Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

73 reviews

alexandrabelze's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

omfg. donna tartt is my mother. she’s insane for this.  holy SHIT!!! every single word was a vital part of this novel–down to the damn syllable. she has perfected the art of writing. the pacing of the book was magnificent and the characterization was stellar. every moment was so VIVID! her word choice was so perfect in every sense and every sentence and paragraph and piece of dialogue flowed so perfectly throughout the entire novel. her use of prose is so …entertaining? idk how to describe her writing but it’s everything i ever needed and more. she created a plot so full and detailed that i have no qualms at all; everything was perfectly laid out and set into place. this is the longest review i’ve written BY FAR. 

okay FIRST OF ALL, the INCEST? mawma i was floored. and camilla refusing to marry richard because she was in love with henry…girl please. be so real. henry’s death was fucking insane. every second of that encounter starting from charles barreling through the door to henry’s body hitting the ground was insane. AND THEN we find out that marion married one of bunny’s brothers!!!!!! stfu!!! and they had a baby!!! and the family decided to nickname it BUNNY. IM SORRY?! and when i read that letter that francis sent to richard my heart STOPPED. i would’ve been so mad at donna had she killed him off istg. he’s my one and only i love him far too much. good god this book. I JUST REMEMBERED the entire ritual that they had? oh my god!!!! donna!!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cursing, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal death, Classism, Drug use, Gun violence, Islamophobia, Suicide, Violence, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Gaslighting, Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Toxic friendship, Grief, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Body horror, Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Confinement, Vomit, Antisemitism, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, and Stalking

Minor: Ableism, Fatphobia, Rape, Cancer, Death of parent, and Eating disorder

blor_12's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad slow-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Body horror

Moderate: Drug use, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Homophobia

Minor: Classism and Suicide

c1nega's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, Racism, Body horror, Classism, Xenophobia, Toxic friendship, Racial slurs, Panic attacks/disorders, and Murder

Minor: Homophobia, Addiction, Emotional abuse, Incest, and Islamophobia

abibliophobic_nerd's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Addiction, Drug abuse, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Drug use, Alcohol, Gaslighting, Medical content, Murder, Suicide, Death, Alcoholism, Blood, and Mental illness

Moderate: Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Body horror, Bullying, Incest, and Islamophobia

hannalizzy's review against another edition

dark emotional funny informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

5 Star Book, five star listening experience. It’s always so cool to hear it from the author themselves. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Body horror, Death, and Blood

laurataylor's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense slow-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Animal death, Blood, Gore, Grief, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Religious bigotry, Alcohol, Sexism, Toxic friendship, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Classism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Addiction, Alcoholism, Antisemitism, Car accident, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Medical content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Suicide attempt, Gun violence, Incest, and Sexual assault

lottselgar'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

5.0

i mean. just genius. i hate all the characters so much

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Drug use, Incest, Physical abuse, Alcoholism, Murder, Domestic abuse, and Body horror

Moderate: Antisemitism, Suicide attempt, Homophobia, and Racial slurs

Minor: Rape, Animal death, Sexism, Addiction, Toxic friendship, Violence, Sexual violence, Self harm, and Death

storyofmyshelf's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Physical abuse, Torture, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Alcoholism, Medical trauma, Toxic friendship, Violence, Self harm, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, Gaslighting, and Gun violence

alisasreads's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

5.0

kinda shocked at how much i enjoyed this book, i'd heard so many opinions about it that i had no idea what my own would be. as popular as it is right now i just had to read it and i'm glad i did. the tone, setting, style and the way the characters were written was just so good. it's exactly the type of story i like as a dark academia lover, i now understand why everyone always recommends this book in the genre. i literally just finished it and feel i really need to sit with the book before i can write a review that would do this book justice. so these were just some of my first thoughts.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Suicide

Moderate: Incest, Mental illness, Antisemitism, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Self harm, Body horror, Cursing, Addiction, Car accident, Alcoholism, Racial slurs, Classism, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Gaslighting, and Homophobia

Minor: Rape

frankielovestofu's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Murder, Drug use, Toxic friendship, and Death

Moderate: Sexual violence, Blood, Self harm, Body horror, Incest, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, and Violence

Minor: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Physical abuse, Animal cruelty, Gun violence, Misogyny, Rape, Animal death, Racial slurs, Racism, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail

Could do without the incest and racial slurs. Arguably, the racial slurs can be “justified” because they’re each only spoken once or twice by specific characters, and author either corrects behaviour of characters through another character or implies it’s not her thoughts. It’s clearly just to show how bigoted the characters saying it are, but still. The incest is left ambiguous at the end, whether it’s a long-term SA situation or consensual relationship turned sour at end. Either way, definitely could of been written without with very minor impact on plot and/or book. I.e. could still write controlling character without sexual subplot. Sorry not sorry. In addition, haven’t seen anyone mention it. There’s an extremely triggering (quick) mention of rape on page 484. Just skip the paragraph. It has NO effect on plot, it’s just unecessary and vulgar.

essentially the protagonist is speaking to the female character, and in mid-conversation (since book is his inner monologue) internally shares his sudden urge to strangle and rape his friend, then says the thought disappears as quickly as it came. conversation continues, never mentioned again. the worst part, is that the female character is in the midst of sharing her physical and sexual abuse from her brother when our protagonist thinks this