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A review by bright1226
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
I really wanted to love this book, which isn't to say I didn't 'like' it. But for how much I saw everyone talk about it it was hard to stay invested until a certain point where it turned into, "well now i just have to finish the thing". It's difficult to read from the perspective of very pretentious characters, in a pretentious setting, written by someone who seems fairly pretentious themselves. (The incessant use of slurs both racial and homophobic were of barely any use to the plot and felt wedged in for the sake of saying them - and very weird to have such an odd viewpoint of women written by a woman... like I get male protagonists don't have to always be 'awesome'... but there were more than a couple rape references in relation to finding women attractive and similar to J.K Rowling... not one likeable female character. -- I personally liked Camilla and Judy but the lens they are written in wants us to find them either annoying or for how beautiful they are at a current point in time.)
I wish there were more actual Greek mythology tie-ins for how much it was discussed, although only at a surface level with random lines in Greek that don't do much to add to the story or overall understanding of the characters. It felt like it wanted to be deep and intellectual, but the topics covered were Greek 101 nods and blatantly pretentious ways to convey the characters are rich with nothing else to do but barely become intellectuals.
This just felt like someone's baseline understanding of a mythological study with random fun facts thrown in but no real meaning or reasoning for it at times. Also... the fact these are supposed to be such cool people and you know everyone else at this school finds them insufferable is hilarious. You'd think for how rich, smart, and 'cool' these characters are explained to be they'd do more interesting stuff - but it's honestly more realistic they're just boring and vapid.
I feel like this book will definitely be considered a classic and become a 'must read' for English courses, but beyond that it really fell flat. I wish the mysterious nature of the murders felt more...mysterious and less laid out. All I really am left with is a fondness for the 'vibes' this book elicits, but not much more. There was so much potential and it was a bit disappointing.
I wish there were more actual Greek mythology tie-ins for how much it was discussed, although only at a surface level with random lines in Greek that don't do much to add to the story or overall understanding of the characters. It felt like it wanted to be deep and intellectual, but the topics covered were Greek 101 nods and blatantly pretentious ways to convey the characters are rich with nothing else to do but barely become intellectuals.
This just felt like someone's baseline understanding of a mythological study with random fun facts thrown in but no real meaning or reasoning for it at times. Also... the fact these are supposed to be such cool people and you know everyone else at this school finds them insufferable is hilarious. You'd think for how rich, smart, and 'cool' these characters are explained to be they'd do more interesting stuff - but it's honestly more realistic they're just boring and vapid.
I feel like this book will definitely be considered a classic and become a 'must read' for English courses, but beyond that it really fell flat. I wish the mysterious nature of the murders felt more...mysterious and less laid out. All I really am left with is a fondness for the 'vibes' this book elicits, but not much more. There was so much potential and it was a bit disappointing.