The Secret History

Oh man Oh man. I think I was introduced to this book through instagram reels. Everywhere I looked I saw this novel being recommended. But tbh it was a black cover or the other alternative was this greek statue thing, so suffice to say it wasn't at the top of my list. But then when I was browsing in Indigo (not planning to buy any books since I had just bought like 5 the day before) I saw it tucked away in a section that it wasn't really supposed to be and under impulse I bought it. 

And man it was a great great impulsive decision I made that day. I had just finished reading a bunch of other recommendations and felt pretty disappointed with a few of them and therefore I didn't have the highest expectations for this novel as I feel high expectations always ruined books for me. But man was I just put into the writing of Donna Tart as if it were a drug. I think while reading through the novel, I have never stopped and reread the passage so many times for like these few subtilties that she added or just due to her fantastic writing. I think there were countless, and I mean countless passages where I was just like: damn. 

Even after finishing the novel, I found so many hidden details online that I never would have caught, and I was simply blown away by the amount of subtilties she put in the book. I think tbh this is a book that was meant to be analyzed. One that should be part of highschool curriculums for analysis. Too bad some of the themes r a bit dark and the novel is a bit long for highschool. 

I think my favourite sections of this novel was the description of how Bunny would piss of the other characters. This built greatly into the characterization of so many of the characters and I found Donna doing this so many times, where she wrote this very much needed explanation of some strange but innate behaviour of a character that built on every single other characters personalities. I think the book really does a great job of the point its trying to establish, that everyone has a really dark side to them inside and the characters that show this really do this idea justice. 

I think while I was reading this the one constant thought I had in my head was “bruh what does this mean.” Like that's it. One of my largest complaints was just that I didn't understand greek loll. But after I did search up the meaning it was so interesting, so ig it would defeat the purpose of the greek and latin if there was a direct translation in the book or smth. 

Some final remarks. Bro all the characters r kinda wack. Like we have incenstious abuser, 2 psychpaths ig, gay SA'er, and honestly while the book makes Bunny look very very annoying, he is honestly the most rational person, although he is super weird and annoying as well. But ig thats the point of the book. Francis my personal fav lolll.