Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

398 reviews

sugar_fox's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective 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

5.0

This book, despite taking me a long time to finish reading is a must-read for anyone and everyone. Never in this book was there a moment where I thought it was dull. Even the everyday occurrences in this school was made intriguing beyond belief, hell, I’d go as to say I enjoyed every moment of this book. Never did I hate it, something rare for me. The only thing, if you hate being made to feel stupid, don’t read this book. The amount of literary references, and the many others I probably missed was crazy.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug use, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Incest, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Grief, and Gaslighting

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Misogyny, Blood, Car accident, Suicide attempt, and Outing

raypaws's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Domestic abuse, Rape, and Self harm

avignaa's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

The premises was great, the writing is beautiful. However, i find it lazy to take 8 years to write a book and relying on slurs to make a commentary on dark academia. Hearing the audiobook narrated by the author and saying these slurs with her whole chest was definitely something.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Homophobia, Incest, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Rape

uss_mary_shelley's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Incest, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Misogyny, Rape, and Sexism

rebekkamafia's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug use, Murder, Alcohol, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Cursing, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Suicide, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Antisemitism, and Suicide attempt

marleysclassics's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective tense 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

4.5

If you want to read this for the plot - don‘t. If you want to read it because of the characters … I would recommend this either. At least not, if you want to like them.
Because, though it might seem strange, in my opinion one of the best parts of this book was the developments of the characters in terms of likability. I liked all of them as I didn‘t know them at all and with every page I read I began to detest every one of them a little more. While I wouldn‘t call every single person of in this book a bad person, some certainly are. And I was so here for it, because it felt like hating them more meant understanding them more.

If you want to read this book because of the vibes - definitely. They‘re there, yet I wouldn‘t expect too much of the academia and a little more of the dark aspect. Not to say that academia isn‘t a reoccurring theme, because it is, but there really aren‘t that many lessons or anything. It‘s more about the whole setting, and the motives of the characters yet in a more abstract way.

I also loved the writing, because it is beautiful and meaningful and often SO pretentious - and it knows it is and it‘s okay because it romanticises and critiques its own style and contents at the same time. (I actually think that‘s the essence of the whole dark academia genre.) I flew through the pages, and especially the first part of the novel was SO addictive. You know what‘s going to happen from page one and still you become more interested with every page. And sometimes you can‘t even tell what draws you too the pages, yet there is something. Unfortunately, this lacked a bit in the second half. Especially towards the end, there were some parts which really grabbed me, but there were also long passages which I wasn‘t interested in. At some point, this narrative just turns into a fever dream/nightmare/sequence of drug abuse, and partly this became a tiring. But also not entirely.

I‘m not sure what to think about the ending. I think it‘s quite a realistic one (even though realistic might not 100% mean explainable), especially what is explained in the epilogue. Yet I‘m not really content with it, I would have hoped for something better for them, which is weird because I don‘t like them. But you can‘t just read 600 pages about those people and not foster a certain affection (I don‘t think that‘s the right word) for those horrible human beings. But yes, especially for Francis I just wished for something better. Mmh … But I don‘t think that‘s the book‘s fault.

In the end, I‘m pretty sure I‘ll have to read this again. 

P.S.: I never answered the question „Are the flaws of the main character(s) a main focus of the book?“ more confidently. 
And now I‘ll put this book in my shelf right next to The Picture of Dorian Gray 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Moderate: Bullying, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Incest, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, and Grief

Minor: Animal death, Gun violence, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Blood, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, and Car accident

justaddwater's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Body horror, Sexual content, Torture, Blood, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Sexual harassment

startjpw23's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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? Yes

5.0

In a preface to the book, we learn that a group of college students murdered a classmate. The main body of the book then starts during the previous year when Richard, a native Californian, who is the first-person narrator of the story, applies to get into a small Vermont college. More than anything, he wants to get away from California and his parents. He was previously in a college where one of the things he studied was the Greek language and literature (he didn't complete his studies there). He is accepted into the Vermont college for the fall semester. Shortly after arriving at the college, he learns that the college has a Greek study program. He becomes obsessed with getting into the program. He is initially refused by the professor in charge of the program. This professor has exacting standards about who can join. Richard eventually convinces the professor to let him join. There are only 5 other students. One of the students is the student who will later be killed. Richard and the other 4 students all have some involvement with the killing. The extent of their involvement is only revealed as the book progresses. All of the students in this Greek study program largely keep to themselves. The are pretty much only friends with each other. Everything I said above occurs very early in the book. The remainder is the events that led up to the killing and the aftermath where the students try not to get caught and them trying to deal with the knowledge that they killed someone. The story also deals with the dynamics of the group and how they interact with each other and how they interact with the professor of the Greek study program as well as other people. This is the first Dark Academia book I read. I liked it a lot. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Suicide, Blood, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death

Minor: Infidelity

pbeeandj's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Racial slurs, Suicide, Islamophobia, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Classism

Moderate: Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal cruelty, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Vomit, and Antisemitism

colittle's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Richard failing to remember certain key details near the end of the story when he’s recalled everything else in vivid detail seems more like a cop-out than an intentional literary decision. Other than that, 5 stars. The seminal dark academia novel and an often satirical examination of class, elitism, and aestheticism. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Drug use, Mental illness, Suicide, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Body shaming, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Infidelity, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Islamophobia, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Outing