This is story that catches you with the first line

“The snow in the mountains was melting and Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the gravity of our situation.”

and does not let go. It is gripping, a real page turner but also beautifully written.

It is the story of Richard, a university student freshly arrived to the New England College of Hampden. He is disenchanted with his California upbringing and longs to be someone else. Intrigued by a group of students who study Greek, he manages to swap into their classes. He falls in love with all of them and the way of life they represent, which he aspire to. As he learns more about them and the secret that binds them, he begins to see they are not quite what he first thought.

The story races along and the tension mounts with each page but dialogue and description are never sacrificed to pace. Donna Tatt is truly talented at painting pictures with words.

“As I lay on my bed, staring at a pool of white moonlight on the wooden floor, a gust of wind blew the curtains out, long and pale as ghosts.”

Richard’s voice is captured so deftly that I never lost sympathy with him despite some of his less than pleasant actions. As the full horror of what he has been apart of creeps up on him he begins to see how he’s own neediness, lack of self worth and disposition “My own tendency to try and make intersting people good” allowed him to be manipulated.

The mystery and the true nature of Richard’s new friends and their relationships with each other are slowly revealed amid hints and over heard conversations. So for a while you aren’t quite sure what to believe about who, this increases the tension.

I really did enjoy the book it is not only a good story but it really makes you think about people, their actions, the faces they present to the world and how well we can ever truly know another person.

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