The Secret History Book Review

 

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

*This review contains spoilers*

Content Warning: 

This review mentions incest. 

Introduction 

Before I bought this novel, I was given two very specific instructions from one of my literature professors in college. 

1. Read The Secret History.
2. Only read it during a snow storm. 

So I waited until the first major snowstorm of the winter, and then I dove into this amazing book. 

At first I didn’t understand why I was supposed to read this book in winter, because a large majority of the beginning takes place during summer. Once I got to Richard’s near freeze-to-death experience and Bunny’s murder, I completely understood. 

And I fell in love with this book. The references to Greek mythology, the dark academia vibes, the reverse murder mystery, the small town college aesthetic, the way that Donna Tartt made me empathize with characters who are literal murderers? It’s all so well done. 

Summary and Review

At first, the pace is a bit slow and the writing style is hard to get into, but once you really start reading, the story and its setting truly come to life. The story just hooks the reader, mostly due in part to the way that Tartt subtly builds up to the revelation of the baccane murder that Henry, Charles, Camilla, and Francis committed right under Richard’s nose. Tartt sets up the small unnerving signs perfectly that indicate that something just isn’t right and that there’s something they’re all keeping from Richard.

This is also the reason that Richard is the perfect protagonist for this story. His being in the dark really helps keep the reader in the dark until Henry decides to come clean. 

I also adore the way that Tartt made this feel like a modern Greek tragedy. The twisted character relationships (including incest), the sacrificial murder, the way that the students of the Greek class seem to live by their own cultural standards, more rooted in Ancient Greek customs than modern American customs. This book doesn’t just make allusions to all the Greek classics, this book is a Greek tragedy in itself, and Tartt weaves those elements perfectly into her narrative and the characterization of the cast of characters: such as Henry kissing his professor on the cheek to say goodbye, not to imply a romantic or sexual relationship between the two, but to allude to the close bonds that male platonic relationships had in Ancient Greece.

Tartt also perfectly conveys intrigue spiraling into obsession, and the way that these six students have let their isolation and their interest in ancient classics transform themselves. 

And Henry. The sheer hold that Henry has over the entire group of them. 

It’s a weird thing to admit, but it seems that often times in social groups—even among friends—there’s always someone who assumes the role of the ring leader. And Henry is undoubtedly the ring leader of these fellow students. It is addressed in the novel that Henry holds such a raw power over them all—so much so that they are willing to commit the murder of their own friend for him—but it’s such an interesting choice on Tartt’s part to never answer the question of “why?” 

Because it’s part of that spiraling into obsession, no one can really say when or how or why it happened, but it did. And once it did, it seems like the other four (sans Bunny, as he’s dead of course) needed someone to be their guide through the chaos that came next as they all slowly started to lose their grip on their own sanity and conscience. 

Early on in the story, I actually felt that Richard had better chemistry with Henry than either of the two had with Camilla (though supposedly they were both in love with her). I was briefly fooled into believing that an unhealthy romance was going to develop between the two. Obviously it became clear as the novel progressed that this wasn’t going to be the case, and it did leave me wondering why Tartt spent so much time developing the bond between the two if it wasn’t to imply romantic desire.

I think I finally understand it.

For one, it was to be a play on those close male relationships of the ancient classical days from which this story draws its tone and aesthetic. Those relationships blurred the lines of romantic and platonic, and so it actually fits right in that Richard and Henry’s relationship functions the same way. But it’s also for the purpose of demonstrating that Henry is the ring leader, that the rest of them all follow blindly in line behind him with whatever he does. And since Richard is our protagonist and the latecomer into their group, Tartt has to develop why the hold Henry has over them extended to Richard in the first place, and that means some emotional intimacy needs to exist between them.  

And I think one could argue that intimacy exists among the entire group. Bunny was Henry’s closest friend. Richard is in love with Camilla as is Henry, Camilla is in an incestuous relationship with her twin brother Charles. Charles has a sexual history with Francis, who also makes passes at Richard. 

Again, a Greek tragedy. 

Some of these character relationships were developed better than others, in my opinion. With Charles and Camilla, I called the incest very early on, then managed to convince myself that I was wrong. That I was just crossing hairs with Jaime and Cersei Lannister, as I had just finished watching Game of Thrones shortly before reading this novel. And then I was practically screaming when it turned out that I was right all along, and Tartt just laid the breadcrumb clues perfectly. 

With Francis, I ended up just being relieved that his sexuality wasn’t used to vilify his character (or should I say, vilify him more. Every single one of these characters is complicit in cold blood murder after all, so they’re pretty much all villains really). Despite there being a lot of homoerotic subtext with most the male characters, Francis is the only one who actually identifies as gay. There was one scene that had me a bit nervous that it would demonize him, where he comes onto Richard despite Richard’s disinterest. However, it thankfully never goes any further than that, and it’s actually explained later as part of Francis’ breakdown. As after they murder Bunny to coverup the first murder they committed, all the surviving members of the group start to spiral out of control and express that spiraling in different ways. 

In fact, Francis is the one I end up pitying during his downward spiral the most, as he ends up hospitalized from panic. This is also a testament to how well Tartt writes because, again, she managed to make me feel bad for people who murdered their friend at all. 

The relationship that each of them had with Bunny before his death seems odd as Bunny in particular was never very kind to any of them, but this also might be a purposeful stylistic choice on Tartt’s part. Before Bunny is killed, Tartt starts showcasing him as being rather unlikable and a bit insufferable, and it’s a clever way of tricking the reader into not caring when he dies, because it distracts you from the harsh reality which is that the characters who are written to be likable are the killers and in the moral wrong, and that Bunny is the victim. He’s got some undesirable traits, but all he did to warrant his death sentence was conspire for turn Henry in for the first cold blood murder they committed. Bunny is more morally sound than the rest of them, and he’s not wrong when he warns Richard that Henry is the monster, but somehow he’s also the least likable character in the story. 

It takes a skilled writer to make the worst people the best characters. 

The development of the Henry-Charles-Camilla love triangle was perhaps the weakest point of this book for me. While I predicted the incest between Charles and Camilla, I didn’t necessarily get the impression that he was obsessive over her and trying to manipulate and control her—that aspect of his personality never came across in the first three-quarters or so of the book for me, nor did his sexual mind games with Francis. I also never got the impression that Henry and Camilla were having a secret romance together. I knew that Richard was in love with her, but Henry’s feelings never came across early on to me. 

Perhaps there were clues that I missed that I might pick up on during a reread, however on my initial read it kind of made the ending a bit less impactful, given that the climax involved this love triangle. I wish Tartt showcased Charles as the potential antagonist a lot sooner, especially when I was convinced she was moving in the direction of making it Henry. 

That being said, I still adored the final scene—the dream sequence in which Richard sees Henry after Henry’s death. Richard remarks that Henry doesn’t seem very happy, and Henry says Richard doesn’t seem happy where he’s at either. 

No, this isn’t a happy ending. But it’s not really a happy story, and I honestly don’t really think these characters actually deserve a happy ending given that they got away with murder. And no, Richard and Camilla don’t find ally get together in the end, but really, should they? Does Richard deserve to be rewarded after helping cover up murder and committing another? With their ring leader Henry dead, and Camilla finally free of Charles (and Francis too for that matter), this is honestly the happiest ending we could have gotten without it feeling completely tonally out of place. 

Final Thoughts 

My overall rating would be to give The Secret History a 4.5 out of 5 stars. It’s truly engrossing and amazing with so much to dissect. If it weren’t for how abruptly Charles became the villain in the end, this would have been a 5 star read for me.