559 pages
English language
Published March 28, 2004 by Vintage Contemporaries.
Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries. But when they go beyond the boundaries of normal morality they slip gradually from obsession to corruption and betrayal, and at last - inexorably - into evil.
Recommended if you went to a preppy liberal arts school and suspected that ethics class group partner parents’ worked for Lockheed Martin.
so this is dark academia in a book amirite ladies??? what a nice little treat for the tortured soul, the suffering poet, or the pedantic intellectual (check, check, and check!).
really enjoyed the author's style and choice of narrator-pov, as well as the pace and intrigue of the first half and of the very last pages. the main characters are insufferable alcoholics but they do evoke a certain mysterious attraction, as experienced by the main character (also an insufferable alcoholic). really enjoyed the embodiment of ancient Greek morality in their professor (vs the hegemonic Judeochristian morality we all know and love) - and how these rich kids' obsession with it ends up rendering them even more alienated from the human experience, and eventually destroying them. i would've even enjoyed more screen time (lol) of the professor and his takes on ancient Greek notions of beauty and virtue (i told you …
so this is dark academia in a book amirite ladies??? what a nice little treat for the tortured soul, the suffering poet, or the pedantic intellectual (check, check, and check!).
really enjoyed the author's style and choice of narrator-pov, as well as the pace and intrigue of the first half and of the very last pages. the main characters are insufferable alcoholics but they do evoke a certain mysterious attraction, as experienced by the main character (also an insufferable alcoholic). really enjoyed the embodiment of ancient Greek morality in their professor (vs the hegemonic Judeochristian morality we all know and love) - and how these rich kids' obsession with it ends up rendering them even more alienated from the human experience, and eventually destroying them. i would've even enjoyed more screen time (lol) of the professor and his takes on ancient Greek notions of beauty and virtue (i told you im a pedantic intellectual!)
didn't enjoy the middle part of the book, where they all just drink and argue and what even was the point. didn't enjoy the writing of Camilla, as she was written as, well... The GirlTM. manic pixie dream girl and all that jazz (i guess thats also a product of the pov).
all in all: wonderful (and i cant stress this enough) start, but gets wayyy weaker towards the middle/end.
It was compelling for the first 50 or so pages but turned into such a slog to read. I don't need characters to be likeable for me to enjoy a book but I would like them to be at least...interesting? Aside from maybe one or two characters, the rest just felt flat to me.
4.5 probably but I’ve found myself thinking about this world more often than almost any book I’ve read this year. (The Great Believers is #1, but that could be recency bias)
Content warning General spoilers
Like all my other reviews, I'm writing this just as I finished the book (at 2am, since I don't know how to keep normal hours).
So, to begin, this book is not at all what I expected. I saw it mentioned several times on the dark academia side of tumblr and vaguely heard there was an important mentor figure in it, so I figured that it was worth a shot. If not for the content, then to know what all the hubbub was about. I'm sure you can imagine my surprise when there was two murders, substance abuse, and a suicide in it. This is not to say I didn't enjoy the book, it definitely earned its four stars, but I was not at all expecting what I got.
To begin, this book has a nice balance between discussing classics and getting on with the actual plot. The scenes focusing on an author or passage of classical literature are relevant to characterization of whichever character is the focal point of the scene and aren't too dense. I am nowhere close to a classics nerd and I was able to understand and appreciate many of the references and passages. The scenes, especially before Bunny's murder, were rich with detail in all the right ways. I found myself thinking about the universe of the book outside of the time I was reading, which isn't something that happens often anymore.
After Bunny's murder, things dragged a bit more for me. The chapters were quite long and often felt like they were repeating themselves, so things could occasionally get boring. This would change near the end, especially around the times Charles started to spiral and Julian found out about Bunny's murder. It was nearly impossible to put down the book after that point. As a small note, I'm glad Richard didn't get with Camilla. I've read enough fiction where the main character gets the object of their affection.
To close this review, I just want to share a passage from the book that left an impression on me:
"Henry," I said. I wanted to say something profound, that Julian was only human, that he was old, that flesh and blood are frail and weak and that there comes a time when we have to transcend our teachers. But I found myself unable to say anything at all. He turned his blind, unseeing eye upon me. "I loved him more than my own father," he said. "I loved him more than anyone in the world."
There are few people more important in a budding academic's life than a particularly great mentor, so this particularly pulled my heart strings.
I realize now that I have no idea what #DarkAcademia is as a genre (see my journey in my 2023 reviews feed). This is supposedly the best example. Magic really isn’t part of it.
This book isn’t for me. Outside of my mistaken expectations, the characters are assholes (a requirement!) and it went on way too long. The writing at the start made me take notice—Tartt can write—but I just didn’t care for this world and its people.
I’m confused honestly
Insane book. Loved every word
Everything about this book is perfect, the writing flows beautifully and the plot is abhorrently complex. Donna Tarte pays perfect attention to events in the story, you can look back after all is revealed and see when these events happened, and what's most pleasant, is that it is hard to figure out why exactly the Murder takes place but you can still piece the story together just before all is revealed. The extensive reference to classical literature was a delight for me. Overall a thrilling read which I would recommend to anyone.
Boy, this was long. I picked up this book because I was expecting a gripping, mysterious thriller - what has been going on at Hampden College, what’s with the elitist classics students, how will it all end?
All these questions do get answered, but not straight away. The reader has to fight all the way through 500 pages of a nearly endless succession of drunk (very drunk) nights at friends’ houses, enigmatic dialogues, more drinks, lots of drugs, long-winded descriptions of parties (and Greek lessons), and more heavy drinking. They also drink a lot.
I couldn’t help but feel let down by the mystery itself and how it played out for the characters. The book is loved by so many people, and I just expected more than a description of the wrong-doings of a group of college students who consume WAY too many drugs. Many times, seemingly meaningless scenes would …
Boy, this was long. I picked up this book because I was expecting a gripping, mysterious thriller - what has been going on at Hampden College, what’s with the elitist classics students, how will it all end?
All these questions do get answered, but not straight away. The reader has to fight all the way through 500 pages of a nearly endless succession of drunk (very drunk) nights at friends’ houses, enigmatic dialogues, more drinks, lots of drugs, long-winded descriptions of parties (and Greek lessons), and more heavy drinking. They also drink a lot.
I couldn’t help but feel let down by the mystery itself and how it played out for the characters. The book is loved by so many people, and I just expected more than a description of the wrong-doings of a group of college students who consume WAY too many drugs. Many times, seemingly meaningless scenes would end up being important after all, but only after hearing another bit of information 200 pages later.
On the bright side: This book is quite well-written, the characters are drawn in a way I’m afraid I might meet them in real life, and in some parts I could hardly wait to find out what would happen next. Since that happened too rarely, I can’t help but find the book just “okay”.
If you enjoy character-driven books more than plot-driven ones, and if you’ve been in a New England winter (or want to be), this is your book!
I've never read a book that made me hate reading this intensely. I feel sick.
This was my first real attempt to read this one. My DNF is less a fault of the book than my low tolerance for slow, wordy stuff right now. I got to about page 115 before I stopped.
I was enjoying some things and not other things. I didn’t feel the 5 friends were all that distinct except for Bunny and increasingly Henry. I wanted more than that. I did enjoy the atmosphere and the academic snobbery/politics. I also liked the tension of Richard lying about his background. I was thinking of him as a Gatsby type before he made the comparison himself!
Not one I plan to finish, so I’ve looked up the plot to at least find out what happens
Read only if you are a masochist.
Sometimes I couldn't believe that this book was written by a woman as everybody in this novel is just so misogynistic. And then it reminded me of books like "Less Than Zero" because of the awful characters that were all around.
The ending kind of let me down which is even more disappointing because I spent most of the book waiting for some kind of big revelation that never came.
Sadly, "The Secret History" wasn't the masterpiece I expected at all.
3.4/5 stars
“There is nothing wrong with the love of Beauty. But Beauty—unless she is wed to something more meaningful—is always superficial.”
