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Tsh - Blog Posts
Henry: This year, I lost my dear friend Bunny Concoran.
Bunny: stop telling everyone I am dead
Henry: you just wait :)
Henry: I have a plan!
Richard: you always have a plan, bless you.
Francis: does this plan involve murder in any way?
Henry:......I no longer have a plan.
How Gay do you want your books to be?
Dark academia authors: Yes.
How I wish it had gone:
Richard: you know, smoking is bad for you....
Francis: shut the fuck up, bitch. I KNOW SMOKING IS BAD FOR HEALTH. Thanks to you keep reminding me that. Henry fucking killed Bunny and all you care about is if I have lung cancer, you douchebag????
Camilla: Francis, it's okay...
Richard: I was just saying....
Francis: You have no problem with the amount of alcohol we consume on daily? We are all alcoholics, take drugs and murder people!
Charles: shhh...
Henry:........can anyone stop him please, I am getting a headache.
Francis: I just have a lot of feelings.
Henry: let's kill Bunny.
Francis: sounds good
Charles: no problemo
Camilla: I don't care if you do
Richard:....okay? Yay, killing bunny!!!
Me: YOU ARE GONNA COVER UP A MURDER BY ANOTHER MURDER????? I KNOW WE HATE HIM,BUT MURDER, HENRY SERIOUSLY! AND RICHARD WHY ARE YOU EVEN TRYING TO GET INVOLVED???? DIDN'T YOU COME HERE FOR THE COLLEGE EXPERIENCE, IS MURDER A COLLEGE EXPERIENCE????
Also, me: wait I already knew Bunny was getting killed why I am so surprised.....I had forgotten it was coming?
Also, me: fuck Bunny, let's kill him!
Julian: I don't understand young people nowadays, all they ever do is drugs!!! Disgusting.
Richard: *after taking Coke, LSD, random pills, probably meth, and other drugs* I know right! Tell me about it!
James giving Oliver a "not so brotherly kiss": YES GO!!!!! I AM SO HAPPY! FINALLY! MY SHIP HAS SAILED!
Charles giving Camilla a "not so brotherly kiss": ........WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS BOOK
Bunny: so what do we have for lunch....
Henry:.....wine
Bunny: I meant something we can eat.
Charles: which drug do you like? I don't have much on me but we can buy some.
Bunny: that's not what a human should have for lunch
Franics: I do the coffee, cigarettes and Maraschino Cherries diet, you wanna try?
Bunny: what the....
Camilla: we could have had some lamb chops but we don't have it anymore.
Bunny: why?
Camilla: we had to sacrifice the lamb during a ritual and bathe in its blood
Bunny: you know what I would rather be dead by eating grilled cheese sandwich and milkshake than hang out with you weirdos anymore
Looks like a cinnamon roll, is actually a cinnamon roll: Richard Papen
Looks like they could kill you, is actually a cinnamon roll: Francis Abernathy
Looks like a cinnamon roll, could actually kill you: Charles Macaulay
Looks like they could kill you, could actually kill you: Henry Winter
Could kill you by feeding you too many cinnamon rolls: Camilla Macaulay
Does not deserve cinnamon rolls, will actually get killed: Bunny Concoran
The Secret History × If We Were Villains
Where it's just Detective Colborne finding Richard and asking him about the two murders and Henry Winter's suicide.
Colborne: So you also did all this for the person you loved?
Richard: Nah, I did it for the 💫 Aesthetics💫
Colborne, to himself: this one is even worse than Oliver Marks.
Basically how Bunny's death went:
Henry: knock knock!
Bunny: who's there?
Henry: push!
Bunny: push, who?
Henry: push you!
Francis, Camilla, Charles, Richard: *gasp* anyways----
Julian: so you killed two people?
Henry: you can justify anything, if you do it poetically enough
Francis *wishpers*: wrong fandom Henry.
Richard's unhinged energy is the most entertaining part for me beside the murders. Like the guy is an inspiration for chaotic people. He lies about his family life, pretends his rich father has business in oil (who irl has a petrol pump), lies to his part time employer to get money, goes on a 90s teen movie shopping spree, takes any free item from Judy, lies about going to a prep school, lives on a diet of wine and more wine, takes any pill anyone gives him, joins a cultish greek gang, lets Bunny die an aesthetically pleasing death and not to forget.....does cocaine in the parking lot of Burger King.
The reason I always thought there was something more to Camilla than what we read is because the book is from the perspective of Richard who was supposed to be in love with her.
I always got some unsettling energy from the twins, they were just too perfect at the start. By the end of the 2nd part it had changed when Charles showed his real colours. But Camilla throughout the story remained the only person to not have a flip of personality. Francis sheds off his "too cool for you" persona and becomes close with Richard. Henry....well Henry after killing Bunny stops functioning a little. Even Julian is no long the John Keating of the story but a normal person who as soon as found out his students killed two people, left them alone (what would you have done in that situation?)
I thought it was strange that Camilla never became anything more than a girl Richard liked, and later connected with Henry and Charles. I wished so much more for the character to be than that. And after the reveal of her and Henry's relationship (after Henry orchestrated Bunny's murder) I felt like Camilla has a dark side that Richard just ignored to portray her as the best of them. She seemed to be hiding something all the time.
I don't think she is a bad person, not at all. I think she has a more complex personality than being the goddess of a person Richard portrayed her to be. The amount of abuse she went through since childhood must have had some effect on her as a person. She didn't really deserved any of the guys. I wished in the end she would have just said "Stop!" And left all of them.
I would have liked to know more about Camilla, we don't get any insight to her at all, which made her not really my favourite character (especially during my first time reading when I was waiting for her to change a bit like everyone else)
Reading TSH again and again and finding out more details and theories is always fun.
Like the fact the entire story happened because Bunny wasn't able to fast for some more time and got caught eating.
Or that no one would have found Bunny's death suspicious if it hadn't snowed
Or that Henry tried to frame Richard by making him write the calculations for the posion mushrooms
Or that Richard thought of murder as poetic as a coping mechanism
Or that none of these horrible things would have happened to Richard if he hadn't picked up the pretty brochure.
(edited after a re-read)
The setting of TSH confused me at first. I thought it was taking place in the 50s as Richard's language sounded very pretentious. Then there's no mention of any pop culture making it hard to pin point which decade it takes place in. Then slowly we start to see that it's not that old with more mentions of new things. Despite that I wasn't sure when it was happening until I found out that Henry didn't knew that moon landing actully happened so it was probably in the 70's or 80's.
I wish Henry had lived long enough to find out there's 8 planets not 9. He reminds me a bit of Sherlock and how neither of them concerned themselves with whatever was happening in the world and cared about only what they thought was important.
And not to forget Richard is looking back at his college years and the events were not happening at the same time. So it is possible the way he tells the story is to hide a lot of details, or maybe he just forgot all the details. The romanticized way he puts most things always felt to me like a bandage on a wound as if he was covering the darker parts of the story. Almost all the characters are gay to an extent, as if Donna was trying to just confuse us which I think fits for what the story is about. Personally I don't eaxctly ship any of them lol. Francis's sexuality was always considered by everyone as gay but it's not ever confirmed that he can bi or pan or something else.
I put the book down and put my hands on my mouth when we got the incest reveal, it made me....sick. It wasn't that shocking since Richard literally thought they were a couple before he was told they were twins. It was Charles's dark side reveal that shocked me and disgusted me more (thank god, Henry took her away from Charles at the right time). I also think the reason Charles was obsessed with Camilla might be because of the greek thing, maybe he took Julian's greek ideals to heart. I also think Henry and Camilla as a couple isn't really romantic (it could be seen as one) but it seemed quite mild incomparison to what others were up to.
This book is so messy. It keeps me up at night. The problem is I don't know anyone who has read it near me, so these hcs keep me alive.
So, for my sanity. Let me get this straight (lol); Henry was in love with Camilla and she was in love with him. And Richard was also in love with Camilla but she friendzoned him. Francis and Camilla had kissed (twice) and Charles was furious. Francis was flirting with Richard the entire time ( "cubitum eamus") Richard fantasized about spending his old years with Francis (and they kissed ofc). Richard also described Henry in a very no homo way. Francis and Charles were secretly hooking up. And so were Charles and Camilla (also, Charles was an abuser, why don't people talk about that more?). Richard described Camilla to look very masculine and like Charles to a tee, so he also liked Charles (?). Bunny was a huge homophobe, kinda sus; also had a strange interest in Henry. And Henry was probably in love with Julian (that little weird kiss mentioned ounce). I am a missing something?
Donna. Donna. Donna, what tf is this book is about?
Really, Donna kept a lot of the relationships quite ambiguous and we see them through Richard's eyes ( and he is not exactly reliable). I never understood the whole Henry and Camilla relationship, though it was hinted quite early and often.
And Francis and Charles relationship is also quite ambiguous. And we don't know how long it's been going on. Maybe Charles doesn't remember, maybe he just pretends not to (again Richard is not a reliable narrator; also kinda clueless)
Charles kind of broke my whole idea of the story entirely by turning out like be did and it made me put down the book for some time.
And that was not really a rant, I like discussing opinions on my favourite books especially as messy as this one.
So, for my sanity. Let me get this straight (lol); Henry was in love with Camilla and she was in love with him. And Richard was also in love with Camilla but she friendzoned him. Francis and Camilla had kissed (twice) and Charles was furious. Francis was flirting with Richard the entire time ( "cubitum eamus") Richard fantasized about spending his old years with Francis (and they kissed ofc). Richard also described Henry in a very no homo way. Francis and Charles were secretly hooking up. And so were Charles and Camilla (also, Charles was an abuser, why don't people talk about that more?). Richard described Camilla to look very masculine and like Charles to a tee, so he also liked Charles (?). Bunny was a huge homophobe, kinda sus; also had a strange interest in Henry. And Henry was probably in love with Julian (that little weird kiss mentioned ounce). I am a missing something?
Donna. Donna. Donna, what tf is this book is about?
So, for my sanity. Let me get this straight (lol); Henry was in love with Camilla and she was in love with him. And Richard was also in love with Camilla but she friendzoned him. Francis and Camilla had kissed (twice) and Charles was furious. Francis was flirting with Richard the entire time ( "cubitum eamus") Richard fantasized about spending his old years with Francis (and they kissed ofc). Richard also described Henry in a very no homo way. Francis and Charles were secretly hooking up. And so were Charles and Camilla (also, Charles was an abuser, why don't people talk about that more?). Richard described Camilla to look very masculine and like Charles to a tee, so he also liked Charles (?). Bunny was a huge homophobe, kinda sus; also had a strange interest in Henry. And Henry was probably in love with Julian (that little weird kiss mentioned ounce). I am a missing something?
Donna. Donna. Donna, what tf is this book is about?
I love that the gang never truly felt bad for killing Bunny, in the sense of grief (ngl I would have killed him too). Even in his funeral instead of feeling guilty for his death they are fanning flies, drinking, doing drugs and popping random pills they found in someone's drawer. They were chaotic af.
Person: did you like the love triangle in the Secret history?
Me: oh you mean the love Hexagon? Loved it!
I feel like the main reason Francis called Richard when anxious and sabotaged is because after he sees that hot chaotic though incredibly mundane man the only intrusive thought left in his mind is how much he wants to fuck him on the backseat
Francis’ “shit, shit, shit!” with Richard rigorously asking him to shut the fuck up after they collapsed to take Bunny’s letter from julian permanently exist in my head. Brilliant scene.
Did you folks know that George Orwell is NOT just a character from the secret history who disliked Julian?he was A REAL PERSON. Donna thank you sm for inventing this man imagine not having animal farm or four pages list of 11 rules how to make a perfect tea. To live would be a torture…
I thought I couldn’t relate more to Francis Abernathy but after he pretended to have a heart attack and insisted that Richard must drive him to the hospital I remembered me crawling down the stairs, breathing loudly- I could feel a heart in my mouth- and then realized I was holding hand on the wrong side of my chest all the time
I’m very sorry for this crossover but why Kunikida and Dazai look exactly like I imagined Bunny and Henry in the Rome trip
