Sam☆ Tan’s Reviews > The Secret History > Status Update

Perhaps you rate almost everything 5 stars is because you choose your books carefully!

This was the year I finally read The Secret History. Absolutely loved this. I love dark academia!

Having read both Tartt's Pulitzer winning The Goldfinch me thinks this book is 10x better both in storyline, writing style and certainly in editing!

Hope you are enjoying this as much as I did Sam !

thank you so much cheryl! i definitely enjoyed this one. just wanted to ask, would you recommend the goldfinch then or nah? so many mixed reviews on that one. also, if you're looking to read some more dark academia like the secret history, i'd definitely suggest these violent delights by micah nemerever! very fun, intricate, and beautifully written

Thanks so much for the recommendation!

To be truthful IMHO it seriously needed editing as it was unnecessarily long. I also don't know why it took the
Pulitzer to me wasn't the most as it did not have a really great storyline nor have the most amazing twists.

I don't mind reading a tome. Only if the extra pages are worth it. For example Lonesome Dove...over 900 pages depending on what edition you read...worth each and every page.

Also worth the long read and actually didn't realize how long the books were:

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

Tolkien's Lord of the Rings

Demon Copperhead 582 pages worth every single one


Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell 1048 pages although not the perfect book all the pages were necessary

But then again not every book is for everybody.

I belonged to a book club which read only Pulitzer winners. Some were absolutely incredible for example The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead...fabulous

The John Updike series Run Rabbit Run...he won two prizes I thought they were trash.

Recent Pulitzer Winners...

Demon Copperhead was so very good.

Trust by Herman Diaz
was just ok.

So reading is subjective.

I joined the club thinking I would be reading the most fabulous books but that wasn't always the case at all.

The only reason I still don't belong to the book club was because our brilliant moderator passed away.

So all that being said if you want my opinion I wouldn't bother reading it.

In fact that may be very well why it took me so long to read The Secret History as I wasn't impressed with The Goldfinch. After several years of reading how wonderful The Secret History was as well as falling in love with dark academia in the mean time that is why I became intrigued with the idea of reading this.

That's a long answer to a short question Sam... don't you think 💬?