Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

269 reviews

solarwaltz's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I really enjoyed the atmosphere of this book. This writer is so masterful at just writing the most gut wrenching twist and turns in her books. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Incest, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Cursing, Drug use, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, and Alcohol

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Suicide, Antisemitism, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail

singalana's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

This book was different from what I expected. I hope I would have taken my time with it and read it more slowly and thoughtfully, but alas, it was from the library, and I was pressed to return it.

From the blurb, I expected this book to be different: I expected the professor to play a more significant part and the group of students to be almost like a secret society of sorts (hence the name). I expected more action, crimes, and violence, but that was not the case. I’d characterise The Secret History as a slow-burn psychological thriller. It’s Donna Tartt’s debut novel, but you’d never guess it from the writing.

Our main character, Richard, comes from a humble background and tries to get away from his family. He gets into college in Vermont, where he gets a place in a small group studying under a classics professor. Slowly, he gets to know the other students better and better and becomes entangled in something that changes his life forever. 

The characters have distinct personalities, and the author describes them in a way that makes them easy to picture. The writing flows quite nicely, and I found it pleasant to read. The events flow at a slow, almost dreamlike pace, and I, as a reader, find myself in the main character’s head, almost like a passenger, watching the events unfold.

Plotwise, I don’t have much to critique. I suppose my main gripe about this book is that it’s rather long. But perhaps if I had read it at a more leisurely pace, then the dreamlike quality of the events would have clashed so much with my “need for speed”. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Minor: Animal death, Cursing, Death, Incest, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Car accident, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

brittonmc1221's review against another edition

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Death, Gun violence, Incest, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

asymmetricwhale's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• 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: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Xenophobia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

sabripolin's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Blood, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Classism

Moderate: Chronic illness, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Incest, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail

sarahbeaman's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad 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

4.75

this was lent to me by a friend as its her favourite book of all time (no pressure!) and despite a very slow start, it did not disappoint. tense and full of stressful twists, combined with a group of thoroughly unlikeable characters whose approval i wanted almost as badly as the main character richard did! lots of very sophisticated classical references which i’m sure would’ve enriched my experience, but the text is just as intriguing and readable without needing to research the deep meaning of each one. so different from my usual style but thoroughly enjoyable!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Incest, Physical abuse, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

coralynski's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

mx_sunshine's review against another edition

dark 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Moderate: Eating disorder, Panic attacks/disorders, Vomit, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Animal death, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Incest, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Death of parent, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

eleasofia's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

very unlike anything i've read before and i loved it. the pace was quite slow, the chapters unusually long, and some descriptions of surroundings really verbose, but i was completely captivated after the first chapter/ first 10% of the book. the sometimes long-winded descriptions really were not boring at all but let me imagine everything just more vividly, and the details of rather mundane situations made everything more real and established the relationships between of all characters really well. 

i usually prefer third-person pov, but this first person pov was so well written, i often even forgot about it. i loved richard as a narrator. it really felt like a friend telling you a long story - drifting off topic occasionally, going into detail for things that might not matter much to anybody but him. even though he is relatively detached as a narrator, it was very clear how he saw and felt about his friends, which made me love the other main characters - at least until it got complicated, by the ending i had mixed feelings, but i suppose that is exactly what it was supposed to be like. either way, all of them are really well fleshed-out unique characters, so even if you don't like them, you can be intrigued with them. who i liked best fluctuated throughout the story, but i think in the end it's richard and francis for me.

the story itself was very compelling. there were some things i figured out before they happened, but generally i was surprised by the major plot points (at least the ones that hadn't been purposely been given away in the beginning). it felt eerily realistic, exciting, fascinating, but at the same time really relatively mundane, bleak, "normal", like this could have happened to anybody. 

i'm glad i didn't read the content warnings before reading the book because they definitely contain spoilers, at least in the sense that some things wouldn't be as surprising anymore. some scenes were disturbing, even relatively graphic, but i enjoyed being caught off-guard.

i'm very much looking forward to re-reading the story. i feel like it's one of those books that will be amazing on the second read when you can pick up on little details and foreshadowing that you missed on the first read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug use, Homophobia, Suicide, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Mental illness, Violence, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail

carefulfearanddeaddevotion's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

2.75

 This book has been on my TBR for a decade, and sadly, it disappointed.

The only thing that saved this book from being a 1 star read is the writing. The scenes are well-paced, the conversations natural, the descriptions--both of location and feeling--are extremely vivid. Unlike The Goldfinch, I was able to finish this book. Like The Goldfinch, I found the characters bland and insufferable. I really just could not empathize or even sympathize with any of them. When Bunny was alive, he was bigoted and not very likeable. Once he died, I did feel bad for him, but only because I am not a psychopath and I think murdering a friend because they found out you murdered someone else is bad, actually.

I did find myself actively enjoying the book after

Julian finds out that Henry (and the whole friend group, really) killed Bunny

. Richard is finally able to see how he built up Julian and the whole group to be these perfect, aspirational people, when really they're not perfect, not at all. I could feel his panic, and his disgust, and this is when he started to feel more real, and therefore more enjoyable.

Not really that important overall, but was I actually meant to believe that he's in love with Camilla?? I'd sooner believe that he's in love with Cloke. He definitely had much more believable chemistry with all the boys in the group (or even Judy) than he did with Camilla. Just like Meredith and Oliver(?) in If We Were Villains I don't buy it, I really don't. Stop with the forced heterosexuality, stop shoving that shit down my throat. /lh

ALSO we find out that, actually, Bunny was right and Camilla and Charles ARE fucking. ewewewewewewwwwww.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Gun violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Sexual violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism