The Little Friend / The Secret History

by Donna Tartt

book

Genres: Fiction, Dark Academia

Hardcover

Published November 1, 2009

About the author

Donna Tartt is an American author who has achieved critical and public acclaim for her novels, which have been published in forty languages. In 2003 she received the WH Smith Literary Award for her novel, The Little Friend, which was also nominated for the Orange Prize for Fiction. She won the Pulitzer Prize and the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Fiction for her most recent novel, The Goldfinch.

Reviews

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very captivating story. My only complaint about Donna Tartt (having now read two of her books) is that she seems to struggle with closing it out. I thought there were a couple of places toward the end where it could have ended with drama, but she prefers to drag out the ending with some (in my view) unnecessary narrative (same issue in The Goldfinch). But she has great style and tells a good and unusual story.

[Michaela · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Secret History for me will go down in history as one of the best, probably the best actually, work of fiction I have ever read. Have read The Little Friend also - just because once you go 'Donna Tartt', you don't really go back.
Enjoyed The Little Friend but didn't think it came close to The Secret History. (Incidentally, I am probably one of the only few who didn't really enjoy The Goldfynch that much; managed to get to approx. page 500 but then just couldn't go further).
BUT, the Secret History - where does one begin. Truly marvellous.
And, must admit, am also somewhat fascinated by Donna Tartt. Just a contemporary author like no other.

[Adam Rodgers · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the second time I've read this, and I enjoyed it even more the 2nd time round. It was fun to bring the characters back to life and go through all they went through all over again. There are not many books that have as much work and detail put into them as Donna Tartt does with her books. It almost reads as if it were a true story, and the book was written as a confession to clear its writer's conscience. I recommend reading this with a Kindle if you want to learn a lot of new vocabulary, and also to translate some of the french in it. But with the audiobook, which was how I read it originally, you get to hear Bunny's unmistakable, nasally voice that makes the whole thing more real.

[Rita · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just tracking my re-read of The Secret History—it’s still brilliant.

[Tara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a bit worried that the sheer size of this novel would hold me back. As it turned out, it was a relatively quick read for me. Especially the last two hundred pages when I was trying to figure out if the Greek students would get away with everything. It was fascinating, in a terrifying way, to watch everyone fall apart under pressure.

[Gabrielle Watson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book reminded me of To Kill a Mockingbird where the narrator is a girl. However this book ever went anywhere and described endless childhood encounters with little character and plot development. Also the story became more and more outside the realm of possibility.

[Beth Shields-Szostak]

1st edition

[Kara Kilgore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can't wait to see more from this author.

[Rochelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Masterful