Reviews tagging 'Islamophobia'

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

138 reviews

pbeeandj's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Racial slurs, Suicide, Islamophobia, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Classism

Moderate: Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal cruelty, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Vomit, and Antisemitism

colittle's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad tense 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

4.75

Richard failing to remember certain key details near the end of the story when he’s recalled everything else in vivid detail seems more like a cop-out than an intentional literary decision. Other than that, 5 stars. The seminal dark academia novel and an often satirical examination of class, elitism, and aestheticism. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Drug use, Mental illness, Suicide, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Body shaming, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Infidelity, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Islamophobia, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Outing

telemesmerism's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.75

Just not really worth reading. an awfully long book to read about characters who suck and arent interesting and a very mediocre plot

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Homophobia, Suicide, Blood, Vomit, Islamophobia, Suicide attempt, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Incest, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Medical content, and Car accident

briochebun's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

4 out of 5 ☆’s.

“Love doesn’t conquer everything. And whoever thinks it does is a fool.”

ੈ✩‧₊˚

The Secret History has been on my TBR for quite some time and I am so glad that I finally put some time aside to read it.

While I cannot say that my life was forever altered by this novel (though my feelings on that may change with time) I feel as though giving it anything less than 4 starts would be doing it an immense disservice. Readers of TSH will be able to see the impact that the novel has had on the Dark Academia genre and I think that in and of itself is an incredible feat that speaks to Tartt’s skill.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Islamophobia, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Outing, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Car accident and Death of parent

Minor: Kidnapping

caelinsullivan's review against another edition

dark tense medium-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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Suicide, Blood, Vomit, Islamophobia, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Sexual assault

nadia_luq's review against another edition

challenging 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicide, Islamophobia, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, and Blood

eclloyd's review against another edition

dark 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

2.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Incest, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Islamophobia, Suicide attempt, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

fulan's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug use, Homophobia, Incest, Racial slurs, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Minor: Self harm, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, and Suicide attempt

daybreakreads's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

3.0

The first 90% of this book: overhyped, poorly researched (details that were factually inaccurate; Plano, CA is two hours’ driving distance from Disneyland, he couldn’t have seen the fireworks from his house, one of the characters reads a book written by the “Persians” which was in Arabic — odd for a book so focused on foreign language, etc.), rather pretentious.

Last 10%: twist ending was interesting, and I enjoyed it, but it didn’t justify the 22 hours I spent listening to the audiobook. The author was the voice actor, and the voice she used for Bunny was incredibly irritating.

Interesting notes:
- this is a slow burn. Doesn’t pick up at all until ~50%. The writing style is intriguing
- none of the characters (even side ones) are “good guys”
- there’s a ton of random racist/antisemetic/homophobic comments, but they’re usually a one-off thing. The only exception to this was 3/4 of the way through there was a recurring trend of anti-Arab things that served no point to the overall plot whatsoever. It was odd for a book written in the 90s. There was a fake country full of “jihadist terrorists” mentioned several times, “sand [n word]” used against a Palestinian (who was only written for a brief moment in which he was yelling as the “angry Arab man” stereotype, “Arab” and “Arabic” were used incorrectly, general xenophobic remarks, etc. And then it just randomly stopped. 

As a Muslim the last thing just came across a bit ridiculous more than anything. I didn’t see the relevance, or the reason to focus significantly more on that than the other marginalized groups.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child death, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Incest, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Fire/Fire injury, and War

alyx7564's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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? No

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Biphobia, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Lesbophobia, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism