Reviews tagging 'Suicide attempt'

The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt

136 reviews

franzis's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

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

Minor: Pedophilia

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

paint_gremlin's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

tovahs's review

dark funny slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Drug abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Gun violence, Bullying, Blood, Vomit, Child abuse, Racial slurs, Mental illness, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Physical abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Fire/Fire injury, Drug use, Grief, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Addiction, Injury/injury detail, Emotional abuse, and Death of parent

k3volutionenergy's review

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

0.25

As you can probably tell by me giving this book the lowest rating position, I really didn't like this book, the only reason I didn't DNF it was because I blindly chose it for my English Literature course work. 

Some of the main reasons as to why I didn't like it: 

-It felt as though POC characters were used as a plot device rather than being seen as really people. The majority of these characters didn't have names, instead being referred to as 'The [ethnicity or race] man/woman', not to mention that the only role they seemed to serve was forwarding the lives of the all white main cast. As for the POC characters who were named, they were so incredibly stereotyped - The Latino doormen are the biggest examples of this 

-It felt like an excuse for Tartt (a white women) to says slurs, particularly the n-word. Boris, a character who's first language is Ukrainian, starts to say the n-word as he likes rap (not kidding, Tartt wrote that). I think this was in an attempt of Tartt to show that Boris isn't allinged with what she deams as more western ideals of what is acceptable and that he isn't American however, Tartt can't mention Boris without mentioning that a) he is Ukrainian/is not American (eg. Pointing out the way he pronounces English words incorrectly) or that b) his morals are deemed unacceptable in her American lense. Either way, Tartt using the n-word as a white women is unacceptable, no question, but it just feels worse when it's just thrown in there for literally no reason (eg. Portraying racism (though, still no excuse)) 

-There is so many mentions of underaged boys wanting to sleep with/actually sleeping with fully grown women - there is more mentions of this that mentions of sex that is legal. I'm not accusing Tartt of anything but it definitely feels like some fixation with how much it's mentioned. I want to add, there is never sex between two consenting adults mentioned, at least not as explicitly as sex between two underaged boys or between underaged boys and adult women.

-Tartt seems to use queerness as a lazy plot device and nothing more. Boris and Theo's relationship in a romantic and sexual sense is only seen a few times when they are teenagers, more times vaguely with one time to my memory being outward (their kiss before Theo leaves Vegas). It mentioned offhand in their adulthood with Boris mentioning Theo is the only man he has ever slept with. This book seems to be pushed as a queer book and though the main characters may be queer despite their preferences to women, I definitely feel like the queer aspects of the book are a lazy plot above anything else - queerbating, really.

-This gripe is definitely very small compared to my others but I would still like to mention it - She mixed up the languages of two different countries. She writes of a Welsh side character named 'Kellin' when that's the Irish spelling of the name, the Welsh being 'Celyn'. Again, small gripe, but still something that stood out to me as a Welsh person. 

I really wouldn't recommend reading this book, it's personally put me off Tartt's writing completely despite how acclaimed some of her other works are.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Drug abuse, Toxic friendship, Addiction, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Sexism, Racism, and Xenophobia

maeve_simone's review

dark emotional reflective tense 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

5.0

actually obsessed with this book. in love with donna tartt’s writing. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Drug use, Grief, Death of parent, Suicide attempt, and Addiction

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

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

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

velaw's review

dark emotional reflective 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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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Blood and Domestic abuse

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide attempt

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