The Secret History is Amazing and You Should Read It

Donna Tartt's The Secret History is a beloved classic and a tale of dark academia, secrets, and murder. To be perfectly honest, a hundred pages into this book had me convinced I hated it. I found the characters to be strange, the pacing to be slow, and the writing to go off on one too many tangents. So how did I end up loving it by the end?

I never imagined that a book would instill in me such an intense desire to move to rural Vermont, join an elite group of classical students, and perform ancient Greek rituals in the woods. In fact, I've never experienced any interest in Vermont or dark academia novels before. Dark academia is a genre that I had never heard of before but have recently fallen in love with. So what is this strange genre, exactly? From what I can gather, it centers around a certain theme or aesthetic of death, friendship, mystery, secrets, etc. Novels that embrace these themes are typically placed in a school or university setting. The Secret History features all of the above, including a healthy dose of murder, betrayal, and Ancient Greek.

what I liked

The Characters: I won't promise that you'll like the characters or that they are good people. In fact, the large majority of them are rather terrible people, morally speaking. Most of them are narcissistic, elitist, strange souls who drink too many cocktails and could be described as sociopaths. Oh, but they are intriguing. And for some odd reason that I can't quite place, you root for them. You want them to get away with horrible things and to discover the secrets of the world. Spoiler Alert: my favorite is Henry. 

The Tension: This is no Agatha Christie novel. You won't be hunting for clues like Sherlock Holmes or attempting to unravel a complicated mystery. Well, it is rather complicated, but it is no mystery. Richard, the protagonist, discovers the great and terrible truth about a hundred-or-so pages in. But the tension derives from the aftermath, the unraveling of it all. There is something delightfully exciting about witnessing the fall.

The Writing: I was in a strange, enchanted haze while reading this book. I felt transported, entranced. Donna Tartt writes like a modern 19th century author, with poetic but not overly flowery prose. It is simultaneously magical and so human. The Secret History explores an atmospheric and dangerously picturesque reality that is not exactly what it seems. Tartt's description of the rural New England town evokes a sense of beauty and of stillness. The story is atmospheric and something about it is rather cathartic. 

what I disliked

The Beginning: As mentioned above, I initially did not enjoy this novel. The start is rather slow and almost tepid or boring. It leans on the slow side in the beginning and you are stuck following Richard on the outside looking in. You don't get into the thick of things until after the 100 page mark and until then, I found my mind wandering. The story fell a little flat for me and I disliked how uninvolved we were in the murder. For such a momentous event, I was a little put out that you don't witness it firsthand and are instead informed of it after the fact. It felt a bit too much like telling rather than showing. This fact definitely distanced me from the story at first. However, it is all uphill from there. 

rating

Publication Date: September, 1992
Publisher: Vintage
Pages: 559
Genre: Fiction
Synopsis: 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.

Have you read The Secret History?