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A review by nenaveenstra
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
dark
funny
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
I started reading The Secret History because I wanted to know what the fuss was about, right? It's extremely popular all over bookish Internet and I had to know. Well, after 660 pages of it, I still don't know.
I've seen people talk about this book as if it's a mystery, and as if it's a satirical look at academia and elitism, and I've also seen people talk about this book in the context of its characters. And of course, there is something to say for all of those aspects. To start with the mystery - it's not really a mystery, when you know 'whodunit' from the beginning of the book. It's more of a 'whydunit' for the first half of the book, which was actually quite entertaining; I was curious to find out why they decided to kill Bunny, or rather, what was the straw that broke the camel's back, because Bunny was a prick from beginning until his tragic end. The second half of the book, however, drags on, because there are hardly any consequences for what they've done. All the second half of the book does, in regards to the mystery element, is work up to a climax at the very end of the book - but nothing happens in between.
In regards to the satire in this book, it was very clear that we weren't necessarily supposed to like these characters. The Greek students were all very pretentious and did nothing but study, spend tons of money and plot murder, while all the other students seemed much more fun. For some reason, though, Richard wanted to belong to the rich, pretentious kids, even though that's not at all the environment he comes from. The insertion of Richard felt a bit forced to me, especially at the beginning, and I felt like it could've been utilised better. I think it would've been more interesting if, instead of just being a wallflower annex push-over, he would've given commentary on the students' problematic behaviour.
Now on to the character work. I couldn't help but think about the people on the internet who romanticised these characters' lives and wished to be part of this friend group. To those people I say: you're fucking crazy. Not only were the characters very unlikable, I also found they were quite flat caricatures of what they were supposed to represent. For all the time I spent with them, I still struggle to distinguish Henry from Charles and I remember Camilla only because she was the only girl in the group.
The Internet aside, my main experience with this book is that most of it was boring, but I appreciate what it was trying to do. I think Donna Tartt is a very good writer, there were some beautiful sentences in this book and I really liked the references to literature and pop culture in here, as well as probably some tropes and things that I didn't pick up on. I also thought she was very funny sometimes, although I'm not sure if it was intentional. I just think I would have liked this book so much more if it was a couple hundred pages shorter (and that's from someone who loves big books).
A good start would be to scrap the epilogue. That really would've made the story go out with a bang (pun intended).
I've seen people talk about this book as if it's a mystery, and as if it's a satirical look at academia and elitism, and I've also seen people talk about this book in the context of its characters. And of course, there is something to say for all of those aspects. To start with the mystery - it's not really a mystery, when you know 'whodunit' from the beginning of the book. It's more of a 'whydunit' for the first half of the book, which was actually quite entertaining; I was curious to find out why they decided to kill Bunny, or rather, what was the straw that broke the camel's back, because Bunny was a prick from beginning until his tragic end. The second half of the book, however, drags on, because there are hardly any consequences for what they've done. All the second half of the book does, in regards to the mystery element, is work up to a climax at the very end of the book - but nothing happens in between.
In regards to the satire in this book, it was very clear that we weren't necessarily supposed to like these characters. The Greek students were all very pretentious and did nothing but study, spend tons of money and plot murder, while all the other students seemed much more fun. For some reason, though, Richard wanted to belong to the rich, pretentious kids, even though that's not at all the environment he comes from. The insertion of Richard felt a bit forced to me, especially at the beginning, and I felt like it could've been utilised better. I think it would've been more interesting if, instead of just being a wallflower annex push-over, he would've given commentary on the students' problematic behaviour.
Now on to the character work. I couldn't help but think about the people on the internet who romanticised these characters' lives and wished to be part of this friend group. To those people I say: you're fucking crazy. Not only were the characters very unlikable, I also found they were quite flat caricatures of what they were supposed to represent. For all the time I spent with them, I still struggle to distinguish Henry from Charles and I remember Camilla only because she was the only girl in the group.
The Internet aside, my main experience with this book is that most of it was boring, but I appreciate what it was trying to do. I think Donna Tartt is a very good writer, there were some beautiful sentences in this book and I really liked the references to literature and pop culture in here, as well as probably some tropes and things that I didn't pick up on. I also thought she was very funny sometimes, although I'm not sure if it was intentional. I just think I would have liked this book so much more if it was a couple hundred pages shorter (and that's from someone who loves big books).
A good start would be to scrap the epilogue. That really would've made the story go out with a bang (pun intended).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Cursing, Incest, Suicide, and Murder
Moderate: Death, Racism, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Domestic abuse and Homophobia