Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

The Secret History (Abridged Version) by Donna Tartt

54 reviews

readinghavoc's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.75

I really enjoyed this book – it was dense at times and intimidatingly long, but the pay-off is well worth it. Kept me on the edge of my seat and continuously shocked me. The first hundred pages dragged and I almost put it down, but I'm so glad I didn't. The last 100 pages alone more than make up for it. The characters were hard for me to connect to because they were so pretentious but as you progress through the book it becomes clear that that serves its own purposes in the story. Super bizarre story, would recommend it to someone looking for a really thoroughly laid out thriller who doesn't mind making the investment for a big thrill. Interested to read some of Tartt's other work (after some easier, quicker reads lol).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, Violence, Addiction, Body horror, Incest, Alcoholism, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Sexual content, Cursing, Suicide, Gore, Mental illness, Gun violence, Alcohol, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Panic attacks/disorders, Forced institutionalization, Drug use, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Domestic abuse, Blood, Grief, Gaslighting, Classism, Suicide attempt, Animal death, Sexism, and Infidelity

Minor: Animal death, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Outing, Sexual harassment, Animal cruelty, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Excrement, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Stalking, Toxic relationship, Vomit, and Toxic friendship

rory1387's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

5.0

please! read! the! trigger! warnings! before! starting! the! book! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Alcoholism

Moderate: Gun violence, Incest, Murder, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Cursing, Eating disorder, Antisemitism, Death of parent, Drug use, Medical content, Animal death, and Car accident

eve_o's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

dead poets society in college with murder

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Drug use, Alcoholism, Blood, Death, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, and Bullying

Minor: Suicide, Suicide attempt, Incest, Animal death, Gun violence, and Death of parent

abbeerambles's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective 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

Very good book. I am now concerned for the people who romanticize these characters or want to live this kind of "elite" academia life. The entire point of the book, the WHOLE POINT is to warn readers off of wanting to be like them. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Gun violence, Homophobia, Mental illness, Murder, and Suicide

Moderate: Antisemitism, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Classism, Drug use, Incest, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, and Racial slurs

Minor: Medical content, Sexism, Death of parent, Car accident, and Animal cruelty

The N-slur is used, specifically directed toward a middle eastern man. There are many generally racist statements made throughout the book, toward many groups of people. Particularly several antisemitic comments. The F-slur is used several times at the beginning of the book. The characters, including the POV character, use drugs and alcohol gratuitously throughout the book.

The twins are incestuous. It's implied that the male twin Charles is abusive toward the female twin Camilla.

readwithelle's review against another edition

mysterious reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Bullying, Gun violence, Drug use, Alcoholism, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Blood, and Death

Moderate: Physical abuse, Classism, Misogyny, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Forced institutionalization, and Homophobia

Minor: Violence, Incest, and Vomit

steviaplath's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Alcohol, Blood, Drug use, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Toxic friendship, Grief, Death, Gaslighting, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Xenophobia, Toxic relationship, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Racism, Panic attacks/disorders, Incest, Kidnapping, and Car accident

Minor: Abandonment, Death of parent, Fatphobia, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content

patslibrary's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Violence, Toxic friendship, Sexism, Murder, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Homophobia, Drug use, Drug abuse, Death, Blood, and Addiction

Moderate: Outing and Grief

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Medical content, Kidnapping, Incest, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, Cursing, and Car accident

mckenna_la's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Death, Drug use, Murder, and Suicide

Moderate: Homophobia, Incest, Panic attacks/disorders, and Blood

Minor: Car accident, Sexual content, Death of parent, and Racial slurs

mollymfay's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.75

The Secret History is one of those books that I know will occupy my mind for a long time to come. The novel tells a story of murder, its harrowing effects on those who commit and keep the crime a secret, and the lengths that the rich, elitist, and pretentious Classics students of the fictional Hampden College will go to in order to keep the public and police from finding out a farmer was found dead on his own land one autumn night after a drunken attempt to summon the God Dionysus through ancient Grecian methods studied in class and known by their professor. Following this, the students also have to keep the seemingly unsuspicious death of a fellow Classics student, Edmund "Bunny" Corcoran, a secret after he found out what had really happened on the night when four of the students returned home claiming to have hit a deer with their car when he met them anxious and blood-stained. However, it is not just the plotline full of twists and turns that managed to amaze me when I read the novel. Rather, I was lured in by the somewhat boring narrator at the center of it all called Richard Papen. Papen is a student from California who is on scholarship at Hampden and he is often trying to keep that a secret in a great effort not to reveal that he doesn't come from wealth like his fellow classmates assume he does similarly to themselves. For many readers who are drawn to this book, I believe they can find themselves in Papen and even look to adore him at first. He's the middle-class kid who got a full ride into an incredibly impressive and boast-worthy school, is accepted by his rich friends who spend their weekends gallivanting at family-owned mini-mansions in the countryside, has a beautiful girl who flirts with him all the time at the drop of a dime and is accepted into the most selective class at the university taught by a suspicious and affluent professor who doesn't accept more than a dollar for his yearly salary that allows the students to do incredibly questionable things with the course of the class. Although things start to turn sour once he becomes an accessory to two murders, I can't think of a middle-class person of scholarly intellect who wouldn't want to be him. He goes to a beautiful school for free, is loved by classmates, and does essentially whatever he wants because those same friends take him on all of their luxurious weekend trips. If anything, Richard's character feels like a self-insert rather than a character with distinctive traits and actions as opposed to his friends Bunny, Camilla, Charles, Francis, and Henry all of whom have distinctive personalities and components to their character arc that make them memorable, desirable, or obnoxious. Also, I enjoyed that though the author herself is a female, she writes very convincing male characters and highlights the blunt and not always caring or compassionate way they yearn for women instead of in the way some other female authors wrote them to be.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Alcohol, and Death

Moderate: Violence, Suicide, and Antisemitism

Minor: Racism, Racial slurs, Gaslighting, and Death of parent

livbarry's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Cursing, Grief, Mental illness, Incest, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Violence, Alcoholism, Death, Suicide, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Addiction, Panic attacks/disorders, Alcohol, Infidelity, Misogyny, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Car accident, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Homophobia, and Injury/Injury detail