gggiulia's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Murder, Alcoholism, Alcohol, and Death
Moderate: Drug use
serenityr05's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Murder, Toxic relationship, Drug use, Islamophobia, Gun violence, Antisemitism, Toxic friendship, Homophobia, Rape, Misogyny, Drug abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Incest, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, Death, Self harm, Alcoholism, and Blood
emwhitney's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I picked up this book with no background knowledge other than it involved a murder and that it inspired the Dark Academia trend. In fact, I only picked up this novel because I wanted to read The Maidens by Alex Michaelides, and I saw that The Maidens had been somewhat inspired by The Secret History. This was also my first Donna Tartt novel.
That all being said, my review:
I normally don't enjoy novels or stories with morally grey (or in this case, morally deplorable) characters. I like to be able to root for at least one character, and in The Secret History... there is no such character. Everyone is awful, all of the time, and commit truly heinous deeds (I'm looking in particular at pages 453 and 484 of my copy).
However, Donna Tartt is incredible at inserting scenes that are beautiful and reel you in as a reader, almost making you forget that these are the worst people. You find out on page one that the narrator, Richard Papen, and his friends have killed one of their own: their friend and fellow Classics study Edmund "Bunny" Corcoran. The first line of the novel really drew me in well: "The snow in the mountains was melting and Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the gravity of our situation."
Despite you as the reader knowing this from the start, the in-between scenes and lead-up to the murder, especially the hazy and blissful days spent at Francis's country home, make you believe that these people love and cherish one another, and that their friendship and idleness is something to aspire to. I think that is one of Tartt's strengths and very probably what may have drawn people in to create the Dark Academia aesthetic and willingly associate themselves with a fictional group of "friends" who do and say and think things I genuinely find quite disgusting.
I really, really enjoy Donna Tartt's writing style. If you're a fan of descriptive writing (even at the cost of potentially slowing the plot down), you would probably enjoy the writing style of The Secret History, if not the plot. Action does not happen quickly in The Secret History, not even when Bunny is killed. However, there are some really beautiful lines of prose and wonderful descriptions throughout this book that make it easy to picture what Richard sees.
I see a lot of talk describing Richard as an unreliable narrator; instead of saying that, I would say that the events of the novel are colored through his perception of them. It's a truly limited omniscient narrator, but you as a reader can "read between the lines" to see some things that Richard misses along the way.
All of the characters feel fully fleshed out, like real people instead of plot devices. I would say that the notable exception to this for most of the book is Camilla, the only girl among the Classics students. This is not because of Tartt not fleshing her out - in fact, her fleshed-outedness is more apparent as those aforementioned "in between the lines" moments. The reason she feels less real than the other characters is Richard's tendency to view her as a hazy, angel-like object of affection rather than the complex woman that she is, and I think that was conveyed brilliantly by Tartt. Camilla is often described in ethereal terms, and Richard often describes seeing her as though she is partially concealed by light, like it's too hard to look at her straight. We as readers therefore do not get to see her for who she is until very late in the novel, when Richard, despite his thoughts pertaining to her, is also forced to reckon with the reality of Camilla.
The ending of the novel (spoiler free!) I felt was appropriate. I truly could not have guessed where the characters may go or what kind of lives they would lead. I liked that it felt like Richard was updating us as if he was telling this all as a story in conversation rather than a way to tie up loose ends. Tartt doesn't seem to have an interest in tying loose ends, but she executes it in a way that left me feeling satisfied.
Overall, I give The Secret History 4/5 stars. The writing was excellent, but the first few chapters were excruciatingly long, and at times it felt like a slog with no breakpoints. The story kept me engaged and wanting to know what would happen next, but there were moments that made me feel a little sick (feel free to message me for a list of content warnings). I'm glad I read it, but I would be selective with who I recommended it to. These characters are definitely NOT to be idolized, and they are deeply flawed and Tartt seems to have meant them to be read as deeply flawed (almost like characters in a Greek tragedy). If you can recognize that and appreciate the novel for what it is, I think you would enjoy it.
Review done, here are a few of my favorite quotes:
"I watched it all happen quite calmly--without fear, withoutpity, without anything but a kind of stunned curiosity--so that the impression of the event is burned indelibly upon my optic nerves, but oddly absent from my heart." (276)
"How quickly he fell; how soon it was over." (277) - I want to say I like this line because it's a really striking example, in context, of hot topic, cold delivery that really left a mark on me in the moment of reading it.
"...in order to make our veneration of him seem more explicable; to make it seem something more, in short, than my own fatal tendency to try to make interesting people good." (512)
"Some things are too terrible to grasp at once. Other things--naked, sputtering, indelible in their horror--are too terrible to really ever grasp at all. It is only later, in solitude, in memory, that the realization dawns: when the ashes are cold; when the mourners have departed; when one looks around and finds oneself - quite to one's surprise - in an entirely different world." (278)
"What we took for a docile, ordinary weight (gentle plunk, swift rush to the bottom, dark waters closing over it without a trace) was in fact a depth charge, one that exploded quite without warning beneath the glassy surface, and the repercussions of which may not be entirely over, even now." (275)
Graphic: Murder
Moderate: Incest, Violence, Misogyny, Drug use, and Homophobia
Minor: Sexual assault and Rape
rmh1711's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Drug use, Alcohol, and Drug abuse
Moderate: Suicide, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Gun violence
Minor: Incest, Homophobia, and Domestic abuse
james1star's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Addiction, Death, Alcohol, and Alcoholism
Moderate: Classism, Drug use, Murder, and Drug abuse
Minor: Toxic friendship, Cursing, Sexism, Suicide, Racial slurs, Suicide attempt, Bullying, Injury/injury detail, Misogyny, Homophobia, Incest, Racism, Blood, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Mental illness, and Suicidal thoughts
maddiemarina's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug use, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Murder, and Suicide
Moderate: Suicide attempt
Minor: Incest
cosmicsapphic's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Alcohol
Minor: Incest
remuslibrary's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Murder, Blood, Toxic friendship, Death, Suicide, Alcoholism, and Drug use
Moderate: Racism and Incest
Minor: Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Homophobia, and Antisemitism
ritugp01's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
The novel has been described as "a murder mystery in reverse." While this is a perfect description, the book is also a deep look in how easily murder occurs, even in seemingly normal people, as long as one opens themselves to the possibility.
Spoiler
In a tl;dr character analysis: Henry was utterly unhinged and I think I loved him regardless. Richard, the narrator was mediocre but served his purpose as a voyeur to multiple murders. Charles and Camilla? WTF. But also, they both sucked and I cannot decide who was worse. Francis is the only valid character but he's on this ice too. Julian is just Henry but older and willing to fake social skills. Lowkey, Bunny sucked but damn I feel bad he was killed. Like, he was just freaking out that his friends committed MURDER, it's totally understandable he was on the edge of a psychotic break. This book was a lot, and Judy Poovey is the only good person in the whole story.Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Homophobia, Incest, Mental illness, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Death, Drug abuse, Sexism, Misogyny, Addiction, Cursing, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Car accident, Classism, Gaslighting, Excrement, Murder, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Ableism, Antisemitism, Self harm, Blood, Suicide attempt, and Suicide
noahh's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Death, Drug use, and Murder