Reviews with content warning for Violence - Die geheime Geschichte

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Die geheime Geschichte by Donna Tartt

664 reviews

egglanor's review against another edition

4.0

I am left speechless. This book began haunting my dreams. The descriptive writing is beautifully done, and the plot complex, captivating, and harrowing. The opening mystery is mostly revealed by about halfway through the book, and I wondered what could possibly develop from then onwards (since that mystery had been til then sustaining the fast pace of the book), but things sure do develop, and you start to wonder how you ever thought any of it could be reasonable, or how you didn't see certain things before. I was so immersed in this story that I genuinely forgot you can't smoke indoors anymore because so many of the characters constantly have cigarette in hand. Anyway, what the fuck, and, go read it.

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sullivan_reader's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional 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

4.5

Oddly enough, this feels more like a character study, but where all of the characters are unlikable. And yet, I was still intrigued to see what happens next. Honestly, my favorite character was the cat that shit in the car cause ya they all deserved it. Idk how people like them. For example, they're all murderers. Richard really doesn't care until it's slapping him in the face with the fact that someone's death affects other people, too. Oh and that paragraph where he wanted to

rape

Camilla, like what a bustard.
Henry was a cold hearted, manipulative, son of a bitch. Charles was

abusive

.
Camilla couldn't handle being friends with other girls.
Bunny was racist, homophobic, classist (though they all were), and sexist, to name a few. And there's the theory that Richard exaggerated his bad traits, but personally, I think it shows that people can be terrible, but they still don't deserve to die.
I disliked Francis least of all cause his biggest faults were not being independent enough to voice his own opinions and literally go along with double homicide cause everyone else is too.
Then there's Julian. In my opinion, Julian created and fostered the environment where actions like these were acceptable, and their excuses were justified because of class and intellectualism. But when the consequences of his actions were staring him in the face, he fled cause he didn't want to be associated with it. Which explains why they felt so betrayed. It's like when an adult tells a kid if they tell the truth they won't get mad, then they get mad when they hear it.

Anyway, love the aesthetic, hate the classism and characters. They hated each other too, they’r preverse sense of superiority is the onlt thing tying them together. And I'm not mad Henry did what he did cause I feel like he fancied himself a hero in a Greek tragedy and that's how their story would end.

Oh and the writing was absolutely gorgeous! But it took a long time to be able to sink my teeth into it like other novels. That's not a bad thing though, it made me sit with the book and digest it longer which was most beneficial.

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emmakhend's review against another edition

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challenging dark 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

5.0

I have put off reading this book for years. Donna Tartt is one of the quintessential authors of the campus novel. The Secret History is one of those books that can either take you weeks to finish or just a few days. I, luckily, fell into the second category. The prose itself is immersive—decadent, even. Tartt writes with a dark, lyrical quality that makes you feel as if you’re right there in the small, suffocating world of Hampden College.
The characters are genuinely awful human beings—terrible in almost every way. Genuinely. But that doesn’t make them any less enjoyable to read about. What makes this book digestible, despite the characters’ flaws, is that they’re all grounded in reality. If you’ve ever been to a small liberal arts college, you’ve probably encountered a Richard, Henry, Bunny, Francis, Camilla, or Charles.
This is nothing new: coked-out academics and wealthy, apathetic young adults. These are the students you despise when they raise their hands in socratic seminars. They’re the ones who casually quote Greek philosophers in everyday conversation, like it’s normal to wax poetic about Plato over brunch. You know the type—drenched in privilege, floating through life with a kind of ironic detachment, as if they’re above the mundane concerns of the rest of us. But that’s the charm, isn’t it?
So, what happens when these familiar archetypes commit murder? The answer: a complete dissolution of mind and body; self-destruction in its most romantic form.
It’s hard to even say if these friends particularly liked each other. Their friendships seem less like bonds of genuine affection and more like conveniences that teeter on the edge of disdain, held together by a shared pretense of intellectualism and a sense of superiority over the "common people." This is not a book about likable characters or redeeming qualities; it's about what happens when people with far too much privilege and not enough conscience are pushed to the brink.
By the end of this, you realize you’ve been justifying murder for 500 pages. It’s insane but so good.

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zoekyriacou's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective 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

3.5

Good autumn read and I was hooked. Was hoping for more reveal/ satisfying tying of knots at the end to boost the overall reading experience. The writing at moments can be exquisite. I didn’t connect with any of the characters. Was expecting more. So much smoking😮‍💨

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erebus53's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

2.25

For a story with attractive writing and the occasionally beautiful truth of phrase, I have never read a book with more characters that I loathed. It is set in a university clique where the students so devote themselves to their study of ancient Greek, and their sycophantic affection for their tutor, that they become quite disconnected from the rest of campus and the real world. It's like you take cliquey academia and then turn it up to 11½. Not quite as schizophrenic as Bunny by Mona Awad, though one of the characters shares the same name, there is a sense that the narrator is not quite reliable.

I didn't get a clear sense of when this was set but I'm guessing that because it references anti-Arab race hatred and Sadam Hussein, that it would have to be about 1991, though most of it feels a little earlier than that. Maybe my perception of it is warped by it having been written before computers and cellphones were ubiquitous.

I was completely culturally at is with a bunch of characters who range from sociopathic to just mildly self-involved, all with a heaping helping of sense of entitlement... all the characters have bad or absent parents which is probably deliberate. These kids are almost adults, similes, and frequently inebriated. They are perfectly ok with tolerating friends as they demonstrate casual disregard for others, drink driving, kleptomania, infidelity, fraud, Racism, Sexism, religious bigotry, and stiffing others for the bill at expensive restaurants. These antics are presented to the narrator as endearing.. again; reliable??

When a classmate goes missing, I as a reader have the ethical question, would I have killed the horrible kid myself?! If I did would that make me a bad person? This kid is demonstrably awful, to mind. Does it matter that he was raised awful, by awful parents, and had a learning disability? Given support could he have improved? Who would have the patience!!!

The book drags. If the scenery had been nice I wouldn't mind so much, but I just wanted to kick all of the characters to the curb. I've been off-the-rails, drunk, clueless, far from home, and made bad decisions. I really liked the part of the story where our narrator has to live in a horrible free room, with a hole in the ceiling, through the coldest winter in ages, and there descriptions of going to common spaces and hanging out at the University because.. it's heated. That I could relate to. But the rest of it...?

I'm not sure why I do this to myself.

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trinity_windred's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
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

You need to be committed to reading this book to reach the end, but once you do it will live with you forever.

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norabee's review against another edition

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dark mysterious 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

3.75

definitely not what i expected (i had anticipated a lot more julian considering how hyped up he is). also justice for camilla, the only character i could stand.

had the feel of a mid 20th century novel where the 'main character' is more narrator than character. a bystander that allows you to take his place and perspective.

overall infuriating but intoxicating (somewhere between a 3.75-4)

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