Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

602 reviews

frankielovestofu's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Body horror, Incest, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail

Could do without the incest and racial slurs. Arguably, the racial slurs can be “justified” because they’re each only spoken once or twice by specific characters, and author either corrects behaviour of characters through another character or implies it’s not her thoughts. It’s clearly just to show how bigoted the characters saying it are, but still. The incest is left ambiguous at the end, whether it’s a long-term SA situation or consensual relationship turned sour at end. Either way, definitely could of been written without with very minor impact on plot and/or book. I.e. could still write controlling character without sexual subplot. Sorry not sorry. In addition, haven’t seen anyone mention it. There’s an extremely triggering (quick) mention of rape on page 484. Just skip the paragraph. It has NO effect on plot, it’s just unecessary and vulgar.

essentially the protagonist is speaking to the female character, and in mid-conversation (since book is his inner monologue) internally shares his sudden urge to strangle and rape his friend, then says the thought disappears as quickly as it came. conversation continues, never mentioned again. the worst part, is that the female character is in the midst of sharing her physical and sexual abuse from her brother when our protagonist thinks this

kallan's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Incest, Suicide, Blood, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Alcohol

desireinhisteeth's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Drug use, Homophobia, Incest, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Antisemitism, and Injury/Injury detail

charity_ix'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

4.0

After hearing about this book for months, I finally read it and I have lots of thoughts. As you can tell by my star rating, I enjoyed it. The general premise of the book is very interesting and is executed well. I live for the dark academia genre, and this book gave that and so much more.

I think Book I is superior to Book II. It took a while to get into, but once I did, I was fully invested. The introduction to a secretive friend group in a Greek class with a mix of murder is the perfect combination that had me anticipating more. The events that take place in Book I are straightforward and I thought I knew where the book was leading.

Then there's Book II. I was eager to begin this part knowing the fear and paranoia of being caught would be high. But, I believe this time was cut too short and there should've been more of the chase between the group and the FBI. I also think that Book II fell flat in the middle. One last nitpick I have is that I felt the professor proved to be a useless component of The Secret History. It may have been cliche, but I would've preferred a cliche over nothing but cowardice to explain his character. I found the ending slightly odd because I felt the author was hinting at something else. Henry was on the verge of a murderous spree, but instead he suddenly feels noble and shoots himself in the head?

 

While reading Book II, I realized that the focus of the story being told is not about the murders, but about the group. Understanding this made me look at this book in a different way, consequently, I appreciated it more. The characters were written amazingly and I could go in detail about all of them.

I did feel something minuscule was missing, but I can't put my finger on it. Although I had multiple criticisms of The Secret History, it truly is a phenomenal book. I highly recommend it for the amazing characters and engaging plot. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Drug use and Gun violence

Minor: Homophobia, Incest, and Racial slurs

d_jenkins29's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Murder

naro173's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-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? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Violence, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Suicide attempt

archer3's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious 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

2.0

I really wanted to like this book but it just felt so...convoluted. I'm not particularly a fan of unreliable narrators and most of the characters just annoyed me. The writing was okay but often hard to follow and so incredibly dense. It took me months to get through this book. I feel if I reread it I might be inclined to give it a higher rating, but as of now I just have no interest in doing so. Totally overhyped, in my opinion. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Suicide, Violence, Grief, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Gun violence and Incest

anton13's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

It’s not my usual kind of book but omg it’s good. It’s such an emotional roller coaster and the last 30 or so pages legit made me cry. Something about that end was really satisfying tho, it made me feel like it was complete. If you’re looking for an advanced read this is it. I will definitely be rereading it as soon as possible cause it’s so good and def one of my favs! 
After all of this I’m just left with one question:

What did Henry whisper to Camilla?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Drug use, Gun violence, Suicide, Medical content, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Domestic abuse, Rape, Self harm, and Forced institutionalization

emilyplun's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

xnedra2084's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Minor: Homophobia, Incest, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexism