Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

602 reviews

leospressos's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Words can't do this book justice. I don't think a book has ever made me feel this way, and I don't think I'll ever love a book this much. I'd give it 6 stars, even 8!, If I could. It made me rethink my entire rating system. No other book deserves to be a 5 stars like this one.

 The writing is impeccable; not too heavy on descriptions, there's a few references and latin/greek passages that are easy to look up, and Donna Tartt does an amazing job at keeping you in the atmosphere. The characters are also great. You want to be them, you want to know them, even though they are morally grey and you know you shouldn't want that. Even with their flaws, I grew to love them so much I miss them now that the book is finished. 

"Beauty is rarely soft or consolatory. Quite the contrary. Genuine beauty is always quite alarming."

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Homophobia, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Gun violence, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, and Injury/Injury detail

codifyy's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Until the last 1/4 of the novel, I was a little disinterested. I always found the intricacies of the characters interesting and I found their different traits humourous. Some parts were challenging because Richard is an unreliable narrator so I had to try to navigate the truth. I don't think that any of the characters are inherently evil but they're all people with both positive and negative traits; although their negative traits tend to shine through more especially towards the end. The last 1/4 of the book is fast-paced as it all begins to unravel and Richard loses some more of his naivety. I thought that the writing was beautiful and the structure was perfect. Richard's morbid longing for the picturesque became more prevalent when the book started with a death and ended with a death yet both were narrated suspensefully and poetically. Charles and Camilla's relationship is shocking and my jaw physically dropped at how the novel ended. For some reason, I felt the ending of the epilogue to be slightly disappointing. The similarities in Henry and Julian's characters are interesting but how their traits are exhibited differently is beautifully complex. I was horrified by how blunt Henry had become with his thoughts by the end but his character is so intriguing. I think I pitied Richard and Francis the most. I really didn't expect my opinion to have changed so rapidly but I'm glad it did. I might read it again one day but I would probably be more likely to return to certain pivotal points and poignant quotes that I appreciated the most. Also, the fact that everyone was left to deal with the emotional consequences of their actions which were heavily influenced by Henry but Henry had the power to give himself a triumphant end! And when Richard was shot literally no one cared! It’s obvious and purposely done that the character’s are self-centred and Richard was unimportant to them in the grand scheme of things but that made it really obvious and heartbreaking.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Drug use, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Suicide, Violence, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Blood, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Emotional abuse, Incest, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Toxic friendship

storyofmyshelf's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

lubepizza's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence and Murder

Minor: Incest and Sexual assault

luanaxmp3's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

took me nearly five months to finish it but in the end i enjoyed it immensely (although i’m still not a fan of long chapters really)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Death, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Incest, Suicide, Blood, and Alcohol

allieos's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Drug use, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Cursing, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Sexual content, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Rape

hexlibris's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Incest, Racial slurs, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Sexual violence, Blood, Medical content, Alcohol, and Classism

lybrarie's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Since I've been loving dark academia books so much recently, I thought it was about time I read one of the most popular dark academia books. 

This was certainly a long and slow book. The multiple chapters each over 100 pages were not easy to get through, but overall it was a pretty enjoyable experience. I really enjoyed Tartt's writing and though the book was very slow-paced, that was not a drawback for me. The characters were unlikable and the narrator was unreliable - telling a very romanticized story - but those all made a great story for me. 

There were certainly negatives to the story. There was a lot of homophobia and racism amongst others, so definitely check the content warnings before reading. But overall I had a good time reading this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Racism, Rape, Suicide, Antisemitism, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Toxic friendship

saramcaps's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Does such a thing as 'the fatal flaw,' that showy dark crack running down the middle of a life, exist outside literature? I used to think it didn't. Now I think it does. And I think that mine is this: a morbid longing for the picturesque at all costs.

It’s possibly my favorite opening line of all time. It immediately gives way to two of the themes of the book: that aesthetics influence our measure of morality and beauty is not inherently good.

Beauty is terror. Whatever we call beautiful, we quiver before it.

At its core, this is a story of academic elitism and destructive groupthink with unlikeable characters and a slow, suspenseful plot. The writing is lyrical and sophisticated. Altogether it's quite unsettling.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Suicide, Murder, and Alcohol

Minor: Incest, Panic attacks/disorders, and Rape

jordancarter2112's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Gore, Incest, Suicide, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Misogyny, Suicide, Antisemitism, and Classism