Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

513 reviews

louise2000's review against another edition

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

3.0


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schwambibambi's review against another edition

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

5.0


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romy_elizabeth13's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense fast-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? N/A

4.5

I was initially expecting to read a really meaningful, deep, emotional, relaxing-(ish) novel when I picked up Donna Tart’s The Secret History. It ended up being one of the most dark, shocking, twisted, intense books I’ve ever read and it was incredible, oh my word. After reading all these tearjerking, emotional books about love and loss and life, it was nice to have something that kept me hanging on the edge of my seat, while still being incredibly intellectual and offering many interesting perspectives on life. Just when I thought the plot twists would stop, they kept coming in an ever flowing stream and I loved that. The characters, while incredibly flawed were really well written and their personalities were delved deep into. 100% worth the read but if you are under 14/very mature 13 year old, I wouldn’t recommend reading this book just yet. Overall really incredible - something tiktok was right about.

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theeo's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective 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? Yes

4.0

I mostly enjoyed this! I found the plot to be a thrilling slow burn, and disliking the majority of the characters was strangely fun. The writing style is also really wonderful. The characters sometimes sound overly-formal, which at first is a little jarring, but it works because it adds to the weirdly entertaining unpleasantness of their personalities.

I disliked that some descriptions and details felt unnecessary - the author sometimes goes on tangents that don’t offer much substance or relevance to the plot, and almost feel like filler to an already rich story. This is more of a person gripe, but I also didn’t love how long the chapters were. I don’t like to stop mid-chapter (especially when I’m enjoying it) so I ended up sleeping too late on several occasions while reading this…

I did really enjoy this book overall! I may even reread one day, as it’s quite dense and I read it reasonably fast.

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grace_b_3's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-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

4.5


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mskingbean69's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative 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? It's complicated

5.0


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mary_do_12's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

giving this book anything below 5 stars would be criminal.

the way donna tartt grazes the surface of emotions, never quite submerging in, yet letting the reader feel them fully, is truly mesmerizing, just as the way she creates characters and tells a story.

and yet i have some things that threw me off in this book.
i think this story is meant to kind of make you question your morals a little, which is why it features things that made me— uneasy. i always have a hard time distinguishing whether an author is simply writing about a certain topic, or if they are romanticizing it.
i mean murder— that‘s one thing. in fact, a common thing in literature.
however, incest??! uhm, idk. made me queasy. made me a little uncomfy. or well, you could say outright disgusted. the thing is, i really liked the twins, UNTIL I FOUND OUT THEY FUCKED ON A REGULAR BASIS??! like WHAT. are you guys okay? do you— do you need help?

and then richard casually mentioned getting the overwhelming urge to rape camilla while she’s just standing in his room? honey, i—? what? i liked you as well…

also — you gotta give this to the author — i was SHOOKETH. henry?? my poor baby boy?? AND THEN FRANCIS?? in the EPILOGUE? WHEN I THOUGHT THE DAMAGE WAS OVER??


i think i need help after reading about this, because i still feel the urge to throw up, and this is funny because you are reading this in a five star review. 

truly a piece that leaves you thinking for days. 

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jordynjohnson's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

4.0


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avokaitotoast's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious reflective 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

5.0

Short Review (TL;DR):

  • Extra fun read it you have even the most basic knowledge of greek philosophy or tragedies
  • Made me think way too much of my old literature professors (can’t tell you if that’s in a good way or bad way, i have no idea)
  • really fucking good.


Long Review:

I could see how this might be a boring read for some. It’s slow, it’s not incredibly thrilling, it’s fairly predictable — and yet it’s incredibly thought provoking. It’s philosophical at the end of the day, rather than a riveting thriller. To me this book felt like if the concept of an epic poem or philosophical allegory had been applied to 20th century prose.

The characters are unlikeable, flawed to an extreme, and lack a sense of uniqueness that many of us look for in modern literature. They are very much caricatures of the over enthusiastic literature student — rejecting modernity, drinking whiskey, smoking excessive amounts of cigarettes. However, I think that works in its favor. These characters are so incredibly out of touch with the world, so isolated, and in turn are out of touch with themselves and their own morality.

There is a tension between the characters — in the first half — that mimics the academic rivalary between philosophical schools of thought: the stoic versus the epicuric, with the skeptic observing. The constant fight for what they think is higher knowledge (but in reality is a hopeless grapple for control and validation) turns catastrophic and it becomes a tale of shattering perspectives, crumbling realities, and the ever-present philosophical question of “what is good? and what is evil?”.

You don’t have to have interest or knowledge of greek philosophy to enjoy this at all (mine is Super Basic at best), however there’s a lot of really cool elements of classic greek philosophies and tragedies to be enjoyed if you do. I also really enjoyed how, despite being a chaos of greek stories, the entire story ends up almost Machiavellian in nature. 

I honestly can’t wait to re-read this and analyse it more throughly. I think it will be fun to re-read some greek tragedies first though, for sure.

I’m also just rambling at this point. I quite literally just finished and trying to get out everything Ive thought while reading this succinctly is apparently impossible. 



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meic's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • 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

a marvelous read and now Bunny Corcoran is my roman empire, an asshole but I just can’t stop thinking about him 

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