The Secret History

Review

I read this book for the first time several years ago, maybe in 2016 or 2017, and it was great fun to re-read! I love the pace of this one, the growing sense of dread and unease Richard feels as he falls deeper and deeper into the morass surrounding Bunny's death, and the peculiar sense of displacement the novel evokes that is so distinctive to college life. I'm a big fan of the fractured timeline of the story and how the central conflict, the death of Bunny, is in the open from the beginning, while the surrounding events and context fill in slowly. Fundamentally, I think the story is about what it's like to feel alienated from oneself and one's surroundings, and the thrill and terror of finding people with whom to dissolve a little of that alienation. It doesn't beat The Goldfinch for me, but it's up there!