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A review by phlegmcel
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
4.5
”And if beauty is terror,” said Julian, “then what is desire? We think we have many desires, but in fact we have only one. What is it?”
“To live,” said Camilla.
“To live forever,” said Bunny.
i don’t really know what to say about this book. or even what to actually rate it. it has a really good thing going up until chapter 6, where it begins to gradually slow down until it feels like a slog to get through, losing much of the momentum that made it so compulsively readable in my free time up to that point. this stretch was intensely devaluing my experience with the book until i hit the last 70ish pages or so where everything was picking up again and hitting so rapidly i felt like i was going to have a heart attack. things began to click and the characters began to really settle within their respective aftermaths, and so i developed a much more retrospectively reverent view for the story as a whole because of it. the point of it as that we, the readers, are blinded alongside richard by his unreciprocated obsession with this mysterious group of students who exude an aura of intellect and artfulness that keeps them more than an arm’s length away from everyone else. they are so entrenched within their lifestyles that they can’t see what we can see, which is that none of it is actually glamorous at all.
i see why it has so much hype but i can also acknowledge that it probably isn’t for everyone. this is one of those things where if a white girl aged 19-24 told me this was her favorite book i’d say oh i’m sure lmao. if i had read this quicker than the two months i managed to stretch it to, i do not think i would have enjoyed it as much. but donna tartt…the woman that you are…
“To live,” said Camilla.
“To live forever,” said Bunny.
i don’t really know what to say about this book. or even what to actually rate it. it has a really good thing going up until chapter 6, where it begins to gradually slow down until it feels like a slog to get through, losing much of the momentum that made it so compulsively readable in my free time up to that point. this stretch was intensely devaluing my experience with the book until i hit the last 70ish pages or so where everything was picking up again and hitting so rapidly i felt like i was going to have a heart attack. things began to click and the characters began to really settle within their respective aftermaths, and so i developed a much more retrospectively reverent view for the story as a whole because of it. the point of it as that we, the readers, are blinded alongside richard by his unreciprocated obsession with this mysterious group of students who exude an aura of intellect and artfulness that keeps them more than an arm’s length away from everyone else. they are so entrenched within their lifestyles that they can’t see what we can see, which is that none of it is actually glamorous at all.
i see why it has so much hype but i can also acknowledge that it probably isn’t for everyone. this is one of those things where if a white girl aged 19-24 told me this was her favorite book i’d say oh i’m sure lmao. if i had read this quicker than the two months i managed to stretch it to, i do not think i would have enjoyed it as much. but donna tartt…the woman that you are…