Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

1594 reviews

abigailhaagen's review against another edition

dark mysterious

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

Story was incredibly well-told, the characters very fleshed-out, and I was engrossed and read almost 400 pages in one day. However, it also romanticized a lot of unhealthy behaviors, which probably wasn't great for me mentally (no, Abigail, you can't return to college to study Ancient Greek while drinking bourbon and smoking cigars

and plotting murders

smh)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Homophobia, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Outing, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Classism

Moderate: Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Rape, Self harm, Sexual content, and Vomit

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Antisemitism

111rachel555's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Love this book. Very cross that I have finished it. Somehow Donna Tartt manages to reveal the biggest plot point in the Prologue and still keep you on the edge of your seat for 600 pages. This is an excellent work of character study- I usually struggle to relate to or invest with characters, but I felt like all the main characters were so fleshed out and real. Midway through the book I felt like I really knew all of them and was attached to them despite all their flaws. 
Also, highly recommend the audiobook (uploaded for free on youtube). 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Medical content, and Death of parent

avesmaria's review against another edition

dark funny reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

Absorbing, intricate, incredibly good read. Tartt is a master craftsperson with words here.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug use, Gore, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Murder, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Animal death and Rape

dorisko's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

2.0

IT’S FINALLY OVER.
Overrated, too long, boring and stiff. So many times I almost put that book down. It was kinda fun until halfway when

they killed Bunny.

After that everything went downhill. NOT ONE of the characters was likeable. They weren’t even morally grey, they were just boring pompous assholes. The book doesn’t know what it wants to be. It’s not a murder mystery, it’s not found family, it’s certainly not dark academia because these idiots never study, and even if they do they have nothing interesting to say about their field of studies. Also to make the most boring and bland character the narrator was certainly a choice.
Seriously why did I keep reading, I should have DNF this book halfway.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Vomit, and Murder

Moderate: Homophobia and Incest

annabethmstover's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Suicide, and Murder

violet_viper's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Violence, Murder, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Homophobia, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Incest and Xenophobia

unnamed_melon's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.75

Writing style was immaculate, characters very well developed :)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism and Incest

Moderate: Homophobia, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

haerumii's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective slow-paced

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

1.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Murder, and Alcohol

Minor: Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

mirandale's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.75

A very slow, very intense book that I had to finish just to see how it ended. It just keeps getting darker and darker but I somehow couldn’t look away. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexism, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Moderate: Incest

_david_'s review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-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

3.5

I somewhat enjoyed the book. 

I liked the niche approach of student choice: the outgoing introverted dark academia type of students of classic languages. This is a group which I can recognise in fellow students from my high school days, who coincidentally also studied classic languages. 

The plot is interesting to me. It's a very believable story of a group of people who make very bad choices which seem the easiest to them in the moment, but which have long lasting consequences.  

One thing I wish the story improved is character depth. The main character and Henry are interesting. Bunny is interesting but not very rounded. But Charles, Camilla and Francis are underdeveloped eventhough they were part of the main cast of characters. The main character's crush on Camilla also made my eyes roll. It was very over the top and often distracted from whatever she was doing. Her appearance got mentioned waaaaay too often. I'd rather have known more about her personality. 

Somewhere around the halfway point the story becomes very slow. You might have to push through long paragraphs about seemingly unimportant details. There shouldn't have been much more of it or I would've dropped the book. Speaking of Tartt's writing style: either do not mind having to look up words or be accepting of only understanding the general gist of a word/foreign sentence and moving on. 

The ending was very satisfying to me. The effect of the events in the story are different per character. I found this very interesting to read about. Something clicked when the main character described that the main cast is a group of naturally insecure people who have been taught to feel superior instead. This explains a lot of the behaviour shown.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Gun violence, Self harm, Suicide, Violence, Suicide attempt, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Incest, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Bullying, Eating disorder, Toxic relationship, Car accident, and Classism

Drunk driving/drunk drivers/driving under influence Description of thoughts of raping a woman