Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

225 reviews

emie_27's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Blood, Murder, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Incest, Homophobia, Alcohol, and Toxic friendship

cmcrockford's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad fast-paced

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

4.25

Fiendish and brutal, closer to Waugh or Highsmith than many best sellers. Captures the horror of making friends at college then realizing these bastards are around you now allllll the time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Incest, Grief, Gun violence, Alcohol, Vomit, Alcoholism, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Death, Suicide, Violence, Homophobia, Classism, and Infidelity

faeblxde's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

It's been 4 months since I've finished this book and I'm still thinking about it. Incredible.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Murder, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Violence, Sexual content, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, and Grief

Moderate: Addiction

Minor: Incest

place6o_ffct's review against another edition

Plot got too thin. Eventually it felt like just futzing around following the characters—and without the sense of progression from the plot, I got bored. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Death, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Gaslighting

Minor: Incest

brot's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Suicide attempt, Death, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, and Suicide

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Grief, Toxic friendship, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content

Minor: Incest and Homophobia

norabeideineroma's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Misogyny, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexism, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Grief, Blood, Animal death, Biphobia, Car accident, Drug use, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Murder, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Classism, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Cursing, Mental illness, Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Homophobia, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Suicide attempt, and Toxic friendship

amberg25's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Antisemitism, Emotional abuse, Animal death, Death, Sexual harassment, Violence, Xenophobia, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, Drug use, Grief, Incest, Medical content, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Cannibalism, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Rape, and Injury/Injury detail

ilsabelle's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Classism, Violence, Suicide attempt, Drug use, Murder, Mental illness, Addiction, and Gun violence

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Xenophobia, Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Incest, Toxic relationship, Racial slurs, Sexual violence, and Homophobia

joslyn_cole's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide attempt, Injury/Injury detail, Incest, Murder, Mental illness, Self harm, Drug abuse, Addiction, Violence, Gun violence, Death, and Alcoholism

clairebear23's review against another edition

dark 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

2.0

Well.

Did I finish the book in two days? Sure did. I wish I would have gone to bed instead.

I have a lot of problems with this book. It was entertaining, I can certainly admit that. But I wasn't drawn into the story by any measure of concern for the characters. I just wanted to know what the mystery was and how everything turned out. For all his aloofness and intellectual elitism, Henry did manage to get me hooked on finding out his secrets.

I agree with many others that the characterization fell flat. Like used-powdered-sugar-instead-of-flour-while-baking-cupcakes flat. When every character has a selfish motivation, it's boring. There's nothing unique about a person acting in their own self-interest and -preservation. No one was able to actually face their emotions about anything -- the beginning was fine before the drugs and alcohol induced hazes of the next 75% surfaced. For a book about intense emotion and living in the moment, everyone seemed intent on being miserable and trying to stoically ignore their inner turmoil that definitely most certainly most obviously were there (/s).

I really had a problem with the way Francis was portrayed. I think Tartt relied heavily on the "predatory gay" stereotype that tends to pop up in "gritty" stories / anything created earlier than 2014. Francis doesn't respect boundaries, comes on to every male in his life, and only seems to have sexual rather romantic or platonic interests. When Richard reflects on the moment they had in the canoe where their hands brushed, he made it seem like it was an inevitable thing that Francis would hit on him. It wasn't inevitable, Tartt just chose to play along with the oft-touted epithet of closeted bigots: "well I'm a man, and you're gay, so therefore you must be attracted to me" and "what if he hits on me? Because he's obviously interested in me because I'm a man." Didn't like and it put a sour taste in my mouth.

It honestly didn't feel like there were any stakes. I was never worried at any point for them. Again, I simply was curious and wanted to find out what the hell was happening. Even when Julian found the letter at the end, I knew nothing was going to happen. Julian was barely in the whole book, so why now should he play an important role?

What the hell was up with the Camilla and Charles incest plot. Awful. Ridiculous. Charles did not get enough shit for that

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The whole story was overly pedantic and pretentious. I kept waiting for them to all turn on Henry and realize how miserable they were living their life in isolation and with their nose stuck in the past.

It almost got there, and then Henry shot himself (which, was a weird scene in itself)

. Just set me on edge. I love me some Shakespeare and I can and will talk your ear off about his plays, but this was just too much. Personally a matter of taste, I think, in this regard.

Generally, I'm not a big fan of "dark academia" because I find them to be overly pretentious. So I admit I had a bias coming into this book, but I feel justified in not liking it as a whole because of the flat characters, loose ends to major plots (ie Charles and Camilla), Francis, and just the vibe. Thanks for reading.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Incest, Suicide, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail