Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

1204 reviews

ashley_turch's review

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challenging 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

5.0

I wish every book I read was like this. Perfectly atmospheric, academic but not too difficult to understand, left enough to the imagination to leave you thinking about it for a long time afterward. 

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caitlink's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

4.75

My favorite part of this book has to be the multiple language usage throughout the book. It is not that often but I really loved it. Especially if it was a language I was learning and I was actually able to understand it.

I can verify about the thing about thinking in different languages that supposed to slow down your thoughts or keep them from going wild. At least in my experience that is true. Honestly that is some good advice. I would say that if you take anything away from that book, it should be or one of them should  be to think in a different language when you're worried.

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viktoriawithakreadsbooks's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny mysterious reflective 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

3.25


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be_emvi_ous's review against another edition

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dark slow-paced
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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violetdisposition's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

This book started out pretty slow but there were enough odd details woven into the elaborately detailed yet rather mundane descriptions of daily life at a liberal arts college to keep me engaged - once things slowly started to reveal themselves, I was eager to see how all of the threads would come together. Even now, I think I would need to reread the book in order to truly capture all of the details and foreshadowing left in each scene. I don't know if I would say I particularly *liked* the main cast of characters - but they had such a charm to them that I was curious to know them better. The narrator is clearly unreliable, and even says so himself, which is my favorite type of narrator - we KNOW he is romanticizing his past and was even romanticizing it when he was living in the moment, and yet his narration is all we have with which to piece the true story together. I would be remiss to mention this book is (over)written with achingly pretentious and flowery language, but I am known to love this type of writing.

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meggyannpt's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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

3.75


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hds's review against another edition

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dark mysterious 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

5.0


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psychedelics's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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l4uraliest's review against another edition

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dark slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

2.0

Wayyyy too fucking long, could have been half the pages
Incredibly boring
chapters way too long
I liked the friendship ig, but Henry was the only thing that held them together, also both murders seem to be the only reason for the close friendship
Why is Camilla only a romantic interest? No real personality? Still ig my favourite character (Also Francis was fine)
Don‘t really get why Henry offed himself?? Why not let Charles take the fall for what he did? 
TF WAS WITH THE INCEST 
TF WAS WITH THE „I want to rape her“ i mean, what is wrong with you? why are you THIS obsessed???? 
So much romanticising: Henry with the murder, of each character basically -  Charles was my fave at first ???? HOW
- Julian was also fine but why doesn’t he have any friends his own age?? and why are his students his only personality?? 
why tf was the beginning SO LONG and the end so short?????
also WHY WAS BASICALLY HENRY THE ONLY ONE ON CAMILLAS SIDE AFTER CHARLES ABUSED HER



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ellie_dirthag's review against another edition

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dark reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

That was so many pages for all that? Girl... Like I think I understand what the author's point was and what she was trying to accomplish, and she did it well, I just didn't find it interesting. 

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