The Secret History

Look, I've gotta start off with the fact that I first read this book almost a full year ago. I was about to finish college and hadn't read a book that was more than 150 pages for fun in almost 4 years. Don't ask me why I picked up this behemoth but I did. I read it in about a week. It is STILL in my head 49 weeks later.
I'm pretty sure the reason for that is simple: the atmosphere. I underlined and bracketed and scanned pages of whole chunks of this book just to re-read because the atmosphere is truly one of the most beautifully written things I've ever read.
It's funny to me when reviewers say that this is amateurish or an obvious first novel. Genuinely hilarious.