"dark academia"

1992 · Donna Tartt · 524 pages · Literary Fiction

The Secret History is a dark academia touchstone that earns its reputation through atmosphere, prose, and an unforgettable cast of morally bankrupt intellectuals. Pacing stumbles in the second half and some readers will find the characters too cold to care about, but Tartt's command of tension and her skill with an unreliable narrator make this one of those rare books that people either love deeply or argue about for years. That kind of polarization usually means the book is doing something right.