Reviews tagging 'Racism'

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

480 reviews

alexaela's review against another edition

dark mysterious relaxing sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

could this have been more concise, shorter? yes. could this have been richer, fuller? also, yes. i think the parts where the book lost me were the ones where most of the pages were filled with dialogues and very few insight into our narrator's inner conflict and observations on his fellow associates. the best parts were filled with quotes on various themes, but mostly, rich in character moments and insight into the complex and messed up nature of their personalities and relationships. i hated all of them, yet found them so scarily humane and fragile. 

the seeping horror of this ending and epilogue was what i needed most after

Bunny's death

, glad we got it for

Henry's (he deserved it most)

. As much as i loved the supsense, intrigue and thrill of not knowing whether they may or may not get caught by someone else, once

the body was found

; what i loved best was the slower moments of dread and despair showcased by each characters once faced with the true horror of their actions.

Mr Corcoran's wild displays of grief, Julian's cold and cowardly reaction to the truth, Bunny and Henry's dream like apparitions

, those moments, are why i'm glad i stuck through the rougher parts of the story. 

I disagree with those who thought Richard to be a boring pov. I felt both so deeply attached and repulsed by him, specifically, because i could relate so much with where he came from and how much his way of seeing and going about things would undeniably lead him to the wrong path. he was so obsessed with his own lacking parts that he latched onto those who had what he wanted most selfishly, and looked down on those who unapologetically displayed characteristics of a socio-economic background he despised, even when they were the only ones who ever thought of him as an equal. Richard didn't want to be respected or even loved, he only ever wanted to be desperately needed, and he got just that, from the worst (beautiful) people he could find. i don't think this theme could have been translated as well, through such out of touch characters as the rest of them. 

"unreliable pov"? i don't really see how? was he unaware of a lot? yes. was he often blinded by his own jealousy and fear of abandonment, to admit to himself the true nature of others? also, yes. was his ignorance and blindness, to the complex reality lead bare in front him, ever, not incredibly obvious the reader? no. it can only appear unreliable to those who themselves refuse to see the truth. readers are like Julian and Richard, they want to see the best in the make believe characters of their lives, to see the full beauty of theirs, ignoring that what makes them truly beautiful, truly grand, is that these specific moments of humanity, friendship and humour, one loves to see, can also come from deeply rotten individuals. funny, considering, this obsession with perfect displays of pure beauty, is, in fact, the most rotten aspect of this main cast. 
nb : i get serious dorian gray vibes from this side of the story. 

this is probably my longest review on a book, and yet, i only gave it a 4, why is that? this felt very academic, in a modern classic kind of way. almost higher than thou. definitely not bad to analyse but hard to feel close to, on a first read. i do think that, if i ever chose to do so, this could become a 5 star, after multiple reads. in the meantime : 'I hope you'll excuse me, but I'm late for an appointment.'

ps : this was my first book, fully, read in english. i'm really happy (and proud) to see i could manage it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest

Moderate: Homophobia

Minor: Racism and Rape

helhas3letters's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

1.75

Never have I read about a group of people so pretentious yet so vapid, so snobbish yet so thick, so self-involved yet so empty, so exhausting yet so inexcusably BORING.

Not a single one of these characters is likeable (perhaps maybe Georges LaForgue), so I just did not care one bit about what happened to them. And what on earth is with everyone

being utterly obsessed with and casually kissing Camilla?!? This woman is apparently a prop for everyone else to project their desires onto.

An awful lot of male gaze for a book written by a woman.

In terms of the plot, it’s incredibly repetitive and moves frustratingly slowly. Aside from the two or three main events that take place in this story, there is just far too much waiting around, moving back and forth between locations, and nothing happening for my liking. I honestly don’t understand the point of large chunks of this novel, nor certain characters who do not affect the story or world whatsoever.

I thought the ending was pretty bizarre too. Why did it become a

“where are they now”? And why does it include the most random characters?! Including the cat we were introduced to about 20 pages ago?!? To be fair, I cared more about that cat than I did most of the main characters, but still. A strange choice.

Some people love this book but for me, I can’t help but feel it was a massive waste of time. I kept hoping it would get better, but for 600 pages, it never did. I persisted past where it would have been sensible to give up and in the future, I will trust my DNF instincts.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Racial slurs, Suicide, Violence, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Xenophobia, Blood, Antisemitism, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Vomit, Death of parent, Outing, and Classism

getyourghosts's review against another edition

dark reflective 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, and Murder

Moderate: Homophobia, Incest, Racism, Suicide, Violence, and Suicide attempt

splashcat360's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Death, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Suicide, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Homophobia, Incest, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, and Outing

withlivjones's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective slow-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 characters are all so weird it’s unrealistic” what if I told you Classics students really are Like That 

For real though I understand why this book is a modern classic, it gets pretty tangential at times which really slows it down but it is so atmospheric and provides such detailed portraits of all the central characters, and the ending had me GAGGED. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Gun violence, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racism, Suicide, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Domestic abuse, Incest, Grief, and Suicide attempt

baz_'s review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Homophobia, Incest, Racism, Suicide, and Classism

Minor: Misogyny and Sexism

edesreads's review against another edition

mysterious medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism

Moderate: Suicide attempt

Minor: Incest

abigailhaagen's review

dark mysterious

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

Story was incredibly well-told, the characters very fleshed-out, and I was engrossed and read almost 400 pages in one day. However, it also romanticized a lot of unhealthy behaviors, which probably wasn't great for me mentally (no, Abigail, you can't return to college to study Ancient Greek while drinking bourbon and smoking cigars

and plotting murders

smh)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Homophobia, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Outing, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Classism

Moderate: Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Rape, Self harm, Sexual content, and Vomit

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Antisemitism

emilysacharow's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, and Alcohol

Moderate: Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual violence, Vomit, Murder, and Outing

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Chronic illness, and Drug abuse

_david_'s review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-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

I somewhat enjoyed the book. 

I liked the niche approach of student choice: the outgoing introverted dark academia type of students of classic languages. This is a group which I can recognise in fellow students from my high school days, who coincidentally also studied classic languages. 

The plot is interesting to me. It's a very believable story of a group of people who make very bad choices which seem the easiest to them in the moment, but which have long lasting consequences.  

One thing I wish the story improved is character depth. The main character and Henry are interesting. Bunny is interesting but not very rounded. But Charles, Camilla and Francis are underdeveloped eventhough they were part of the main cast of characters. The main character's crush on Camilla also made my eyes roll. It was very over the top and often distracted from whatever she was doing. Her appearance got mentioned waaaaay too often. I'd rather have known more about her personality. 

Somewhere around the halfway point the story becomes very slow. You might have to push through long paragraphs about seemingly unimportant details. There shouldn't have been much more of it or I would've dropped the book. Speaking of Tartt's writing style: either do not mind having to look up words or be accepting of only understanding the general gist of a word/foreign sentence and moving on. 

The ending was very satisfying to me. The effect of the events in the story are different per character. I found this very interesting to read about. Something clicked when the main character described that the main cast is a group of naturally insecure people who have been taught to feel superior instead. This explains a lot of the behaviour shown.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Gun violence, Self harm, Suicide, Violence, Suicide attempt, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Incest, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Bullying, Eating disorder, Toxic relationship, Car accident, and Classism

Drunk driving/drunk drivers/driving under influence Description of thoughts of raping a woman