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4.18 AVERAGE
4.18 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
I really wanted to like this. I even try twice to finish this book and I just couldn’t do it. When I don’t feel excited or invested to continue reading it’s when I know I have reached my limit.
dark
medium-paced
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Wtfffffffffffff
----------
I love the prose in this book! Donna Tartt is so damn good at establishing an atmosphere. The paragraphs on paragraphs of suffering are simultaneously painful and gripping to read. Particularly the winter scenes of Richard in the house, slowing withering away….
Here’s the thing: If you’re here for the plot, then you’re not going to enjoy the book. That’s also the weird issue with consuming media. Your expectations massively affect your experience of it. My friend told me about this, so I knew what more to expect. If I just read the blurb, I think I would be more disappointed.
For one, despite his weirdly looming presence, Julian is just not there in the book. He has one lecture in the beginning, and then poof. He just doesn’t exist.
The book is not really about the murder, or the circumstances surrounding it. In fact, the murder is all done and dusted about halfway through. The prologue kinda catfishes you, making you expect the whole book to unravel to that point. it’s more about them unravelling with bunny’s murder.
The book leaves a lot of mysteries too, which just further adds to the intrigue. it’s very much about perception vs reality.
Like Julian, Richard sees the others how he wants to see them. Henry the big and logical man, who can do no wrong. Until we realise he’s just as clueless as everyone else. “i think we forget that we don’t see henry the way others do”
Even further highlighted by Judy Poovey calling Henry a brute or whatever, and we kind of forget this as we get to know Henry’s kinder nature. And then you double back again.
Julian is all knowing and all wise… but he’s truly just cold and cowardly, as revealed in the end. Why did he pick these people? They aren’t particularly clever. But he just thinks they are, likes their vibe. He doesn’t think twice about Richard… and then richard shows up dressed wealthy, and suddenly he loves it.
As the characters unravel, Richard’s perceptions of them too unravel. He holds them up to a pedestal, obsessed with the lives they live, not realising they’re closer to him than expected.
It’s interesting to see the parallels between bunny and Richard. Both poor, but obsessed with appearing wealthy. Both craving some sort of validation. It’s why Richard doesn’t even blink at the revelations, and just goes along with it. Desperate to be IN, even though they are so secretive and not in.
They appear to be so intellectual, so put together, a force to be reckoned with.
But they all hold secrets and violence in them
The book is so carefully planned, and everything comes back at the end.
----------
I love the prose in this book! Donna Tartt is so damn good at establishing an atmosphere. The paragraphs on paragraphs of suffering are simultaneously painful and gripping to read. Particularly the winter scenes of Richard in the house, slowing withering away….
Here’s the thing: If you’re here for the plot, then you’re not going to enjoy the book. That’s also the weird issue with consuming media. Your expectations massively affect your experience of it. My friend told me about this, so I knew what more to expect. If I just read the blurb, I think I would be more disappointed.
For one, despite his weirdly looming presence, Julian is just not there in the book. He has one lecture in the beginning, and then poof. He just doesn’t exist.
The book is not really about the murder, or the circumstances surrounding it. In fact, the murder is all done and dusted about halfway through. The prologue kinda catfishes you, making you expect the whole book to unravel to that point. it’s more about them unravelling with bunny’s murder.
The book leaves a lot of mysteries too, which just further adds to the intrigue. it’s very much about perception vs reality.
Like Julian, Richard sees the others how he wants to see them. Henry the big and logical man, who can do no wrong. Until we realise he’s just as clueless as everyone else. “i think we forget that we don’t see henry the way others do”
Even further highlighted by Judy Poovey calling Henry a brute or whatever, and we kind of forget this as we get to know Henry’s kinder nature. And then you double back again.
Julian is all knowing and all wise… but he’s truly just cold and cowardly, as revealed in the end. Why did he pick these people? They aren’t particularly clever. But he just thinks they are, likes their vibe. He doesn’t think twice about Richard… and then richard shows up dressed wealthy, and suddenly he loves it.
As the characters unravel, Richard’s perceptions of them too unravel. He holds them up to a pedestal, obsessed with the lives they live, not realising they’re closer to him than expected.
It’s interesting to see the parallels between bunny and Richard. Both poor, but obsessed with appearing wealthy. Both craving some sort of validation. It’s why Richard doesn’t even blink at the revelations, and just goes along with it. Desperate to be IN, even though they are so secretive and not in.
They appear to be so intellectual, so put together, a force to be reckoned with.
But they all hold secrets and violence in them
The book is so carefully planned, and everything comes back at the end.
technically this has what I love but I was not willing to read it tbh.. gonna be so honest I was looking at my sapphic books cause they were calling. ( im not being dramatic either)
dark
mysterious
sad
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
Wild. Clocked the characters for what they were from the start (although I feel you'd have to be very young and/or callow to not have been able to figure them out by the end of book 1). Fascinated by the characters in a morbid way.
General theme of my thoughts throughout was "could not be me but you do you i guess". Did the book need to be as long as it did? Don't know, but I was sort of losing my patience by page 400 but I kept on because I knew how it would all end but I needed to make sure I was right.
The characters all had very different ways of thinking to me. The lessons they learned or the ones that were taught through this story all seemed like basic and obvious knowledge to me, so I felt kind of like I was being lectured at; that's likely why the book dragged for me. Lovely prose though, so that made up for it.
Another thing I kept saying in my head while reading was "you must try to see a person as a whole". Idk what i really meant by this, it obviously must be my knee jerk response to Julian Morrow's approach to people and the world.
Anyway its 3:56am and this is probably the most useless review, but it felt a shame to read so much and not at least attempt to say something about it all.
*addition* rereading picture of Dorian Gray, how alike Lord Henry and Julian are!
General theme of my thoughts throughout was "could not be me but you do you i guess". Did the book need to be as long as it did? Don't know, but I was sort of losing my patience by page 400 but I kept on because I knew how it would all end but I needed to make sure I was right.
The characters all had very different ways of thinking to me. The lessons they learned or the ones that were taught through this story all seemed like basic and obvious knowledge to me, so I felt kind of like I was being lectured at; that's likely why the book dragged for me. Lovely prose though, so that made up for it.
Another thing I kept saying in my head while reading was "you must try to see a person as a whole". Idk what i really meant by this, it obviously must be my knee jerk response to Julian Morrow's approach to people and the world.
Anyway its 3:56am and this is probably the most useless review, but it felt a shame to read so much and not at least attempt to say something about it all.
*addition* rereading picture of Dorian Gray, how alike Lord Henry and Julian are!
dark
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
estoy sin palabras, no se que escribir. creo que este libro me va a seguir durante mucho tiempo, y que cuando vaya creciendo, ire entendiendo mas cosas.
creo que yo tambien he caido en el juego psicológico del libro, de los personajes; de henry, supongo.
termino el libro sin nada claro, salvo lo que he dicho.
creo que es el primer libro realmente bueno, al que le doy 5 estrellas no solo porque me haya gustado, sino porque es innegablemente bueno. me recuerda en ese sentido a “el club dumas”, de reverte.
ha sido un viaje. definitivamente en muchas partes(se que mucha gente no piensa como yo) el libro no engancha, y cuando lo dejaba y lo volvia a coger, no era muchas veces porque me apeteciera. eso si, una vez cogido el libro, no queria soltarlo, te mete en esa atmosfera unica, no a una imaginaria, impersonal, que podria atribuirle mi imaginacion a un “trozo de papel”; sino a la atmosfera de este libro. no se explicarlo. he estado alli, con ellos. lo mismo me paso con cumbres borrascosas.
creo que yo tambien he caido en el juego psicológico del libro, de los personajes; de henry, supongo.
termino el libro sin nada claro, salvo lo que he dicho.
creo que es el primer libro realmente bueno, al que le doy 5 estrellas no solo porque me haya gustado, sino porque es innegablemente bueno. me recuerda en ese sentido a “el club dumas”, de reverte.
ha sido un viaje. definitivamente en muchas partes(se que mucha gente no piensa como yo) el libro no engancha, y cuando lo dejaba y lo volvia a coger, no era muchas veces porque me apeteciera. eso si, una vez cogido el libro, no queria soltarlo, te mete en esa atmosfera unica, no a una imaginaria, impersonal, que podria atribuirle mi imaginacion a un “trozo de papel”; sino a la atmosfera de este libro. no se explicarlo. he estado alli, con ellos. lo mismo me paso con cumbres borrascosas.
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes