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l. williams

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My Policeman

by Bethan Roberts

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Apr 02, 2022 08:02AM

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Notes from Underground

by Fyodor Dostoevsky

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Feb 24, 2022 10:48AM

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The Secret History

by Donna Tartt

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read in February 2022

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l. williams said:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

" Redid my review due to the fact that I wrote the original one at an ungodly hour of the night (Note to self: please post Goodreads reviews when fully conscious). The earlier review made about as much sense as a giraffe in Antartica. Anyway, onto the Redid my review due to the fact that I wrote the original one at an ungodly hour of the night (Note to self: please post Goodreads reviews when fully conscious). The earlier review made about as much sense as a giraffe in Antartica. Anyway, onto the revisions.
The Secret History was one book where I could not ultimately predict what was to happen. Much of the time reading this book, I thought an event was to play out in a certain demeanor. Without disappointment, Donna Tartt pulled the story along in another direction.
Take for example, Richard and Francis' kiss. That, to me, came completely out of nowhere, yet was crafted in such a way that it fit nicely. After that event, I did not know whether or not Richard would have intimate relations with any of the other five. If any, I'd assumed he and Henry would most definitely have something between them. The most that would end up coming out of this relationship was a half hearted "I loved him too" to Camilla to try and convince her to marry him. I was somewhat disappointed by this outcome, as it seems that Richard had something going on with Henry to begin with.
Obviously, if you retrace your steps, you can see that Richard was swayed and manipulated by the group to think and act in certain ways, (and frankly, from seeing this story from Richard's lens, the reader was, too) due to him being an impressionable stranger with no history. But by this fact, that was what Henry held so highly in him; another man to do his deeds. Later in the story, as Richard’s perception of the people around him unravels, he begins to realize this. Even then, the overarching storyline with these two men was written in a way that would cause the reader keen on subtext to assume things about the plot. Perhaps that was what lured me to think that Richard and Henry would have at least some sort of semi-romantic outcome. All of which Donna Tartt threw out the window.
But, as previously mentioned, that is what I enjoy so much about this book. Tartt takes the reader's expectations and ushers them aside, revealing a plot more twisted than the reader could ever assume.
I wasn't as deeply into the end of the book as some others in the reviews I've seen, however. The end of the book was not packed as tightly as the beginning. Henry’s suicide felt unnatural and unreal. I lost some of the intense involvement I’d had in the book earlier due to this falling out of sorts with the end. Near the end, as previously mentioned, Richard’s world views and friendships unraveled as the numerous layers of falsehoods that once blinded him fell off when he followed the clues. Perhaps the story went a tad awry at this point, and maybe that was Tartt’s intention. In the beginning, the reader’s perceptions of the rest of the five are as unyielding as Richard’s, and that, for me, was the main allure of the book. Who are these characters really?, one would ask, and the illusions of mystery are what kept the reader clinging onto the story for dear life. The lack of mystery at the end was what lost me. Richard is back where he began, alone and without purpose. Only thing gained was underlying tones of acquired trauma. What, you know, with seeing a classmate be pushed into a ravine to his death.
Overall, I would most definitely recommend this book to any of my reader friends who are into this sort of thing, and also to my friends who write. This book teaches good lessons on simple, yet effective sentences to world build and create intricate plots. It was a great book, and should have more attention given to it because of it's extraordinary story. ...more "

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(page 146 of 559)
— Feb 03, 2022 05:30AM

Feb 07, 2022 05:52AM · see review

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