The Secret History by Donna Tart (Spoilers)

 So I have had this book on my shelf for years, I honestly do not remember how or when I acquired it but it's been just sitting there collecting dust. I've recently discovered (very late) Booktube and this was on a few of the lists. I figured why not? 

I spent the first hundred or so pages kind of like...okay so this is a book about rich douchebags being douchey..what's so secret about that? That's when the IT hits the SHAN. Things had percolated so well that it kind of  made me do a Shatner.

So it went from zero to a bijillionity in like 50 pages and I was not sure I was ready for it! I honesty didn't know what to think.

This book too me for a ride. I didn't like any of the characters at their core. Even Richard, our main man, had me shaking my head. Like bro, I know you are wanting to be considered part of the group but once you find out that part of that group has murdered someone in their own yard in the middle of some douchey rich bro's bacchanal ritual and they DON'T show any sympathy for the dead guy....DUDE RUN! 

But nooo you also don't care. So therefore, I do not like you. THEN your one "friend" starts acting like it's bothering him (AND RIGHTFULLY SO) and all ya'll decide that he has to go! Wut!?

So here I be as the reader, along for the ride. Shaking my head so hard that I got a headache. I didn't like Bunny, he was obnoxious, rude and I swear if you look up the definition of douchebag his face would take up the whole page, yet he is the ONLY one that showed any kind of remorse or regret at it...AND HE WASN'T THERE!!! I went from UGH (I legit wrote this in the margins as a reaction to one of his early outbursts) to JUSTICE FOR BUNNY! 

Camilla was the only main female character, and I just didn't like her one bit. It's strange that Donna Tart seems to have given the side female characters more depth and personality than the main female character. Judy and Marion were more fleshed out in their brief moments on the page than our Main Girl Camilla. She was just a "beautiful" little set piece for the main guys to look at and in some instances screw. 

So I loved this book. 

After I finished, I just sat there feeling like my brain had been taken on a ride. I loved that there didn't seem like a single one of them that ended up super happy, even though most of them got away with TWO murders. 

I do think that it takes the "right mood" to thoroughly get into this book. It's not always an easy read, it's definitely dark and drab at times and takes a bit of bookish fortitude to push through the first parts, but in the end it's worth it. 

I gave it