Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

ההיסטוריה הסודית by Donna Tartt

484 reviews

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Well written but super depressing and cynical. 

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challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

wow. this book was an emotional roller coaster and i still can't wrap my mind around it. tartt truly wrote a masterpiece. 
due to the unreliable narrator we as readers experience the same inner conflict as richard does. it is a novel that stays with you and changes you.
the way tartt handles the moral dilemma umand the difficulties the characters face is incredible. 
I do however want to point out, that booktok does absolutely not do this book justice. my expectations differed so much from what I actually experienced. it is 100% worth reading but its not some cute dark academia novel but an intense murder mystery 

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challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Esperablemente brillante

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This book was truly interesting - I know that this is generally a very weak adjective but in this case, it is entirely true. It has a somewhat descriptive but then again very subjective and somewhat sentimental first-person narrative which took some time to get used to. But once I did, it was inevitable to fall into such a deep reading flow (I sometimes felt like the book was luring me in) that even the „boring“ scenes make you not want to stop reading. The characters in this book were so incredibly real and deeply (veryyy deeply) flawed which made the reading experience very intense and mysterious. There were some scenes (Chapter 8, i‘m looking at you) that just totally knocked me out of my socks, there is no better way to describe it. Due to the limited knowledge of the narrator and protagonist himself, plot twists are nearly impossible to predict here (unless of course they were being foreshadowed intentionally) which I loved.
However, it is very important here to check the trigger warnings because there is A LOT going on - stuff that is obvious very soon and other things that take a lot of time to become truly clear.

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dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus: N/A

After seeing everyone recommend this book for this time of year I had gotten quite curious because I had never heard of it before. So after a while I bought the book. It took me a long time to finish it (3 weeks) and it was quite a slow book but not that I wasn’t intrigued or appalled from reading it, I was so intrigued that I only wanted to continue reading it. It was anything but what I expected especially the ending and the scene at the hotel (I don’t wanna spoil everything). To sum it up I enjoyed it eventho I’ve read some totally opposite reviews

 The scene that got me most distraught was Henry killing himself in the hotel. That Charles gotten that drunk that he wanted to kill Henry, I understood. Maybe he wasn’t able to handle all the lies very well and living with the idea that they murdered an innocent man. But Henry.. no I didn’t see that coming. Was he planning this all along? That’s my question

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challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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