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Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Religious bigotry, Murder, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Ableism, Animal death, Body shaming, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Transphobia, Forced institutionalization, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Trafficking, Car accident, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Classism, Deportation
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
My opinion certainly changed, but it was for the worse. This book did not age well by any means with all its racism, ableism, and classism. Tartt certainly writes with eloquence, but her writing is steeped with issues that left me cringing and frustrated. Something that caught my attention was the near absence of nonwhite characters in New York City, of all places, unless they were "the help." I'm not sure how I didn't catch this years ago, considering how glaring these details were.
I also found it even harder to sympathize with the protagonist, Theo, during this reread. The messiness of grief was well presented—even if it was a bit extreme with the addiction and alcoholism—but I was really unhappy with how Tartt went about Theo's relationships in such a dismissive way. He was so wrapped up in his own world that it negatively affected how he treated the people around him. Pippa is objectified in a Manic Pixie Dream Girl kind of way, while Kitsy was treated terribly. The queer experience that Theo had with Boris also went completely unaddressed, which makes me wonder why Tartt bothered adding this detail other than to shock the reader.
A disappointing reread, to say the least.
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Grief, Alcohol
Moderate: Ableism, Bullying, Racism, Classism
Minor: Child abuse
Graphic: Drug abuse, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Violence, Death of parent
Minor: Infidelity
Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Grief, Suicide attempt
Moderate: Homophobia
Side note: why did she make Boris say the n-word multiple times? They were throwaway phrases in parentheses that added nothing to the story, and it made my jaw drop when I read it. It really seems like she wrote it in because she wanted to, and I’d like to meet the editor that let that pass through.
Anyways, although Tartt’s prose is beautiful and quite profound as always, remembering the shameful writing of POC characters brought down my experience of reading the book.
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug use, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol
Moderate: Death, Racial slurs, Violence, Suicide attempt, Murder
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Toxic friendship
Minor: Medical content, Medical trauma
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Vomit
When I first read it, I loved it, loved the writing style and character development (it was my first or one of my first encounters with writing like this), really related to descriptions of anxiety and depression, considered it my favorite book. Read it a second time and started forming doubts, particularly with noticing issues of classism and racism. Read it a third time, this time annotating heavily for themes present throughout the book (question of fate vs free will, good vs bad and moral responsibility, depression and grief vs hope, art and its beauty and importance, friendship and love, impermanence vs permanence, time, life and death) and enjoyed doing that, but in doing so realized that the book really could have been edited better. I found the ending to be sloppy and not satisfying. And the way that blatant racism is used in the book (equating East Asian and especially Chinese culture and objects with cheapness) is just appalling.
And apparently it took 10 years or more to write this book, which either means that those choices were deliberate and well-thought out, choosing to only have people of color represented in minor roles mostly as working class serving the white upper class, choosing to use racist notions to make character points, or she somehow in all that time failed to consider these choices — why she might be making them, what they mean, what sort of impact they would have — despite the clear time and attention to detail given to making this book.
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Homophobia, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Car accident, Classism
Minor: Pregnancy