Rating: 
Summary: A WONDERFUL BOOK TO CHERISH
Review: Donna Tartt has crafted a classic murder mystery involving a group of oddball college students. A refreshing, really original novel that's rich in detail with great depth of character. Salinger meets Hemingway - it's that good.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful and chilling
Review: "The Secret History" is one of my favorite books. Briefly, it's the story of an "innocent" (Tartt's characters are too complex and well-drawn to put into little boxes) college kid who joins a group of elite Greek scholars at a small liberal arts college. This coterie is intent on recreating the Greek ritual of the Bacchinal (sex, drugs, you name it) and, unfortunately, a student dies during one such attempt. So "The Secret History" is a bit of a murder mystery, even though we all know who did it! The writing is beautiful. Donna Tartt has a distinct talent for detail, and the dialogue is some of the best I've read in a contemporary novel. I've lent this book to several people and they've all really liked it. In fact, one of them failed to return it and I no longer have a copy of my own! I was happy to learn how many people on Amazon.com liked this book: I didn't realize it was so popular. I too find the characters especially memorable. One of the reasons I wanted to review "The Secret History" even though 317 reviewers did so before me is that people neglected to mention Julian in their reviews. Julian is the Greek professor, a crazy Gore Vidal/Walter Pater hybrid who encourages his students' mania and singleminded passion for the aesthetic. Julian is a celebrated wit and host: his classroom is a natatorium full of plants and statues and he keeps a jar of Mont Blanc pens on his conference table. He hosts little dinners for his special students. He knows what they're up to and probably wishes to join the Bacchanal himself. Julian's students adore him as he is knowledge, learning, and cosmopolitanism personified. But what do you think Julian does when things get complicated? You'll have to read the book now. Ha!
Rating: 
Summary: totally mediocre
Review: This book is totally mediocre. If you think "Dead Poets' Society" was a brilliant movie, you probably would enjoy this book greatly.
Rating:
Summary: Mesmerizing, addictive, and utterly brilliant
Review: The Secret History is a gripping, moving, thoroughly riveting novel that affected me as much as any book I have ever read. Even after finishing it-especially after finishing it-the story has continued to consume my mind. I fall asleep thinking about it, and I wake up thinking about it. The characters (Richard, Henry, Francis, Charles, Camilla, Julian, and, of course, Bunny) are fascinating, mysterious, oddly charming, and-but for lack of flesh-completely real to me. Despite their faults, their fatal flaws, and their sins, I am mesmerized by them all. I want to know them, talk to them, be one of them. Each one of the principal players in this drama will remain in my memory forever, especially Camilla-for some reason, she haunts me; just the thought of her makes me tingle and feel more alive. You might think that identifying a murder victim and his murderers at the very beginning of a novel, particularly a long novel such as this, would make for a less than suspenseful read. Not when Donna Tartt is telling the story. This thriller is jam-packed with intensity and suspense from start to finish. I cannot point to any single section where the story got bogged down or seemed drawn-out. The final forty pages were incredible because I really had no idea how things would play out. Several times, I had to literally put the book down momentarily to catch my breath and let the shocking effects of what I just read reverberate through my being. In a way, I am surprised at the popularity of this book. I like to consider myself a scholar, and I find the idea of completely subsuming oneself in the world of the ancients-wallowing in the classics, I like to call it-highly appealing. This cadre of Greek scholars, indulged by their rarified, half-man, half-deity professor, lived in a world of their very own-communicating in ancient Greek, going about their lives in a Gothic environment, interacting with their fellow students yet never thinking of them as their equal or even as completely real. I daresay that few besides myself find such a way of life appealing, and that is why I marvel to some degree at the success of this novel. This basically reinforces the obvious fact that Tartt is an incredibly gifted writer. I, right along with the narrator Richard, became immediately captivated by these people and yearned to enter their world-despite the fact that they all drank and smoked to a degree unimaginable even to Hemingway, were no strangers to drugs, and resorted, ultimately, to murder one of their own. The inscrutable Henry, brooding over this entire narrative, had me entirely in his grip... At the very root of this novel is a desire to somehow not think about anything, to achieve a transcendental moment of utter freedom. It is this cherished desire that led our cadre of scholars out into the woods in an attempt to summon Dionysus by recreating a real, ancient Greek bacchanalian ceremony. The reader never learns everything about what happened that night, but it is made clear that the group was successful beyond their wildest dreams ...Everything that happened after [a] pivotal moment seems almost inevitable now, looking back, but I was continually shocked and troubled by the details that gradually emerged. Perhaps I should have seen the ending coming, but truthfully I did not and was thus deeply shocked. I have been known to gush about my favorite novels, but if ever a novel deserved to be gushed over it is this one. Tartt's debut novel is simply incredible. Undoubtedly there are some who will find The Secret History pretentious or complain about its length. I can only say that I absolutely loved every bit of it. As corny as it sounds, I have to say that this novel is a very real part of me now and forever.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: I believe this is one of the finest novels published in the English language in the last decade or so. Ms. Tartt is a genius at exposition and character development. The questions addressed in the book, questions about guilt, redemption, etc. are exquisitely explored. The basic plot deals with a groups of young students of the Greek language at a Bennington-like school in New England. These people bond, commit a horrible, inexplicable crime, and then deal with the aftermath. I recommend this book without reservation!
Rating:
Summary: Captivating
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, although there were large portions of it which were undoubtedly over my head. Donna Tartt obviously did her homework. She wrote fluidly and with great familiarity with the Classical Era.
The story itself drew me in and held my attention throughout. Not only did I support the choice of the group to commit the murder, I sympathized with the unfortunate (although somewhat deserving) victim.
I HIGHLY recommend this read to all.
Rating: 
Summary: The Secret History
Review: Just began reading the novel and find myself unable to put it down. Fascinating and remarkably written.
Rating: 
Summary: Not as good as I thought it would be.
Review: Based on the many glowing reviews of this novel that I've seen here and elsewhere, I guess my expectations got a little too juiced. What's wrong with this book? It's not all that good, either as a mystery or a novel (of ideas?). That may be because the characters are quite flat. And there are too many scenes that struck me as laughable. For instance, early on when Richard lives in the freezing apartment which results in his being temporarily hospitalized--I wasn't sure if I should be concerned about him or what. I mean, how dumb can this guy be? Nearly freezing to death rather than admit to his friends that he doesn't have any jack? Say what? (And then that about how his joints still hurt these many years later. It was almost like being accosted by an aged uncle who wants to show you where they opened him up to do the bypass.) But then when the hippie told him to "Carve pegs," I knew it was okay to laugh. "Phew," I said to myself, "I'd almost begun to take this book seriously."
Rating:
Summary: Poop
Review: I agree with the two star review elsewhere here that suggests what this book badly needs (editing). I relate to the anger of the one star reviewers though. I loved this book for the first few pages but ended up resenting its utterly cold wordy pretentious (etc) vacuity.
Rating:
Summary: What lurks in the deep of souls...
Review: The inception of this book is fascinating, making you remember the golden days of college camaraderie, of studying classics gazing now and then at a golden autumnal park,of corny pranks and strange ideas as an hazy blue-grey dusk closes in. And here we go, from "Dead Poet's Society" to a scenary reminding us of "A fatal Inversion". I love the Author's way of subtly inducing horror through classic erudition. The rest is only the usual lesson: never conjure forces that you cannot control. All in all, an interesting novel, superbly written. However, for the mystery himself...is the most preposterous absurdity i've ever read. The Author has one of the charachters tell the crucial events, instead of narrating directly, to avoid, I can only surmise, the involuntary comicity of the description of the clumsy attempts to recreate a bacchic frenzy by four blasè rich students, and to avoid explaining exactly how could they have succeeded, in the first place. The rest of the story is a grimy proceeding in a narration overlong and less than plausible. VERY much less,in fact, than the events in a fairy tale.
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