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A review by ethicalcannibalism
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
5.0
first read in june 2021: i despised every single character on this book but good god it's so great, well paced, intense, cathartic and poetical, witty, beautifully and horrifically written. i love books where the main character is retelling events of their life, especially if it's an unreliable narrator like richard.
reread 13.04.22
my favorite book of all time. the secret history has such a delightful, fluid prose. it's cinematographic in its core how donna tartt translates so well the settling and the emotional and psychology turmoil the characters go through, when richard almost died of pneumonia and freezing to his bones and his loneliness, i could feel it so much like i was there in vermont during winter. there's no other word in the history of languages this book could be defined if not idyllic. it's the reason why i fell in love with literature, really, how every world here is carefully placed is beautiful. upon reading again, i got so terrified by the amount of foreshadowing and noticed so much details i didn't at first, it was astounding. it felt a bit like richard character journey. you read the first time and gets swayed to this marvelous, curious world with peculiar characters eventually getting enamoured by them. and like richard living the events for the first time is confusing, difficult to understand and utterly shocked. and then just like richard revisiting his story, when you read again, you come to notice the tiny, almost invisible details to the untrained eye— or the first time reader. that makes me love this book so, so much. thank you donna tartt for writing this book.
reread 13.04.22
my favorite book of all time. the secret history has such a delightful, fluid prose. it's cinematographic in its core how donna tartt translates so well the settling and the emotional and psychology turmoil the characters go through, when richard almost died of pneumonia and freezing to his bones and his loneliness, i could feel it so much like i was there in vermont during winter. there's no other word in the history of languages this book could be defined if not idyllic. it's the reason why i fell in love with literature, really, how every world here is carefully placed is beautiful. upon reading again, i got so terrified by the amount of foreshadowing and noticed so much details i didn't at first, it was astounding. it felt a bit like richard character journey. you read the first time and gets swayed to this marvelous, curious world with peculiar characters eventually getting enamoured by them. and like richard living the events for the first time is confusing, difficult to understand and utterly shocked. and then just like richard revisiting his story, when you read again, you come to notice the tiny, almost invisible details to the untrained eye— or the first time reader. that makes me love this book so, so much. thank you donna tartt for writing this book.