Reviews tagging 'Rape'

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

458 reviews

viktoriawithakreadsbooks's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gun violence, Incest, Rape, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Antisemitism, Murder, and Outing

violetdisposition's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Blood, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Drug use, Homophobia, Incest, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Self harm, Violence, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Death of parent

hds's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Drug use, and Murder

Moderate: Homophobia, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Rape

xsancia's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Minor: Homophobia, Incest, and Rape

l4uraliest's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Rape, Suicide, Violence, Antisemitism, Murder, and Toxic friendship

ellie_dirthag's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, and Classism

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Incest, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Suicide attempt, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, and Rape

The triggers make this sound like such a more interesting book than it was

songofachilleus's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• 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: Alcoholism, Homophobia, Incest, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Moderate: Addiction, Cursing, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Classism

Minor: Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Rape, and Sexual content

changomarango's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

I think this book has been life changing in a very unexpected way, it’s definitely not THE best book out there, but there are some golden nuggets of thought it in that have altered my thinking. I loved it deeply, especially cause i realized halfway through that the plot was not what you expect from the first phrase. It’s a great book, literally the footprint for dark academia, I’m just hesitant to give it the 5/5 rating because i feel like you need to know a lot about philosophy to truly understand it, so some things truly went over my head. Maybe if I read it in a later stage in life i will be able to understand it better.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Violence, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Incest, Rape, and Sexual assault

athomehangel's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Minor: Rape

tomomia's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Incest

Minor: Rape