The Secret History

⚖The case for it

An inverted mystery. We know from page one that a group of elite college students killed their friend Bunny. The novel asks why, tracing the corrosive guilt of the killers. Tartt's lush, classical prose and her excavation of murderers' psychology rather than the investigators made this a genuinely literary crime novel with massive readership.

— the canon

✕The case against

Richard, the narrator, is a watcher with almost no inner life of his own, which leaves him reporting on more interesting people without quite joining them. After Bunny goes off the cliff, the back half slows to a long crawl of guilt and unraveling that runs well past its natural length. The Greek-and-beauty worship can read as a clever student showing off the reading list.

— the honest librarian