Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

Die geheime Geschichte, by Donna Tartt

50 reviews

hippejulia's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Violence, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Homophobia, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Self harm

Minor: Mental illness, Classism, Forced institutionalization, Animal death, Gun violence, Incest, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Eating disorder

lottselgar's review against another edition

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

unhallowing's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Racial slurs, Incest, Murder, Death, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Gun violence

Moderate: Alcohol, Medical content, Homophobia, Classism, Sexual violence, Blood, and Domestic abuse

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.

Spoiler

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

cassbarker's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective 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

4.0

wow, okay, where to begin?

i will be the first to admit that i struggled to get into this book initially - the first 100-200 pages felt largely purposeless, and i was looking for a clear plot to grip onto, that i know the book had to have had due to praise from others on the plot line. but oh my god, when this book is good, its fucking good. 

the characters are complex in a way that feels so real and humane,

Spoiler

and the development of charles and his addiction and slow fall to insanity was masterfully constructed

and came across so perfectly. this for me is the brilliance within donna tartt, her ability to perfectly crete characters like no one else. 

i think because the book was written in the 90s, the air of pseudo intellectualism seemed more captaviating and apparent…. and legit?? in comparison to contemporary campus novels, the deeper story and ideas felt more grounded and genuine, and i feel that the era it was written and the pacing is generally the reason behind this.

julian, to me, was a very puzzling character. he felt so minor - i didn’t really find myself being able to develop a connection or deep affection to him in the way that the classics group did. we were consistently told about this love all 5 of them had felt towards him as the professor, but apart from henry, and potentially francis, i couldn’t really understand how richard (and even the twins?!) had come to develop such strong emotions towards him. i wish we had gotten to see the establishment of that connection more; it felt very…. i don’t even know, but i really wanted more purpose behind richard’s kinship for julian he intensely detailed in the closing chapters of the novel. 

donna tart is a brilliant writer, i have zero doubt in my mind about that. i can very clearly see why it’s so loved, because it truly feels so human, really fucking liked this, would have been higher if it was a bit shorter, i really felt there was a lot of aspects that didn’t necessarily need to be included and made the novel even longer. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Suicide, Alcohol, and Incest

Moderate: Homophobia

Minor: Sexual violence

benotafraid's review against another edition

dark tense 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

3.5

Excellent start, strong middle, slightly let down at the end.

Spoiler

the romance arc with camilla did not need to be the end of her character arc. the epilogue was somewhat bungled

Still, an excellently written book with flawless vibes.

edit to lower rating: a second reread just left me feeling like a lot of the build-up was hollow. the ending really let's the whole book down.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Incest, Self harm, and Sexism

Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Homophobia, and Domestic abuse

kers_tin's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Suicide attempt, Incest, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Classism, Homophobia, Antisemitism, Misogyny, Gun violence, Xenophobia, Toxic friendship, Sexual violence, Rape, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Racism

Minor: Eating disorder, Bullying, Body shaming, and Addiction

_minnie_'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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

4.5

The plot itself was a fantastically developed rollercoaster with an unexpected ending and an almost cyclical resolve. The characters themselves are immensely unlikable and appear to almost redeem themselves only to then become, once again, extremely immoral. Donna Tartt’s writing style is suspenseful and keeps you hooked on every chapter. A slow start but a fast read when the story thickens.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Sexual violence, Incest, Death, Violence, Self harm, Drug abuse, and Alcoholism

dovewrites's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective relaxing tense slow-paced

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

5.0

The aesthetic of this book will be my entire personality for at least 6 months. The writing is superb and so delicious there is no other adjective. Completely addictive. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Classism, Emotional abuse, Murder, Sexual violence, Incest, Toxic friendship, Suicide, Alcohol, and Alcoholism

There is a line from richard’s POV that caught me off guard near the end of the book and I think it could be triggering to people sensitive to SA

Spoiler

it’s a scene where he’s talking to camilla and mentions a brief ‘urge’ to rape her

julesmae's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Donna Tartt's prose was almost certainly my favorite part of this read - so vivid in detail it's haunting how real it feels. While I did enjoy the plot, the cascading mess of lies and morality and intellectualism, I didn't find myself as enraptured as I had expected to be. I think this is, in part, due to the fact that none of the characters are particularly likable - which is both an example of how brilliantly complex a writer Tartt is and somewhat of a barrier to being completely invested in the outcome. Overall though, I still enjoyed it - I don't find many books anymore that I really revel in the slow pace of, but this one I did.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Toxic friendship, Suicide, Misogyny, Addiction, Alcoholism, and Murder

Moderate: Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide attempt, Sexism, and Medical content

Minor: Incest, Car accident, Animal cruelty, and Sexual violence