Reviews with content warning for Incest - Gizli Tarih

Reviews tagging 'Incest'

Gizli Tarih by Donna Tartt

1917 reviews

marimaria's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.0

My jaw literally dropped. I went through so many emotions by the end wtf. Also I think everyone in this book needs therapy. Like, lots of it.

It's a beautifully written book, though. And I can understand why a lot of people found it boring at first. It reads a lot like the classics, where there's a lot of narration. But I got invested nonetheless.

Content Warnings

zoekyriacou's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious reflective 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

3.5

Good autumn read and I was hooked. Was hoping for more reveal/ satisfying tying of knots at the end to boost the overall reading experience. The writing at moments can be exquisite. I didn’t connect with any of the characters. Was expecting more. So much smoking😮‍💨

Content Warnings

venrus_stryder's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark funny mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

erebus53's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

2.25

For a story with attractive writing and the occasionally beautiful truth of phrase, I have never read a book with more characters that I loathed. It is set in a university clique where the students so devote themselves to their study of ancient Greek, and their sycophantic affection for their tutor, that they become quite disconnected from the rest of campus and the real world. It's like you take cliquey academia and then turn it up to 11½. Not quite as schizophrenic as Bunny by Mona Awad, though one of the characters shares the same name, there is a sense that the narrator is not quite reliable.

I didn't get a clear sense of when this was set but I'm guessing that because it references anti-Arab race hatred and Sadam Hussein, that it would have to be about 1991, though most of it feels a little earlier than that. Maybe my perception of it is warped by it having been written before computers and cellphones were ubiquitous.

I was completely culturally at is with a bunch of characters who range from sociopathic to just mildly self-involved, all with a heaping helping of sense of entitlement... all the characters have bad or absent parents which is probably deliberate. These kids are almost adults, similes, and frequently inebriated. They are perfectly ok with tolerating friends as they demonstrate casual disregard for others, drink driving, kleptomania, infidelity, fraud, Racism, Sexism, religious bigotry, and stiffing others for the bill at expensive restaurants. These antics are presented to the narrator as endearing.. again; reliable??

When a classmate goes missing, I as a reader have the ethical question, would I have killed the horrible kid myself?! If I did would that make me a bad person? This kid is demonstrably awful, to mind. Does it matter that he was raised awful, by awful parents, and had a learning disability? Given support could he have improved? Who would have the patience!!!

The book drags. If the scenery had been nice I wouldn't mind so much, but I just wanted to kick all of the characters to the curb. I've been off-the-rails, drunk, clueless, far from home, and made bad decisions. I really liked the part of the story where our narrator has to live in a horrible free room, with a hole in the ceiling, through the coldest winter in ages, and there descriptions of going to common spaces and hanging out at the University because.. it's heated. That I could relate to. But the rest of it...?

I'm not sure why I do this to myself.

Content Warnings

apersonfromflorida's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

4.5

Content Warnings

debirainbow's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective

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

4.0

Read this as it was recommended as a good crime book. Author spends a lot of time immersing you in the world of the students and we see everything from the eyes of the narrator Richard. Nothing much happens until half way through, when you start to get bored you miss the life of these alcoholic, rich students & all the ancient Greek literature. Didn’t like any of the characters. Does suddenly get graphic so watch out for content warnings. The language, descriptions and writing are impeccable.

Content Warnings

sdloomer's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious tense medium-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

I believe I distinctly enjoyed the first half of the book

before the murder

more than the second

after the murder

, even though I completely understand the necessity of describing the aftermath and spiral of the players. But that isn't to say I didn't enjoy the latter half at all. I thought about this book constantly when I wasn't reading it, and within a couple of days, it shot to being one of my favorite reads this year.

Content Warnings

angel_is_reading's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

thewildbookworm's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

3.5

Really, the funny thing, no one in this book is likeable, but they certainly are interesting--most notably, Bunny and Henry. Richard, our main character, is a bit boring but I actually don't mind Tartt's choice to make someone comparably bland the main character. He acts as almost a clean slate for the other people in his life to mold, and they do. Richard is passive and amiable to pretty much anything, as long as he remains included in the group. From his eyes, we can understand the other characters and why they do what they do, and why he is so agreeable to it, even while not agreeing with it ourselves. This is a book that left me thinking about it for a while after--interesting, certainly, but also feeling a vague sense of moral violation.

Content Warnings

themis_biblos's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

[It was] my own fatal tendency to try to make interesting people good.

I loved Donna Tartt's writing. I was absolutely absorbed in these terribly pretentious, unlikeable characters' lives. That's probably also why it was so horribly depressing. I'll keep some passages I loved most, but otherwise this book has to go into the freezer. I am disturbed.

The Greeks had a passion for order and symmetry, but they knew how foolish it was to deny emotion, darkness, barbary.
The more cultivated a person is, the more repressed, then the more he needs some method of channeling the primitive impulses he's worked so hard to subdue. Otherwise those powerful old forces will mass and strengthen until they are violent enough to break free, more violent for the delay.

Content Warnings

More...