Rating: 
Summary: Donna, Where are You?
Review: Here's yet another example of an absolutely wonderful book which was never followed up by any others from this author. The Secret History is a mystery of sorts, even though you start off the novel knowing much of it. It is the unravelling of details (and characters' lives!) which is absolutely fascinating. This is one of those few books which I tend to urge people to read, even after fifteen years or so of its publication. It still resonates.
Rating: 
Summary: Crime and the classics
Review: Inspired by Dostoevsky, this novel offers a bleak perspective on intellectual hubris. As in "Crime and Punishment" a pathological fascination with ideas gives rise to murder. Undergraduate students of Classics, engrossed in their study in an isolated New England college, become obsessed withs the concept of Dionysian ecstasy. Their successful re-enactment includes the frenzied killing of an innocent stranger. (Their charismatic teacher, who has virtually compelled them to devote all of the efforts to Greek and Latin, subsequently discovers their crime and cravenly distances himself from any further involvement with them.)
Rather than the intense psychodrama that leads to Raskolnikov's acceptance of guilt and ultimate salvation, this narrative dissipates its force in tediously detailing the characters' self-indulgent behavior as they seek to avoid detection. A second murder, of one of their own members, is deliberately planned by the group's intellectual leader, Henry Winter, to ensure their safety. It is he, rather like the amoral alter ego in Dosteovsky's novel, Svidrigailov, who commands the center of this nihilistic world. Despite his apparent generosity and concern, he too is a character beyond good and evil who will take his own life out of boredom.
In the hands of a rigorous editor and with a much tighter plot structure, this might have made a compelling read. As it stands, it lacks the psychological depth which might have qualified it as a distinguished successor to the Russian original.
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty Darn Terrific..Maybe it Drags a Bit.. High 4-star!!
Review: I've read this one twice,and probably my only criticism is that Ms. Tartt should have had a better editor.Then again, I wasn't writing top of the line novels at her age (and still haven't)!The sense of isolated young scholars in a near-hermetically wintry sealed community reminded me a little of Hesse and Mann,both among the huge assortment of authors she probably has breezed through. The immaturity and petty bickering of the young collegiates,though probably universal, did get on my nerves a bit, as they ran through the whole work. But since this is a world the author surely knows, she writes from first hand experience,I'm sure. The philosphical chit-chat was a lot of fun too, even if again overdone. But the sense of college life was generally right on target. The first murder,during a depraved outdoor spree, meant to emulate the ancient Greeks,may not be too convincing,but stranger things have happened.The coverups are diabolically clever,but these are clever people who commit them. Let's see if Ms. Tartt can top this the next go around,and maybe find a better editor.
Rating:
Summary: outstanding
Review: cold as marble, beautifully crafted, this novel is structured, appropriately, like a greek tragedy, where everything is known from the very beginning, and the chacters live through the unraveling of the events that they brought upon themselves. the plot--college kids cover up the murder of one of their friends--sounds like a detective novel, but it's not. in its own way, it's a bildunsgroman, a novel of coming of age for richard papen, the narrator who ends up at a small liberal arts college studying ancient greek with several other devotees and a charismatic in-the-clouds professor. he becomes drawn into their world, and implicated in their crime. it's a novel of morals and aesthetics, social class and belonging. the best way to describe the structure of this book is that it starts at the rotten core of the situation and describes the way things fall apart, sharply illuminating everything in the process.
Rating: 
Summary: POMPOUS JUNK
Review: Need I say more.
This is not even worth 1 star, but I could not find a -10!!
.....And where did this author(??)do her research? There is so much mis-information pertaining to literature, history etc...it's laughable.
Rating:
Summary: Gripping but clichéd
Review: In many ways this book is somewhat of a page-turner. For example, when Henry relates how Bunny found out about their crime you'll find yourself unable to put it down. Plus, the main character Richard is surprisngly realistic in that he's actually quite boring.However, the rest of the characters are made from cardboard and it seems like none of Richard's friends are remotely normal. Plus that and they seem purposefully controversial, even though such aspects are never really looked into. That and it's overlong. But just to reiterate on how incredibly readible this is, making up in part for its several flaws. For a first novel this is excellent and highly readable and the ending was actually kind of appropriate. Then again, maybe that's because I'm a morbid kind of person. To cut to the chase, this is a very ordinary book masquerading as an intelligent book behind Greek quotes when basically all it is is a subtle look at people wanting to be better than is truly possible.
Rating:
Summary: What a debut!
Review: I was browsing the bookstore and came across this book. I read the back, and thought it seemed OK enough. It turned out to be one of those books you can't put down. The suspense was at times unbearable, so I just kept on reading way past my bedtime. But it was worth it. Donna Tartt has a way of sucking you into the story, you feel like you know the characters. And I'm pretty sure I can find my way around Bennington after reading this book. I hope Donna Tartt has a new novel for us soon.
Rating:
Summary: 1 Book that should not be missed!
Review: I loved Donna Tarrt's The Secret History more than any book I have ever read. The book is much more than loosely based on Bennington College, reading it while sitting in the same room the main character was supposed to have been in gave me chills. I would hear a knock on my door and think it was Charles, Camilla or Henry. (best friends of Richard, the main character) I fell deep when I started this book. I highly reccomend this book if you enjoyed Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier or any books by Ethan Canan. Hearing about Bennington in the book was wonderful, some things never changed. Now, I am not saying we go around killing people or have elite groups of students who study greek, but the people, faculty and staff are so similar to the people who work here now. There is even a part when Richard sees a student eating with paintbrushes as chopsticks, this is something I see daily. Pick up a Bennington College brochure while you are reading, this way you can see where the book takes place. Good going Donna! (Did anyone else notice that strange similarity of characters and plot line coinciding with the Secret Diaries, a young adult trilogy?!?)
Rating: 
Summary: Very nice read, but by no means a masterpiece
Review: I am afraid Donna Tart wanted to be her debut novel more then it turned out to be. The story is about Richard Pepen. He is studying Greek, and he gets to know his fellow Greek-students (only five). They are some strange lads, and it is fun to get to discover their personalities as they behave very strangely. Later in the book Richard finds out why: they 'incidently' killed some farmer. Again a little while later, four of the students and Richard decide it is time to kill one of their friends 'Bunny', because he is about to betray the group (yeah, why don't we just kill him?). From then on, the friends are being followed in their quest to escape justice and Richard is being haunted by guilt.
The storysetting is enchanting and the characters are very strong: good work Donna!
But -this- is the point where the book stops being good, being an almost perfect read, and stops having potential. Donna Tart is relating a lot to the classics, the novel is simply stuffed with anecdotes and relations to nearly all great writers; from Homerus to Kafka.
One of them stands out though: Fyodor Dostoevsky and his masterpiece 'Crime and Punishment'. Crime and Punishment has been an exact blueprint for The Secret History: An early murder, after which the dark quest begins, in which we get to know the murderer, his motives and his feelings. Raskolnikov was the killer in Crime and Punishment. He (a brilliant student) slaughtered two old women, just to see how far he could go. We see one of the students in The Secret History do the same thing: Henry Winter.
Dostoevsky amazed me and still does: he build up tension after the murders, up till the end of the book, where I nearly couldn't breath, afraid of Raskolnikov being caught by the police. Donna Tart also tried to build up tension at that point, but completely failed there. All characters just started drinking, and absolutely nothing happened that made this book complete after the murder on Bunny. She just as well could have stopped there.
The worst is the epilogue however. The author just sums up all characters, major and minor, and gives some worthless information on how their life went by. So, in my opinion, Donna Tart started out very well. Also I feel that she is a VERY gifted storyteller. It was a fun novel to read, but it lacks the originality and it does not, I repeat 'NOT' have a strong ending to it. And that's a shame.
Rating:
Summary: Remarkable first novel....
Review: This novel held my interest through to the end.....which is remarkable since we know who is killed and by whom within pages of the start. That the reader continues to read, through another 500 pages is testament to Tartt's skill in drawing us into the characters' lives, making them come alive...showing us what it was like to live on that college campus, in a hothouse of a small group of students who not only took classes together, but seemingly lived with each other nearly 24/7. That it was incestuous in more than one way is not surprising. She also does a remarkable job in showing the disturbing nonchalance with which the students treat their first murder victim, and their second, and only seem to fall apart when their own lives are threatened. I can't decide to what extent this reflects the trend of the times in which she wrote the book (I believe the book reflects her dedication to Brent Easten Ellis, and for some reason, I kept hearing Simple Minds singing "Don't you forget about me" in my head as I read. Hopefully, as I go back to Dostoevsky, that tune will be replaced.)Whether or not......Ms. Tartt did an excellent job in creating characters that were interesting enough to sustain our interest. My only complaint would be that her narrator, a young man, didn't always sound authentically masculine. I am looking forward to reading her next novel.
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