Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt

99 reviews

abbeycochran's review

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Child abuse, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, and Death of parent

rrio's review

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Grief, Addiction, Child abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Drug use, and Suicide attempt

passionfriuts's review

adventurous challenging emotional funny reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Child abuse, and Alcoholism

kristinisntokay's review

emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness, Racism, Racial slurs, Alcohol, Child abuse, Death of parent, Drug use, Physical abuse, Adult/minor relationship, and Bullying

kingcrookback's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad 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

Theo's story is permeated with a sense of displacement, of being out of place--grief, the passage of time, antiques, old art, physical distance, memory, estrangement, the gap between imagination/ideal and reality. For the most part, I enjoyed Tartt's writing style, especially how she captures emotions and headspaces that are typically very fleeting, ephemeral. This book is also very Dickensian, especially in its exploration of class, crime, and abuse.

However, as nice as the language was at times, it's slow-paced enough that I had to actively work (as in make sure I read a certain number of pages per day) so that my progress didn't peter out and eventually result in a DNF. The last arc of Theo's story is also rather incongruous with the rest of it, which threw me a bit. Tartt also seems to have a problem with leaving her female characters underdeveloped, which I suppose could be chalked up to the way Theo engages with women as a result of his grief, but it's still a bit annoying.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Violence, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Drug use, Addiction, Blood, and Alcohol

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, and Child abuse

Minor: Racism and Cursing

123urmom's review

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

I only know about it’s existence because of the movie. There were some good parts but it was slow and sad. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Mass/school shootings, Addiction, Death of parent, Child abuse, Mental illness, Drug abuse, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Vomit, Suicidal thoughts, and Car accident

capucapulet's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug use, Grief, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death of parent, Racial slurs, Gun violence, Homophobia, and Suicidal thoughts

joensign's review

challenging dark emotional reflective slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Drug abuse

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Child abuse

veerau's review

dark reflective sad 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

3.0

Ok listen, the story is imo quite good on it's own, but I could not handle how slow it all was... 
To be clear, I read the synopsis of the book, and the main event it all circles around of happens 200+ pages in, if not 400 I do not remember and I'm certainly not opening this tome again. 
The most interesting parts are Theo's childhood, up until he's 14-15, and the last 150 pages probably. Aka when Boris shows up and does chaos. 
I'm not one scared of big books, but this one really could have benefited from a cut here and there, it was hard at times to find the motivation needed to continue unfortunately. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Child abuse, Death, and Grief

misterorms's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Violence, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, Drug use, Drug abuse, Alcohol, Vomit, Toxic relationship, Panic attacks/disorders, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Car accident, Bullying, Alcoholism, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Death, Cursing, and Addiction

Moderate: Mass/school shootings and Adult/minor relationship