i really, really wanted to like this book. it came highly recommended to me by a friend a few years ago but i only just got around to it. the premise is super fascinating and i loved that the author didn't shy away from scientific jargon. however...i just could not get into it. it took me approximately one month to slog through this book. the prose is incredibly dry. i wasn't sure if it was a translation issue or writing style issue; since it is indeed a translated work, i was OK with sticking around because the story seemed interesting. but the large offense to me is not the dry prose but the absolutely flat characters. the radicalization of ye was not compelling. her actions did not have the payoff (whether fear or satisfaction, depending on your stance) that i thought they would. wang is the most passive and uninteresting protagonist ever. the characters feel much like video game npcs who add little to the story progression. the enigmatic trisolarians are nebulous to begin with and still flat at the end. this story is insanely heavy on the narration. i'm usually not a stickler for showing vs telling but this story is just tell tell tell tell. you are told these character motivations rather than given the chance to infer it. the whole "humans are despicable and don't deserve to live" is certainly an argument but there is no push and pull of principles that you would expect from characters who are (i assume) supposed to be ethically gray. the plot itself doesn't have the emotional payout i wanted - likely because there isn't emotional investment to begin with. that said, the concept is fascinating and certainly not like anything i've read in sf. the issues i had with this book aren't issues to other people as this book has gotten overwhelmingly positive recognition, so maybe i'm alone in this.

trying to emulate the absolute hip-hop goat kdot by openly becoming the biggest hater i can possibly be. to quote directly from this book: i wish i was illterate. look - not every book needs to be written at the same calibre as a pulitzer prize novel, but this book is an amalgamation of tiktok brain rot. seriously. this is painful. - the writing style utilizes extremely redundant sentence structure with the most basic syntax (very short sentences and very short-slash-nonexistent paragraphs) that feels more fitting for "I Can Read! Level 3" books. - the narrative voice is little more than meme-ified gen z. - the plot was derivative, which i can accept if the characters are compelling. but they are wax figures of every romance archetype. to call this thinly veiled fanfiction would be an insult to fanfiction. - this is supposed to be funny? FUNNY? this was not funny. - this was cringey to read. i have secondhand embarrassment from reading this the same way i want to die every time i read the wattpad novels i wrote when i was 13-15 years old. and, finally: Why The Fuck Was This So Long.

THE SECRET HISTORY is a story best served the first time blindly. i knew this book was a pioneer in the dark academia genre, and i knew this book was good. that's it. i am so, so glad i chose to read this without even reading the summary. tartt has not only weaved a masterful plot, but each of the main characters has flesh and heartbeats and vitriol and loveliness that makes them feel inextricably real. they are so morally gray that you don't know whose side you're even on. but "sides" isn't the point—not really. in particular, bunny is foul and charming and twisted and someone you can't help but sympathize for while also not caring much for him after he dies. the unraveling of the remaining friends—if you can even call them that—in the wake of the "before" events was beautifully and horrifyingly done. what i find particularly fascinating is that tartt selected richard to be the narrator. she has gone the nick/gatsby route, where we see the story through the eyes of someone who actually doesn't appear to be the main character, but rather the observer of the eclectic and chaotic cast. richard himself proved to be an incredibly unreliable narrator, rationalizing what we should probably see as irrational. the ending is chilling and haunting and jarring yet still as beautiful as the rest of the work. tartt's writing is masterful. several times i reread sentences and paragraphs and just sat with it for a while. i loved richard's narrative voice. tartt is a genius at subtext in character interactions and dialogue. tartt's writing will only age wonderfully with a reread, which will give the novel a completely new feel. the first time, i read this book for the story. the second time, i will read book for tartt's literary skill. the novel has quite disturbing events, yet the beautiful writing + dark academia aesthetic drives home one of the most pretentious discussions in the book: death = beauty = terror. overall, this was the book i hadn't known i was hungry for. i loved it and i will be thinking about this one for a long, long time. 5/5 stars.