A review by grboph
The Secret History by Donna Tartt

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

What do I even say about this book? I finally caved and read it after a months-long pressure campaign by my friend and my discovery of a copy at my grandparents' house, and I was not disappointed. I have to say that this is one of the most engaging and entertaining books I've ever read - it didn't take me too long to get sucked into it and it didn't lose my attention for any significant periods of time until I finished it. It was also beautifully written, which made even the less-interesting parts enjoyable. For pure enjoyment and entertainment value, as well as its ability to make me emotionally invested, I would give this book five stars. I docked half a star because of the fact that all the characters are objectively horrible, terrible, no good, very bad people who are so completely disconnected from reality that it is almost embarrassing at certain points, because there are a lot of aspects of the book that felt like Tartt had just said "What's the most screwed-up thing I could write about next?" and then just written the first thing that popped into her head as an answer to that question, because the only female characters were sort of one-dimensional and only there for the men to fight over or be annoyed by (also, the whole Richard-Camilla thing at the end was just weird and totally out of the blue), and because the ending was just so unnecessarily depressing. All in all, I loved every second I spent reading this book. It has a good mystery, some shocking/messed up plot twists, and involves rich people making bad choices that eventually come back to bite them all in the ass (and what's not to like about that?). I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a good murder mystery or something that will fully invest them.
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