“The snow in the mountains was melting and Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the gravity of our situation” (Tartt. 1992. The Secret History).
The book begins with that sentence alone, which is what grabs the reader in the first place. Set in New England, the reader meets two characters, Henry and Richard.
The story is centered around Richard Papen; however, it is soon discovered how unreliable of a narrator he is. He brings the readers through his life before entering Hampden College, the school his life soon becomes centered around. Once accepted into Hampden, he finds himself enthralled with the secret society life and the new ‘friends’ he begins to meet in this different world.
One by one, we are slowly introduced to the new characters Richard begins to think of as ‘friends’: Henry Winter, who was mentioned in the prologue, Camilla and Charles Macauley, Bunny Corcoran, and Francis Abernathy. After being surrounded by this new group of people, Richard starts to discover flaws he did not think anyone in this society had.
Richards’ unreliability makes the story more immersing, with Tartt’s enthralling writing that brings the reader into the story and allows them to observe the characters make the mistakes that they do.
Overall, I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys the dark academia aesthetic; however, do be warned that Tartt’s point for writing The Secret History was to mock and critique society and academia itself. It had taken me about a month to get past the first 30 pages, but following that I could not put the book down at all.
Wikimedia Commons: King of Hearts
What elevates the book to a 4.5/5 is the fact that it is a character study book, and it allows the reader to get to know the characters and their flaws. However, because of the dark academia aspect, the book needed to be more plot-driven, perhaps something more like the Da Vinci Code (Howard. 2006.) Nonetheless, you still end up with the masterpiece that is The Secret History by Donna Tartt.
