Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

602 reviews

julswk's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Islamophobia, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Moderate: Homophobia

Minor: Incest and Rape

nzmerchant's review against another edition

challenging 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Incest

iamsherlocked's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

4.0

A great book, yes. The writing ? Ominous. Exquisite. Perfectly shows these extremely complicated, elitist and objectively unlikeable people and makes you invested in them and their stories.
The build up to Bunny’s death and the aftermath is depicted beautifully.

However, it is VERY dense and there is hardly any reprieve from the tension-filled atmosphere. For a couple hundred pages there in the middle, the book becomes way more of a drag than is bearable but does pick back up again for the epilogue.

All in all, this book left me wanting more despite its length and the jam packed content; hence the 4star rating. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, and Incest

hannibanani29's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug use, Gun violence, Suicide, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Moderate: Addiction, Cursing, Death, Homophobia, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Classism

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, and Antisemitism

rommiep's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicide, Blood, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Drug use, and Emotional abuse

njesenicka26's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Homophobia, Racism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Islamophobia, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Incest, Suicide, and Murder

Minor: Animal cruelty, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, and Death of parent

susanavieira15's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense medium-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? It's complicated

3.75

Felt like it could be shorter. Sometimes slow, sometimes fast, in the middle there's dead parts which I struggled to get through. 
The answers I was looking for never came and I finished the book with a sense of incompleteness,  even though it took 600 pages to finish it 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Self harm, and Suicide

b0ygenius's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring 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

spoilers ahead

the past four days i just spent reading this book cannot be described as anything else but a trance. this book's effect on me was nothing short of hypnotic. obsession doesn't seem like a strong enough word to describe the death grip this book held me in. i do not think i have ever been as wholly absorbed into a book in my life. normally i struggle a bit with focusing while reading but this book had my complete, undivided attention. i could not think of anything else in the moments i was not reading it. i had two separate dreams about this book. i have never read a book anywhere near this long so fast in my fucking life. i could continue to go on and on and on about how i fell facefirst into the world of hampden and never want to leave but, now, onto an actual review of the contents of this book:

donna tartt is an absolutely brilliant writer. this book is a masterpiece and it does not shock me in the slightest the obsession and cult following this book has amassed. her writing creates this undescribable atmosphere that makes the world of hampden college feel both like something straight out of an epic myth and incredibly real. i became so incredibly attached to these characters. i really do not think we as readers are supposed to root for them the way that i did for most of the book but man. these people are, for the most part, absolutely awful but tartt has crafted them in the most meticulously perfect way that makes you willing to look past all these faults. from the very beginning i was completely enthralled with henry in particular, although i had a feeling he would end up being the worst of them all (and alas i was right) i still was obsessed with him, not necessarily from a place of sympathy or relating to him or liking him but because he was just so goddamn fascinating. everything about him, from his strange mannerisms and aesthetic and his intelligence and the cold, strategic, and calculated way with which he planned all of the terrible things that happen made me just obsess over him. definitely one of my favorite literary characters ever; again, not really because i supported his actions but because he is one of the most well-written, charismatic, obsessively intriguing characters i have ever come across.

i really adored richard. normally the narrator/protagonist of any book ends up getting on my nerves quite a bit and is rarely among my favorite characters but i was incredibly fond of richard. he is intelligent and perceptive and sympathetic but above all, he is painfully human, which is somewhat of a breath of fresh air in a story full of quite eccentric and mysterious figures.

i also really loved francis. he's pretentious and snobbish and quite dramatic but so immensely likeable and had a truly good heart and i felt quite bad for him. i loved his relationship with richard especially in the aftermath of bunny's death; i think they really understood each other and what they were feeling the most and found comfort in each other while everyone else around them was slowly descending into madness. he deserved better.

i can't really think of anything substantive to say about camilla. i didn't love her, i didn't hate her; she had her moments, i guess. towards the end she really started to get on my nerves, though.

charles, for the first three-quarters of this book, was also quite neutral. nothing he said or did really left much of an impression on me for the majority of the book but his downfall kinda made me feel bad for him. the incest stuff tho.......... ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew

i really truly hate bunny but i can somewhat understand why he acted the way he did after finding out about the murder. still, i really did not feel bad for him in the slightest. he was just cruel and the homophobia he spewed at francis and the misogyny at camilla was truly revolting and that bit towards the beginning where bunny invites richard to dinner and makes all those terrible homophobic comments really killed any ability for me to find any sympathy for him. but i feel like that is one of the brilliant beauties of tartt's writing: she makes us feel so entwined with the group that we began to feel the same way as they do towards bunny.

julian was interesting but his character didn't feel anywhere near as fleshed out to me as any of the other main characters. his relationship with all of them, particularly henry, felt undeveloped 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Rape, Forced institutionalization, Antisemitism, Car accident, and Outing

becreadsbooks_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

5.0

So sick and twisted I wanna punch Donna Tartt.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Dysphoria, and Classism

kutreen's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I love Donna Tartt's writing. Her imagery and ability to evoke such honest and specific scenes and emotions is unparalleled. This book is about a murder, but make no mistake, it's not a thriller. It's more philosophical. I've noticed Tartt really likes to ponder death and art. The pace of her books is perfect. Both the plot and the characters suck you in. I will say the end was not exactly satisfying, but I don't think it was meant to be. I wish I spent more time pondering the moral and philosophical questions posed by the characters' actions and the protagonist's thoughts.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug use, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Medical content, Grief, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexual violence, and Xenophobia