The Secret History

When I had to return The Secret History to the library, I didn't
want to part from it. Not because I wanted to read it again (well,
not
immediately) but because I didn't want the characters to leave me. How
strange that sounds but it is true. In the two or so weeks I
spent reading Donna Tartt's modern classic, it became such a big part
of my life, that to not have it close at hand was somehow unsettling.
So used had I become to having it next to me at all times, that to not
have it there to hold in my hands was like losing a friend, a constant
companion. It sounds, even to me, rather an odd thing to say about a
book but so engrossing and captivating is The Secret History that it
caused such a reaction in me.
Our narrator, and the person we find ourselves in the head of for the
duration of the book, is Richard Pepin, a twenty-year-old Californian.
He arrives at Hampden College, Vermont and instantly becomes fascinated
by a group of five classics students: Henry, Francis, the twins Camilla
and Charles and the doomed Edmund
"Bunny" Corcoran. Soon Richard becomes part of the elite circle when he
joins their class, taught by Julian Morrow; loved and adored by Henry
especially and soon Richard too. He swiftly becomes a part of their
tight knit circle; happy weekends with them in the country, Sunday
night dinners at the twins'. But then things take a darker turn, when
Henry reveals a terrible secret to Richard. Over the course of the book
wealthy, intelligent, well educated young people are
destroyed as their lives start to crumble.
This book is thought provoking, compelling, darkly funny in places and
towards the end there are revelations a plenty. You'll be pulled into
the world of these students and if you're anything like me
you won't want to leave.