Reviews tagging 'Racism'

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

437 reviews

bruts_bane's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-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? Yes

4.0

This is the first time in a long time where I’ve had so many emotions when reading a book. I’m going to write everything in spoilers.
Every character has sides to them you can’t even begin to imagine. They’re all very bad people, really. I found it so interesting how the first half of the book is pretty much solely justifying Bunny’s death. Going over how annoying and problematic he was. Then the second half is the complete opposite. Talking about how bad the other five are, and how comparatively, Bunny wasn’t that bad after all. It’s not that Bunny wasn’t a bad person. It’s that everyone knew he was bad, because he never hid it. But the other characters hide their faults and are so secretive. When Bunny was outspoken with his foul comments and such. It makes him seem like the bad guy, which he wasn’t very good at all, but he wasn’t bad enough to have been murdered. The book had such horrible language throughout it which was awful to read. From awful awful language on racism to homophobia and sexism. Honestly the racism was completely unnecessary, I struggle to see why Donna Tart added it at all. I find it hard to decide if I really like the book. I couldn’t put it down, but I also just began to hate characters. And being inside Richard’s mind sucked. I’m rating it 4 stars because of the actual storyline and writing itself, which had me HOOKED let me say! It’s amazing how much I loved the characters in the start, and how much I hate them now. Especially Charles. Awful man. And RICHARD UGH that one line genuinely might have traumatised me a bit. I kept hoping for Bunny to come back to life. And I still sort of love Henry a bit. I KNOW I know. He’s bad, but I liked his character. I found it so interesting how completely obsessed he was with Julian and learning and improving himself that he killed others and his own self in the end. ALSO I wish so bad we could learn what they did in that ritual when they killed the first man. There are a few plot holes like that, that I wish we knew. I never even understood why Bunny ended up going to the woods in the first place when he was murdered, if he was at a party not long before. Also I wonder why Richard is even writing this book? It seems like he had a purpose throughout when he talks directly to the reader, but it isn’t explained in the end. The way the brush off murder in the book is so bad, that’s the first sign to how evil they all are.
Beware of the trigger warnings. It’s a heavy heavy book. 

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tashiface's review against another edition

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

2.5


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kierrareads_'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? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Really should've read the content warnings going into this book!

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mskingbean69's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0


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mary_do_12's review

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adventurous challenging emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

giving this book anything below 5 stars would be criminal.

the way donna tartt grazes the surface of emotions, never quite submerging in, yet letting the reader feel them fully, is truly mesmerizing, just as the way she creates characters and tells a story.

and yet i have some things that threw me off in this book.
i think this story is meant to kind of make you question your morals a little, which is why it features things that made me— uneasy. i always have a hard time distinguishing whether an author is simply writing about a certain topic, or if they are romanticizing it.
i mean murder— that‘s one thing. in fact, a common thing in literature.
however, incest??! uhm, idk. made me queasy. made me a little uncomfy. or well, you could say outright disgusted. the thing is, i really liked the twins, UNTIL I FOUND OUT THEY FUCKED ON A REGULAR BASIS??! like WHAT. are you guys okay? do you— do you need help?

and then richard casually mentioned getting the overwhelming urge to rape camilla while she’s just standing in his room? honey, i—? what? i liked you as well…

also — you gotta give this to the author — i was SHOOKETH. henry?? my poor baby boy?? AND THEN FRANCIS?? in the EPILOGUE? WHEN I THOUGHT THE DAMAGE WAS OVER??


i think i need help after reading about this, because i still feel the urge to throw up, and this is funny because you are reading this in a five star review. 

truly a piece that leaves you thinking for days. 

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akatperry's review against another edition

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dark reflective sad tense slow-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

4.25


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meic's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

a marvelous read and now Bunny Corcoran is my roman empire, an asshole but I just can’t stop thinking about him 

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koiolee's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense 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

3.75

Maybe I'll up the star rating after i mull it all over. But this book was incredibly slow. Wonderful prose and addictive writing. I'm left feeling like I'm a pig trotting through mud. I'm happy, but still going so very slow. I think this book would be wonderful for people interested in classics or Greek for them to cross reference, find lil tidbits, analyze why certain paragraphs were there necessary or even what they're alluding to. Unfortunately that's not me, i did not do that and it was a fine enough read. A bit long, a bit tedious, but not a bad read at all. 

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piikasmalls's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective tense slow-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

4.25


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implses's review against another edition

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slow-paced

3.0


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