Rating: 
Summary: Donna Tartt where are you?
Review: First: Donna Tartt is a babe! The best reason to read this is her picture on the jacket!
Second: Good but not as great as everyone is going on. Fails to explain why the first murder occurs. Has unexplained lapses in time (don't these kids EVER study?? Even for finals?) Seems all they do is drink and hang out.
Last: Too heavy on the French, Greek, Latin. (A little pretentious aren't we Donna? O.K., we get the point that you're intelligent but some of us never studied French!)
Recommendation: READ. Where's your next one Donna? Can't live off that money forever! Cornwell & Grisham are getting rich!
Rating: 
Summary: A haunting book that became part of my life.
Review: My stepmother gave this book to my sister-in-law to give to me three years ago, so I felt compelled to keep the chain going and pass it on to a friend. Too bad, because I'd like to read it again, and again. Not necessary really, because it has become part of my own memories, almost as though all its unlikely events were part of my own Secret History. The cold, the loneliness, the bond between people that only shared horror can forge - a bond that becomes a kind of shackle. The memory of the hysterical irony of the friends' attendance at Bunny's funeral never fails to elicit a shudder.
Though it initially seemed odd that a female novelist would tell the story through a male narrator, I found it completely convincing. Did other readers?
Rating:
Summary: My opinion
Review: All I can do is add another 10 to this list. ALways happy to discuss this book with anyone. Mail me anytime
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful!
Review: Ended much too quickly for me. I found myself reading while walking down the street, (a big indication of a great book). An absolute page turner --- have yet to hear from someone who hasn't enjoyed it
Rating:
Summary: Beginner's Luck?
Review: If only everybody could get it this right the very first time. Let's just hope this virgin novelist doesn't crawl back into her cave for another 9 years. We need writers like her - insightful, provocative, challenging - a refreshing contrast to the Tom Clancy-types who mob our bookstores. The only downfall to this novel? As the character study that it is, it fails to deliver satisfactory development. Something I'd expect from a writer whose attention to detail leads her to quote passages that span several languages and several centuries. FYI, Hollywood is buzzing - the movie is expected next summer. So hurry up and read it - we all know what can become of a good book once we've seen a lousy film adaptation. And please, pray with me that Winona Ryder doesn't get cast as Camilla..
Rating:
Summary: Well-written character study of college kids & murder
Review: An intriguing first novel about a group of college friends whose love of Greek classicism (and a great teacher) leads to murder.
While many critics have found this book pretentious, I found the characters interesting and well drawn. In fact, the charcters are the most interesting part of the book. The murder that occurs and what leads up to it is less interesting than getting inside these characters heads.
Read this for a well-written look at five people and a look inside their heads as they go through a terrible year in college.
If you're looking for a good mystery however, look elsewhere. This is a character study.
Rating:
Summary: The Secret History delivers; a gripping piece of literature
Review: The detail given in this tale alone is worth the read. A wonderful setting at a remote Vermont college, characters that are described so vividly that they take on a life of their own, and an original narrative are only part of what Tartt bestows upon the reader.
The social commentary that is present here is quite thought provoking. The book poses many relevant questions regarding the society in which we live, namely "Do young people have a true sense of what is moral and just?"
Highly recommended. One of the 4 or 5 best books that I've ever read.
Rating:
Summary: You Won't Be Able To Put This One Away
Review: The narrator, Richard Papen, has just started college in Vermont. Interested in Greek classics, he begins his courses with five other students. But something is tying this small group of intellectuals together. Roumors are all over school, but Richard will soon become a part of their secrets, too. The book opens with quite a suspensful air--a student is pushed off a small cliff by his friends. And that's only the first two pages! The Greek classes themselves are quite interesting. The students discuss ancient Greek and Roman culture/history. Overall, the book is filled with twists and thrilling suspense scenes that keep you reading to the end and wishing Tartt would come out with another novel
Rating:
Summary: I cannot do this book justice.
Review: Within 15 pages, I thought to myself, if I had any talent, this is the book I would choose to write. If I could leave a mark on the literary world, this would be it.
I experienced much what Richard Papen did, leaving a dull, ugly existence in the midwest and entering a different world, attending college at a small, prestigious school in the east. Tartt expresses the nuances of this experience in a way that captures me again and again. The description of Richard's first impression of his room ("it never occurred to me that my room could be anything but ugly"), the glinting gold of the cufflinks and new/old clothes that he buys, the house in the country, all put Tartt in a top literary league.
Unlike other reviewers here, I think the ending is entirely appropriate and any other ending would be too pat, too 'American', if you like. The ending reminds me of the ending in the European film, The Vanishing. I know many people who were left very disturbed by the ending in that movie and I think this book instills the same anxiety. We Americans like things tied up neatly. We want the guilty to pay, the innocent to receive justice, the truth to be known. Yet this book leaves the reader, and the protagonist with a vague, unsettled feeling. What would people prefer, that Richard committed suicide, that he and Camilla got married and lived happily ever after, that he put the experience completely behind him? These would be the Hollywood versions of the ending. Tartt has shown strength as an author by refusing to let us, the readers, and her characters off that easily. I have re-read this novel many times since it was given to me in 1992. It defies my attempt to review because my recommendation, no matter how effusive, cannot do it justice.
I do a search, every six months or so, to see if Tartt has come out with another novel. I hope we don't have to wait 8 years for her next novel, but if we do, and if is equal to The Secret History, I will think it well worth the wait.
Rating:
Summary: A "Desert Island" Book
Review: Briefly:
1. Can be read and re-read, even back to back. You will always find new facets.
2. Lovely imagery.
3. Not totally predictable.
4. Characters your imagination will like.
5. The story is a vehicle only, but a worthy one.
6. Well written - almost literary in its pretense.
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