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A review by bookishfaye
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- 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
2.0
This book is very comparable to movie Saltburn in the sense that they both tragically fail at representing and continue to perpetuate the issues they are meant to be commentaries of. This very much reads like it was written by a rich white nepo baby & I have so many issues with it. Pretty much every -ism/-obia occurs in here in super unnecessary & gross ways & it got to the point where I was only holding on to be able to say that i’ve read it. The second star is because I’ll give Donna the grace that at times there’s some really good quotes in here, & I found Henry to be a pretty well written character, but quite frankly fuck this book overall.
Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Suicide attempt, Murder, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism