Reviews with content warning for Ableism - Dio di Illusioni

"Khalepa ta kala. Beauty is harsh."

I truly enjoyed this book, and I did not enjoy The Goldfinch by Tartt one iota.
[Reasons it might not be for you: There are a few mentions of sex, incest, the plot is dependant on murder, and the portrayal of disability was in poor taste]
TSH in a few words: Murder, Academic (in a good way), Suspenseful/keeps you wondering what's next, full of surprises.
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In the first few sentences, Tartt writes about the central plot point of the murder of Edmund Corcoran (Bunny), and yet none of the story was actually predictable. Each character was so thoroughly developed and dimensional it made the story enrapturing and at points, it was hard to put down. The way that Tartt portrays the characters conveys strong emotions towards both the characters and their actions. Although, the way she writes about learning disabilities left me very disappointed in the, yet again, shameful portrayal of disability. It wouldn’t matter much if there was much more representation of wide variety of disability, but there isn’t, so the way she chose to write about dyslexia wasn’t very tasteful and could have easily been avoided.

I will probably be picking this book up again in years to come as I very much enjoyed the past week I spent engulfed in the world of Hampden College. But it will be sometime, before I can sit down and enjoy it just as much as the first go around.
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The narration of THS, while I enjoyed it, seems to not be preferred by many, as Tartt has a strong accent that she chooses to use for the main character. I do not know if this is her natural accent, but it isn't what you might expect of a character from Plano, California, albeit I have never been there myself. I enjoyed her narration, although I am not disillusioned in thinking there might have been better performers for this story.
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I understand why many people use this book to describe Dark Academia. I would be inclined to describe this as the aesthetically DA, but not necessarily "what a dark academic would read" as the characters are more Dark Academics and what many think of when the DA. I don't know if that makes sense, but that's how I would describe the setting.

Content Warnings

imogenreading's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad 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

This was hard for me to get into but after about the first hundred pages I was hooked! Everything about it was mind boggling, it certainly challenged me to read it and

the ending was so cathartic!

Updated 14/11/22: Second read! I enjoyed it way more this time around. Appreciated the writing so much more. I move my rating up to 4.5 - still not perfect but very very close.

Content Warnings