The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Rating: ★★★★★★★★★☆ 9/10
I traded Where the Crawdads Sing for this book (with Nancy), and based on the number stars I gave that book and the number of stars I’m giving this book, it wasn’t a very good trade. But if you think of it as how many total stars I got for the price of one book, this trade was the best trade in the history of all trades, maybe ever.
I thoroughly enjoyed The Secret History. Told entirely from first person, the story follows a young adult named Richard as he leaves his dysfunctional family in California for Hampden College in Vermont. Things get a little culty at the College, and, well, before you realize it, two people are dead. This book gave me very strong Crime and Punishment vibes because the guilt of murder very clearly gnaws at the boys’ consciences and slowly destroys their lives. At the beginning of the book, Julian’s (the Classics professor) crew is peppy, erudite, classy, distinguished, if not a little strange. They are all wealthy (Richard is not, but he fools people into thinking he is), and their living quarters are well-kept and extravagant in some cases. At the end, Francis’s room has “rats”, smells of old liquor, and remnants of broken furniture strewn across the room. It’s a very physical manifestation of the deterioration of the boys’ mental states.
I was on the edge of my seat for 80% of the book and completely bored for 20%. Donna Tartt punctuates the action (and when there is action, I literally can not put the book down) with a lot of flowery detail, which characterizes the narrator Richard a bit more richly, but I thought it was a bit too much. I also commend Tartt on her accurate description of college campuses – it was detailed enough that I actually Googled “Hampden College Vermont” (and the results yielded this book) yet also vague enough that my imagination filled in all of the details and created a rich campus. All in all, this book receives 9 stars — not a perfect 10, but darn close.
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