Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt

101 reviews

tuesdaydg's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

2.0

There is no doubt that The Goldfinch is a thoroughly well-crafted novel. Is it incredibly long? Yes. Is it incredibly slow? Yes. Is the protagonist/narrator insufferable and infuriating? Yes. Yet, I can’t really seem to fault the novel for these elements. There is nothing wrong with a long, slow book with morally questionable characters. What I can fault it for, though, is my own personal experience spending time with the story and existing in the protagonist’s head. So, did I enjoy this novel? No, not really. I attribute this to an amalgamation of factors, from my own personal tastes to false expectations to the feelings Theo’s narrative elicited from me as I read (or listened, rather). I think I expected the “stolen artwork” theme to contribute a sense of adventure or even a fun thrill that would linger on each page. Instead, this theme creates a constant sense of dread and overwhelming stress which exudes from the pages. This, in combination with Theo’s

Spoiler

severe addiction to drugs and alcohol

, made my reading experience quite unpleasant. I have to commend the author for her ability to bring out such emotion, but I felt the the constant weight of this combination of elements seemed to become exhausting, so that the trudge through felt daunting rather than exciting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Abandonment, Grief, Addiction, Drug use, Alcoholism, Vomit, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Classism, Suicidal thoughts, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Car accident

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

emmawoodhouse's review

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug use, Grief, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Death of parent, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Murder and Violence

Minor: Homophobia, Car accident, Trafficking, Vomit, Animal cruelty, and Suicidal thoughts

Spoiler

the dog stops getting neglected early on and lives a long, happy life

kers_tin's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Drug use, Alcoholism, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Gun violence, Violence, Suicide attempt, Physical abuse, Murder, Emotional abuse, Car accident, Bullying, Blood, Addiction, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, and Domestic abuse

bloodredscar832's review

dark emotional reflective sad 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

~ 3.75 - 4.00 ~

In the end, I don’t quite know how to describe my experience reading this book and my thoughts afterwords. I enjoyed the book well enough, but I especially liked the writing style - I really need to look into more of Donna Tartt’s works, her writing style is so descriptive and flowy and beautiful; I really like it. The characters were all interesting in their own ways (I particularly liked Hobie, Boris, and the Barbour’s, Mrs. Barbour specifically) and I enjoyed all of Theo’s interactions with each character. I think that this is definitely a story that needed to be told, and one that will stick with readers for a long time - whether good or bad.

For negatives, I believe that the book was much too long. My version had 771 pages, and it was an absolute pain to get through. I thought it was pretty impressive that the author was able to have subplots in the middle and keep the book interesting. As I realized later, the way she wrote the middle and the subplots she included actually made the middle of the book read as being rather plain and I had to drag myself through by sitting down and forcing myself to read. I felt that the last 200 or 300 pages were disconnected from the book - like I was reading a completely separate book. It was especially hard to get through that section for some reason, probably because I didn’t care much for the situation or many of the random side characters. It seemed that I was just getting a bunch of names thrown at me and I didn’t really bother trying to remember who was who. Plus, the last 50 pages were strange compared to the rest of the book and didn’t really add anything, although I did enjoy the writing and the philosophical speech, however, it didn’t really fit with the work in my opinion. Almost like Donna Tartt was getting tired of writing and just threw something on there at the end - the ending to me, simply, felt unsatisfying and the book felt incomplete.

All-in-all, definitely a book I’m glad I read (I mean, the writing style alone was just incredible for me, mwah)! The book drew me in with the interesting plot line and kept me hooked with these side characters that were far more interesting than Theo. I don’t necessarily know if it’s a book I would read again, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The words and characters that I’ve read in this book over the past two months have definitely left a lasting impression, and I think that you should (at-least) give the book a shot!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Drug use, Grief, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Violence, Death, Gun violence, Death of parent, Murder, and Cursing

Minor: Racism, Suicide attempt, Ableism, and Racial slurs

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

her_little_library's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Violence, Grief, Drug use, Addiction, Toxic relationship, and Drug abuse

this book also features domestic terrorism

japanasi's review against another edition

shelving this as dnf for the time being, I’ll probably need to pick it up from scratch when I start reading it again because I doubt I will do so in the foreseeable future 😅 (not sure if ever tbh, it was super depressing and not what I had expected)

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Addiction, Bullying, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Alcoholism, and Cursing

olvrhkl12's review

emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing sad slow-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, Addiction, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Drug abuse, Mental illness, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Death, Abandonment, Bullying, Car accident, and Death of parent

Minor: Gaslighting, Vomit, and Gun violence

bugcollector's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

הסוף היה יפה, 
אבל אני לא בטוחה שזה שווה את עובי הכרך, שכלל עד הסוף המדובר רק רגשות חרדה, מועקה ודחק.

אני גם לא בטוחה אם באמת אהבתי אותו, או שהדרך הארוכה שעברנו ביחד הפעילה עליי מניפולציות. 
 
אפשר להשוות את קריאת הספר לצפייה בסרט אימה כשאתה קטן, מכסה את העיניים אבל עדיין מציץ מבעד לאצבעות כדי לראות. 

מומלץ למזוכיסטים, אוהבי אמנות, דמויות קשות לחיבוב, ותיאור יתר. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Classism, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Murder, Violence, Abandonment, Addiction, Alcohol, Blood, Drug use, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Stalking, and Toxic relationship