Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

The Secret History (Abridged Version) by Donna Tartt

149 reviews

fa1ryts's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

5.0

 beautifully written book about a bunch of homosexuals no i know this isn't a book with a happy ending or morally good characters that are lucky but i wish richard ended up with henry or francis or at least confessed his love to either of them i dont care who but his love for camilla felt so forced 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Self harm, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

grboph's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

What do I even say about this book? I finally caved and read it after a months-long pressure campaign by my friend and my discovery of a copy at my grandparents' house, and I was not disappointed. I have to say that this is one of the most engaging and entertaining books I've ever read - it didn't take me too long to get sucked into it and it didn't lose my attention for any significant periods of time until I finished it. It was also beautifully written, which made even the less-interesting parts enjoyable. For pure enjoyment and entertainment value, as well as its ability to make me emotionally invested, I would give this book five stars. I docked half a star because of the fact that all the characters are objectively horrible, terrible, no good, very bad people who are so completely disconnected from reality that it is almost embarrassing at certain points, because there are a lot of aspects of the book that felt like Tartt had just said "What's the most screwed-up thing I could write about next?" and then just written the first thing that popped into her head as an answer to that question, because the only female characters were sort of one-dimensional and only there for the men to fight over or be annoyed by (also, the whole Richard-Camilla thing at the end was just weird and totally out of the blue), and because the ending was just so unnecessarily depressing. All in all, I loved every second I spent reading this book. It has a good mystery, some shocking/messed up plot twists, and involves rich people making bad choices that eventually come back to bite them all in the ass (and what's not to like about that?). I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a good murder mystery or something that will fully invest them.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Suicide, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Moderate: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Homophobia, Incest, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Blood, Antisemitism, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, and Classism

Minor: Cursing, Sexual content, and Vomit

hamarhemmo's review against another edition

challenging dark funny reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

A very messed up book, definitely read the trigger warnings first. Great satire of the dark academia genre while still respecting it. Sometimes a bit hard to read because of foreign languages and odd metaphors and references.
A fair amount of LGBTQ characters (all of whom are awful but that's unrelevant). Probably my favorite book ever.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Suicide, Xenophobia, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Homophobia, Incest, Mental illness, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Antisemitism, Suicide attempt, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Animal death, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Religious bigotry, and Outing

There is also a very questionable relationship between a student and a teacher. Both are adults but the relationship has very unhealthy dynamic. It's not a very big part of the book.

nakedkitties's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious 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

2.5

This certainly wasn't the book for me as I do not understand why people hype this up so much. I like the setting, the old private college in New England and all that but the premise was slightly ridiculous. A professor that only takes on 5 students at a time because he's pretty much the only teacher they have their entire university career?? Even in a private setting I can't buy this ever actually occurring. Students who are in some sense consumed by the Greek tragedies and myths they learn, but at the same time couldn't care less about school or graduating? All of the characters are rather unlikeable, which is normally fine for me, but in this case I didn't have any strong emotions about any of them as they all fell rather flat. I couldn't keep any of the male characters straight due to this lack of personality so I had to keep telling myself oh, this is "the poor one", "the dumb one", "the ringleader", "the alcoholic" and "the gay one"....which is really NOT something I want to do. While I think the character of Henry might be the coldest of the group, realistically they're all sociopathic so even that isn't a discerning quality. There's not even a feeling of tension as you don't think they're ever really at risk of any genuine consequence or punishment. And for the love of god why are the chapters so long?!?!
Beautiful writing and nice setting so I'll go with 2.5 but I won't be picking up Tartt's works again.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug use, Homophobia, and Xenophobia

Minor: Incest, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Suicide attempt

kylahspages's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexual assault, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

aliyachaudhry's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexism, Xenophobia, and Antisemitism

Minor: Eating disorder

b0ygenius's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

spoilers ahead

the past four days i just spent reading this book cannot be described as anything else but a trance. this book's effect on me was nothing short of hypnotic. obsession doesn't seem like a strong enough word to describe the death grip this book held me in. i do not think i have ever been as wholly absorbed into a book in my life. normally i struggle a bit with focusing while reading but this book had my complete, undivided attention. i could not think of anything else in the moments i was not reading it. i had two separate dreams about this book. i have never read a book anywhere near this long so fast in my fucking life. i could continue to go on and on and on about how i fell facefirst into the world of hampden and never want to leave but, now, onto an actual review of the contents of this book:

donna tartt is an absolutely brilliant writer. this book is a masterpiece and it does not shock me in the slightest the obsession and cult following this book has amassed. her writing creates this undescribable atmosphere that makes the world of hampden college feel both like something straight out of an epic myth and incredibly real. i became so incredibly attached to these characters. i really do not think we as readers are supposed to root for them the way that i did for most of the book but man. these people are, for the most part, absolutely awful but tartt has crafted them in the most meticulously perfect way that makes you willing to look past all these faults. from the very beginning i was completely enthralled with henry in particular, although i had a feeling he would end up being the worst of them all (and alas i was right) i still was obsessed with him, not necessarily from a place of sympathy or relating to him or liking him but because he was just so goddamn fascinating. everything about him, from his strange mannerisms and aesthetic and his intelligence and the cold, strategic, and calculated way with which he planned all of the terrible things that happen made me just obsess over him. definitely one of my favorite literary characters ever; again, not really because i supported his actions but because he is one of the most well-written, charismatic, obsessively intriguing characters i have ever come across.

i really adored richard. normally the narrator/protagonist of any book ends up getting on my nerves quite a bit and is rarely among my favorite characters but i was incredibly fond of richard. he is intelligent and perceptive and sympathetic but above all, he is painfully human, which is somewhat of a breath of fresh air in a story full of quite eccentric and mysterious figures.

i also really loved francis. he's pretentious and snobbish and quite dramatic but so immensely likeable and had a truly good heart and i felt quite bad for him. i loved his relationship with richard especially in the aftermath of bunny's death; i think they really understood each other and what they were feeling the most and found comfort in each other while everyone else around them was slowly descending into madness. he deserved better.

i can't really think of anything substantive to say about camilla. i didn't love her, i didn't hate her; she had her moments, i guess. towards the end she really started to get on my nerves, though.

charles, for the first three-quarters of this book, was also quite neutral. nothing he said or did really left much of an impression on me for the majority of the book but his downfall kinda made me feel bad for him. the incest stuff tho.......... ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew

i really truly hate bunny but i can somewhat understand why he acted the way he did after finding out about the murder. still, i really did not feel bad for him in the slightest. he was just cruel and the homophobia he spewed at francis and the misogyny at camilla was truly revolting and that bit towards the beginning where bunny invites richard to dinner and makes all those terrible homophobic comments really killed any ability for me to find any sympathy for him. but i feel like that is one of the brilliant beauties of tartt's writing: she makes us feel so entwined with the group that we began to feel the same way as they do towards bunny.

julian was interesting but his character didn't feel anywhere near as fleshed out to me as any of the other main characters. his relationship with all of them, particularly henry, felt undeveloped 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Rape, Forced institutionalization, Antisemitism, Car accident, and Outing

silenceglaive's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Suicide, Xenophobia, and Murder

Moderate: Drug use, Homophobia, Incest, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Rape and Abandonment

kutreen's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I love Donna Tartt's writing. Her imagery and ability to evoke such honest and specific scenes and emotions is unparalleled. This book is about a murder, but make no mistake, it's not a thriller. It's more philosophical. I've noticed Tartt really likes to ponder death and art. The pace of her books is perfect. Both the plot and the characters suck you in. I will say the end was not exactly satisfying, but I don't think it was meant to be. I wish I spent more time pondering the moral and philosophical questions posed by the characters' actions and the protagonist's thoughts.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug use, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Medical content, Grief, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexual violence, and Xenophobia

solana_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug use, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Xenophobia, and Murder