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The Secret History: A Read with Jenna Pick

A READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK - ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE'S 100 BEST MYSTERY AND THRILLER BOOKS OF ALL TIME - INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER - A contemporary literary classic and "an accomplished psychological thriller ... absolutely chilling" (Village Voice), from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Goldfinch.

One of The Atlantic's Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years

Under the influence of a charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at a New England college discover a way of thought and life a world away from their banal contemporaries. But their search for the transcendent leads them down a dangerous path, beyond human constructs of morality.

"A remarkably powerful novel [and] a ferociously well-paced entertainment . . . Forceful, cerebral, and impeccably controlled." --The New York Times

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576 pages

Average rating: 7.19

430 RATINGS

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34 REVIEWS

Community Reviews

Anonymous
Jan 11, 2025
8/10 stars
3.5 stars

This could have been shorter. Descriptive writing, pretty at times. Thought Julian would have been in it more. Misunderstood what the book would be about going into it. Characters and plot are unromantic—scary, rather, and messed up. Which I guess is the point. I enjoyed it when it was interesting, but hated it when it was boring. Thank god the epilogue tells us about the cat, or else I would given it 2 stars.
sarahjeeoong
Dec 29, 2024
9/10 stars
My 2nd Donna Tartt book. Looove her writing style, rlly good at setting the scene and lots of underlying meanings and themes. This book gives dark academia, classics, grim and moody. The ending, as all books tend to do I’ve noticed, is good and happens all really quick, it’s like the final rush that makes you unable to put the book down (stayed up till 4am 😭). Overall I’d say very well paced. It’s framed like the main character is retelling a series of events that happened like story time. Characters are very intriguing, loved all of them and loved seeing how each one of them so divine at first slowly crumbled as time progressed. Not full stars bc there’s just some extensive portions of the book that I felt weren’t necessary to the plot (Richard freezing in cold scene and funeral scene). I’ve noticed Tartt does this with her other books too, tho (Theo and Boris living tg that one time skipping school and doing drugs, in the Goldfinch). A little slow in the beginning but it’s crucial for the plot. Things start rolling around 1/3 of the book
nadiasprologue
Dec 28, 2024
10/10 stars
what the fuck just happened

coolcatkatieg
Dec 21, 2024
8/10 stars
what a fantastic story. i have owned this book since i was about 14, but im glad i waited until now to read it . i feel like i wouldnt have understood it as well when i was younger . but wow, so many references and what a great story . i would give this 5 stars , but i feel like it was dragged out more than necessary . certain parts was given so much detail that i found it a struggle to power through and read- but im still glad i read it . it really will never leave my mind and i think it is a wonderfully written piece of literature
Aftrknight
Dec 07, 2024
1/10 star
DNF—- slowest most painful read of my life. Every page was a a mix of one compelling sentence and 500 meaningless, poor word choices.

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