I would instead describe them as black characters with one or two instances of acting in a humane manner. This hardly makes them gray - instead, they were immoral people who rarely seemed like complex humans.
Finally, I found the writing style not at all to my taste. I felt that it was pretentious and required a prior understanding of the Classic languages and myths to get a full understanding. Donna Tartt also would get distracted mid-action or conversation, inserting unnecessary asides.