Reviews with content warning for Gun violence - The Secret History

Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

603 reviews

icannotweave's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-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? Yes

5.0

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anubhaghoshal's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I think this line from the book best describes it-
"The Jacobeans had a sure grasp of catastrophe. They understood not only evil, it seemed, but the extravagance of tricks with which evil presents itself as good. I felt they cut right to the heart of the matter, to the essential rottenness of the world."

I finished this book half an hour ago and I feel compelled to write this review without delaying it so as to not loose the intrigues it presents, and thereby the essence of the book.

I didn't realize how dark and dramatic this read is going to turn out to be. By the time I finished this book there was deep, dark feeling in the pit of my stomach making me feel nauseous. The writing was so realistic and powerful that I feel I have witnessed all the events occurring right in front of my eyes.

How it honestly can be summarized in my opinion is a bunch of elite narcissists thinking they own the world, drunk driving and killing rashly, remorselessly. To stay out of jail, and hide their tracks, they kill furthermore.

Henri though described as an intellectual and cold hearted is neither of those. Infact not only he is mentally ill, to not comprehend the difference between legends and reality, he is revengeful and a coward by the end. Him idolizing a complete fanatic without even a rational thought proves how dense his character was.

If Camilla was not even written about, wouldn't have missed her. She was completely irrelevant expect they need her for the bacchanal. She trusted Henri? He gave alcohol to Charles plus those medicines.

Charles and Francis were okay, they had their flaws but they were not too revengeful and even emotional after their intended kill.

Bunny seemed most moral, black mailing isn't but he didn't say it out aloud that he was doing that. The others themselves tried to placate him because as and when Henri said no to his whims and fancies, he didn't threaten to go to police. He didn't hold anything against them but condemned them and wished he never was a part of this. He always used his friends for money and favors, even before the ritual so it wasn't blackmail but what others felt because of their own guilt. His ill mental state by the end spells out that he couldn't and didn't want to keep the information to himself anymore no matter what the consequences. Also, he knew that Richard wasn't associated with the ritual yet still insulted him and was rude by the end, even to his own gf. Richard just wanted to make an excuse to support Henri and the others when it came to killing Bunny. If someone is rude to everyone, it was clear that person doesn't have any personal bias, so Richard should have understood his mental state.

This brings me to the question why was Richard even lying at all? Everyone knew he was poor and he didn't see eye to eye with his parents. Why blatantly lie when you don't have much to hide anyway. And Richard's romanticization of the whole deal is disgusting and disturbing. Instead of holding any ethical values, he becomes an accomplice to brutality just so he could "fit in" and impress. You can't blame anyone but him for playing a fool's game, very well knowing the background he had, he was destined to be doomed.

About the ritual of Ballachan, I still do not understand the whole situation. The innocent man was sacrificed at the most since the description of the stomach and steam from it doesn't hint at a normal car accident. But who was the fifth person with them? It can't be a god as they said, and was it Julian with them but they were too drunk and wasted to realise? Guess will never know.

By the end I can confidently say that dark academia ain't my cup of tea, I love the intellectual element, the literary one too. I enjoyed watching the Enola Holmes tremendously but I can't help but feel it's Eurocentric, racist, homophobic, lacks any diversity and ruthlessly vain.

Enjoyed the writing though.

My favourite quotes from the book-

"Why does that obstinate little voice in our heads torment us so? he said, cooking round the table. Could it be because it reminds us that we are alive, of our mentality of our individual souls - which, after all, we are too afraid to surrender but yet make us feel more miserable than any other thing! But isn't also pain that when makes us most aware of self? It is a terrible thing to learn as a child that being separate from all the world, that no one and nothing hurts along with ene's burned tongues and skinned knees, that one's aches and pains are all one's own. Even more terrible, as we grow older. to learn that no person, no matter how beloved, can ever truly understand us
Our own selves make us most unhappy, and that's why we're so anxious to lose them, don't you think? Remember the Erinyes!"

"Because it is dangerous to ignore the existence of the irrational. The more cultivated a person is, the more intelligent, the more repressed, then the more he needs some method of channeling the primitive impulses he's worked so hard to subdue. Otherwise those powerful old forces will mass and strengthen until they are violent enough to break free, more violent for the delay, often strong enough to sweep the will away entirely. For a warning of what happens in the absence of such a pressure valve, we have the example of the Romans."

"It's a very Greek idea, and a very profound one Beauty is terror. Whatever we call beautiful, we quiver before it. And what could be more terrifying and beautiful, to souls like the Greeks or our own, than to lose control completely? To throw off the chains of being for instant, to shatter the accident of our mortal selves? Euripides speaks of the Maenada: bead thrown I back, throat to the stars, more like deer than human being. To be absolutely free! One is quite capable, of course, of working out these destructive passions in more vulgar and less efficient ways. But how glorious to release them in a single burst To sing, to scream, to dance barefoot in the woods in the dead of night, with no more awareness of mortality than an animal! These are powerful mysteries. The bellowing of bulls. Springs of honey bubbling from the ground. If we are strong enough in our souls we can rip away the veil and look that naked, terrible beauty right in the face; let God consume us, devour us, unstring
our bones. Then spit us out reborn."

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jennhammel's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective tense medium-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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hanblan's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective 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

4.0

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llamasandbooks's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

I'm glad I took my time with this book, because I feel like the story had a much larger impact on me by reading in short bursts. I feel like I've been with these characters for much longer than I actually have which makes the ending feel that much more bittersweet for me. I never thought I'd get attached to a cast of characters with such questionable morals.

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tori214's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Oh.... uh.... alright.

Well then. I don’t really know how to articulate my thoughts on this well, so I’ll do it in the simplest possible terms.

I thought the story was enjoyable and interesting but the characters were extremely unlikable.

I really only liked one (and a half) character(s), but he didn’t even get a happy ending. None of them did really,

and my dislike of this book might also be due to the fact that I’m finishing this the day after Christmas and I’ve simply been in the mood for something upbeat and warm.

The writing style was dense and definitely and acquired taste, but I personally really, really enjoyed it. However, the timeline was a little messy at times. There was this one thing Tartt did an astonishing amount where she would have the characters say “Remember when {this thing} happened?” but it wouldn’t be something that had previously been explained to the reader. The characters would have a conversation about it, AND THEN she would explain the event to the reader, instead of just letting us know when it happened in the first place and calling back to it later.

Not to mention the fact that the last 100 pages or so where very repetitive, but then there was the final couple pages and the epilogue that was sort of a reprieve.

It was alright. There were a few things I really enjoyed but there were too many flaws for me.

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