The Secret History

I am so disappointed in this book. I had read ‘if we were villains' and was under the impression this would be a similar vibe. Some dark academia, some murder, excellent character studies. But no, it was long-winded, tedious trash. 

There were so many unnecessary passages in this book it could have been 200 pages shorter. All the characters were vaguely one-dimensional. They appeared to be very complex but we experience most of this book from an outsider's perspective and never fully know any of the characters. Which is less intriguing or mysterious as it is just plain boring. 

There are also many bits in this that are just triggering and add no value other than shock. The incest for instance, or the passage where Richard suddenly has the urge to rape Camilla? What the actual fuck. At least the homophobia had some sort of purpose. If we were villains was a millions times better.