A review by shakespeareantragedy
The Secret History by Donna Tartt

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

4.25

i think the flaws of this book are often disregarded because of its magnificent influence on the genre and appealing aesthetics, but to be quite honest i can name a few books to have explored very similar themes, better. the greatest tragedy of the secret history is that it is not, in fact, a tragedy; there is no catharsis, and the story ends imbalanced, no true pathos to be invoked, no peripeteia, or other such greek notions, which is a shame for a book that professes to be about greek tragedy. honestly, it would have been the same book if they'd all majored in statistics.

the plot meandered so far it wandered off a cliff and never found its way back, leaving you with endless strings of functionally unrelated scenes and dead-end tangents. why was it 600 pages long? why did julian serve very little ultimate role? why all that talk of fatal flaws if you won't let the flaws be truly fatal to their harbourers?

don't get me wrong, this was still a very good book. i leaned into the negative sides because the secret history certainly gets enough praise already, but many parts of it were just staggeringly well-written. i can't believe how attached i got to francis on god
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