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Description
Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries. But when they go beyond the boundaries of normal morality their lives are changed profoundly and for ever, and they discover how hard it can be to truly live and how easy it is to kill.
Summary
I read The Secret History by US author Donna Tartt as part of a course on dark academia fiction and its foundations. This was an unexpectedly delightful and complex multifaceted psychological dark fiction.
Review
The Secret History is a classic foundational dark academia fiction where the depths of humanity are explored by the inescapable bonds between Classics college students united a the darkest of secrets: murder. Tartt cleverly examines the relationships between closely connected individuals bound by intellect and a spiral into moral introspection of all characters and, more broadly, humanity itself. The role of an unreliable narrator in The Secret History makes it enduring and where contradictory truth, fiction and lies are gifted like pieces of the puzzle the reader can put together, reposition or remove as the story unravels but can never fully trust the integrity of the story revealed: this is Tartt’s masterstroke in The Secret History.
Conclusion
A highly recommended novel for fans of dark fiction, American gothic and psychological mystery, dark academia, crime and literary genres. A fantastic read. An enduring, dark academia and disturbing psychological mystery.
** This is my personal opinion and does not reflect any judging decisions **
Leanbh Pearson 