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eveybrittin's review against another edition
- 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
2.75
Graphic: Drug use, Animal cruelty, Violence, Toxic friendship, Suicide, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Alcoholism, Classism, Gun violence, Incest, Drug abuse, Death, Addiction, Suicide attempt, and Alcohol
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Grief, Homophobia, Child abuse, and Mental illness
Minor: Cursing
lucyford's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Violence, Gun violence, Gaslighting, Murder, Suicide, Body horror, Addiction, Alcohol, Mental illness, Grief, Death, Alcoholism, Suicide attempt, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Vomit, Gore, Sexism, Drug abuse, Blood, Suicidal thoughts, Emotional abuse, Incest, Physical abuse, Cursing, Drug use, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, and Medical content
Minor: Animal death, Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, Car accident, Child abuse, Kidnapping, Forced institutionalization, Infidelity, Rape, Stalking, Death of parent, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
neliadiedenise's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Incest, Medical content, Grief, Animal cruelty, Gun violence, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Vomit, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Racial slurs, Murder, Toxic friendship, Blood, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Addiction, Body horror, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Death, and Animal death
karinaymejia's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
i feel like the title is a bit dramatic for the story. it makes sense of course, but i feel like there should have been another title used for it.
this book is slow and may feel boring at times. it's interesting to see how the story progresses. i am personally not a huge fan of this style. i sort of liked the read. i wanted a more dramatic story, but thats my cup of tea.
i like the time period where this is in because I get to read what it feels like during this time.
i find it unsettling about the characters that Richard encounters and becomes friends with. I think Charles and Henry make me the most unsettling, especially near the end.
overall i had a bit of higher expectations because of the popularity. i understand the mixed reviews now!
Graphic: Murder, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders
Moderate: Blood, Body horror, and Alcohol
Minor: Child abuse
incestsadiaa's review against another edition
4.75
Moderate: Addiction, Classism, Death, Gaslighting, Grief, Medical content, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Drug abuse, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal death, Eating disorder, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Blood, Car accident, Child abuse, Cursing, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Animal cruelty, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Incest, Self harm, and Sexual harassment
dennyiii's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Alcohol, Death, Drug abuse, Child abuse, Car accident, Cursing, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Racism, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Addiction, Antisemitism, Blood, Domestic abuse, Violence, Classism, Drug use, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, and Sexual content
warlockdorian's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Alcohol, Child abuse, Cursing, Drug use, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Animal death, Death, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Toxic friendship, Vomit, Antisemitism, Bullying, Homophobia, Incest, Murder, Physical abuse, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Chronic illness, Classism, Drug abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, and Addiction
audreading's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
First, the positives: Donna Tartt is an incredible writer and the book is undoubtedly well-written. The dark academia vibes are there if that’s what you’re looking for. The imagery is so vivid. I felt like I could clearly see the campus and visualize all the characters, which typically isn’t easy for my nd brain. It was a page-turner for me despite how slowly things moved (though I wonder if that is because I kept turning, hoping to find what everyone was raving about).
Graphic: Murder, Gun violence, Violence, Vomit, and Alcoholism
Moderate: Incest, Addiction, and Drug abuse
Minor: Rape, Animal cruelty, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, and Child abuse
samugranjo's review against another edition
- 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
“It has always been hard for me to talk about Julian without romanticizing him. In many ways, I loved him the most of all; and it is with him that I am most tempted to embroider, to flatter, to basically reinvent. I think that is because Julian himself was constantly in the process of reinventing the people and events around him, conferring kindness, or wisdom, or bravery, or charm, on actions which contained nothing of the sort. It was one of the reasons I loved him: for that flattering light in which he saw me, for the person I was when I was with him, for what it was he allowed me to be” (p. 576)
My entire life I feel like I have been constructing intricate characters of which the skin I can dress myself with, representing a capsule of ideas and values and how I desire to translate these to the exterior. My own name has been chosen on the basis of a character that could represent everything I wish I would be, as well as everything I wish I wasn’t nicely accompanied by people to love me for it anyways. As a queer person who grew up surrounded by social media and mental health issues, I often regard my life as an endless performance. Even my love for reading started as an attempt to be more like the people who read around me – I feel in love with the act of reading before I can remember falling in love with a book itself.
“Though Julian could be marvelously kind in difficult circumstances of all sorts, I sometimes got the feeling that he was less pleased by kindness itself than by the elegance of the gesture.” (p. 539)
If I search my memory well enough, I can find some vivid memories of playing dress up and makeover games in primary school. This was done with a notebook on the side, so I could make notes of everything I did to the animations and be able to do the same to myself later on. These lists of things I would do before the new year, new month, new week, were not just beauty centered. In my mind they translated into making friends, being positively perceived, having good grades and above else just having a clue of what I was doing and enjoying myself while doing it.
“I had spent dozens of hours studying the photographs as though if I stared at them long enough and longingly enough I would, by some sort of osmosis, be transported into their clear, pure silence. Even now I remember those pictures, like pictures in a storybook one loved as a child." (p.10)
I learned how to present myself and how to translate how I wanted to be perceived into aesthetic ideals before I could even quite grasp what those ideals meant, and until this day I have a hard time letting go of this desire for image base simplification.
“Viewed from a distance, his character projected an impression of solidity and wholeness which was in fact as insubstantial as a hologram; up close, he was all motes and light, you could pass your hand right through him. If you stepped back far enough, however, the illusion would click in again and there he would be, bigger than life, squinting at you from behind his little glasses and raking back a dank lock of hair with one hand. A character like his disintegrates under analysis. It can only be denned by the anecdote, the chance encounter or the sentence overheard.” (p. 438)
The morbid longing for the picturesque at all costs (p. 5) is culturally ingrained in us, and in the present, it can be interesting to consider what role does social media and image based websites have on this. We are all increasingly longing for outer beauty and constructing and shifting aesthetic ideals, so we can chase them and feel in control of how we are perceived and what our life is made of. But we often forgot that we also need to fill the shell itself. These aesthetics can be fun and even empowering at times, but on their own they will not make us fulfilled, they will fail in giving us a sense of community as well as one of individuality. And above all, they leave us with a sore taste in our mouths and a sense of disappointment, because the more we attempt to find fulfillment in them, the more we feel like the failure is in ourselves – the aesthetic is not the right one or we are not letting ourselves fall into it enough – and not in the chase itself.
“'After all, the appeal to stop being yourself, even for a little while, is very great,' he said. 'To escape the cognitive mode of experience, to transcend the accident of one's moment of being. (…) . But one mustn't underestimate the primal appeal – to lose one's self, lose it utterly. And in losing it be born to the principle of continuous life, outside the prison of mortality and time.” (p. 182)
And when does it stop? When does the disconnect become too striking to be ignored any longer? When does the romanization start to make the thing itself rotten and disappointing and how do we avoid that? When do we stop and recognize that just because we are deeply absorbed by this road it does not mean we should keep following it?
“There is nothing wrong with the love of Beauty. But Beauty – unless she is wed to something more meaningful – is always superficial. It is not that your Julian chooses solely to concentrate on certain, exalted things; it is that he chooses to ignore others equally as important.” (p. 577)
The imaginary world, the picturesque and its beauty, can be tremendous tools in driving through the madness of the real world. But on itself they are not enough, we need to find fulfillment in reality, and love in presence.
Original review at: The dangers of longing for the picturesque - A... - Ethereal Ageing (tumblr.com)
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Xenophobia, Murder, Drug use, Domestic abuse, Grief, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Toxic friendship, Classism, Cursing, Violence, Suicide attempt, Incest, Addiction, Death, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Body horror, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Homophobia, Animal death, Chronic illness, Mental illness, Physical abuse, and Medical content
Minor: Sexual violence, Cancer, Gun violence, and Child abuse
samcanuel's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Alcohol, Cursing, Blood, Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, Alcoholism, Suicide, Murder, Suicide attempt, Animal death, Death, Violence, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Sexual content, Antisemitism, Child abuse, Misogyny, Car accident, Classism, Sexism, Homophobia, Racism, and Racial slurs
Minor: Sexual assault and Sexual violence