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abby_ace_of_books 's review for:
The Secret History
by Donna Tartt
I have such mixed feelings on this book that I don't think it's fair to give it any rating out of five stars.
Objectively, this is a really well-written book. The actual writing itself is beautiful and hypnotic, and while it reminded me of older classics, I found it easier to follow. Additionally, every single one of the characters embodied the term "morally gray" in some way (but I'll say more about that later). I also found it super cool to see characters studying the "classics" and literature because I feel like a lot of modern academia books focus on the sciences.
But did I enjoy reading it? Not so much.
The writing style was probably the only thing that kept me intrigued past the first fifty pages. Admittedly, this was outside of my comfort genre so my level of enjoyment and lack of attention span can be attributed to that. I just kept expecting "things" to happen (I say "things" but I don't know what exactly I was hoping for). All of the "action" happened in the first half of the book, and the second felt like it dragged a bit.
As for the characters, I found Richard and Francis to be the most tolerable in that my main grievances with them involved their tendency to be drunk/high at any given point in the story. A small part of me wanted to like Henry (he felt like a stereotypical tragic character) and I will admit that I didn't hate him as much as I should've, but much like my feelings towards the book itself, I can't decide on my opinion towards him. Camilla and Charles were tolerable at first but then they slept together?! By the end of the book, I was hoping that Charles would die because I despised him. And Bunny? I pitied him at first because he seemed to be the odd man out, but I quickly grew to hate his little racist, homophobic butt.
The whole novel reminded me of a mix between The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake, The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater , Vicious by V. E. Schwab, and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. I did enjoy the themes and the writing style, and I'm glad I read the book.
Overall, my opinion probably shouldn't be trusted because I have a habit of disliking popular books. It truly was a good novel for any fan of classics and dark academia, but if you're more of a fantasy/sci-fi reader like me, you might not enjoy it as much.
Objectively, this is a really well-written book. The actual writing itself is beautiful and hypnotic, and while it reminded me of older classics, I found it easier to follow. Additionally, every single one of the characters embodied the term "morally gray" in some way (but I'll say more about that later). I also found it super cool to see characters studying the "classics" and literature because I feel like a lot of modern academia books focus on the sciences.
But did I enjoy reading it? Not so much.
The writing style was probably the only thing that kept me intrigued past the first fifty pages. Admittedly, this was outside of my comfort genre so my level of enjoyment and lack of attention span can be attributed to that. I just kept expecting "things" to happen (I say "things" but I don't know what exactly I was hoping for). All of the "action" happened in the first half of the book, and the second felt like it dragged a bit.
As for the characters, I found Richard and Francis to be the most tolerable in that my main grievances with them involved their tendency to be drunk/high at any given point in the story. A small part of me wanted to like Henry (he felt like a stereotypical tragic character) and I will admit that I didn't hate him as much as I should've, but much like my feelings towards the book itself, I can't decide on my opinion towards him. Camilla and Charles were tolerable at first but then they slept together?! By the end of the book, I was hoping that Charles would die because I despised him. And Bunny? I pitied him at first because he seemed to be the odd man out, but I quickly grew to hate his little racist, homophobic butt.
The whole novel reminded me of a mix between The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake, The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater , Vicious by V. E. Schwab, and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. I did enjoy the themes and the writing style, and I'm glad I read the book.
Overall, my opinion probably shouldn't be trusted because I have a habit of disliking popular books. It truly was a good novel for any fan of classics and dark academia, but if you're more of a fantasy/sci-fi reader like me, you might not enjoy it as much.