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A review by rheasingh_
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
adventurous
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
People passionate about academia can be cruel. They don't care for mediocrity and impassivity. They teether between the line of morality- because of how much they know about the world and immorality- because of all they seek to know. They don't understand dispassionate people and the happiness that comes with their blinkered horse vision.
No matter how smart you think you are though, this book can remind you of your shortcomings. You might take one look at the professor and his students and question your intelligence. Be humbled. No matter how passionate you are about your little corner of academia, you aren't devoted like the characters in this story.
I have promised myself that I will finish reading about Greek and Roman antiquity, maybe even learn these morose, disgustingly beautiful dead languages and come back to this novel one day. I shall find even more layers and monstrous beauty in it then. I shall not look at it until then. It reminds me of my mediocrity.
The characters are pretentious in the most delicious way possible. I am not going to touch on the classist, purist, and morally grey reasoning of its characters today. There are problems that I may endeavour to discuss some other day. Of how this book is a beacon, a lighthouse- that reminds us to know when to stop with our academic pursuits.
However, the academic pretentiousness in them speaks to the academic pretentiousness in me. To the part of me that desperately seeks and questions this world, reads and writes poetry, wishes to complete my magnum opus, that wants to challenge politics and question antiquity. To the part of me that wants to write something and awaken some appetite in people.
What. A. Narrative. No, truly- what God-like creature managed to write this way? I have read many authors and thought; "well, I can do this one day." Tartt, on the other hand, makes me think; "Oh, if only I could do this one day."
This is probably the most spoiler-free I could have gone. I want you to take the leap and try this novel. To slowly consume her words and question everything- learn about the fatal flaws of each character and be warned.
No matter how smart you think you are though, this book can remind you of your shortcomings. You might take one look at the professor and his students and question your intelligence. Be humbled. No matter how passionate you are about your little corner of academia, you aren't devoted like the characters in this story.
I have promised myself that I will finish reading about Greek and Roman antiquity, maybe even learn these morose, disgustingly beautiful dead languages and come back to this novel one day. I shall find even more layers and monstrous beauty in it then. I shall not look at it until then. It reminds me of my mediocrity.
The characters are pretentious in the most delicious way possible. I am not going to touch on the classist, purist, and morally grey reasoning of its characters today. There are problems that I may endeavour to discuss some other day. Of how this book is a beacon, a lighthouse- that reminds us to know when to stop with our academic pursuits.
However, the academic pretentiousness in them speaks to the academic pretentiousness in me. To the part of me that desperately seeks and questions this world, reads and writes poetry, wishes to complete my magnum opus, that wants to challenge politics and question antiquity. To the part of me that wants to write something and awaken some appetite in people.
What. A. Narrative. No, truly- what God-like creature managed to write this way? I have read many authors and thought; "well, I can do this one day." Tartt, on the other hand, makes me think; "Oh, if only I could do this one day."
This is probably the most spoiler-free I could have gone. I want you to take the leap and try this novel. To slowly consume her words and question everything- learn about the fatal flaws of each character and be warned.