Reviews tagging 'War'

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

2 reviews

daybreakreads's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

3.0

The first 90% of this book: overhyped, poorly researched (details that were factually inaccurate; Plano, CA is two hours’ driving distance from Disneyland, he couldn’t have seen the fireworks from his house, one of the characters reads a book written by the “Persians” which was in Arabic — odd for a book so focused on foreign language, etc.), rather pretentious.

Last 10%: twist ending was interesting, and I enjoyed it, but it didn’t justify the 22 hours I spent listening to the audiobook. The author was the voice actor, and the voice she used for Bunny was incredibly irritating.

Interesting notes:
- this is a slow burn. Doesn’t pick up at all until ~50%. The writing style is intriguing
- none of the characters (even side ones) are “good guys”
- there’s a ton of random racist/antisemetic/homophobic comments, but they’re usually a one-off thing. The only exception to this was 3/4 of the way through there was a recurring trend of anti-Arab things that served no point to the overall plot whatsoever. It was odd for a book written in the 90s. There was a fake country full of “jihadist terrorists” mentioned several times, “sand [n word]” used against a Palestinian (who was only written for a brief moment in which he was yelling as the “angry Arab man” stereotype, “Arab” and “Arabic” were used incorrectly, general xenophobic remarks, etc. And then it just randomly stopped. 

As a Muslim the last thing just came across a bit ridiculous more than anything. I didn’t see the relevance, or the reason to focus significantly more on that than the other marginalized groups.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child death, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Incest, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Fire/Fire injury, and War

kayabennett's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny informative mysterious reflective 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? Yes

5.0

bunny corcoran is a fucking menace

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Incest, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Animal death, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Antisemitism, Grief, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Vomit, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and War