Reviews tagging 'Racism'

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

442 reviews

enorace's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Homophobia, Incest, Antisemitism, and Racism

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

bookzplz's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective 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

4.5

“i’m just having a bit of trouble with my passport.”

i technically started this book in the winter of 2022 and for various reasons, put it down

shortly after bunny’s death

. i think it was a little overhyped and i wasn’t sure what to expect so i decided to leave it there. i’m glad i picked it back up. 

this book does an excellent job of showing the blinders people in academia frequently have on and how the isolation under the guise of supremacy can be detrimental. nobody was ever happy. they studied the classics because it was the thing to do, the only one who concluded their studies was richard because he financially had to and, of course,

was alive to do so

. for most of them, classics was something to study because they could and less so because they were actually interested in the subject. the book also expertly showed the favorite pastime of affluent white people, ignoring things they don’t want to deal with or “sweeping it under the rug”. these people, richard excluded, have no actual experience with dealing with their problems.

when bunny is essentially threatening to go forward with what he suspects about them, they never talk to him about it, they give into his extortion and when that gets too tiring they decide to murder him.

it’s less a secret history of what happened and more so outing the secret ways that the wealthy go about ignoring their problems and finding ways of not dealing with them.

i guarantee you i will read this book again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Death, Antisemitism, Grief, Homophobia, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Alcoholism, Addiction, Murder, Incest, Violence, Alcohol, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Misogyny, Gun violence, and Body horror

emimcmanis's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Homophobia, Toxic friendship, Classism, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Alcoholism, Antisemitism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Incest, Mental illness, Murder, Xenophobia, Violence, and Suicide

Moderate: Sexual content

angela_iseli's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

Minor: Racism and Antisemitism

idahol7221's review against another edition

adventurous 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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Classism, Racism, Suicide, Violence, Death, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Sexism, Antisemitism, Blood, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Incest

bruts_bane's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense 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

4.0

This is the first time in a long time where I’ve had so many emotions when reading a book. I’m going to write everything in spoilers.

Every character has sides to them you can’t even begin to imagine. They’re all very bad people, really. I found it so interesting how the first half of the book is pretty much solely justifying Bunny’s death. Going over how annoying and problematic he was. Then the second half is the complete opposite. Talking about how bad the other five are, and how comparatively, Bunny wasn’t that bad after all. It’s not that Bunny wasn’t a bad person. It’s that everyone knew he was bad, because he never hid it. But the other characters hide their faults and are so secretive. When Bunny was outspoken with his foul comments and such. It makes him seem like the bad guy, which he wasn’t very good at all, but he wasn’t bad enough to have been murdered. The book had such horrible language throughout it which was awful to read. From awful awful language on racism to homophobia and sexism. Honestly the racism was completely unnecessary, I struggle to see why Donna Tart added it at all. I find it hard to decide if I really like the book. I couldn’t put it down, but I also just began to hate characters. And being inside Richard’s mind sucked. I’m rating it 4 stars because of the actual storyline and writing itself, which had me HOOKED let me say! It’s amazing how much I loved the characters in the start, and how much I hate them now. Especially Charles. Awful man. And RICHARD UGH that one line genuinely might have traumatised me a bit. I kept hoping for Bunny to come back to life. And I still sort of love Henry a bit. I KNOW I know. He’s bad, but I liked his character. I found it so interesting how completely obsessed he was with Julian and learning and improving himself that he killed others and his own self in the end. ALSO I wish so bad we could learn what they did in that ritual when they killed the first man. There are a few plot holes like that, that I wish we knew. I never even understood why Bunny ended up going to the woods in the first place when he was murdered, if he was at a party not long before. Also I wonder why Richard is even writing this book? It seems like he had a purpose throughout when he talks directly to the reader, but it isn’t explained in the end. The way the brush off murder in the book is so bad, that’s the first sign to how evil they all are.

Beware of the trigger warnings. It’s a heavy heavy book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Violence, Alcoholism, Incest, Murder, and Homophobia

tashiface's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Grief, Incest, Racial slurs, Homophobia, Racism, Murder, Death, Drug use, Self harm, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Alcoholism

kierrareads_'s review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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

3.0

Really should've read the content warnings going into this book!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, and Death

Moderate: Violence and Suicide

Minor: Sexual harassment, Homophobia, Incest, Rape, Racism, and Racial slurs

mskingbean69's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gun violence, Islamophobia, Body horror, Gaslighting, Bullying, Car accident, Cursing, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Biphobia, Death, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Murder, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Animal death, Classism, Fatphobia, Rape, Toxic relationship, Body shaming, Racial slurs, Violence, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Suicide attempt, Grief, Medical content, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, and Suicidal thoughts