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The Secret History

Donna Tartt

Start date: October 1, 2018

Finish date: October 31, 2018

Why we're reading this: Oct '18 New School…more
[close] Oct '18 New School

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What Members Thought

Nov 22, 2019 Candi rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, book-i-own, contemporary-literary, chunksters, mystery-crime

"Does such a thing as ‘the fatal flaw,’ that showy dark crack running down the middle of a life, exist outside literature? I used to think it didn’t. Now I think it does. And I think that mine is this: a morbid longing for the picturesque at all costs."

Hot damn this book was brilliant! I’m officially joining the ranks of Donna Tartt fans. Three things happened after I finished this book: 1) I wanted to start all over again 2) I had difficulty reading the books I chose next (even though they are ...more

327 likes · Like · see review

Oct 23, 2020 Safa rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

Reread

———————-
Please ignore me. I’m wallowing in a puddle of my own tears. I never had a flare for dramatics, but this book wrecked me and I’m not OK.

* Please suggest similar books.

49 likes · Like · see review

Mar 22, 2021 Alisa rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2021, read-it-again, historical-fiction, literary-fiction

I was absolutely captivated by this book. It's the best I've read in years. The storytelling and language work in tandem to make even the most mundane incidents fascinating. If you have heard me talk about The Goldfinch, you know I both loved it and love complaining about it, but The Secret History is pure love. I stayed up well into the night multiple times while reading—especially as the characters began spiraling toward mental breakdowns under the stress of all they had done.

A couple notes, ...more

5 likes · Like · see review

May 29, 2015 Winter rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2015-read, 1001-books-you-must-read-before-you, general-favorites

I read this book for the first time around ten years ago. Then it absorbed me, haunted me and it has stayed with me all these years as a disturbing tale I never forgot.

Now I read it again. Although the tale wasn't completely new to me this time and therefore not quite the pageturner it was the first time, it's still as shocking and haunting. Maybe even more so. Somehow the secrets, the sorrow of it all, the frightening turns life can take scares me more than the most chilling ghost story and re ...more

1 like · Like · see review