Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

The Secret History (Abridged Version) by Donna Tartt

143 reviews

mxshvili's review against another edition

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

0.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Incest, Homophobia, and Xenophobia

gwen__'s review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious 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

4.0

Undeniably a brilliant and outstanding novel. Tartt manages to give a vast impression of each character whilst those descriptions do not stick out at all; they blend neatly into the story. Her writing is enchanting and compelling, and it is what I so adore about this book. The plot itself did not appeal to me as much, but regardless of that, I enjoyed The secret history tremendously. That being said, it took me a while to get through it. This is no light read at all, but I would definetly consider it worth the while.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Suicide attempt, Drug use, Addiction, Gun violence, Xenophobia, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Violence, and Body horror

Moderate: Homophobia, Incest, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, and Racial slurs

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Classism, and Car accident

geilie's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Vomit, Suicide, Animal death, Death, Drug use, and Murder

Moderate: Homophobia, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Chronic illness, Classism, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Islamophobia, Sexism, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Car accident, Eating disorder, and Suicide attempt

victoriak1197's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-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? It's complicated

5.0

This book was very different than I thought it would be. It was a lot slower, with the murder mystery it was always advertised to me going very different than it typically would. A lot of this book is just theme and character exploration, as well as just vibes (mixed with foreshadowing). This book is not just a vibe, it is a state of mind. I was completely absorbed into this book, captivated by the romantic and gothic imagery and prose.

My only criticism for this book is that i wish that Camilla and Francis got a happier ending. I mean, Francis, although marrying someone boring who he won't love, is rich. it's just kinda unfair that Charles got a happier ending than Camilla. I also feel like Camilla could've married Francis, just so Francis didn't have to marry the blonde woman. I know that she didn't marry Richard because she loves Henry (although maybe it was because she just didn't like Richard enough, remember that Richard does describe her as an actress and is harsh to her after he finds out the Charles abused her), but she could've married Francis because it would be different.

But I get that unhappy endings are part of this book.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism and Drug use

Minor: Classism, Blood, Suicide, Islamophobia, Sexual violence, Homophobia, Toxic friendship, Suicide attempt, Religious bigotry, Physical abuse, Misogyny, and Xenophobia

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

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

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

Minor: Vomit, Sexual content, and Cursing

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

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

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

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: Homophobia, Xenophobia, Alcoholism, and Drug use

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

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

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

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

Minor: Eating disorder