Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt

210 reviews

giuliana_ferrari's review

adventurous dark emotional reflective 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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Unfortunately, I'm sensing a common theme among Tart's female characters. They are shallow and exist as objects of desire to the male protagonists, or just to be ridiculed. A lot has been said about it online so I don't need to expand on it.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Death, Drug use, Addiction, and Alcohol

mawn323's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Suicide attempt, Drug use, Alcohol, Suicide, Drug abuse, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Alcoholism, Murder, and Medical content

kaitoro_walker13's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Addiction, and Drug use

Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Vomit

Minor: Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Suicidal thoughts

kailaelders's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

4.0

In spite of certain chapters feeling overly long and descriptive which frequently took me out of the story, I liked this book on the whole. The story and themes were very compelling, and I enjoyed the characters too. The last 20 pages were tough because I feel she ended on one of these drawn out passages, which was a bit disappointing, but it was still a 4 star read for me.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug use, Death of parent, and Alcoholism

lcyarnall1's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful inspiring mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Drug use, Suicide attempt, Mental illness, Violence, Murder, Drug abuse, Abandonment, and Addiction

Terrorist attack/bombing content

stevienielson's review

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Blood, Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, Violence, Death, Car accident, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Drug use, Drug abuse, Vomit, Sexism, Death of parent, Cursing, Sexual content, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide attempt, Physical abuse, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, and Grief

franzis's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Grief, Mental illness, Murder, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Gun violence, Death, Animal death, and Child abuse

Minor: Pedophilia

muffmacguff's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

I enjoyed this! I thought the end

Spoiler

tied things together a little overly neatly including the protagonist’s philosophical revelations

but overall it was an engaging story with very well-drawn characters. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, and Child abuse

Minor: Domestic abuse

finleigh's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Homophobia and Suicide attempt

Minor: Racism

thecourtofreading's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad 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

3.75

finally finished this behemoth of a book. like, this took me way too long to finish. and i adore Donna Tartt. the secret history defined an era of my life for me. but the goldfinch. as much as i liked it, this book dragged on for WAY too long. like there were times where stuff could just be described simply and easily instead of flowery and over the top.

i liked the premise of this book, but the blurb made it seem more interesting than it actually was. it made it seem like Theo stole the painting, and then got pulled into an underworld where he then stole more paintings and ran from the cops. what this really was about was a traumatised boy, who never really found anyone who fully cared from him, did drugs, did alcohol, who clung to a painting that he associated with his recently deceased mother. Theo was exhausting to read about after a while, which is why it took me so long to finish because it was just his internal monologue and his thoughts. the paragraphs were so CHUNKY at times as well it kind of gave me a headache to read. it could've done with a lot being cut out and chopped down, but this is not me saying Donna Tartt is a bad author. she is phenomenal and continues to be phenomenal. i think i much preferred the secret history more, and that will always be my favourite.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Addiction, Death of parent, Drug abuse, and Gun violence

Moderate: Blood and Murder

content warning for terrorist attack.