Beauty is terror. Whatever we call beautiful, we quiver before it.
A highly acclaimed dark academia themed novel. The Secret History was first published in 1992 and is now considered a modern classic. Donna Tartt's debut is considered a rather "brilliant and haunting" murder mystery.
This review contains spoilers! You've been warned!
And this is going to be a long rant...
I suppose at one time in my life I might have had any number of stories, but now there is no other. This is the only story I will ever be able to tell.
Ok, I will break it to you like this: the novel was divided into two books;
Book 1:
We are given a narration on Richard's miserable life in a no-where town in California, his parents not thinking twice about the progress of his education or his wellbeing in general. One night, Richard decides that he's had enough and applies to join Hampden University in Vermont
He then joins classics Greek classes run and supervised by professor Julian Morrow. He handpicks the students who join his circle. So other than Richard, there were only five students: Henry, Francis, Edmund (Bunny) and the fraternal twins Camilla and Charles.
Despite the fact that they were all overwhelmed with the bulk of assignments they had to complete, they still had time to get drunk, abuse illicit drugs, go on trips to the country, and travel
One unfortunate night, four of the infamous gang (Henry, Francis, and the twins) "succeeded" in achieving the bacchanalian frenzy state the Greeks have always talked about in their texts, after ingesting a ridiculous amount of alcohol and drugs. However, when they finally came to, they realised that they had killed.. no, butchered, an innocent farmer.
Soon enough, Bunny made sure they know that he knew about the mishap and started blackmailing them. And to keep him quiet, they obliged to all of his requests, regardless of how absurd
“Death is the mother of beauty,” said Henry. “And what is beauty?” “Terror.”
Book 2:
Our gang of selfish and obnoxious students decide that they cannot deal with Bunny, his non-stop bullying and outrageously expensive requests. And so, without giving it a second thought, they... more like Henry, decides it's best to get rid of Bunny. Kill him, yes.
The rest of the 300 pages go between the unreasonable planning and laughable ideas put on the table to end their friend's life (I doubt he was a "friend" anymore), the useless word-fill of context lacking pages and then comes Bunny's death. Very short. Almost too quick in comparison with the senseless amount of introduction and planning for this one event. It all ends in a paragraph. A couple of lines. Bunny is dead... or is he?! We are not certain, oh not at all! Because they all simply decide to flee the scene and attempt "not contacting one another, unless absolutely necessary".
Following up on that, there was an entire chapter dedicated to Bunny's funeral and the gang's stay at the Corcoran's... Honestly, a complete was of paper!
The same can be said for the police/FBI investigation. No one gained anything out of that. I am almost certain that if all that was omitted from the book, the reader would not lose Anything from the story. Nothing.
For if the modern mind is whimsical and discursive, the classical mind is narrow, unhesitating, relentless. It is not a quality of intelligence that one encounters frequently these days. But though I can digress with the best of them, I am nothing in my soul if not obsessive.
I have not come across such a story before, and I'm honest about this bit. The prologue definitely pulled me to get the book and pushed my hopes and dreams for this to be the book of the year so high... My fault yes, I know... But there were the insane recommendations from all those I know as well...
None of the characters were likeable, relatable... nor could one sympathise with them at any level. Not sure where Tartt was going with them really but they were all pompous, selfish and pretentious elitists who cared for no one and nothing but themselves and their personal interests. They were immature children with so much money on their hands and no control over their behaviour whatsoever. I would not say that I hated them because that would simply indicate that I have dedicated more time and effort than I'd like to the emotion of "hate" directed towards the characters of this book. Instead, I cared for none! Simple and easy.
Now Richard, our protagonist, wasn't any better. He felt the dire need to somehow mingle with the new crowd, that he made up a new life for himself and concealed his insignificant past. I get it. Sometimes people go the extra mile in hopes of fitting in. But just how much are you willing to fake and sacrifice, just to get along with a crowd. If you ask me, these guys are the wrong crowd in disguise. Wolves in sheepskin.
I somehow assumed that, at least, Henry was the mature one (we all know that he's the self-proclaimed leader of this crazy bunch). But no, he's anything but. And the rest, for one reason or another, just follow him blindly. He decides to kill off Bunny and they just go along. Now we have already established that Richard is the weakest one of them all and had absolutely no effect on any of the decisions that were made. But what about the rest?! And when Julian knew they killed the farmer when they were in their frenzy, why hasn't he said or Done something? Like... Anything! They were willing to flee to another country and not deal with the consequences of their actions and no one intervened! And the best part was when Julian found out about the murder of Bunny... He left for an indefinite period! What is UP with these people?!
It is possible that I missed it, but I noticed no character development. For any of the characters! They all were flat and exceptionally uninteresting, living their high school days at Hampden University.
The ending was just as ridiculous as the rest of this book. Yes, the characters got some sort of closure and it's subtle in its own way... but I deserve a much more intense ending, having suffered through those 600 pages of bs! Oh and how easy was it for Henry to just shoot himself? Till the end... a selfish one... But hey, at least Richard got to finish uni and got a diploma! It was in English though.
Could it be because it reminds us that we are alive, of our mortality, of our individual souls- which, after all, we are too afraid to surrender but yet make us feel more miserable than any other thing? But isn't it also pain that often makes us most aware of self? It is a terrible thing to learn as a child that one is a being separate from the world, that no one and no thing hurts along with one's burned tongues and skinned knees, that one's aches and pains are all one’s own. Even more terrible, as we grow old, to learn that no person, no matter how beloved, can ever truly understand us. Our own selves make us most unhappy, and that's why we're so anxious to lose them, don't you think?
There was an abundance of references to greek and old texts throughout the book, conversations, their jokes... call me illiterate but I had no idea I had to have a background on all that to understand what was going on. Again, Tartt milked this privilege she had, that all charm went down the drain. Soon enough, I lost interest to refer to the actual text to figure out what was meant by that particular word/sentence, in order to understand where the conversation was going. I'd just skip it or overlook it.
Maybe Tartt was trying to look more intellectual by including text or terms in Greek... Maybe she wanted to add more life to Julian's classes?! Idk. Again, I lost interest. But from what I understood, the theme of the story was revolving around the Dionysian rites and some intimations of satanic power... one way or another...
All in all, reading this book was tedious and a dull experience. Yet, I read it again... Idk why but I thought I missed something.... and guess what... I hated it even more than my first read.
One more thing: this is nowhere near a "murder mystery". It's a YA fiction novel. Yes those kids murder people, but there was no "mystery" involved.... at all!
“But how,” said Charles, who was close to tears, “how can you possibly justify cold-blooded murder?”
Henry lit a cigarette. “I prefer to think of it,” he had said, “as redistribution of matter.”
Short Analysis:
Book cover: (1 star)
Minimalist. Plain. Can't go wrong with black. But nothing interesting really
However, there is just too much text and IT'S ALL IN CAPITALS MY EYES HURT!
Plot: (4 stars)
The story revolves around and is narrated by our protagonist, Richard, who decides to join the elite Hampden University and study classics. He joins the Greek class, provided by prof Julian, with five other elitist, self-absorbed students.
Earlier on in the book, in fact in the first couple of pages, we are led to know what the story was about and why it was being narrated
I've mentioned earlier that the prologue was so gripping, it got me hooked!
Story structure and content: (2 stars)
Frankly, this book should have been shortened by 300 pages in the least. Depending on what print you get, the total number of pages differs. My copy had 629... fml
I love that the reader is given the purpose of the story in the 2-paged prologue! It was well presented and had unfortunately fooled me into a state of unnecessary buzz and excitement for what is to come
The story is quite slow-paced. I gave the book the benefit of the doubt and agreed, with myself, that it was a story of kids attending a Greek class... probably in their world, that's just a fast as things could get!
We are given an obscure introduction to the professor and the students. They had a mysterious, odd, presumptuous and unfriendly vibe. And once we got to know them better throughout the story, it didn't get any better.
I was not able to relate to them, nor sympathise or even care for what happens to any particular one. Perhaps that was Tartt's intention! We wouldn't know...
The protagonist, Richard, is not any better. When he was shivering in that rotten apartment on the floor before Henry found him, I decided that the story might go better without him. Perhaps in his ghost form, he was able to witness the events to come... I was simply bored out of my mind!
There was a lot of bluff... The editors could've done a better job and simply ripped out the unnecessary pages! 300 of them!
I mean, I get it, Tartt wanted to sprinkle some more drama to the story... but she kinda overspilt the bag of sugar here, all magic was gone.
Writing style: (3 stars)
I cannot turn a blind eye to the exquisite and brilliant writing of this book. Nonetheless, the prose took over in a lot of instances and I simply lost track of what I should expect next
Some would argue that Tartt took her sweet time emphasising the relationships between characters. Friendship, rivalry, love, hate, compassion, the struggle to fit in, loneliness etc... However, I believe that she took those themes and chucked them all at the other extreme of the scale, where it was almost unrealistic. But then again, I could simply be the one who never had such an intense experience in university, though I highly doubt this kind of situation is not an ideal one either way
Tartt has a beautiful way of compiling prose. The monologues Richard had were almost very well polished. Again, she abused the privilege and let the storm of the words take over
Ending: (2 stars)
Awkward and... not satisfying! It was definitely rushed, keeping in mind that some conclusion was given for the characters. But not a satisfactory ending for that 600-paged non-sense.
Final rating: 2.4 stars /5
This book was definitely not worth all the hype it received. It's a good book. Yes, you can read it. But I wouldn't enlist it on the "Top 100 Books You Must Read Before You Die" list! Tartt did a great job with composing this book, for a debut. Yet I blame her editors for not doing their job better and cutting out all the unnecessary scenes, events, drama, chapters, etc... There wasn't much context in half of that damn book!
The writing was simply beautiful in the first book when Richard first joined classics with the young mischiefs. But even then, there was so much stalling and stretched out prose. There are a lot of beautiful quotes I've marked on the book, yes, yet I cannot appreciate the bigger picture for more than what it deserves.
I'm just content that I finished it and I won't pick it out again!
Thank you for reading!
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