Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

326 reviews

_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

lorenag5's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Incest, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Classism

karenclare'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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide and Murder

Moderate: Self harm, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Incest and Panic attacks/disorders

hxdfn's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• 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

Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Homophobia, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Self harm, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Suicide attempt, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

madalina0_0's review against another edition

adventurous 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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Self harm, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

emily_p1's review against another edition

dark mysterious relaxing 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Homophobia, Incest, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

ettegoom's review against another edition

dark reflective tense 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

3.0

I don't know what it is about American novels as a genre, but they all seem to have truly terrible humans in them.  I couldn't decide whether I wanted things to work out for everyone in the end, or for them to all end up dead/incarcerated. 

The story is a complete train wreck from start to finish.  The characters are a bunch of 'poor little rich kids' joined by the narrator, a scholarship student, who manages to join the group, yet remains an outsider whilst still being intimately involved in trying to protect the group. 

A friend saw me reading this, and asked if a review that she'd seen entitled "what the hell Richard" was correct.  Yes it's correct, but I'm still not entirely sure what the reviewer was referring to, because there are so many what the heck? moments for every character, that is hard to single out any particular moment that could have triggered the reviewer's response

The writing is compelling and I read the book over about three days where I struggled to put it down.  I don't know whether I enjoyed it per se, but I most certainly wanted to know what was going to happen next. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Classism

the_neeerd's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

This is my favorite book because everyone in it sucks so bad. not a single character makes a good choice. and then they all make each other worse. If you take this book seriously, you're missing the point. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Xenophobia, and Antisemitism

Minor: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cursing, and Grief

krytykesa's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I wonder how she managed to create all the reasons for the reader to hate each character, yet by the end, you find a way to care about them. 

I don't understand the criticism. I read in some reviews that outside of Henry and the main characters, others felt plain. Camilla was the only one who I didn't get at all. 

And Francis, baby, I'll always care for you. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Toxic relationship, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Homophobia and Violence

Minor: Suicide attempt

lindsfindley's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Biphobia, Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Incest, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Islamophobia, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

I