Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Jumalat juhlivat öisin by Donna Tartt

262 reviews

carodunn's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad 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

4.75

very nihilistic in a satisfying way

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Murder, Toxic friendship, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Cursing, Drug abuse, Homophobia, and Death

Moderate: Racial slurs, Gun violence, Incest, Religious bigotry, Antisemitism, Dysphoria, Mental illness, Sexism, Emotional abuse, Islamophobia, Medical trauma, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Sexual violence and Suicidal thoughts

sugar_fox's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective 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

5.0

This book, despite taking me a long time to finish reading is a must-read for anyone and everyone. Never in this book was there a moment where I thought it was dull. Even the everyday occurrences in this school was made intriguing beyond belief, hell, I’d go as to say I enjoyed every moment of this book. Never did I hate it, something rare for me. The only thing, if you hate being made to feel stupid, don’t read this book. The amount of literary references, and the many others I probably missed was crazy.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Toxic friendship, Murder, Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug use, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Cursing, Sexism, Violence, Gaslighting, Grief, Homophobia, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Incest, Death, Drug abuse, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Misogyny, Suicide attempt, Car accident, and Outing

faithstuff's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Physical abuse, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Panic attacks/disorders, Chronic illness, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Blood, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Dysphoria, Suicide attempt, Addiction, Classism, Drug abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Alcoholism, Death, Incest, Violence, Gore, Grief, and Medical content

sgtbuckaroo'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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I really did enjoy reading this book, the characters and the story. However, enjoying the characters does not mean liking them as people. Because they are most definitely not meant to be likeable people. Enjoyable? Yes. Likeable? No.

They are all, in some way or another and some more than others, people who you wouldn’t want to be around in real life. Each character has at least one undesirable trait, and they are all morally gray if not explicitly bad people. However, I still found them enjoyable, which I believe is made possible by the fact that they are clearly not meant to be likeable as human beings.

I also found it very interesting to read about and analyze Richard’s perspective of everyone else, and compare it to my understanding of them (although using only Richards observations).

The writing was good, as one would expect from a writer such as Donna Tartt, although a little difficult at some points which I believe is because  I am not a native English speaker. However, even though some parts were more difficult than others, they were never to the extent of being too much or unintelligible. 

I’ve put off reading this book for quite some time, but I’m very glad I got to reading it. It’s a great story, and a very interesting one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Violence, Mental illness, Suicide, Murder, Alcohol, Toxic friendship, Addiction, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Domestic abuse, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Cursing, Death, and Gun violence

Minor: Animal death, Bullying, Incest, Animal cruelty, Homophobia, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Panic attacks/disorders

honipoems's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.5

I thought it would have been more intense and dramatic but it was quite slow. It was great but i didn't expect that kind of great when ppl talked about it on internet

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Violence, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Death, Murder, Sexual content, Suicide, Alcohol, Blood, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, and Toxic relationship

marleysclassics's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.5

If you want to read this for the plot - don‘t. If you want to read it because of the characters … I would recommend this either. At least not, if you want to like them.
Because, though it might seem strange, in my opinion one of the best parts of this book was the developments of the characters in terms of likability. I liked all of them as I didn‘t know them at all and with every page I read I began to detest every one of them a little more. While I wouldn‘t call every single person of in this book a bad person, some certainly are. And I was so here for it, because it felt like hating them more meant understanding them more.

If you want to read this book because of the vibes - definitely. They‘re there, yet I wouldn‘t expect too much of the academia and a little more of the dark aspect. Not to say that academia isn‘t a reoccurring theme, because it is, but there really aren‘t that many lessons or anything. It‘s more about the whole setting, and the motives of the characters yet in a more abstract way.

I also loved the writing, because it is beautiful and meaningful and often SO pretentious - and it knows it is and it‘s okay because it romanticises and critiques its own style and contents at the same time. (I actually think that‘s the essence of the whole dark academia genre.) I flew through the pages, and especially the first part of the novel was SO addictive. You know what‘s going to happen from page one and still you become more interested with every page. And sometimes you can‘t even tell what draws you too the pages, yet there is something. Unfortunately, this lacked a bit in the second half. Especially towards the end, there were some parts which really grabbed me, but there were also long passages which I wasn‘t interested in. At some point, this narrative just turns into a fever dream/nightmare/sequence of drug abuse, and partly this became a tiring. But also not entirely.

I‘m not sure what to think about the ending. I think it‘s quite a realistic one (even though realistic might not 100% mean explainable), especially what is explained in the epilogue. Yet I‘m not really content with it, I would have hoped for something better for them, which is weird because I don‘t like them. But you can‘t just read 600 pages about those people and not foster a certain affection (I don‘t think that‘s the right word) for those horrible human beings. But yes, especially for Francis I just wished for something better. Mmh … But I don‘t think that‘s the book‘s fault.

In the end, I‘m pretty sure I‘ll have to read this again. 

P.S.: I never answered the question „Are the flaws of the main character(s) a main focus of the book?“ more confidently. 
And now I‘ll put this book in my shelf right next to The Picture of Dorian Gray 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Death, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Mental illness

Moderate: Gun violence, Hate crime, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Incest, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicide

Minor: Antisemitism, Blood, Car accident, Gun violence, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Animal death, Homophobia, Islamophobia, and Racism

idiealittle's review against another edition

dark 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

0.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Incest, Classism, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Bullying, Cursing, Drug abuse, and Emotional abuse

justaddwater's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad 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: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Addiction, Alcohol, Classism, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Violence, Alcoholism, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic friendship, Religious bigotry, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Sexual harassment, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Blood, Body horror, Sexual content, and Torture

startjpw23's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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

5.0

In a preface to the book, we learn that a group of college students murdered a classmate. The main body of the book then starts during the previous year when Richard, a native Californian, who is the first-person narrator of the story, applies to get into a small Vermont college. More than anything, he wants to get away from California and his parents. He was previously in a college where one of the things he studied was the Greek language and literature (he didn't complete his studies there). He is accepted into the Vermont college for the fall semester. Shortly after arriving at the college, he learns that the college has a Greek study program. He becomes obsessed with getting into the program. He is initially refused by the professor in charge of the program. This professor has exacting standards about who can join. Richard eventually convinces the professor to let him join. There are only 5 other students. One of the students is the student who will later be killed. Richard and the other 4 students all have some involvement with the killing. The extent of their involvement is only revealed as the book progresses. All of the students in this Greek study program largely keep to themselves. The are pretty much only friends with each other. Everything I said above occurs very early in the book. The remainder is the events that led up to the killing and the aftermath where the students try not to get caught and them trying to deal with the knowledge that they killed someone. The story also deals with the dynamics of the group and how they interact with each other and how they interact with the professor of the Greek study program as well as other people. This is the first Dark Academia book I read. I liked it a lot. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Suicide attempt, Homophobia, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Addiction, Blood, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Alcohol, Toxic friendship, Death, Mental illness, Misogyny, and Incest

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death

Minor: Infidelity

tpsebast92's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Death, Murder, Violence, Toxic friendship, Suicide, Racial slurs, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Homophobia, Grief, Drug use, Blood, and Alcoholism

Minor: Suicide attempt, Racism, and Incest