The Secret History Paperback – 1 January 2000

The Secret History by Donna Tartt is a richly layered and gripping psychological novel that pulls you deep into the lives of a group of eccentric classics students at an elite college. I found the plot to be absorbing and unpredictable, driven by an unsettling sense of tension that builds slowly but steadily. The way Tartt blends philosophy, beauty, and darkness into a single narrative is masterful.The writing is elegant and atmospheric—every sentence feels intentional, and the pacing, while deliberate, suits the novel's introspective tone. The characters are brilliantly drawn, especially the narrator, Richard, who offers a hauntingly honest view of the group’s moral descent. Each personality is distinct, flawed, and deeply human, which makes the story all the more compelling.At over 600 pages, this is not a light read, but it’s one that stays with you. I’d highly recommend it to readers aged 15 and up who enjoy character-driven fiction with a dark, intellectual edge. The paperback edition (ISBN-10: 0804111359) is well-sized for longer reading sessions and makes a great addition to any bookshelf.

This is the story about Richard who is accepted in an elite group in an elite college under a Greek professor. There he meets Henry, Francis, Bunny, Camilla, and Charles. And one of them is dead in the beginning. The entire story is how Richard met this group and how it ended up in that death and the consequences of that death.I overall enjoyed the story. It was more of a character driven story than plot driven, and all the characters were different, and flawed, and made terrible decisions, but these characters are what made the story alive. There were so many scenes which takes place after the death which made the hair on my body stand up and cringe for the sheer audacity of it all. There was also a constant thrum of suspense throughout the book as most of the things are hidden from the reader. The secrets, the lies, the not knowing keeps the reader on edge.My favorite part of this book was the atmosphere and the ambiance. I deliberately read this book around autumn and that enhanced my reading experience even more.But my one main complaint is this book is so slow paced, oh god.I get the hype for this book but it wasn’t an all-time favorite for me. But still, I really enjoyed reading this book. Would definitely recommend.

This book had been on my TBR list for over two years and I finally delved into it. I couldn’t quite managed to be super interested initially. I am sure it was a problem on my own end but frankly, it took me over two days to get back into it. However, once I got into it, there was no stopping me.I finished reading this book yesterday but I didn’t immediately put up the review because I wanted to gather my thoughts before I blurted everything that came to my mind. This book is, for lack of better words, interesting. The synopsis really doesn’t help, I think but yeah, it’s an interesting book with interesting characters and sometimes, I couldn’t relate to them but that’s ok. I can’t relate to every character from every book I come across, that would be silly and frankly, rather suspect.The first thing I should talk about is the way Donna Tartt writes, good Lord, that woman can write. I loved her descriptions, I loved the way she wrote Richard, it’s rather important that bit. The characters aren’t terribly good and frankly, sometimes, they were too much for me but the thing is, sometimes people in our life are also a little bit too much right? Of course, I have yet to meet anybody as terrible as those students. Can you imagine? And yet, the way Richard was drawn to them, the way he wanted to get to know them made me want their affection and acceptance for Richard. Absolutely silly, I know.It’s a pretty long book, I have to admit. I mean, when I decided to read it, I hadn’t realised how much there was to read. My mood over the weekend didn’t help, it took a while to get into things and actually appreciate the way the story moved and the way the characters behaved. I don’t think it’s an easy read, there were moments when I was angry with the characters? (That’s not the right word but I can’t find any at the moment.) Their actions are not always acceptable but if you think about the aesthetic value of things, then they went about it the way they always would.It’s obviously not a murder-mystery, we know pretty much from the start what happened and who were involved but the thing is! The way Tartt wrote about the whole thing, the way she led us to the moment of actual incident, that’s what the whole build-up is for and it really paid off. I was so glad that I stuck with it in the initial phase because I would have been extremely pissed off at myself if I hadn’t. I am sure of it.This book shows friendship in a way that I have rarely seen, it’s just so human, isn’t it? To want acceptance from those cliques at school? To want to be their friend and be included in their matters? It’s something I could relate to. My love for Greek mythology also didn’t hurt. All in all, I think this book has a lot of issues, in that, there’s literally tons of triggers throughout the book and sometimes, I wasn’t prepared for it. By the end of the book, I had become prepared for anything and everything.I don’t think I would have to recommend it to anyone, people already know of it and frankly, it would be a bit odd for me to recommend this book to anyone. It has history of its own and a reputation of its own, it doesn’t need me to advertise it. However, if you haven’t read it yet, and aren’t repelled by the prospect of a long book with tons of atmospheric descriptions then please, read it.