A review by littletreetales
The Secret History by Donna Tartt

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

3.5

This book is not at all what people recommend it as. I liked the writing style, it was very easy to read, though it wasn’t really engaging and it never made me feel like I needed to know what was going on. It pretty much tells you from the beginning, and the ‘why’ of it all wasn’t really enough to grip me (maybe because the why was easy to guess and also incredibly stupid). But I just didn’t care. I could have stopped reading at any point and I wouldn’t have felt like I was losing anything. I almost did stop like half way through but I wanted to see if maybe the ending would change my mind (it didn’t). I don’t even need to talk about the characters because honestly they were less interesting than the plot and so, forgettable. I would say Henry almost managed to make it worth it but I lost all interest in him at some point and never got it back, even with his ending. Maybe it just wasn’t for me, but it didn’t manage to reach me at any point even though I wanted it to so badly *sigh*
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