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The Secret History Summary And Review -Donna Tartt

 

Title:The Secret History
Author:Donna Tartt
Genre:Classics, Mystery Thriller, Crime, Literary Fiction
Published On:16 September 1992
No. of Pages:559

This is a review of “The Secret History” by Donna Tartt without any spoilers.

The Secret History Summary/Plot

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 their lives are changed profoundly and forever.

The Secret History Book Review

The Secret History is a mysterious book with dark academic vibes. 

Straight at the beginning of the book, a murder is thrown on our faces. Then we read about how, why, and what happened that led to the murder, and the aftermath, and we read about the person who was murdered and those who committed the murder. 

Writing

The writing is brilliant. It made me feel like I was reading something new. 

This book was written as a criticism of classic elitism and dark academia though this is written on that same theme.

The whole story is from a single point of view that is of Richard’s. 

What’s smart about the writing is that we only know what Richards knows about the situations or other characters.

The only character we know fully is Richards as we are always in his mind and knowing less about other characters makes this already mysterious book more mysterious.

Characters

The way Donna Tartt has written the characters is amazing. 

These characters are students who study classics, Greek, philosophy, and other languages.

Their teacher Julian only takes a few students in his class. He only has 6 students. Henry, Francis, Bunny, twins Charles and Camilla, and Richards, who recently joined. 

All these students have less interaction with other students as they are taught everything by Julian. This thing about Julian gives cult vibes as only a few can be his students. However, I did find this idea interesting. 

The characters are also morally grey. All these people are smart, especially Henry. They are terrible people but still, at some points, you’ll find yourself sympathizing with them. And that’s a great way of writing I think. It will make us doubt our own thoughts sometimes though not too much.

Story

The story is medium to mixed pace. Some scenes are slow while some are fast. You’ll get sprinkles of tension and twists here and there. 

The story is divided into two parts. Part 1 is how and why the murder happened and part 2 shows the aftermath, the investigation, the reactions of other people, and how these characters are dealing with it mentally. 

The ending was amazing. I didn’t expect that to happen. It was crazy and I am relieved that this book has an epilogue. Otherwise, I would have gone mad. Epilogue is a need in this book.

Conclusion

I’ll definitely recommend The Secret History by Donna Tartt. If you like dark academia then just pick this book you will love it.

This is a kind of book that you can read not in 1,2 or 3 days but for weeks. It’s better to read this book slowly so you can enjoy the vibe and read rather than just complete it.

Do let me know what you think about this book.

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Prakriti Kajaria

Prakriti Kajaria

I love to talk about books. So I started my Book-Tube channel and then this blog, where you’ll find book reviews and suggestions of different genres mostly thriller, suspense, romance, mystery, and non-fiction.

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