A review by alemarton
The Secret History by Donna Tartt

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

4.5

This book has intrigued me since I was a child, wandering by libraries at every chance I got and it did not fail me. I think this book is fantastic, the characters are flawed but that's how they are supposed to be: shallow, naive, without clear morals. They are following a world (the ancient time) that does not exist anymore and they are living in a sort of parallel world, where the Greek and Latin and their cultures are in the center and no real consequences matter. That is also because most of the characters are extremely rich and, in today's world, they are treated in a totally different way in respect to normal people. We can see how the characters at first were described as legends in the eyes of the protagonist and, going on with reading, we notice how they are deeply flawed. A great example is that of the teacher: he was fairly famous and encountered many celebrities during his life, at first in the book there were descriptions of the professor made by these characters that were totally positive and, in the end, when the real nature of Julian is revealed, there are two descriptions that really incapsulate his character. I loved that the book was very slow paced, however I thought the chapters were sometimes extremely long, even tho I understand the intent of the author. 
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