Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Gizli Tarih by Donna Tartt

76 reviews

storyofmyshelf's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

alisasreads'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? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

kinda shocked at how much i enjoyed this book, i'd heard so many opinions about it that i had no idea what my own would be. as popular as it is right now i just had to read it and i'm glad i did. the tone, setting, style and the way the characters were written was just so good. it's exactly the type of story i like as a dark academia lover, i now understand why everyone always recommends this book in the genre. i literally just finished it and feel i really need to sit with the book before i can write a review that would do this book justice. so these were just some of my first thoughts.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Incest, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Antisemitism, Car accident, Gaslighting, and Classism

Minor: Rape

frankielovestofu's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug use, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Moderate: Body horror, Incest, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail

Could do without the incest and racial slurs. Arguably, the racial slurs can be “justified” because they’re each only spoken once or twice by specific characters, and author either corrects behaviour of characters through another character or implies it’s not her thoughts. It’s clearly just to show how bigoted the characters saying it are, but still. The incest is left ambiguous at the end, whether it’s a long-term SA situation or consensual relationship turned sour at end. Either way, definitely could of been written without with very minor impact on plot and/or book. I.e. could still write controlling character without sexual subplot. Sorry not sorry. In addition, haven’t seen anyone mention it. There’s an extremely triggering (quick) mention of rape on page 484. Just skip the paragraph. It has NO effect on plot, it’s just unecessary and vulgar.

essentially the protagonist is speaking to the female character, and in mid-conversation (since book is his inner monologue) internally shares his sudden urge to strangle and rape his friend, then says the thought disappears as quickly as it came. conversation continues, never mentioned again. the worst part, is that the female character is in the midst of sharing her physical and sexual abuse from her brother when our protagonist thinks this

tomoonarmy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Medical trauma, and Alcohol

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Violence, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Minor: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Car accident, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

peach_pie's review against another edition

I really wanted to like this book, but man it was so depressing and anxious. And I know it’s probably the point, but the characters really aren’t likeable. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Gaslighting

uhh_sydney's review against another edition

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

2.25

People hyped up this book so much as a dark academia necessity when all they did was chainsmoke, drink too much, and kill people. Richard is the most boring protagonist I’ve ever read. He’s just a vessel for other characters to tell him and by extension the reader what the plot line is. He has hardly any personality if his own. This book doesn’t show, it tells. I want to watch things fall apart before me, not have some other character ramble to Richard for three and a half pages. Also, why is everyone obsessed with Camilla?

Why does Richard love her besides she’s pretty I guess? Why does she get involved with Henry? Why does HER OWN TWIN BROTHER GET ROMANTICALLY INVOLVED WITH HER????? Still don’t understand the exact motives behind murdering Bunny either.

Felt a little uneasy about the portrayal of Francis’ homosexuality, but I can’t put my finger on it. Not necessarily a critique of the elite institution, which is what the book has the potential to be. Definitely more focused on the aesthetic. It had its bright moments, but overall I was dissapointed by this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Incest, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual content, and Car accident

Minor: Infidelity, Rape, Religious bigotry, and Classism

nenya's review against another edition

challenging 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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book was truly interesting - I know that this is generally a very weak adjective but in this case, it is entirely true. It has a somewhat descriptive but then again very subjective and somewhat sentimental first-person narrative which took some time to get used to. But once I did, it was inevitable to fall into such a deep reading flow (I sometimes felt like the book was luring me in) that even the „boring“ scenes make you not want to stop reading. The characters in this book were so incredibly real and deeply (veryyy deeply) flawed which made the reading experience very intense and mysterious. There were some scenes (Chapter 8, i‘m looking at you) that just totally knocked me out of my socks, there is no better way to describe it. Due to the limited knowledge of the narrator and protagonist himself, plot twists are nearly impossible to predict here (unless of course they were being foreshadowed intentionally) which I loved.
However, it is very important here to check the trigger warnings because there is A LOT going on - stuff that is obvious very soon and other things that take a lot of time to become truly clear.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Incest, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Blood, Antisemitism, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism

linalina's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness

Minor: Body horror, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, and Classism

clarathromycin's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.0

Donna Tartt’s writing was excellent throughout the book.  The characters were strong and you could feel the anticipation build.  However, I did feel as if she was taking extraordinary liberties with the use of racial and homophobic slurs in the dialogue of her bigoted characters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Antisemitism, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Infidelity

fjerda's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

4.75

I feel punch drunk after reading this book. The Secret History is rotten on the inside and I am in absolute awe of it. Tartt is truly, inexpressibly talented.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicide, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Incest, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual violence, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, and Forced institutionalization