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Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Homophobia
Moderate: Drug use, Incest, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Murder
However, I am deeply deeply thankful I chose to read this book now, and not when I was first recommended it when I started studying Latin and Greek seriously and would've considered it aspirational rather than cautionary. (Also, for some bizarre reason, I thought there was a scene in this book set in an empty swimming pool, which I kept waiting to materialise but never did, because no such scene exists.)
Graphic: Alcoholism, Gun violence, Suicide, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol
Moderate: Animal death, Drug use, Homophobia, Incest, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Vomit, Classism
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship
The characters were each very interesting to me, and I was pretty hooked the whole way through except for a couple sections throughout. There were also some twists that I wasn't expecting and I always enjoy when a book catches me by surprise like that. While reading, I listened to the audiobook on Audible which is read by Donna Tartt herself, and I think that DRASTICALLY improved my experience of reading this book. I highly recommend doing that, because it is read in the exact way the author wants it to be read, which is pretty cool. It also helped tons to keep my attention on the book because like I said before, some parts were a little slow and uninteresting to me.
Definitely check trigger warnings for this book! I did not and wish that I had.
Graphic: Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Murder, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Moderate: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Gore, Incest, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, Gaslighting
Minor: Sexual content, Sexual violence
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol
Moderate: Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Minor: Gun violence, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Xenophobia, Blood, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent
Tartt wrote this scary realistic; I could see this events taking place with unnerving ease. And the characters were incredibly well-written. They were fleshed out, even as they spiraled out of sanity. All in all, this was an amazing read.
Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Incest, Suicide, Violence, Murder
Moderate: Cursing, Gun violence, Homophobia, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicide attempt
Minor: Domestic abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Blood
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cursing, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicide, Murder
Moderate: Mental illness, Grief
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Suicide attempt, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Outing, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Cursing, Incest, Car accident
Minor: Child abuse, Car accident, Death of parent
I don’t always enjoy first person POV but it’s utilized very well here. Richard’s retelling of events is not only fun but a bit unreliable, yet it’s difficult to tell where he embellished and where he didn’t, leading one to wonder about the truth of most events.
The beginning of the book is slow, but it really does get better as it goes on. The second half really gripped me. It was fun seeing the characters unfold and show their true colors as the novel progressed. I couldn’t have imagined the type of people any of them would be, going into this. It’s hard to say whether I like any of them or not.
I expected this book to be pretentious, but it has a lot to say about the shallowness of the academia aesthetic and using intellect (or perceived intellect) as a status symbol rather than actually caring to challenge oneself and learn.
Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Suicide, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Toxic friendship
Moderate: Cursing, Gore, Homophobia, Incest, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexism, Antisemitism, Classism
Minor: Ableism, Racial slurs, Rape, Vomit, Islamophobia
Graphic: Violence, Murder, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Homophobia, Incest, Racism, Antisemitism