Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

602 reviews

imnotarke's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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

3.0

this felt like watching the most intrusive thoughts one can imagine personify into despicable characters

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Gun violence, Violence, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Homophobia, Incest, Racial slurs, Racism, Islamophobia, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Misogyny, Toxic relationship, and Grief

jessicastott's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

wow

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Violence, and Alcohol

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Incest, Suicide, Car accident, and Murder

Minor: Cursing, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, and Classism

aspera's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Gun violence, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Murder

bookish_kori's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Suicide, Blood, Murder, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Incest, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Gaslighting

Genuinely just so much alcoholism and cocaine consumption, as well as substance abuse with any number of unprescribed prescription medications mixed with both of the above.

alisasreads's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

5.0

kinda shocked at how much i enjoyed this book, i'd heard so many opinions about it that i had no idea what my own would be. as popular as it is right now i just had to read it and i'm glad i did. the tone, setting, style and the way the characters were written was just so good. it's exactly the type of story i like as a dark academia lover, i now understand why everyone always recommends this book in the genre. i literally just finished it and feel i really need to sit with the book before i can write a review that would do this book justice. so these were just some of my first thoughts.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Incest, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Antisemitism, Car accident, Gaslighting, and Classism

Minor: Rape

isabella_sans_merci's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

I am convinced that 95% of the people who read this book are somehow missing the point. It’s a very good book, so wholly absorbing I was sitting down with it for hours at a time, but it is nothing like you would expect to hear the people online talk about it. I really did love it though, although not with the faux pretentious aesthetic love I was hoping too. I love a book that has a good, strong plot and excellent writing, and this has both. One thing I do hate though, is when the narrator is so constantly inebriated or incapacitated. Maybe he wouldn’t be unreliable and would know what was going on if he slept for reasonable amounts of time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, and Racism

cara_nm's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

First 200 pages —> really slow paced, but the rest of that half and part 2 of the book were absolutely brilliant 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug use, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Blood, and Grief

Minor: Incest, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

hanie's review against another edition

dark slow-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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug use, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Alcohol

frantically's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

2.25

It seems I am the person this book was meant for (or not — I can't decide). I understood all the Latin phrases, all the grammatical discussions, all the issues you come upon when trying to live out your academic life in a period that isn't the modern one (though I am more of the medieval than ancient variety).

The supposed criticism or commentary on the uptight, elitist, privileged world of academia or more specifically humanities is so obvious, it felt like it was constantly screaming at me. It was so overdone at some point that it felt like Tartt didn't even stand for it, just needed a theme for her book. And I despised it. Do you honestly expect me to care for characters who reek of privilege, whose lives seem to revolve around ignoring the problems in their own studies and never facing any consequences for their actions? 

I'm all for criticising the system but maybe all this would've been better suited for a non-fiction book. A book with not one sympathetic character leaves little to enjoyment. If you want a Dark Academia book that handles the inequalities and elitism in academia a lot more nuanced, I'd recommend Leigh Bardugo's Ninth House.

The actual inequalities in academia are so much more subtle but so much more real too than they are portrayed in this book. It's not the money needed for nice clothes or booze but rather the lack of connections, the expensive conferences, the cost of publishing a dissertation, the limitations forced upon you by coming from a less university oriented school, the lack of money for funding or grants, the inaccessibility for any students who aren't mentally or physically healthy, the walls you run into trying to research as a woman in general but also trying to find funding and supporters for "female" subject matters, like sexuality or gender studies. Tartt makes it seem like the biggest challenge in academia are other students, when it's really the whole system that's at fault.

Tartt is definitely good at intimitating classical author's style — think Hardy or maybe even C. Brontë. Sadly, the magical world of New England we get sucked into is always contrasted by characters who were just living normal lives, having normal college experiences. I get that this was meant as a stylistic device to show just how different (and maybe even isolated?) the Classics students were but for me it just served to make their characters seem even less real. 

I am that pretentious history student, I am constantly around other pretentious history students, I spent my trips to other countries deciphering Roman inscriptions and coins but by making humanities students into almost satires of the academic bubble, we encourage the continuation of that inherient elitism many humanities degrees still hold. Not just for ourselves but for outsiders as well. It serves absolutely noone to make our community so inaccessible by portraying ourselves as this idealized version of a humanities pupil (even one who commits murders on occasion). We're humans, we're students, we're all connected in this mess of academia and we're still allowed to like parties, to want normal relationships and friendships. Start realizing that Dark Academia is a genre of fiction — not something you should aspire to embody in your time at university. Live a little 🤍

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Classism

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Eating disorder, Incest, Physical abuse, and Alcohol

Minor: Forced institutionalization

taleofabibliophile's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Eating disorder and Medical content

Minor: Ableism, Cancer, Infidelity, Sexual content, Vomit, Antisemitism, Car accident, and Death of parent