(book review)

This review will not be positive, because I did not like the book more than I liked it. Maybe I had high expectations, maybe it is just not my book, but it is what it is.

I was already familiar with the work of Donna Tartt, because I read her last novel ‘The Goldfinch,’ after which I was also not very delighted. However, ‘The Secret History’ promised to be better because of the atmosphere of the dark academy, the vibe of study, wealth, luxury and friendship. But it turned out to be completely different. Of course, a great influence on my perception was made by social networks, in which the main characters are romanticized, despite their actions.

The plot is that we have six student friends and one of them is the narrator, Richard Papen, who reflects years later upon the situation that led to the murder of their friend Edmund ‘Bunny’ Corcoran – wherein the events leading up to the murder are revealed sequentially.

The novel explores the circumstances and lasting effects of Bunny’s death on the academically and socially isolated group of classics students of which he was a part. Oh yes, you got it right, five friends killed the sixth. And no, this is not a spoiler, we get all these facts in the first pages. The main task for the reader during the reading of the book is to understand why they murdered their friend and, in fact, what will happen to them for it? If only it was an accident, or just the inaction of one of them, but no. Throughout the book we follow the thread of thoughts of the unreliable narrator Richard, who behaves irresponsibly, not only constantly lies, impersonates others and adjusts his opinion to society, namely to a bunch of his “murder friends” and constantly worries about what they will think of him.

The book is full of meaningless thoughts about how no one understands geniuses who study Greek, philosophical reflections on the severity of life and hatred for their friend Bunny and real plans to kill him. Reading this book, I was waiting for the murder to happen; I expected its description and the experiences of the characters regarding their actions. However, none of this happened. Richard made it clear to the reader that he “does not consider himself a bad person.” I failed to grasp why many readers and fans of this book romanticize the terrible and rotten characters, because Donna Tartt does not give us positive characters or a glimpse of hope. This book is a complete darkness into which the characters are rolling from the very beginning. The only thing I liked was the atmosphere; the author perfectly managed to convey the atmosphere of study, the closed community of the university, the oppressiveness of the situation and the imperfection of the characters.

This is a good book in style and writing, worthy of attention and almost unique, as it does not have positive traits in the characters. Despite that, I was bored reading their reflections on antiquity and their own innocence in what was done, and I was left with a feeling of disgust, as if I were also an accomplice in the crime. My rating is 5/10.