A review by nily
The Secret History by Donna Tartt

dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

3.0

The book is overall nice, it has a nice flow given by the way the book is written and an interesting plot. However there still were some flaws that made the book not as good as it may have been.
Starting with the positive things I noticed:
  • The writing, it's nice, it doesn't let you understand the absurdity of everything that's going on and it makes the reading flowing.
  • The "references" that they make throughout the whole book to the ancient greek culture, it adds a little spice to everything.
  • The way the author writes the setting, it's well written and it immerses you deeply into the story.
Nevertheless, there still were some negative sides:
  • The characters are all the same (especially Charles and Francis): I could literally swap their places and you wouldn't even notice. I don't mind nasty characters but I do mind when they don't have any trait that differs them one from the another.
  • Plot-wise, since the climax happens halfway through the book the second half of the book is boring and actually feels redundant since literally nothing happens until the last 20-30 pgs.
  • Despite being in college and studying classics they don't study, or at least it's not mentioned (or metioned slightly as we can read that Richard, the MC, reads Greek during the time he doesn't help everyone else with their problems, therefore he reads a very little time), the only thing they do is smoke and drink and then occasionally kill people.
Despite these flaws the book remains a somewhat nice read.
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