Rating: 
Summary: Too long by 300 pages
Review: This book is too long by at least 300 pages. Like an old river, the author drags one chapter after another along curves that lead here and there and may be cut entirely without losing the story's thread or a sense of the characters and their foibles. At first, I was curious and kept reading on, but I soon lost interest as the interminable conversations and descriptions of minutiae degenerated into some bad version of stream of consciousness writing. It may be a good first novel, but I wish the author or her editors would have been more aggressive with their pruning tools.
Rating: 
Summary: Promising, but obviously the work of an emerging writer
Review: Although I agree that Tartt has facility with the language--her imagery is often strong and imaginative, and her prose has a nice rhythmic quality to it--she seems to fall prey to some of the errors that new writers often struggle with. First of all, the characters are not very believable. I spent a good portion of my reading time willing myself to suspend my disbelief and go with the story as she's laid it out. Am I to believe that the son of two high school drop-outs, an average and not very well read high school student, suddenly morphs into this guy who sounds like a turn of the century prep-schooler simply because he has a passing interest in Greek? Am I to believe that Bunny, this popular, slightly learning disabled, jocular guy really goes around using words like "chap" and "chum" in a modern American college setting without having any social ramifications for it? (The other characters, supposedly, are stranger than Bunny--he's the "mainstream" one.) And, speaking of setting, where am I, exactly, in time?? Because of fleeting references to spandex and Jane Fonda I assume I'm supposed to be in the 80s, but so much of what the characters do and say belie this. I understand that people can get all caught up in "their own little world"--be it computer addicts or hockey players--seemingly oblivious to the world outside, but the fact that Richard, a formerly ordinary suburban Californian, suddenly acts and talks and eats like a person out of the 19th century was a little hard to buy.Donna Tartt has some talent. But this book has some major holes in character development and motivation and has serious issues placing the setting solidly in a given time period, and these two major flaws distracted me from enjoying the writing and the plot. Although this book offers us a writer with promise, it does not live up to the glowing reviews I've read. Don't be fooled by a writer's ability to sling around some Greek phrases. Character and setting are infinitely more important when crafting a piece of fiction.
Rating: 
Summary: Didn't know it was a hit----just sounded interesting....
Review: I was surprised to see this book had generated a big stir. I didn't know anything about it. I just picked it up because it had stuff about ancient Greeks in it. (I'm a nerd.)
I was impressed. Great writing. Sounds like the author completed this in or right out of college---she has captured academia's true (and I feel, ridiculous) essence. What is college all about? Check it out in here---its not too different anywhere else. I feel Ms. Tartt has captured the true mindset of a group of twenty year olds--and that goes with the whole murder thing---why it didn't really put them off at all. When you were that age, did you really care about anyone or anything else? Really? Of course murder didn't BOTHER them, they were self-absorbed, alcoholic, problem laden college students. Ms. Tartt did a great job on the mind of the murderer, and the aspects a murder does to the environment of that person. We get Bunny killed off in the middle of the book----what the heck are we gonna do for the rest of the book? Well, think about it of course! Reflect, respond, react. What each of these---well, children, go through because of the murder is just as bad as jail. The characters are rich. I loved the fact that we didn't skimp on Bunnys character, just cuz hes dead! :)
I could go on and on with this. Obviously my fellow reviewers could, too. Thats what kind of book it is. It makes ya think and reflect. Now, isn't that what we want? Its pretty unusual to have a book like that written nowadays. My regrets on this novel:
The Bacchanal was central but vague to the story. Lots of loose ends to that and no detail. Disappointing.
Serious editing was needed. I decided to skip parts, but then some I just couldn't because her quality of writing is excellent (so is everyones' in college, esp. senior year) and her rich character involvement. This story is the story of the outsider who never really fit in---or was he just a puppet?
Great references to California---how'd she know its like that when a Californian moves East? :)
Rating: 
Summary: Great Book
Review: I really thought this was a great book! It takes a little bit to get into it but once you do you are sucked in and can't put it down. It kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time! I recommend to anyone!!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent and complex
Review: Tartt's Secret History is a compelling and thought provoking book. It delves into the lives of six classics students at a small New England liberal arts college. Each of the six is eccentric and intense, and each seems to be hiding from something. All of them have a "secret history." At the crux of this book is the murder of Bunny, one of the six students. Once plans are set to go through with this task, the characters follow their ringleader (Henry) and no one tries to stop the event that will change each of their lives forever. This book is about how one decision, one moment, can change a life forever. I am not very knowledgeable of Greek classics, and know I probably missed a lot as a result, but regardless, this is a page turner of a novel. This is a dark and disturbing read, but the intense characters and the ability to make the reader think long after the book is over make it worthwhile. If you are in the mood to be captivated and at times breathless, read this book. It is like nothing you will ever read.
Rating:
Summary: very well crafted
Review: Donna Tartt is an unusually talented writer. I read her work slowly, in order to savor the language and better-appreciate her powers of observation and insight. This book is well worth reading, and I find it annoying that "The Lovely Bones" somehow managed to outsell it during the same period. This book contains a couple of mild annoyances, which I want to mention only because they are contrivances that taint her otherwise-flawless work and, in the hope that she reads these reviews, I want her to know that readers notice. One is that she employs the murder of a young person in what I assume is an attempt to capture the sympathy of the typical child-worshipping american, who, idiotically, feels that there is no greater tragedy. The other is that her posthumous characterization of this kid is apparently contrived to warm our hearts to him. Personally, I would find that child annoying, and I have much greater appreciation for her protagonist (the wilful, recalcitrant Harriet) whom, I prefer to think, may have a great deal in common with the author herself. My earlier review of this book was premature, and I guiltily recant that testimony. Any intellectual hauteur this author may harbor, she is completely entitled to it. This is unusually good writing.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful shocker...
Review: ...By now you know what it is about, but just to clarify: a lot of people are disagreeing with events in the book that they found seemingly unbelievable...I thought about it, and the winter event was very vital, both for the following events and the development of the narrator's character, for him to do something stupid and someone come to the rescue. But most people are more concerned with exploiting flaws, before they consider how vital the unbelievable events really were. What I loved most about this book was not only how it was shocking. But the most incredible thing Tartt did (you got to hand it to her!) is to write a murder story, but not end up with a typical 'whodunit' book, with cookie cutter characters, cookie cutter stories, cookie cutter endings, etc. She painting a complex picture where, in the murder, the most suspenseful part was not the murder itelf as in most books, but what happens to those affected by the murder after the event. The mystery is how, when, where and how the events follow, how the charcter's fates unfold. And I never felt like the main characters were murderers. In some odd way, Tartt looked upon murder, murdering, and murderers in a different light; and when one begins to consider the fates of these people, the (generally) normal people who ended up being killers, feelings shift dramaticlly. I never felt angry at the killers despite their acts of cuelty. I also found the characters extremely believable. I can still see, each one of them, in my mind. Henry, Camilla, Bunny, Charles, Francis, and Richard, all painted so vividly in my mind I could meet them on the street, Henry tall and solemn, Bunny cheery and boisterous, Charles cool and warm, Camilla serene and indiffernt, Francis mysterious and unconcerned, Richard discreet and observant. Despite their extreme self absorption and seemingly superior attitude, Tartt described all of them perfectly; from their tone of voice, to walk, to attitude, to facial expression, to their looks, laughs, moods, and even habits. I loved, loved, loved this book! You will too. Go ahead. Look deeper. Because their is a lot of complexity to this compelling novel then meets the naked eye.
Rating:
Summary: Here's a Secret - It's a Bit of a Let Down
Review: Overall this is a very interesting and engaging book, that ultimately does not live up to the hype. Within the first few lines of text you learn that a man has been murdered by his friends. The remaining 500+ pages recount the events that led up to the murder and deal with the aftermath. Tartt's tale is a dark one and her characters are shallow, complex, frustrating and unremorseful. Yet, she does a great job of keeping the reader interested and turning the page. Tartt falls short, however, at the end when things definitely take a bizarre and hard to substantiate twist. Furthermore, she spends too much time on the bit characters in her very last pages and not enough on the ones we loved to hate. Despite this, I think the book has more going for it than against it. Tartt is a talented writer, from whom we can likely expect more interesting stories in the future.
Rating:
Summary: Odd but wonderful
Review: The Secret History was by far one of the strangest books I have read in a very long time. It is rough going for the first two hundred pages or so--you have to plod through, and it's very tempting to throw it down with a "who cares?". In a word-don't. Once you get past the obnoxiousness and snobiness of this motley crew of spoiled weirdos, you will be drawn into this story completely. At first, I was annoyed with the fact that we are never told what decade this horror takes place--I finally figured it must be around the seventies because of references to the landing on the moon, which, by the way, one of these odd-balls had never heard of. This loony gang (five guys and a girl) have habits and expressions more in fitting with 1920. Pizza? Sweatshirts? Beer? Not for them---lamb chops, three-piece suits and martinis are their order for the day. This book is written in narrative form by an average guy who somehow becomes intrigued by these weirdos.Ms. Tartt allows us to gain little insight to any of her characters, but that does not take away from the sheer joy of this page-turner.This book held me for the few days it took to read----it is one of those rare stories you will be thinking about long after you've closed the book.
Rating:
Summary: Strangely Wonderful
Review: Although the author states right from the start that a main character was murdered by his best friends, you cannot help but come to enjoy the quirky, aloofness of the school friends in the book. I fliped back and forth from side to side wondering why I was siding with murderers. The author builds these people into your heart and makes you want to know people like them-spoiled brats with bad families and a way of living as if they were alive in the century before. This book is skillfully written for a first novel. It will leave you wondering after you have finished and make you wonder who is really at fault. Read it!
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