Donna Tartt really knows how to evoke a mood and create a story that sticks with you. While the central characters of The Secret History aren't exactly what you'd call likable, they all feel so very real that I suspect I'll be thinking about them for quite sometime and that's a mark of good writing. Some reviews seemed to indicate that the book ran long, but this isn't so much a book about plot, although that is an important part of it. What it is is a book about mood and character and it helps to have the space to sit with those things in order to reach the pay offs. ( )

Ordinary guy is overwhelmed by acceptance into a strange clique of students studying Classics under an eccentric professor. He continues uncertain of his status until a confession by one member draws him into the groups dark secret. Madness segues into even darker logic.

everyone's said everything about this book already. its a banger and was great to re-read after actually going to college in New England. is it bad that Bunny's funeral is the funniest scene in the whole book? ( )

Dark academia, social commentary of the upper class and its penchant for debauchery, atmospheric historical fiction with a hint of fantasy.

In other words, The Secret History is what I wanted Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo to be. ( )

Glacially paced, very much with the connotation of being steady and inexorable. (Thank goodness for audiobooks; still, 20 hours is a lot.) Incredibly campy.

I'm never going to be over the fact that she named the twins who sleep together Charles and Camilla. How much of an upper-class twit in-joke was this in 1992?

The teacher, Julian, is a side character at best. His sexuality is lampshaded and played for laughs more than present; early on I could have sworn we were going to get a Julian/Henry relationship. I never had any doubt how the ending was going to go down. I was only surprised he didn't turn out to be two steps ahead of his students.

There are so many books and movies that must be intentionally riffing on this one---[b:The Likeness|5941114|The Likeness (Dublin Murder Squad, #2)|Tana French|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1538062804l/5941114._SY75_.jpg|6504351] was one that occurred to me. ( )

I don't think this book needed to be 559 pages but it sure kept me flipping them to find out how it all ended. At a couple points I was so stressed about what was happening (like Bunny not going on a walk at a certain time, or when THE LETTER makes an appearance) that I felt like I was personally the one all caught up in the scheme.
Tartt's writing itself and the unsettling, unreliable characters she has crafted are certainly the strengths of the novel and make up for a slightly predictable plot and lackluster ending, but again, I was absorbed by them anyways so that says a lot. I'm definitely wanting to read more of Tartt's work to see what she has to offer. ( )

look, i cant take it anymore. I got to about 60% and i think its safe to say that if i read any more, i will die. i found myself highlighting quotes relating to death, and wishing that it too would come upon me if this book didn't speed up. (spoiler alert, it never speeds up)
"I wondered what it would be like to fall and break my head open on one of those bright rocks"
me too cuz, me too
Perhaps this is a problem only faced by me, but Donna Tartt has a way of writing where ill be engaged for a good 30 pages, and then simply wish the characters would all disappear the next.I hated all the characters, and i know i know, you're supposed to hate them, but it wasn't even a nice fun hatred, No. These characters are so annoying and full of themselves that i simply could not find myself caring what happened to anything or anyone. Im not going to subject myself to reading another 200 pages of absolutely nothing when everything has already been done. At this point, there is nothing Donna Tartt can shove in the ending of this book that is worth me risking death by boredom attempting to finish this. thank you good night ( )

I read this book a number of years ago, ten or so, and I found it off putting then. The characters were odd, annoying, and pretentious, even the one with a working class background, who was the narrator, and therefore wholly unbelievable. Since my book club is reading this book, I was not relishing the idea of re-reading it, so I got the audiobook. The author, Donna Tarrt, read it, which I found to be an odd choice given that the story is told in the first person and the narrator is a man. Hard to believe, the audiobook annoyed me even more than the print version. It seemed to me a vehicle for the author to show off how much she knows about classical studies. I read a number of glowing reviews about this book before the first time I read it, leaving me to wonder if I was not in the right frame of mind or simply missed something. Nope. It did not improve the second time around. ( )

Donna Tartt writes a novel every decade, in her words "sentence by sentence", that define Gothic. This is her first, an absorbing psychological novel ,based loosely on her college years at Bennington. It seems to have started a trope of creepy secrets shared by classics students. Tartt's other novels, The Little Friend and The Goldfinch are more complex, and equally amazing. ( )

I thought this was going to be great, but it turned out to be rather ordinary and I am wondering what all the fuss - some years ago now - was about. The plot ends about halfway through the book, and the second half really adds nothing to our understanding of the characters while it treads water (as one other reviewer put it well). Tartt's writing ranges from pedestrian to showing off (it's mostly pedestrian). And the characters remain distant, unlovable, and opaque, while the narrator is an unremarkable everyman without much insight into the events of the novel or (as the author's mouthpiece) the human condition. It's too dull to be a good crime novel, and too banal to be literature. Pulp-able fiction? ( )

odd. ( )

More interesting in the first two-thirds, then drags unnecessarily afterward.
I picked this book up because it seems to appear on all the "dark academia" lists and videos. Consequently, I think I shan't be reading much DA in future.
[Audiobook note: Tartt did herself no favors by reading this herself. The book would have been much better served by a professional voice actor.] ( )

Far better than I expected, a page turner. ( )

The characters behaved like Bryonic heroes from the Romantic era or a Russian novel. While this was probably intentional, in a modern setting, they were caricatures of depraved aristocrats. The lip service paid to their supposed brilliance and spiritual hunger was all tell and no show. Beyond the quotations from classical literature, the protagonists showed no sign of any passion for knowledge and truth. This was probably the point, but it was dull reading. Also, I know that dichotomies such as Apollo vs. Dionysus are an overused theme in literature and criticism, but in this case the narrative suffered from a complete lack of any balance or counterpoint. As sanctimonious as this sounds, I think it requires more literary skill to convey a sense of wonder, beauty, and the numinous than it does to portray the absence of these qualities.

This novel seems to have influenced Maggie Stiefvater's Raven Cycle. I wonder if her protagonists were meant to be foils to the Hampden clique, as well as their in story-predecessors. ( )

Yawn.... ( )

Love, love, love, loveeeeeee this book. It's Dead Poets Society meets Saltburn. This is the book I've been craving for a while. Donna Tartt hit all the nails on the head with this one. Dark academia, LGBTQ+, suspense, complex and flawed characters, meaningful writing with Easter eggs and nuances throughout. I could not put this book down, and I continue to itch for a book that can compete ( )

Wow. This book is a slow burn and reminded me strongly of a good Shirley Jackson novel, with all the nastiness front and center, described in detail. The main characters are all detestable, but I still cared about the outcome of their actions. In the beginning, my sympathies fell with Richard. Once the plot coalesced, and he became aware of what was going on around him more fully, I began to hate him as well. I can only describe my emotional state as rather flat. A distrust and a mild disgust at the narrator.

I also felt a mild sense of guilt over the death of Bunny. I wanted him to die because he was annoying, openly manipulative, and gauche. Because he wouldn't STFU. When he went tumbling over the cliff, my first thought was, “Finally.” How am I any different from any of the other characters?

After I finished the book, I reread parts that were clearly important, and then spent a bit of time reading analysis online, trying to clarify my feelings. I'm not sure if I've missed themes in the book, or I'm looking for something that isn't there. Maybe it will come with time, as some narratives do. I'm tempted to read the book again, but that's two books I want to reread now. And, well, way too many books, only one lifetime.

I have to say that the fandom of this book is disturbing. Why would anyone want to be like these awful people? It baffles me as much as the fandom surrounding Patrick Bateman. Perhaps beauty is terrifying. ( )

I listened to the book in audiobook format and at 6 hours I was wondering what could possibly happen to these characters that would take 16 more hours. The author would move from one vignette to the next wringing out every last detail. It made for some distinct atmospheric effects, such as the hazy langour of the lake house, and the claustrophobic tension of waiting for the snow to melt and reveal what lay beneath. Those effects were the highlight of the book. However, it also felt stuck at times. For example there were repeated scenes of drunken arguing, many trips to make phone calls that were never answered, many times the narrator wakes up to find he has slept the day away. There were alarm clocks in the 90s, but he certainly did not know how to use one.

Other reviewers absolutely loved this book, but I kept checking to see how much more was left. There's no denying this is solid writing and I wanted to see how it turned out, but it was not an enjoyable read. ( )

Beguiling, none of the characters I would want for friends
Never been so pleased to have a character killed off ( )

This book DESTROYED me, and I loved it.

The Secret History reads as a bit of a pastiche, albeit an understated one where none of the elements outstay their welcome. It's told by a Nick Carraway-esque narrator who slips into the heightened reality of a small private college in Vermont and finds himself enmeshed in a slow-burn thriller.

At first the novel has a fairy tale charm that I want to call gothic, but mythic may be a better word. In those early pages, we meet a quirky cast of characters who have seemingly stepped out of a Wes Anderson film, with all the differentiation of a Greek chorus. But as the story unreels, it becomes intensely psychological, inviting us into a (partial) understanding of their tangled interrelationships while failing to ask certain questions of our unreliable narrator.

This is a novel about complicity and the banality of evil. The closely observed narrative is funny, outrageous, and salacious, but it's also bizarrely plausible, despite the heightened reality. I never lost sight of the humanity of these characters or discarded my empathy for them because, after all, the reader is invited to complicity as well. (A reminder of this, I believe, is part of the intent of the haunting last scene.)

So yeah, this book was everything I want from a psychological novel. Every so often I'm reminded that I like literary fiction - this one hit the same spot as Fifth Business, Brideshead Revisited, and A Prayer for Owen Meany. Hopefully I can find more! ( )

I loved The Goldfinch and so wanted to read more of Donna Tartt. The Secret History sqaunders her considerable talent on a story and characters that I want to forget. I aspire to become a better person with each book. This one fails that test. ( )

Very disturbing and superbly written. There are parts of the book that are full of tragic beauty and horror - where the horror comes from things left unsaid and unwritten rather than words on the page.

I've had "The Secret History" on my reading radar for a long time. I now find myself very impressed, wanting to discover more books by Donna Tartt, yet ultimately unsatisfied. Let me explain. This group of students is supposed to have latched onto each other, with an almost obsessive mix of love and friendship, and to have had a very special relationship to their teacher. I can easily see how this can be perverted and lead everyone deeper and deeper into the darkness. What I did not see in the book are the bonds between the characters - which is a "show, not tell" problem, I believe. The reader is only told that there is an amazing friendship and connection between the characters and their teacher. I did not quite buy it. The subsequent descent into the abyss is chilling and believable - but it has no ground to stand on. ( )

Somewhere between 2 and 3 stars. I don't understand the enthusiasm for this book. ( )

I was introduced to Donna Tartt when The Goldfinch was published. That book continues to be one of my all-time favorites. Ever since, people have been recommending I read The Secret History. I finally followed the advice and put The Secret History on hold with my local library. Approximately six months later, my hold finally came in for the audiobook on the Libby app.

The Secret History is an incredible story. I didn’t know much about the plot when I started reading, which I think best suited my experience. My personal challenge while reading The Secret History is that I kept comparing it to how much I loved The Goldfinch, and The Secret History didn’t quite rise to that level for me. I repeatedly reminded myself to manage my expectations and stop comparing one to the other. When I was able to do that, I became immersed in the story.

The story is told from the perspective of Richard Papen, a young man who leaves his home in California to attend Hampden College in Vermont. New to the area with no friends or acquaintances, Richard enrolls in the Ancient Greek program and is academically counseled by professor Julian Morrow. There are only five other students in his Greek studies class. Richard successfully makes a good impression on his peers and is cautiously brought into their close knit fold. Richard never truly seems to fit in with this group as they come from money and don’t really need an education for a future career. Richard comes from a differently world entirely.

The Secret History opens with Richard telling his story from a much later time in his life. He immediately reveals that one member of his peer group is dead. Richard then shares the development of their relationships and how one of his friends met his fate. The story continues to grow darker and more dysfunctional by the minute. It’s a very tragic novel that is exceptionally written.

As I previously mentioned, I borrowed the audiobook from my local library with the Libby app. Surprisingly, Donna Tartt narrates the audiobook and she does an excellent job. It was an additional pleasure to hear the book exactly as the author wrote the story.

I have photos and additional information that I'm unable to include here. It can all be found on my blog, in the link below.
A Book And A Dog ( )

The Secret History is a surprising book. It tells of the secrets of a small college in Vermont, where a small clique of odd students spend their time reading the classics under the tutelage of their mysterious professor.
And doing drugs and drinking. Significant amounts of each.
Bad things happen, as they will do under these circumstances, and most of the rest of the book is taken up with how these young people deal with the bad things.
This doesn’t sound, on the first glance, very exciting, but Tartt is so good at teasing out little disasters and stories that I found myself unable to put the book down. She manages to create a creeping sense of people falling apart, of basically good people losing their way, of evil begetting evil. Richard, the main character, seems at first the most lost, but he ends up being the most stable one of the group, perhaps because things happen TO him rather than him eagerly participating in them.
It’s a high residue book- the characters will stay with me for quite a while, I think. I’d like to reread it, trying to figure out how Tartt wields her magic, but it’s too hard to do. The story is grim and sad and a bit despair-inducing, like a Greek tragedy.
Still, highly recommended. Worth the time spent .
I may have to wait a bit before reading anything more by this author, though… ( )