So, I just finished The Secret History after many late nights. I was, of course recommended it by the barrage of Booktok videos and my friends who told me that it would be right up my alley.
For the most part, I thought it was an absolutely fabulous read. I both loved and hated the characters for their childlike passion of the subject they were studying and their complete pretension to everyone and everything. Henry was hard to read by the end I disliked him so much, I liked him at first as a kind of autistic-coded character who was somewhat socially awkward but then he turned into this murder robot by the end. It was really hard to tell what he planned with Richard and what he didn’t, he seemed to like to leave things completely up to chance in the end.
There were a few loose ends that I wish were resolved, such as that there was never a confrontation about the fact that Richard was not wealthy like them, although it was all but inferred that they all knew anyway. It felt very human, but somewhat anti-climactic considering it seemed to be a pretty big theme in the story.
Also — the Bacchanal God, was he real? Was it just that they all got really high in the woods? Was there a physical baphomet creature wandering around Vermont?
It’s one of those books that keeps teasing you but never actually reveals the goods. I wanted to see Baphomet!!
My main criticism however was the fact that it really did drag. While I found it very well written, and quite beautiful at times — my god that winter chapter was torture. Everything felt like it was moving very slowly, the lead up to the murder, the murder itself (also a let down that we didn’t really see what happened) the investigation into the murder, the funeral, after the funeral. It was a bit of a slog through at times.
What I expected to be the most exciting part of the book just fell a bit flat for me and the last 200 pages or so. The part where everything was falling apart all felt a bit, vague?
I suppose it was the fact that was most frustrating was the fact that Richard, our narrator truly was completely separate from them, always peering in at the strangest of times, giving lopsided views of complicated people. I suppose you could say that yes, that’s the entire point of the book, and I would agree but man, If I wanted to spend a day and a half feeling like that person in the friend group that no one really likes that much I woulda just hung out with my own friends. (Ba-dm tsh)
Well written, dragged quite a bit, Henry was very annoying, Richard was also equally annoying at times, Everyone was sorta annoying at times, loved Julian, not a lot of follow through on some of the plot points I feel like. Spent more time doing coke with Judy Poovey than thinking about the fact that one your friends said he saw the Greek God of partying.
Great book 4/5
by moogstermoomin