Reviews tagging 'Islamophobia'

Gizli Tarih by Donna Tartt

125 reviews

whiteshadow's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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

I can’t even fathom how this book made me feel.
It’s one of the books that after you finish you just stare at the ceiling and think wtf have I just read (in a good way of course)

Morality, loneliness, academia, and picturesque are the first words that come to mind when I think of this book
This book is absolutely amazing from the characters, the writing, the philosophy, the aesthetics, the romanticism.

This is definitely in my top 5 best books I’ve ever read

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Toxic friendship, Suicide, and Death

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug use, Incest, and Homophobia

Minor: Islamophobia, Religious bigotry, Racial slurs, and Racism

raiynnn's review against another edition

dark reflective 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: Alcohol, Murder, Racism, Suicide attempt, Medical content, Drug abuse, Drug use, Islamophobia, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Death, Alcoholism, Classism, Incest, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Homophobia, Misogyny, Gun violence, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Self harm and Car accident

shlowee's review against another edition

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

1.5

Broooo..... I hated this.... *obsesses about it for weeks* *adds to re-read pile*

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Drug use, Classism, Incest, Murder, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Alcoholism, and Islamophobia

Minor: Violence

kristinawidda_k's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Blood, Alcohol, Violence, Toxic friendship, Addiction, Murder, Death, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Alcoholism, Incest, Misogyny, Animal death, Drug use, and Racism

Minor: Islamophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Gun violence, Antisemitism, and Homophobia

theothersideofreading's review against another edition

emotional mysterious 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

3.75

I really enjoyed the first 350-400 pages, but then I found the book starting to drag on a bit. I was less engaged by the end, though I thought the ending was pretty good

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Suicide, and Murder

Moderate: Racial slurs, Rape, Racism, Drug abuse, Death, and Addiction

Minor: Islamophobia

hunnybeemarie's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.75

The Secret History was everything I hoped it would be! It is, as we all know, THE dark academia book. It explores a ton of interesting themes in amazing depth. It has a lot to say about Beauty; beauty as terror, the desire for beauty, and finding beauty in the macabre. It's really interesting to see the way some of the characters find so much beauty and fascination in such terrible things. 
It also discusses death and fate, isolation and knowledge, control and obsession, class and wealth. The way that Donna Tartt is able to weave so many themes into one book is phenomenal to see. There is never a point in which this book feels scattered or like it's doing too much. It keeps you enthralled from beginning to end.
This book is a masterclass in writing and intrigue. The fact that the "main event" doesn't happen until halfway through the book, but you are interested for all of the pages beforehand and all of the pages afterward, is quite a unique feat. 
I finally feel complete in my dark academic dreams having finally read this book all the way through. I started it once before when I was 13. I got about halfway through and I actually annotated it back then! They are the ugliest annotations I've ever seen and it was pretty funny to be able to see them. I think I thought I was pretty clever lol 😂 I don't know where I got half of the things that I wrote down back then from! The most random, kind of pretentious annotations 💀 
All in all, I loved reading and annotating this book, and it absolutely lives up to the hype. There are a few things that felt a little odd or unnecessary to me that are keeping me from giving it a full five stars, therefore I'm giving the secret history a still VERY good 4.75 ⭐ 
(Please look up the trigger warnings before reading this book)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Suicide, Racism, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Classism, Death, Drug use, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Antisemitism, Racial slurs, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Bullying, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Incest, Animal death, Gun violence, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Islamophobia, Medical content, Misogyny, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts

rotfaced's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.5

After having been recommended this book dozens of times across my academic and professional career, I can only believe that the people who recommended it have never actually read it themselves. Extremely overblown and unworthy of its legacy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Islamophobia, Suicide, Racism, and Murder

capricornrisingbby's review against another edition

challenging dark informative mysterious reflective tense 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Classism, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Racial slurs, Incest, Murder, Antisemitism, Homophobia, Racism, Islamophobia, and Blood

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Rape

michaelcoleallen's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

3.75

The Secret History by Donna Tartt has an incredibly developed main cast but its real strength is in how those personality traits and quirks manifest in such minor ways in the relaxed environment of a privileged east-coast liberal arts school, yet have the potential to slowly dominate a character when stress (i.e. murder) is applied.

The pacing was quite good. As the novel enters the last two hundred pages the main character, Richard, thinks less and reacts more in the face of consequences from the uh… thing that he must discuss in ancient greek when the gang is in public which builds a quicker finale of events.

I enjoyed my time with the novel and may even reread. I can recommend it on the basis of good prose, great character study, and a pretty gripping narrative even considering the opening spoiler. Just don’t expect it to be eye-opening, transcendent, etc. It’s a murder story told as a thoughtful page-turner and has allusions to things like Proust and The Iliad to boot.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Ableism, Addiction, Classism, Cursing, Drug use, Grief, Gun violence, Homophobia, and Incest

robi_locksley's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

1.5

I found this book to be incredibly overwritten. Tartt would use five analogies in a row to describe the exact same thing. There were multiple uses of pure filler with paragraphs devoted to something that did not serve to advance plot, character, atmosphere, or anything else other than the word count.

Unfortunately, this book is also packed full of bigotry. There is racism, homophobia, and misogyny all over the place. And it isn't simply down to the characters being jerks. An actual line from the text, during Richard's first class with Julian: "He poured the tea as solemnly as a mandarin." The only times that bigotry is ever challenged by the narrative is when the bigotry is cartoonishly overt and hostile. 

The following is not a spoiler, and serves as an example of the bigotry in this book and the filler. 

There is a full page dedicated to discussing a fictional Middle Eastern country which is named Isram. ISRAM. This fictional Middle Eastern country, with only one letter changed from the dominant religion of the Middle East, is described as a terrorist state and is said to have a jihad against the main character's Greek/Classics professor. 

This is all pure filler, too. There's absolutely no reason for it to be there. But there it is. Isram. 

There is no convincing me that Tartt isn't a horribly bigoted person after reading that. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Suicide, Misogyny, Islamophobia, Murder, Racism, Rape, Xenophobia, Violence, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and Sexism