Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

169 reviews

busy_bee's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Car accident, Death, Drug use, Medical content, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Addiction, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Gun violence, and Incest

directorpurry's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Medical content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Drug abuse, Drug use, Alcohol, Violence, Blood, Alcoholism, Homophobia, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, and Antisemitism

Moderate: Classism, Incest, Misogyny, Murder, Racism, and Eating disorder

Minor: Animal cruelty and Car accident

lindasoderlundd's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Incest, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, and Drug use

Moderate: Homophobia and Medical content

Minor: Abandonment, Child abuse, Classism, Gun violence, Antisemitism, Misogyny, Racism, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Sexual content

lavendar_fr0g's review against another edition

challenging 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

3.5

The first half was great, I was excitedly trying to see what’ll happen next. But after the actual murder, the book went all over the place. It was confusing, all over the place and wasn’t as fun to read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Suicide, Addiction, Cursing, Death, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Incest, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Drug use, Antisemitism, Homophobia, and Drug abuse

Minor: Racial slurs, Racism, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Religious bigotry, Gun violence, Mental illness, Classism, Rape, Panic attacks/disorders, Outing, Medical content, and Medical trauma

ibroughtyouknives's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Drug use, Classism, Drug abuse, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Violence, Homophobia, Death, Murder, Blood, Cursing, Suicide, and Antisemitism

Minor: Incest, Medical content, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Misogyny, and Physical abuse

kelseyr713's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad 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

2.0

I appreciated this on a technical level, but there is so little happening (in terms of plot) from page to page and it’s just not what I’m looking for in the contemporary books I read. I love this level of detail in science fiction or fantasy or speculative novels, but I don’t think it’s necessary here.

It definitely made the English Literature major part of my brain light up again though. I was thinking about essay topics as I read (the amount of character analysis alone…)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Toxic friendship, Suicide, Addiction, Toxic relationship, Homophobia, Murder, Classism, Racial slurs, and Alcohol

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Animal cruelty, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Animal death, Xenophobia, Drug use, Abandonment, Incest, Blood, Car accident, Antisemitism, Racism, Rape, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Drug abuse, Grief, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Medical content, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, and Violence

hopespicey's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

4.5

what would you do? 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Murder, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Sexism, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Incest, Homophobia, Blood, Classism, and Gun violence

Minor: Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, and Medical content

icarusandthesun's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

hallucinogenic, wild - an absolute fever dream.
the writing was impressive, the characters and their development smooth and spiralling like a vortex of water. their decline was obvious, yet so gradual and gracious that later one is left wondering, how could it come to this? how could the same characters that felt new and strange and beautifully secretive at the beginning, discussing greek prepositions in the library, become so fucked up and alien?
i went into this book expecting dark academia, a romantic murder accompanied by sweet greek verses and justified with latin proverbs. well, this was dark academia - for maybe the first hundred pages. after that it turned into a sort of psychological thriller but filled with alcohol and drugs, homer and thoroughly morally grey characters that had no sense of reality and being, in a sleepy town that felt as wicked and grey as its inhabitants.
i lost the book's story line and supposed purpose out of sight rather quickly - the time richard got pneumonia, to be exact. that was the first "what am i reading?"-moment of many yet to come.
and still, i found myself reading for hours straight, leisurely, curious and enticed. a little confused, a little enthralled. 
this book was as unpredictable as life itself, and as tempting as a cult.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Drug abuse, Drug use, Death, and Mental illness

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Physical abuse, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Violence

Minor: Antisemitism, Eating disorder, Classism, Racial slurs, Animal death, Racism, Sexism, Vomit, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, and Incest

dmathuna's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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

Man what a fucking trip holy shit, the first 200 or so pages are definitely slow, but there’s a point where it picks up and it becomes very hard to put down.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Medical content, Medical trauma, and Misogyny

Minor: Suicide attempt, Incest, Suicide, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Misogyny, and Physical abuse

stvalentine's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

i have been implored for years by my friends to read this book, and i knew why only a few pages. donna tartt's writing style is magnetic - the way that she tells the narrative draws you in, just as richard is drawn into the cult-like friend group (classics students are exactly like that). there are times when the text is indistinguishable between narrative and poetry, and is all the more beautiful for it. i see now why this book is such a legend, has a comfortable, gilded seat on so many essential reading lists, and is endlessly described as having a cult following. creepy, enthralling, intimate, poisonous, life-changing. go read it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Grief, Animal cruelty, Car accident, Confinement, Cursing, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Incest, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Violence, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Gore, Gun violence, Animal death, Blood, Death, Xenophobia, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Drug use, and Vomit

Moderate: Classism, Confinement, Addiction, and Racism