Reviews with content warning for Gore - Le Maître des illusions

This book was truly interesting - I know that this is generally a very weak adjective but in this case, it is entirely true. It has a somewhat descriptive but then again very subjective and somewhat sentimental first-person narrative which took some time to get used to. But once I did, it was inevitable to fall into such a deep reading flow (I sometimes felt like the book was luring me in) that even the „boring“ scenes make you not want to stop reading. The characters in this book were so incredibly real and deeply (veryyy deeply) flawed which made the reading experience very intense and mysterious. There were some scenes (Chapter 8, i‘m looking at you) that just totally knocked me out of my socks, there is no better way to describe it. Due to the limited knowledge of the narrator and protagonist himself, plot twists are nearly impossible to predict here (unless of course they were being foreshadowed intentionally) which I loved.
However, it is very important here to check the trigger warnings because there is A LOT going on - stuff that is obvious very soon and other things that take a lot of time to become truly clear.

Content Warnings

slimy's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

Wow. ok. so ...
This is probably the most pretentiously academic work of fiction I've ever read but in the best way possible. The author uses that pretention and builds deeper characters with it. Without all the highbrow academia, we wouldn't see these characters in the same light- they would lose a lot of their redeeming qualities. And my god- what a world! Hampden campus, where this book takes place,... I mean I feel as if I myself am an alumni! Theres such care in how the place shapes the characters. Even the minor characters are ALIVE and active in their environment. Truly fantastic.

The pace is slow. Very slow. And usually that kills me, but this main character was so smart and witty, and had such a keen eye for the other characters I didn't mind being in his head for a long period of time.

For trigger warnings, the only thing I didn't expect after reading the book's description was brief mention of rape. There's a scene towards the end where our main character, Richard, confronts a female character (whom he's expressed romantic feelings for) about something she's done in secret that he disagrees with. There's a moment when his frustration builds, and he has the internal thought of: 'I want to shake her, slap some sense into her, throw her down on the bed and rape her' but he does none of these things. It definitely caught me off guard, and (I felt) was out of character, but I see how it was supposed to be used as an internal, intrusive thought in this situation. Other than that, I'd say pretty major triggers for murder, blood, gore, toxic families, drug and alcohol abuse, and minor sexual content.

A basic overview: </spoiler A group of friends decide to kill someone in their friend group, and subsequently spiral into shame, guilt, self-destruction, and madness.

Content Warnings

esme_may's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective 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

4.0

My deep hatred of

Bunny

knows no bounds. I knew it would be good but no one told me it would be Like This

Content Warnings

rory_john14's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Content Warnings

clarathromycin's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

Donna Tartt’s writing was excellent throughout the book. The characters were strong and you could feel the anticipation build. However, I did feel as if she was taking extraordinary liberties with the use of racial and homophobic slurs in the dialogue of her bigoted characters.

Content Warnings