Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

384 reviews

saint_eleanor's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

4.25

This is definitely worth the hype. The characters are so intense and the writing is so so good. You really start to feel for all of them and like be angry at them etc. You also start to see like how far people are willing to go to impress eachother/ maintain their social standing and financial status. A really good look at humanity and banality and violence and all that jazz. My only qualm is the

ending, bc what the heck like I just wanted more closure or something. Like yes it was really crazy but it wasn't crazy enough for the book to be setting up for that for so long yk.

And also I loved the scary ass magical realism undertones (the "deer" they kept seeing that they thought was Dionysus.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest

Moderate: Animal death, Sexual harassment, and Death

stxrlightreaderxx's review

challenging dark mysterious 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Death, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Drug use, Suicide, Incest, Alcoholism, and Animal death

Minor: Homophobia and Toxic relationship

grace_b_3's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Gun violence, Drug use, Violence, Murder, Death, and Alcohol

Moderate: Incest, Animal death, Sexual content, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Homophobia and Panic attacks/disorders

mskingbean69's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gun violence, Islamophobia, Body horror, Gaslighting, Bullying, Car accident, Cursing, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Biphobia, Death, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Murder, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Animal death, Classism, Fatphobia, Rape, Toxic relationship, Body shaming, Racial slurs, Violence, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Suicide attempt, Grief, Medical content, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, and Suicidal thoughts

mary_do_12's review

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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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Suicide, Racism, Death, Racial slurs, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Animal death, Suicide attempt, Alcoholism, Drug use, Alcohol, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Homophobia, Incest, and Murder

Minor: Rape, Car accident, and Domestic abuse

ducktofu's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Grief, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide attempt, Classism, Addiction, Murder, Suicide, Gun violence, and Drug use

Moderate: Cursing, Homophobia, Blood, Animal cruelty, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Misogyny, Alcoholism, Animal death, Suicide attempt, Sexual violence, and Incest

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Toxic friendship, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

bookishfaye's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective 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

2.0

This book is very comparable to movie Saltburn in the sense that they both tragically fail at representing and continue to perpetuate the issues they are meant to be commentaries of. This very much reads like it was written by a rich white nepo baby & I have so many issues with it. Pretty much every -ism/-obia occurs in here in super unnecessary & gross ways & it got to the point where I was only holding on to be able to say that i’ve read it. The second star is because I’ll give Donna the grace that at times there’s some really good quotes in here, & I found Henry to be a pretty well written character, but quite frankly fuck this book overall. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Ableism, Islamophobia, Death, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Violence, Murder, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Racism, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Alcoholism, Antisemitism, Blood, Classism, Sexism, Suicide, Gun violence, Addiction, Drug use, Fatphobia, Homophobia, and Toxic friendship

lucyford's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective relaxing tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This book was SO GOOD. I don’t even know how to describe it in a way that truly encapsulates everything good about it. The plot is so well-written, and is really brought to life by the amazing writing style and slight poetic element to it, and all the atmospheres she creates just feel so real. Not to mention the foreshadowing (when you’re reading, you know it’s foreshadowing to something but you don’t know what it’s foreshadowing to, which is just so cool), and the fact that you’re always wondering how the story is possibly going to progress from point A to point B. The characters are all so complicated and interesting, and the themes of the books are very philosophical which makes the book all the more interesting. Overall, 10/10 read, absolutely exceeded my expectations. (ALSO THE ENDING??? CAUGHT ME SO OFF GUARD OMG)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gun violence, Gaslighting, Murder, Suicide, Body horror, Addiction, Alcohol, Mental illness, Grief, Death, Alcoholism, Suicide attempt, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Vomit, Gore, Sexism, Drug abuse, Blood, Suicidal thoughts, Emotional abuse, Incest, Physical abuse, Cursing, Drug use, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, and Medical content

Minor: Animal death, Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, Car accident, Child abuse, Kidnapping, Forced institutionalization, Infidelity, Rape, Stalking, Death of parent, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

dhritidipa7's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Antisemitism, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Violence, Body horror, Bullying, Drug use, Physical abuse, Blood, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, Animal death, Eating disorder, Incest, Islamophobia, Murder, Racial slurs, Suicide attempt, Death, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Animal cruelty, Gun violence, Homophobia, Sexism, Religious bigotry, and Toxic relationship

rachelnoel's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Animal death, Grief, Death, Suicide, Murder, Animal cruelty, Alcoholism, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Alcohol, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Racism, Antisemitism, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Mental illness, Self harm, Addiction, Blood, and Drug use

Minor: Incest, Gore, and Car accident