Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

519 reviews

brot's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Suicide attempt, Death, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, and Suicide

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Grief, Toxic friendship, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content

Minor: Incest and Homophobia

norabeideineroma's review

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Misogyny, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexism, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Grief, Blood, Animal death, Biphobia, Car accident, Drug use, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Murder, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Classism, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Cursing, Mental illness, Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Homophobia, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Suicide attempt, and Toxic friendship

bookzplz's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.5

“i’m just having a bit of trouble with my passport.”

i technically started this book in the winter of 2022 and for various reasons, put it down

shortly after bunny’s death

. i think it was a little overhyped and i wasn’t sure what to expect so i decided to leave it there. i’m glad i picked it back up. 

this book does an excellent job of showing the blinders people in academia frequently have on and how the isolation under the guise of supremacy can be detrimental. nobody was ever happy. they studied the classics because it was the thing to do, the only one who concluded their studies was richard because he financially had to and, of course,

was alive to do so

. for most of them, classics was something to study because they could and less so because they were actually interested in the subject. the book also expertly showed the favorite pastime of affluent white people, ignoring things they don’t want to deal with or “sweeping it under the rug”. these people, richard excluded, have no actual experience with dealing with their problems.

when bunny is essentially threatening to go forward with what he suspects about them, they never talk to him about it, they give into his extortion and when that gets too tiring they decide to murder him.

it’s less a secret history of what happened and more so outing the secret ways that the wealthy go about ignoring their problems and finding ways of not dealing with them.

i guarantee you i will read this book again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Death, Antisemitism, Grief, Homophobia, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Alcoholism, Addiction, Murder, Incest, Violence, Alcohol, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Misogyny, Gun violence, and Body horror

ilsabelle's review

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Classism, Violence, Suicide attempt, Drug use, Murder, Mental illness, Addiction, and Gun violence

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Xenophobia, Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Incest, Toxic relationship, Racial slurs, Sexual violence, and Homophobia

joslyn_cole's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide attempt, Injury/Injury detail, Incest, Murder, Mental illness, Self harm, Drug abuse, Addiction, Violence, Gun violence, Death, and Alcoholism

emimcmanis's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Homophobia, Toxic friendship, Classism, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Alcoholism, Antisemitism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Incest, Mental illness, Murder, Xenophobia, Violence, and Suicide

Moderate: Sexual content

angela_iseli's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Classism, Drug abuse, Suicide, Alcoholism, Drug use, Gun violence, Incest, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Racism and Antisemitism

louise2000's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, Murder, Gun violence, and Violence

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Suicide

Minor: Incest

schwambibambi's review

dark reflective tense slow-paced

• 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Suicide attempt, Violence, Gun violence, Murder, Drug use, Antisemitism, Death, Drug abuse, Incest, Homophobia, Self harm, Sexism, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Misogyny, and Addiction

romy_elizabeth13's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.5

I was initially expecting to read a really meaningful, deep, emotional, relaxing-(ish) novel when I picked up Donna Tart’s The Secret History. It ended up being one of the most dark, shocking, twisted, intense books I’ve ever read and it was incredible, oh my word. After reading all these tearjerking, emotional books about love and loss and life, it was nice to have something that kept me hanging on the edge of my seat, while still being incredibly intellectual and offering many interesting perspectives on life. Just when I thought the plot twists would stop, they kept coming in an ever flowing stream and I loved that. The characters, while incredibly flawed were really well written and their personalities were delved deep into. 100% worth the read but if you are under 14/very mature 13 year old, I wouldn’t recommend reading this book just yet. Overall really incredible - something tiktok was right about.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Suicide, Alcohol, Gore, Suicide attempt, Blood, Death, and Gun violence

Moderate: Vomit, Incest, Classism, Racial slurs, and Sexual content