u/NoCarpetClenchers

I've been really entranced by euripides' bacchae for a long while now and when i brought this up to my cousin she really urged me that i should read the secret history because it had similar themes. i wont get into my entire thoughts on the book cuz this is just about it in relation to my obsession with the bacchae but i was kinda... underwhelmed? the parts where the bacchae was invoked were absolutely gripping and it was probably the best description of divine madness ive seen... well, ever. but i was expecting more. dionysus was brought up in the narrative proper once (and then again in the space between book I and book II) and it just all felt like there could have been more in reference to the bacchanal and how it haunted the story.

idk maybe im biased, but i wouldve preferred to see a sacond bacchanal (with richard this time... please... dialogue isnt enough i need this shown not told... please) after bunny's death that henry would claim never ended and the other members thinking it was a one-night thing again that would lead to more and more insanity until the final bit, where we could get that kind of suspended, melancholic moment of henry's death, like the bacchae and its descent into insanity until pentheus' death (wouldve loved to see henry in drag but thats neither here nor there). i just feel like donna tartt underutilised her power with her words because my god was it absolutely enthralling when she described the more dionysian aspects of the story, and if it had just dug into that insanity (thrown in some cannibalism...) i wouldve much preferred it. does anyone else feel this way or am i just kind of Weird?

that being said i genuinely loved this story so much, and i suppose thats why i was disappointed with how little of my favourite parts i got to see. when we really got to see inside henry's head and that pure dionysian ecstasy was really the parts that gripped me (wouldve loved to see the book from henry's POV but thats not a criticism thats just personal taste)

how i interpret some of the characters

just finished the secret history as a bacchae fan