A review by kirsten0929
The Secret History by Donna Tartt

1.0

I wish that I had stopped reading when I first thought to at about page 50. It just got so many great reviews, I really thought it would work itself out if I gave it a chance, but I only got more frustrated the more I read. My biggest struggle was that the voice of the narrator did not at all match the character she had created to be the narrator and I found it a distraction throughout the entire 559 pages. The characters felt contrived (one wore a black suit and carried an umbrella all the time, another said things like “I say, old man,” and another wore a pince-nez). They felt one-dimensional and inconsistent. I think they were supposed to be smart, somewhat pretentious, rich kids, but for me to believe it they needed to do more than just rattle off the occasional quote in French or ancient Greek or mention Dostoyevsky or Tolstoy. I found the entire situation and storyline (especially everything about the investigation) completely farfetched. There was also a lot of unnecessary detail and anecdotes that added nothing; this story could easily have been told in 350 pages or less.