Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

132 reviews

lyndis8377's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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: Alcohol, Death, Gun violence, Drug use, Death of parent, Addiction, Blood, Drug abuse, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Abandonment, Panic attacks/disorders, Car accident, Hate crime, Vomit, Child abuse, and Self harm

dizzzybrook's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

This book was such a chore to get through. I generally favor long books and have no issues with a slow burn, but something about The Goldfinch just failed to ever emotionally draw me in. The story was much more enjoyable for me than that of The Secret History but I'm still just not sold that Tartt's books are for me. I really loved the first 1/4th of the book but after that, I lost motivation and eventually had to switch over to the audiobook to get through the rest. I don't think this is a bad book by any means but it was a relief once it was over, and I'm not sure that's a compliment. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Violence, Abandonment, Medical content, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Drug use, Blood, Death of parent, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Domestic abuse, Grief, Medical trauma, and Vomit

maddie_1999's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective slow-paced

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

0.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Mental illness, Toxic friendship, Gore, Abandonment, Addiction, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Vomit, Body horror, Toxic relationship, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Drug use, and Self harm

Moderate: Homophobia, Islamophobia, Racism, Bullying, Animal cruelty, Antisemitism, Misogyny, Sexism, Xenophobia, Eating disorder, Racial slurs, Stalking, Violence, and Fatphobia

haileyeh's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad tense 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

1.75

Theo is the most unlikeable protagonist I have ever read about.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Suicide attempt, Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Alcoholism, Death, Alcohol, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Drug abuse, Addiction, and Death of parent

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Child abuse

Minor: Car accident and Vomit

ollie_the_enby's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

This was an incredibly emotional and reflective book, following Theo through his life after the sudden death of his mother. 

My only problem with this book is that it was so long (I have chronic fear of thick books syndrome), but I fear that not very much could've been taken out without impacting the introspective feeling of the story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Drug use, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, and Death of parent

Moderate: Vomit

Minor: Murder

dillydallyallie's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.25

Beautifully written but very slow. I enjoyed the prose and it contained very beautiful snippets of sentences that I found myself re-reading to appreciate. It is, however, quite lengthy and at times difficult to get through. As an infrequent reader I may not have finished it if it were not for summer reading in high school. That said, I am glad I read it. And to be fair, it’s not an easy task to live up to Tartt’s The Secret History.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cursing, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Racial slurs, Alcohol, Addiction, Mental illness, Violence, Child abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, and Abandonment

content warnings may be incomplete or slightly incorrect!! i read it a while ago so it’s just from what i can remember! also i don’t remember the severity so i added them all to moderate

myclutteredbookshelf's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I was first introduced to Donna Tartt in my second year of university, when I discovered how popular she was in the online bookish community. People would tell me how complex her characters were, how thought-provoking her prose was, and I was immediately intrigued but too intimidated by the length of her novels to rush into reading them. I finally worked up the courage in January 2022 to read her debut novel, The Secret History, which follows a group of classics students who get caught in a web of secrets and murder. After so many years of hearing the internet butter up Tartt's writing, to my disappointment, I ended up hating the novel. The chapters were excruciating long with no page breaks, half of the main characters felt underdeveloped, and the plot contained several cliches you would expect from a first time author trying to make their debut as edgy as possible (e.g., two of the classics students are a brother and sister twin duo; three guesses as to what Tartt decided their big secret would be).

A part of me hoped this was just due to Tartt being a less experienced writer at the time of the book's release. So, I decided to give her a second chance and read her third published novel, The Goldfinch. And my god, were the improvements noticeable.

Read the full review at My Cluttered Bookshelf. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Racial slurs, Drug use, Drug abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Alcoholism, and Child abuse

classicalhell's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark sad medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Addiction, Abandonment, Drug abuse, and Child abuse

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Murder, Violence, and Alcoholism

Minor: Vomit and Adult/minor relationship

finn_lover's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I started reading this book because of the movie, I absolutely fell in love with the movie and I also did with the book, I've cried to the book many times but it's so good, Boris is my favorite character out of them all.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Death, Drug abuse, Self harm, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, Suicide attempt, Addiction, Grief, and Drug use

definitely lots of drug usage. and abuse and suicidal thoughts and one suicide attempt.

elkila's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring reflective sad

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Child abuse, and Death of parent

Moderate: Suicide attempt