Tuesday 2 October 2012

The Secret History, Donna Tartt

Hey there, my little ficlovers! (Yes, you're right, I tried to make a little fandom for myself. It's pretentious and lame. ME LIKEY.) It's been ages since I posted and so, to make up for lost time, I'm going to review one of the the MOST AWESOMELY AWESOME BOOKS TO EXIST. So yeah, it's pretty good. It's called "The Secret History" and it was written like 20 years ago by a woman called Donna Tartt. Anyway, so I'd better tell you what it's about before I get going. So... Ready? Set? Boom, here goes the synopsis:

Richard Papen arrived at Hampden College in New England and was quickly seduced by an elite group of five students, all Greek scholars, all worldly, self-assured, and, at first glance, all highly unapproachable. As Richard is drawn into their inner circle, he learns a terrifying secret that binds them to one another...a secret about an incident in the woods in the dead of night where an ancient rite was brought to brutal life...and led to a gruesome death. And that was just the beginning....

So this book starts off like "Richard study. Richard good boy." and ends like "OMG WHAT JUST HAPPENED". This may seem weird and off-putting but, I assure you, you'll be hard-pressed to find a book as good as this. And I don't just mean the actual story. You know those books where everything just seems to click? Well this is one of those. It's perfect. I'm still obsessed with it and I finished with it last week!

The story is incredible, just breathtaking. Donna Tartt's one of those sneaky authors that build up some massive plot turn behind your back, making you go from calmly reading your book and chilling out on your bed to frantically biting your nails as you swing up-side-down from the ceiling. Don't you guys just hate t when that happens? I mean, you start off lying down normally and you end up in the most complicated shapes known to man. I mean, gymnasts can't even pull that off. Who said readers don't get any exercise?

I don't want to tell you anything else about the story because I don't want to spoil anything for you, but suffice to say it's incredible. I'm moving on to writing style now. If you want to know about the story, go somewhere else, you aren't getting anything else from me. Look down, next paragraph, dude. No more story.

She's officially the author with the best writing style I've ever had the pleasure of reading. I'm sure you all have your own personal favorites, but unfortunately you're wrong. The writing just flows beautifully, it's full of metaphors, similes and other fancy stuff that makes it cool to read. No, seriously, she's FREAKING AMAZING. All my favorite writers (Rowling, Roth, Grant, Paolini, Riordan...) have great and greatly versatile writing styles, but no one compares with Tartt.

I'm finishing now. All I have left to say is buy it. BUY IT NOW. Do it. Come on, I'm watching you. It's great. Keep reading, peeps. (Oh god did I just say "peeps"?) Anyway, bye and stuff.

Happy reading,

JRD

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