A review by ed_moore
The Secret History by Donna Tartt

challenging dark informative mysterious medium-paced

• 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

4.25

“What are the dead anyway, but waves and energy? Light shining from a dead star?”
 

‘The Secret History’ is the story of six classics students studying under their omniscient professor Julian Morrow, the events that lead to the murder of their classmate Bunny and the aftermath of such. It is a book full of characters who you aren’t supposed to like, as a reader you root for their success and their failure at the same time. Richard is an extremely unreliable narrator which is a positive in my opinion as I really enjoy such perspectives, and though he is dislikable I did find myself relating to the last dislikable narrator I was in the head of, Merricat from ‘We have always lived in the Castle’, and that was an irritating reading experience; such was absolutely not the case with Richard. 

An element of writing style that did frustrate me however was Tartt’s chapter lengths, the majority of them exceeded 100 pages making breaks in the narrative frustrating to reach. I also found myself, alike to my experience with M.L. Rio’s ‘If We Were Villains’ I really enjoyed the focus on academia and then enjoyed it less as the plot strayed away from the focus on the wholesome university experience and late nights studying. In the case of ‘The Secret History’ this was at about the halfway point. The book was still very much engaging just not as strong as it was in the first half in my personal preferences. 

The rooting in academia throughout however was really fun and I thoroughly enjoyed being able to just see a bit of intertextuality and know I had read such book in many cases. I also enjoyed the descriptions of insomnia suffered by a couple of the characters as I don’t think I have seen it before in a book (not that I ever considered it as underrepresented just didn’t think about it until it appeared here) so I enjoyed reading an alternate perspective of something I struggle with. 

I am very much skipping around the main elements of ‘The Secret History’ here I feel, but that is because I enjoyed a lot of the little things. The main characters are extremely problematic but they are all shamed for this, Tartt criticising the culture of white academic elitism behind many layers, and the ending left me both satisfied and underwhelmed at the same time in a way. So much happened and yet the epilogue concludes with little happening, but I believe that was just fine for the tone of the novel.