I really can't say I was disappointed in The Secret History. If you've been following me for some time, you'll know I was absolutely stunned by Tartt's The Goldfinch - so much so that I was eager to read this other famous book she'd written. Surely I would get another masterpiece like The Goldfinch. Well... I didn't. So, The Secret History was a letdown only by The Goldfinch's standards, which are so incredibly high that to apply them to most contemporary novels would be unfair.
On its own, tSH was actually quite good, and I'm glad I read it. It does feel somewhat pretentious but that is the point, and the second half is better than the first. Tartt's descriptive voice here hasn't quite got The Goldfinch's insight and evocativeness but, again, that is an unfairly high standard. Authors expand their craft all the time, and if Donna Tartt wrote a good novel, and then wrote a better one, she is to be commended for outdoing herself.
I suppose my greatest complaint with The Secret History is that it was just not character-driven enough. I've heard it compared to a Greek tragedy, to Crime and Punishment, but in that grand light, it fell somewhat short. None of the characters were good people, and I understand That Is The Point, but they weren't really relatable or sympathetic, so I felt let down. Where was the insight???the ~tragedy of poisoned youth?? What quirks these young people did have felt thrown out at random, and I couldn't remember many of them.
Things do get better around the second half, but I struggled to get invested before that - because I wasn't connected to the characters. Richard, our protagonist, was the blandest of them all. He was literally freezing to death at one point, and I was just like "oh". I liked the twins well enough, but then...well... I won't spoil anything.
In short, The Secret History is a cleverly plotted and paced novel with flawless aesthetic, and I can see how it inspired an entire niche internet culture - but I found it sadly lacking in terms of character development.