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Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug use, Homophobia, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Murder, Toxic friendship
Moderate: Incest, Mental illness, Suicide attempt
Minor: Animal death, Death
Graphic: Death, Suicide, Murder, Toxic friendship
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Alcohol
A few scattered thoughts. I can say absolutely nothing about Tartt's writing. It is immaculate, it is beautiful, I was lost in it. From a technical perspective, by far not as edited as it should be but, surprisingly, even in the unedited, purely self-indulgent bits you can still find something oddly unique to absorb. When it comes to wording, imagery, and describing mental processes, it's safe to say Daedalus designed and built Tartt's mind, not God, not nature. It is beyond me how she came up with all these descriptions, how she set the scene, fashioned the aesthetic, fleshed out the characters so well and how she kept switching between so many genres. This has a little bit of everything; a slice of life, mystery novel, crime novel, YA, gothic elements what have you. She is in total command of language except for when we go into the academic world.
I don't know if anyone else out there with an English or Classics degree felt that way but I got really annoyed with all the academic references. It came across as if this book, Tartt herself, the characters, I don't know who was trying way too hard to prove a point. On top of that, as someone who also completed Classics/Humanities Studies in high school and hated every second of it, I went into this book hoping and praying it would ignite some kind of patriotic love for the language of my ancestors, a language which most people that taught or tutored me managed to reduce to a mere chore, a drag, something I was 'supposed' to do to pass the class instead of something I should be proud of and celebrate. I thought that maybe if I read about students who chose to study the Classics willingly and who, to a certain extent, romanticize the process of learning something as difficult as ancient Greek, I too would fall in love and wish to reconnect with it. I did not find what I was looking for. All I found was broken kids, easily manipulated, out of touch with reality who end up either dead or seriously traumatized. Funny, just like most Greek students graduating from high school. The irony is not lost on me. Safe to say, I look at my copy of Poetics by Aristotle and feel a certain queasiness and then quietly whisper to it 'not today, Satan'. Side note, I don't know how Tartt did it but in the character of Julian, she managed to describe everything wrong with the Greek educational system and its educators 😂 I felt validated. Bunch of elitists who think that if you don't know the conjugation of λύω you are less than... I hope Greeks out there have had much better experiences than me.
There is something really dark about this story and for me, it manifested in the reasoning
Overall, this one infuriated me, it took me down a dark path, it frustrated me and scarred me and didn't really give me what I was looking for but I'm glad I read it.
Graphic: Mental illness, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Suicide attempt, Murder, Toxic friendship
Moderate: Incest
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol
Moderate: Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Medical content
Minor: Cursing, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Antisemitism, Islamophobia
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Gun violence, Incest, Mental illness, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Toxic friendship
Moderate: Animal cruelty
Minor: Body horror, Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Vomit, Grief, Outing
Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Incest, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Grief, Murder
Moderate: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Xenophobia, Suicide attempt
Minor: Infidelity
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Suicide attempt, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol
Moderate: Incest
I loved the themes and ideas
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Gun violence, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Murder
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Incest, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Chronic illness, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Murder