Rating: 
Summary: Unputdownable. One of the best thrillers I have ever read
Review: A very well structured thriller that keeps you chained down to it through the entire book. An amazingly good first novel. I can only hope that Ms. Tartt suceeds in keeping such high standard in the future. Kudos!
Rating: 
Summary: A stunning, gut-wrenching mystery!
Review: Good God! This is, and has been my favorite novel since I first read it years ago. It has become the touchstone by which I rate all contemporary novels, be they in the suspense genre or otherwise. It is by turns, bleak, paranoid, lush, claustrophobic, sublime, gothic, hyper-intellectual, and finely wrought. The Greek passages (which some have found dry) were intriguing and utterly engaging. How well Ms. Tartt captures the ethos of a select group of misanthropes and intellectual snobs in a a contemporary university setting! This story has insinuated itself into my pysche and her characters live and breathe with such honest clarity...I have heard that Donna Tartt has almost completed her second novel, which should be out sometime in 1999.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderfully sinister
Review: This is a good book. Read the other glowing reviews, I won't rehash the same words here. However, I was disappointed nearing the ending. It just sort of fizzled out, when I thought that such a sinister and complicated story would end in some scary pulse-beating way. Oh well. Definitely entertaining. Can't wait for her next novel.
Rating:
Summary: Solid story telling
Review: Thrilling and tragic story about university intellectuals caught in a Greek myth. Their experimental search for knowledge backfires. It is a genuine well told story, although the suspense wears out a little after the murder.
Rating:
Summary: A stand-out book, LOVED IT
Review: It's been years since I've read it but i still recommend it to others. Donna Tartt was dead-on with the dialogue, esp when Bunny starts to let too much of what he knows out. It is so believable, I was scared to death for him! The author really captures the collegiate atmosphere, but her endless tangents on Latin were tiring.
Rating:
Summary: SECRET HISTORY - SOON TO BE TEXTBOOK REQUIREMENT
Review: I hope I live to see the day when my grandchildren read this book as required reading in Literature class. It's worthy, no doubt. This is THE most well written, carefully thought-out book I've ever read - and the thing is, you don't realize the greatness you've encountered until a few days of absorption afterwards. Then you are still thinking about the characters, still concerned about them. It required careful reading (I have no Greek), but I was rewarded ten-fold for forging ahead through the Greek passages, struggling to assimilate them with the english I do have, and I was rewarded with bright, complex characters who defy the routine laws of today's fiction. These characters utterly call to the reader to be understood, warts and all. Tartt's picturesque speech paints such vivid pictures in my mind, I feel I'm there. She veers from the (yawn) mainstream of describing the sky, the temperature, the surroundings in general, as to describe some white linoleum! in a room in one powerful statement as being "a vast white wilderness". I began to worship her at that point. The book was given me by a Londoner, who had finished it, while we both were on holiday in the British Virgin Islands about four years ago. At first (being an American), I thought "ho-hum, another boring, pretentious British book" - THEN I READ IT. And re-read it, and re-read it. I've lost copies, given them away, and I always have a stash of two or three on hand to pass to the hapless, lucky wanderer who even mentions they like mystery fiction in my presence. Like a pot of wonderful homemade soup/stew, the story just gets better as it mingles with all you know. Read it. My only dispair is that I've seen nothing from and heard nothing of Tartt. Where is she? Will she write again? This is a talented woman who certainly cannot be a "one-hit-wonder" - but genius she is, it may take a while for her to unfurl the fabric of wh! atever she is now sewing. To the author: Let us see what ! you're up to soon, Donna. Your writing has spoiled me for others.
Rating:
Summary: An instant classic!
Review: What a great read! I picked it out by chance in an airport bookstore, and I've never been more pleased. I agree with the reviewer who said they think this would make a perfect movie (though, perhaps, a mini-series might be better since it can run longer than the normal 2-hour film), and I'm surprised it hasn't been done yet. What made the novel even more impressive to me was that it was Donna Tartt's first novel! I'm anxiously awaiting to see what she does next...
Rating:
Summary: I was sad when I was finished with it!
Review: A very interesting book. Donna Tartt has an a very unique way to describe events, esp. since she writes from a man's point of view. She describes the characters so well, you come to know them as if they were your own friends. This book includes a bit of everything, greek mythology, incest, murder, black majic just to name a few. This book is unlike any other book I've read. I was dissappointed when I was finished, only because there weren't any pages left!
Rating:
Summary: Cui dono lepidum novum libellum...
Review: The Secret History is one of the better books to come out of the 1990's. Donna Tartt has created a masterful book in which the reader can feel the very chill in the air. The backdrop of students pursuing Classical Studies is instantly engaging (especially for those of us who did study the classics). This is a great read for a summer's day at the beach or a winter's night before a fire. After reading this one, you just may want to pick up a copy of Procopius' book of the same title.
Rating:
Summary: Exorbitantly understated and bang on the pulse.
Review: This is a great big black and shiny chrome 50s cadillac of a book. Criticise it for lack of suspense, lack of depth - if you have gone to college you know how much this book is on the pulse of early post-teen intellectual snobbery. I ask the male readers, have any of you ever fallen in love with a book character just quite in the same way you fell for Camilla? Doesn't falling snow evoke great big dark emotions like it usen't before? Were you not just a little disturbed at how easily you too can justify Bunny's demise? I went to school in the country, with plenty of snobs and wealthy yobs, myself included - this is not far off. I Love It.
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