The Secret History I’m not loving it

[AchillesHeel23]

Late to the party I know and in theory I should love this book (Classics graduate) but I’m 300 pages in and finding it a slog - is it worth continuing?

It's ok to stop reading if you're not enjoying it. Don't force yourself to finish a book you don't like.

I didn't finish it either. Loathsome people!

I did love the goldfinch though. That was very well written

I love this book so so much, but it’s fine if you don’t. Don’t keep going if it’s a slog.

DD and I started reading it together last month. She finished it and loved it because she understood the references to Greek literature (5th year of High School Greek and Latin in September) and was attending a Greek Summer School at the time. She also performed in a play about the Bacchantes so has some knowledge of pagan ritual violence!

I’m still ploughing my way through it. I don’t find them despicable, just self absorbed and entitled, as people that age are. I can see the Henry character spiralling into repeated murderous acts. Julian is annoyingly sparsely written and I can clearly predict the ending, even without DD’s spoilers!
So 6/10, maybe 7 at the moment…

I’ll plough on lol but definitely don’t see what all the hype is!

I think it's best read when you are still a student.

Read it when it first came out and loved it, but I remembered feeling permanently hung over after all the descriptions of boozing and smoking.

It was dinned into me at school that i should always persevere with books, and I have had a few books which I've nearly abandoned but ended up loving, but I have to say that as I get older I am much less tolerant of finishing books I am not enjoying.

Late to reading this - awful.
I could not have cared less about any of the characters .
I did finish it.
A very dull book , just my opinion .
I did see on another thread someone suggesting had he lived, Philip Seymour Hoffman would have been a great Bunny.
I could have watched it had he been in it.
RIP.

I stopped about a quarter of the way in. Just couldn't bear how boring and pretentious it all was. I googled when I stopped in case I was some sort of uneducated idiot but lots and lots of others seemed to find the same. The general gist was students/20 somethings would love it. 40-somethings would not.

I've read it twice now. Firstly in my 20s - at the time I found it overrated. All the characters are unlikeable for a start.
I worried that I'd missed something so reread it recently aged in my 50s - thought pretty much the same thing.

I’ve started this about 5 or 6 times and just can’t get into it. A good friend has recently read it and loved it-told me to persevere? I might give it another go in the summer when I’m on holiday and have more patience.

It’s one of my favourite books but it’s not for everyone and that’s fine. Don’t slog away if you don’t like it, reading is supposed to be a pleasure

The beginning is the best part imo; it’s all downhill from there.

I think it helps if you read it when you are the same age as the characters.

I love it but agree that the characters are all incredibly unlikeable. I enjoy the unfolding of the plot and their justifications for the acts they commit.

I love Secret History, I read it when it came out and about 50 times since. My best friend hates it. He hates it so much it's funny. I send him photos of piles of Secret History from libraries or bookshops to annoy him.
He told me he threw his copy into the sea so no one else would read it.

One of my favourite books ever! And I really couldn't get into The Goldfinch.
I didn't necessarily love all the characters, but they were all quite complex, unalike one another and yet were thrown together because they happened to be studying Greek. I enjoyed reading about that part too, the study of Greek, as it's not something I've done. Also the main character's feelings of isolation and not fitting in were explored well.
But there have been lots of books people have raved about that I hated!

I'm a lover not a hater on this one, and it's one of my favourite books. Some of the narrative is beautiful to me, like the nights "wild and disordered with stars". But I can totally understand how it would polarise opinion, and if you are not loving it, don't waste valuable reading time that could be spent with something you love.

I loved this, but it's so long since I read it, I think I might read it again and see if I feel the same now I'm older. Interesting that people are saying you need to be the same age as the characters, because I was early 20s when I read it and adored it.

Like several others on this thread I read it when I was a student (maybe 19?) and loved it. Have reread it several times over the decades and still love it, but not sure I would feel the same way if I’d first read it at 45!

For some reason I’ve never been able to get into The Goldfinch or The Little Friend. My 40s+ rule on books is to put them down if I’m not enjoying. And to be honest, the end of The Secret History sort of peters out (especially compared to the beginning!)

I quite enjoyed it but I'm not sure I would read it again. But that's not the point - I firmly believe that nobody should have to read a book they're not enjoying. That's how people end up thinking they don't like reading.

I didn't enjoy this or The Little Friend and didn't finish either. It means I've never attempted The Goldfinch! I would say don't worry about dropping books you don't enjoy, life is too short.

I read this book shortly after it came out. It clicked for me:
I was a Classics major at the time so enjoyed trying to match up my classmates (similarly small group) to the characters. And the supply teacher with his school boy mnemonics - ugh.
I loved the idea of trying to invoke Bacchus
I also loved the descriptions of the non-Classics characters - I still think of Judy Poovey and her tid-e-bol blue cocktails and Bunny's uptight girlfriend with the 'tasteful Cartier watch', Bunny's lecherous dad and his tranked up mom, the angry hillbilly worried about 'promiskitty'
As an Episcopalian, the funeral scene was well observed and even funny.
Also, it fits in with fiction at the time: Less Than Zero, Brightness Falls
I tried her other books but never really got going with them.
Definitely don't waste time on books that don't work for you.