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A review by vandarpapi
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
5.0
It's crazy to think that such an imaginative mind could stretch as far as a decade of laborius work in the creation of a masterpiece...
Donna Tartt's creative thought process for this immaculate novel interests me a lot; for an author who could display such mastery of linguistics, and for years that this book has been simmering. Developed painstakingly until it became refined. The Secret History is rich and exquisite, truly reminiscent of a dark academy with its own bleak and picturesque halls of its ominous settings, classical studies, and even its scrupulous arrangement of the character movements.
The story mainly depicted these six elite students who took an exclusive classical Greek class on Hampden College, when one of them has been murdered by the other in a secluded part of Mount Cataract. It then leads to this huge manhunt, in which the FBI took days before the corpse was found, right after the strange April snow had melted. The escalation to murder and its relation to the moral construct of a human being were to be discovered upon reading into the account of Richard Papen, a Californian who had taken this specific class, and became a witness of the revelations that were to follow.
For the writing, let me just summarize it:
• Surprisingly easy to read, an ultimate page turner, albeit dense
• Well, not particularly dense, but very much heavy on description in recounting such moments in the narrator's life
• Reminds me a little of Fyodor Dostoevsky's works for its brutal depiction of scenes that are primarily charged with philosophical and moral aspects
• Incredibly well-written, with some excerpts and passages from classical works that had further strengthened its storytelling and visualizing of scenes.
• Her mechanical use of 'and' was never off-putting at all, where, in fact, it even reminds me of an account that is close to being realistic in its narration
• Speaking of narration, it is very much honest in disclosing such details, where the narrator had even gone the length of including some pop references and little in-between scenes
Moreover, it should also be noted that Henry Winter is one hell of a character for his dark and psychotic nature in this novel. His confidence and charisma brought forth the bleakness that further enveloped the main themes of dark academia, especially with his secretive and devious inclinations to turn everything into his favour. Henry's upper hand in certain situations is quite consistent that you would rather be excited in his actions than outrightly condemn his character.
Overall, The Secret History is shrouded with mystery itself, for how evocative and well-thought-out the details that have been illustrated here; that while reading, you are left wondering where it might take you forward, and what other surprises this might show you. There were countless things to unravel here, yet one would just enjoy otherwise how it all fit together in illustrating such a holistic narrative.
5 ⭐️ (3/21/24)
Donna Tartt's creative thought process for this immaculate novel interests me a lot; for an author who could display such mastery of linguistics, and for years that this book has been simmering. Developed painstakingly until it became refined. The Secret History is rich and exquisite, truly reminiscent of a dark academy with its own bleak and picturesque halls of its ominous settings, classical studies, and even its scrupulous arrangement of the character movements.
The story mainly depicted these six elite students who took an exclusive classical Greek class on Hampden College, when one of them has been murdered by the other in a secluded part of Mount Cataract. It then leads to this huge manhunt, in which the FBI took days before the corpse was found, right after the strange April snow had melted. The escalation to murder and its relation to the moral construct of a human being were to be discovered upon reading into the account of Richard Papen, a Californian who had taken this specific class, and became a witness of the revelations that were to follow.
For the writing, let me just summarize it:
• Surprisingly easy to read, an ultimate page turner, albeit dense
• Well, not particularly dense, but very much heavy on description in recounting such moments in the narrator's life
• Reminds me a little of Fyodor Dostoevsky's works for its brutal depiction of scenes that are primarily charged with philosophical and moral aspects
• Incredibly well-written, with some excerpts and passages from classical works that had further strengthened its storytelling and visualizing of scenes.
• Her mechanical use of 'and' was never off-putting at all, where, in fact, it even reminds me of an account that is close to being realistic in its narration
• Speaking of narration, it is very much honest in disclosing such details, where the narrator had even gone the length of including some pop references and little in-between scenes
Moreover, it should also be noted that Henry Winter is one hell of a character for his dark and psychotic nature in this novel. His confidence and charisma brought forth the bleakness that further enveloped the main themes of dark academia, especially with his secretive and devious inclinations to turn everything into his favour. Henry's upper hand in certain situations is quite consistent that you would rather be excited in his actions than outrightly condemn his character.
Overall, The Secret History is shrouded with mystery itself, for how evocative and well-thought-out the details that have been illustrated here; that while reading, you are left wondering where it might take you forward, and what other surprises this might show you. There were countless things to unravel here, yet one would just enjoy otherwise how it all fit together in illustrating such a holistic narrative.
5 ⭐️ (3/21/24)