Reviews with content warning for Incest - Jumalat juhlivat öisin

Reviews tagging 'Incest'

Jumalat juhlivat öisin by Donna Tartt

1710 reviews

starryeyes54's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective 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

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taylorc19's review against another edition

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dark reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

I think I should start with the few things I liked about this book, just to begin on a happy note. Donna Tartt is evidently a ridiculously gifted writer. Her descriptions of Vermont in the fall at the beginning of the novel are superb. She created a cast of rich characters with relatively distinct personalities.
Now, for what I didn't like so much:

This book dragged. It took me two months to finish it, and I'm someone who usually can finish a book within a few days of opening it. I couldn't push myself to finish more than a chapter at a time. I found my eyelids growing heavy and my yawns becoming more frequent as I tried to slog my way through the dense yet uninteresting plot. This story could have been written in 300 pages. I gained absolutely nothing from the monotonous chapters of the character who died's funeral or from the search party for them. I found myself skimming through the last 40% of this book, and I wouldn't say I missed much.
Maybe I'm not made for character-heavy, low-plot books. But that brings me to my next grievance: how can you write a character-driven book and make every single character utterly vile? The only character who I found myself somewhat sympathizing with by the end was Judy, the neighbor of Richard who gossiped too much and frequently did drugs such as cocaine and meth. Could we really not give any more positive personality traits to the core six students or Julian? Camila and Charles (the twins) appear to be kind and relatively receptive towards Richard when he first joins the group, however, they spiral into a violent alcoholic (Charles) and a manipulative liar (Camila). Bunny goes from jovial and bubbly to a person who blackmails their friends and is so insecure he is driven to a mental breakdown. And, my God, don't get me started on Richard. He is possibly the most uninteresting person I have ever had the displeasure of reading about. He seems to live such a pitiful existence where all he wants is acceptance from others. With character-driven books, I feel like I have to actually care about the characters. I wish nothing but the worst for basically every single person in this book. These characters were snobby, elitist, reprehensible, borderline sociopathic criminals yet I'm still supposed to believe Richard's favorable descriptions of them?
Why are we adding random bouts of incest into this book???? I don't understand what that added to any of the characters nor why it was important to the plot??? It felt included merely for the shock factor.
I think this book would have benefited from switching narrators during the second half. After the murder (and I use that term rather loosely) occurs, Richard should not have been the narrator. He doesn't know what's going on at all, he isn't involved in any of the police proceedings, and he spends the last 300 pages of the book rambling in a drunken stupor about-wait for it-NOTHING! I wish we had switched narrators to Henry or even Charles. People who were actually being questioned and were actually plotting on how to get away with the murder. Henry is framed to be this psychopathic mastermind. However, we don't actually get any explanation of his thoughts after the murder, who he planned to pin it on, or how he explained virtually anything to the police. I understand it's not a police-proceedings book, but I mean, come on, give us some explanation as to how they got away with this instead of just throwaway comments at the end by a paranoid Charles. Giving us Henry's point of view would have also explained the ending more since that came out of nowhere.
Why did we throw in that line about Richard having the urge to rape Camila????????????? And why did we never touch on that again???????????

It's strange, I read "If We Were Villians" a few years ago, and many people compare that book to "The Secret History." Critics of IWWV claim that the plot is ripped off from TSH and that TSH is worlds better. I disagree. I enjoyed IWWV far, far more than The Secret History.
This book was dense, boring, and had no real point. Having superfluous, flowery language and rambling about Greek studies does not make for a good book! I almost DNF'd it hundreds of times while reading, but I needed to be able to say I gave it a fair shot. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone unless you enjoy reading about miserable creatures who think they're God's gift to the world. Someone please tell me what I'm missing that is so magical and life-changing about this book.
Good riddance, Hampden. I won't miss you.

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berrytart's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

dear lord this book was hard to get through, i like the thought of the book and the way it ended. but i nearly cried tears of relief when it was over. everyone was insufferable which i did like!! i’ll most likely never reread this book again though 😃

(francis best character!!)

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milooo's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-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? No

4.0

you know what, maybe the booktok girlies were onto something with this book… it’s beautifully written and probably one of the most artistic and cinematic novels i’ve ever read. every atmospheric description felt like a still from an old surrealist film, so much so that i could almost hear the crackle of an old film reel in the background as i was reading. the characters are supremely interesting and as awful and flawed as they all are, that’s kind of the point to them. i really shared Richard’s sentiment of having this “fatal tendency to try to make interesting people good”, but all of their flaws make them so nakedly human, which makes the reader empathise with them despite their better judgement (although i mainly empathise with these people’s livers, my god these bitches need HELP). this book truly sucks you into its world, and that is aided by the long chapters, which i surprisingly didn’t mind that much. you really have to sit down and read a whole chapter in one sitting to have the best reading experience. i would’ve rated this 5 stars if it weren’t for a few key things. firstly, the narrative randomly veers into an /almost/ really good exploration of racism and how easily people can take advantage of visibility and attention to push their own racist agenda. that all could’ve added a relevant and important layer to the story, but it’s just… dropped? secondly, i really disliked how little agency camilla had as a character. as the only lead female character i kind of saw this coming, but it was quite disappointing when she is ‘sexy lampshade’-ed in most scenes. my final qualm is to do with the pacing, which (and this is purely personal taste) dragged a bit near the end. However, i had a great time reading this, and would definitely recommend it (even though If We Were Villains will always be my baby)

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