Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

72 reviews

blor_12's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad slow-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Body horror

Moderate: Drug use, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Homophobia

Minor: Classism and Suicide

c1nega's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, Racism, Body horror, Classism, Xenophobia, Toxic friendship, Racial slurs, Panic attacks/disorders, and Murder

Minor: Homophobia, Addiction, Emotional abuse, Incest, and Islamophobia

abibliophobic_nerd's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Addiction, Drug abuse, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Drug use, Alcohol, Gaslighting, Medical content, Murder, Suicide, Death, Alcoholism, Blood, and Mental illness

Moderate: Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Body horror, Bullying, Incest, and Islamophobia

hannalizzy's review against another edition

dark emotional funny informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

5 Star Book, five star listening experience. It’s always so cool to hear it from the author themselves. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Body horror, Death, and Blood

laurataylor's review

challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• 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: Cursing, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Animal death, Blood, Gore, Grief, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Religious bigotry, Alcohol, Sexism, Toxic friendship, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Classism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Addiction, Alcoholism, Antisemitism, Car accident, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Medical content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Suicide attempt, Gun violence, Incest, and Sexual assault

lottselgar's review

challenging dark mysterious 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

5.0

i mean. just genius. i hate all the characters so much

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Drug use, Incest, Physical abuse, Alcoholism, Murder, Domestic abuse, and Body horror

Moderate: Antisemitism, Suicide attempt, Homophobia, and Racial slurs

Minor: Rape, Animal death, Sexism, Addiction, Toxic friendship, Violence, Sexual violence, Self harm, and Death

storyofmyshelf's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Physical abuse, Torture, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Alcoholism, Medical trauma, Toxic friendship, Violence, Self harm, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, Gaslighting, and Gun violence

alisasreads's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-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? Yes

5.0

kinda shocked at how much i enjoyed this book, i'd heard so many opinions about it that i had no idea what my own would be. as popular as it is right now i just had to read it and i'm glad i did. the tone, setting, style and the way the characters were written was just so good. it's exactly the type of story i like as a dark academia lover, i now understand why everyone always recommends this book in the genre. i literally just finished it and feel i really need to sit with the book before i can write a review that would do this book justice. so these were just some of my first thoughts.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Suicide

Moderate: Incest, Mental illness, Antisemitism, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Self harm, Body horror, Cursing, Addiction, Car accident, Alcoholism, Racial slurs, Classism, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Gaslighting, and Homophobia

Minor: Rape

frankielovestofu's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Murder, Drug use, Toxic friendship, and Death

Moderate: Sexual violence, Blood, Self harm, Body horror, Incest, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, and Violence

Minor: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Physical abuse, Animal cruelty, Gun violence, Misogyny, Rape, Animal death, Racial slurs, Racism, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail

Could do without the incest and racial slurs. Arguably, the racial slurs can be “justified” because they’re each only spoken once or twice by specific characters, and author either corrects behaviour of characters through another character or implies it’s not her thoughts. It’s clearly just to show how bigoted the characters saying it are, but still. The incest is left ambiguous at the end, whether it’s a long-term SA situation or consensual relationship turned sour at end. Either way, definitely could of been written without with very minor impact on plot and/or book. I.e. could still write controlling character without sexual subplot. Sorry not sorry. In addition, haven’t seen anyone mention it. There’s an extremely triggering (quick) mention of rape on page 484. Just skip the paragraph. It has NO effect on plot, it’s just unecessary and vulgar.

essentially the protagonist is speaking to the female character, and in mid-conversation (since book is his inner monologue) internally shares his sudden urge to strangle and rape his friend, then says the thought disappears as quickly as it came. conversation continues, never mentioned again. the worst part, is that the female character is in the midst of sharing her physical and sexual abuse from her brother when our protagonist thinks this

tomoonarmy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical trauma, and Alcohol

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

Minor: Animal death, Death, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Medical trauma, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Blood, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Grief, Alcoholism, Abandonment, Car accident, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Body horror, Eating disorder, and Cursing