Masterful. Having read this twice, I think I can say that it’s my favorite novel, and this after years of claiming that I simply could not pick one. But I adore everything about The Secret History, from the cadence of the sentences (read the last page and a half or so, when Richard recounts his dream, aloud and listen to the music in the lines), to the digressions that only seem unnecessary at first, to the details Donna Tartt chooses so carefully to build her characters, who are selfish and terrible, but for whom I cannot help but feel a deep affection. This book plays like a movie in my head and instills in me the most sweetly painful nostalgia for the college experiences I had, and the ones that I did not.