Until earlier today I was reading my way through Donna Tartt's The Secret History, but at page 401 (of the existing 628), I stopped and moved on to another book. Now, as I obviously cannot write a full review on the book, as I had planned to do had I finished it, I have decided to instead write an entry on why I will not finish it.
In the beginning, or, rather, all trough the first half of it, it was very interesting; lovely group of main characters (some more difficult to sympathize with/understand, but interesting nonetheless); nice, adequate descriptions; fantastic use of language; etcetera. I particularly liked the way the ending was spoiled in the beginning of the book, namely the murder of a major character (I do not consider this a spoiler as it is mentioned on the very first page).
Or, rather, what I thought to be the ending. As it turned out, the believed "ending" occurred halfway through the book. Up to the point of the murdering, it was all very interesting; exciting at times, more puzzling at others, as books goes. Sadly, after the murder had occurred, the reading experience went downhill. For a couple of hundred pages it was interesting to be given an insight of the aftermath of a murder, but after a while it grew very dull, in spite of the entrance of FBI and all that; dull, in fact, to the point where I did not even care about how this all would end, and the book mainly bored me, and, in my opinion, when this is how you feel about a book, it is better to put it down and perhaps pick it up later, instead of staggering on slowly and without interest. (My mother wisely informed me that this is also a healthy approach to have to e.g. relationships.)
So, to wrap this up, that is basically why I stopped my reading of The Secret History on page 401. This might mean that I missed out on a fantastic ending or the breathtaking event on page 402, but that is something I am willing to sacrifice; especially as I am already on page 101 in Suzanne Collins' Mockingjay.
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