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jenmcreads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Misogyny, Violence, Emotional abuse, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship
chris_reads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Death, Alcohol, Bullying, and Physical abuse
Moderate: Murder, Infidelity, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Addiction, and Misogyny
Minor: Homophobia
lynxpardinus's review against another edition
2.0
Graphic: Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Bullying, Confinement, Drug use, Toxic friendship, Drug abuse, Murder, Physical abuse, and Violence
Moderate: Blood, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Sexual harassment, Vomit, Medical content, Misogyny, Sexual assault, and Sexual content
Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Incest, Transphobia, and Cancer
Further warning for a student/teacher relationship - never framed as a bad thing as far as I can tell.badmom's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Death, Physical abuse, Violence, Alcohol, Blood, Bullying, Murder, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Emotional abuse, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Biphobia, Misogyny, Eating disorder, Infidelity, and Gaslighting
_piercingwords_'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? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
The story feels very real, on an emotional rather than logical level. The structure is a nice touch and fitting for the Shakespeare centered story. There's a lot to be analysed, a lot of foreshadowing and parallels to the plays alluded to in the book;
definitely a book you need to read in depth to really be able to appreciate the thought put into it, I will have to read it again, more thoroughly and with the knowledge of everything happening.
In the end, it is a love story, in a twisted, untraditional way.
It left me with a few questions unanswered but I couldn't put it down, the tension high until the last page and I do recommend it, especially to Shakespeare lovers.
Graphic: Death, Toxic friendship, Violence, and Murder
Minor: Alcohol, Eating disorder, Vomit, Outing, Bullying, Body shaming, Misogyny, Grief, Drug abuse, Suicide attempt, Infidelity, Drug use, Mental illness, Sexism, and Addiction
3arth2kaye's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Moderate: Suicide, Violence, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Misogyny
maddyisnotilliterate's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug use, and Drug abuse
Minor: Misogyny
eleanorcd's review against another edition
- 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
3.0
My main complaint was the character dynamics. Spoiler free complaint: none of the relationships are convincing. No chemistry and bland. Some of it is explained a bit at the end, but even still it was dry and awkward. Now, a spoiler version:
Another problem I had was the predictability. Perhaps it's that this book is so often marketed as The Secret History for English/theatre students, so I could tell pretty quickly which characters aligned with which from TSH (ie. Richard is obviously Henry, the girls all different aspects of Camilla, Oliver as Richard, Alexander as Francis, etc.). Apart from that, though, the book is a bit painfully predictable. Some of it made sense, like someone getting killed at a certain point mimics the trajectory of a Shakespearean/Greek tragedy, but other aspects were way too predictable and I felt they were poorly done.
Overall, this book was fine. It's also worth noting that it's very misleading to recommend it based on someone liking The Secret History. They are very different books and comparing them does IWWV absolutely no favours, lol.
Graphic: Alcohol, Drug use, Murder, Alcoholism, and Drug abuse
Moderate: Misogyny
t_swizzle's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Addiction, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gaslighting, Grief, Homophobia, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, and Violence
eggface's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
wow
Graphic: Murder and Violence
Moderate: Drug abuse
Minor: Eating disorder, Gore, and Misogyny