Reviews tagging 'Suicide attempt'

Tajemna historia by Donna Tartt

880 reviews

alenaecook's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging 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? Yes

3.75


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

naomi_salters's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

thegr1mreader's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

4.75


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

redflower10's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious reflective tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.0

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was fast paced and engaging until the end. I loved the narrator's self-conscious prosaic anxiety. It's timeless - I had no idea it had been released in 1992 (despite being set in the 80s). There were moments of levity and clever humour despite the subject matter being so dark.
Just when things start to get a little sleepy at the end, Tartt tosses in the twincest and suicide(s), seemingly as an afterthought. Something perverse in me wishes she'd written more about the details of the Bacchanalian sex rituals.


A minor gripe, but my edition (bought 2024) was in desperate need of a copyeditor and proofreader! Its hard to believe this novel has been around for so many years with the number of words missing or misused. I could forgive this as a narrative device but it occurs too many times and too sporadically to count. Also, the phrasing starts to get a little repetitive after a while - there's only so many times you can hear about Henry's sweat beading on his forehead or wind gusting through the windows. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

casswerk's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious 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 think I said it over and over again reading this book. It was a very detailed story that connects so many different worlds. My problem is that I hated all the characters so there was no one to root for which made it a hard read

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

aposternak's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

4.25


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

saryy's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious sad 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


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

lovellcharlotte's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

 “…she really was older, not the glancing-eyed girl I had fallen in love with but no less beautiful for that; beautiful now in a way that a less excited my senses than tore at my very heart” 
 
“Mais, vrai, J'ai trop pleure! Les aubes sont navrantes.” 
 
“…and my life which I had thought was lost, stretched out indescribably precious and sweet before me.”

“Some things are too terrible to grasp at once. Other things - naked, sputtering, indelible in their horror - are too terrible to really grasp ever at all. It is only later, in solitude, in memory that the realisation dawns: when the ashes are cold; when the mourners have departed; when one looks around and finds oneself - quite to one's surprise - in an entirely different world.” 
 


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

arthedgehog's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-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

4.25


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

nikkimajean's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional sad tense 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

5.0

 I have to say, it did take me a while to get fully hooked on this book. I don't find Richard (the protagonist and POV character) to be likeable at all. But once I fully got immersed into the story, I couldn't really put it down. I think the brilliance in the writing is that, even though the person who is telling the story is not necessarily likeable, the story itself is so good that you can't help but keep reading. And though most of the characters were deeply insufferable in the way only wealthy, white college kids can be, you actually feel for them. In the end, I only wished for the best for them. In my opinion, this book is definitely worth the hype it gets. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings