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A review by barbiedreamlibrary
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-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? Yes
3.5
Hmmm what can I say about this book…It’s quite slow moving, I contemplated DNF-ing it up several times until the last 70 pages but in the end I guess I’m glad I stuck around and finished it. I can’t say I would recommend it though. I think this will be like my Requiem For A Dream but in dark academia form, an absolute knife to the brain anytime I’ll think about it going forward.
This is a story told from the viewpoint of the most milquetoast NPC of a narrator to ever narrate named Richard. 🙄 It’s about a student that transfers from California (his home state) to an elite liberal arts college in Vermont. He becomes enamored with and befriends a group of students that are also studying Ancient Greek. Anyways, what I was anticipating was a robust plot with an occasional bacchanal but I would often take breaks from this book because there’s only so much drinking, drugging and smoking one can do and it was boring and worrisome for the characters and the reading became such a drudge. To sum up this book, you’re essentially privy to 550+ pages of the moral decay of this friend group which includes: murder, incest, suicide, alcoholism, drunk driving, drugs, homophobia, Islamophobia, racism, etc. While I was reading this I was expecting this to be an unreliable narrator twist but sadly Richard remained devoid of any personality through the end.
The only redeemable main character in the story for me was annoying af Bunny, not even Richard found murdering people to be enough of an objectionable offense to stop hanging out with these people. The writing was descriptive and at times really nice but the plot and character building was too anemic to thoroughly enjoy.
This is a story told from the viewpoint of the most milquetoast NPC of a narrator to ever narrate named Richard. 🙄 It’s about a student that transfers from California (his home state) to an elite liberal arts college in Vermont. He becomes enamored with and befriends a group of students that are also studying Ancient Greek. Anyways, what I was anticipating was a robust plot with an occasional bacchanal but I would often take breaks from this book because there’s only so much drinking, drugging and smoking one can do and it was boring and worrisome for the characters and the reading became such a drudge. To sum up this book, you’re essentially privy to 550+ pages of the moral decay of this friend group which includes: murder, incest, suicide, alcoholism, drunk driving, drugs, homophobia, Islamophobia, racism, etc. While I was reading this I was expecting this to be an unreliable narrator twist but sadly Richard remained devoid of any personality through the end.
The only redeemable main character in the story for me was annoying af Bunny, not even Richard found murdering people to be enough of an objectionable offense to stop hanging out with these people. The writing was descriptive and at times really nice but the plot and character building was too anemic to thoroughly enjoy.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Murder, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Alcoholism, Drug use, Incest, Racism, Islamophobia, and Suicide