THE BOOKENING TITLE #15: The Secret History, Donna Tartt.

I suppose at one time in my life I might have had any number of stories, but now there is no other. This is the only story I will ever be able to tell.

A little before Christmas, I visited th_esaurus, who mentioned that she'd requested The Secret History for Yuletide.

Riona: Oh, yes, that's the book about the group of students who do a murder, isn't it?
RD: They have an orgy and then do a murder, and then—
Riona: RD. Where is this book?
RD: What?
Riona: Where is this book? Do you have it here? You have to lend me this book.

I have now finished The Secret History! I absolutely loved it. I loved it before I'd finished the first chapter. It feels like it could have been cut down a little, but there's a strange beauty to the writing, and it contains a good number of the things I most love in fiction: people making terrible decisions, people being haunted by those terrible decisions, tight-knit groups of people where everyone's a little in love with everyone else.

Below the cut are some notes I made in the process of reading!



HENRY HAS BEEN MONOLOGUING FOR FORTY PAGES. He tells the entire story of the Bacchic frenzy and the death and Bunny's behaviour afterwards over pages and pages and pages! Given that the protagonists are students of Ancient Greek, is this a reference to Greek tragedy? The bad things don't actually happen on stage, because that would offend the gods; a messenger comes on and tells you about them in great detail instead.

Francis visited Richard after Bunny's death and I thought, I want them to have weird traumatised makeouts, and within a page they were having weird traumatised makeouts. This is the best book.

One of my favourite parts is Henry going 'ugh, being interviewed by the police is so inconvenient, almost makes me wish I hadn't committed that murder.' 'Honestly. Two hours. I don't know if I could've made myself go through with this if I'd known what nonsense we were letting ourselves in for.'

I also like the bit where Richard asks Camilla about the night of the Dionysian rite, hoping for details of the orgy, and just gets details of the murder instead, because AT LEAST I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE GETTING COCKBLOCKED BY THIS BOOK. Tell me about the orgy! Henry talked for FORTY PAGES and we barely got half a sentence about the orgy!

I'm also really curious to know how Richard would feel if he actually did get more details.

Did Camilla bang anyone? Camilla/Charles is weird: he's her brother! Camilla/Francis is weird: he's gay! Camilla/Henry is weird: he's a murder robot! And therefore any one of them would be great.

Every so often I forget how weird and disconcerting the names 'Charles' and 'Camilla' are in conjunction with each other and then it hits me again.

There is no AO3 tag for Francis/Charles/Camilla/Henry! Are you serious? They had an orgy, in canon, and nobody wrote fanfiction?

The twins just made out in front of Richard and this book continues to be perfect.

I also love Richard going 'hey, uh, Francis, do you think the twins ever bang?' and Francis going 'well, yes, but it's not like it happens a lot.'

Richard is a little turned on by the concept! This is so good!

FRANCIS BANGED CHARLES AND MADE OUT WITH CAMILLA. I SUSPECT I AM DREAMING THIS ENTIRE BOOK.

I love Francis telling the story of his makeout with Camilla and then saying, 'I don't know where Henry was. Probably looking at the moon and reciting some poem from the T'ang Dynasty.'

I love Richard going, 'Camilla, marry me,' and Camilla saying, 'I can't, I love Henry,' and Richard going, 'I loved him, too,' and Camilla hesitating, as if she's actually tempted by a marriage based on their mutual love for Henry.

Francis is my favourite character. I'm glad he survived.



There were so many points in this book where I thought, You know, if this were a fic I was writing, this is the self-indulgent thing I'd do here, and then that was exactly what happened. Donna Tartt knows exactly what I want out of fiction! New favourite book?