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pissfox's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia and Vomit
Moderate: Incest
utopiaandmelancholy's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-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
5.0
Glad I finally read this book, I completely understand the hype. The writing is beautiful and yet feels self-aware of its pretentiousness, totally encapsulating the character of the narrator. Not that you like him of course - I wouldn't say there's a single character in this book that you would consider likable, and I think that's the point.
However, I am deeply deeply thankful I chose to read this book now, and not when I was first recommended it when I started studying Latin and Greek seriously and would've considered it aspirational rather than cautionary. (Also, for some bizarre reason, I thought there was a scene in this book set in an empty swimming pool, which I kept waiting to materialise but never did, because no such scene exists.)
However, I am deeply deeply thankful I chose to read this book now, and not when I was first recommended it when I started studying Latin and Greek seriously and would've considered it aspirational rather than cautionary. (Also, for some bizarre reason, I thought there was a scene in this book set in an empty swimming pool, which I kept waiting to materialise but never did, because no such scene exists.)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Gun violence, Suicide, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol
Moderate: Animal death, Drug use, Homophobia, Incest, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Vomit, and Classism
bearbear222's review against another edition
dark
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
3.5
I don't think I am the target audience for this book, so I think I may have enjoyed it more if I was more into greek mythology and classical literature in general. That being said, I can see why so many people love it. However, I can also see why some people dislike it... I feel like I am in the middle!
The characters were each very interesting to me, and I was pretty hooked the whole way through except for a couple sections throughout. There were also some twists that I wasn't expecting and I always enjoy when a book catches me by surprise like that. While reading, I listened to the audiobook on Audible which is read by Donna Tartt herself, and I think that DRASTICALLY improved my experience of reading this book. I highly recommend doing that, because it is read in the exact way the author wants it to be read, which is pretty cool. It also helped tons to keep my attention on the book because like I said before, some parts were a little slow and uninteresting to me.
Definitely check trigger warnings for this book! I did not and wish that I had.
The characters were each very interesting to me, and I was pretty hooked the whole way through except for a couple sections throughout. There were also some twists that I wasn't expecting and I always enjoy when a book catches me by surprise like that. While reading, I listened to the audiobook on Audible which is read by Donna Tartt herself, and I think that DRASTICALLY improved my experience of reading this book. I highly recommend doing that, because it is read in the exact way the author wants it to be read, which is pretty cool. It also helped tons to keep my attention on the book because like I said before, some parts were a little slow and uninteresting to me.
Definitely check trigger warnings for this book! I did not and wish that I had.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Murder, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Gore, Incest, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Gaslighting
Minor: Sexual content and Sexual violence
ashley_turch's review
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Suicide attempt, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Outing, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Cursing, Incest, and Car accident
Minor: Child abuse, Car accident, and Death of parent
Most trigger warnings apply. Warning for animal lovers: animal cruelty is mentioned and discussed by the characters — but we do not “see” it happen. Watch out around page ~230 (digital version — otherwise in Chapter 5 near the discussion of mushrooms) for the most heinous description, in my opinion. Easy to skip over the paragraph and pretend it didn’t happen, although it is very briefly referred to later in the book.vi_violetrose's review against another edition
challenging
dark
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
5.0
A book that makes you root for the murderers and then also makes you feel bad for doing so. I enjoyed this exploration of morality and how complicated it really is.
I don’t always enjoy first person POV but it’s utilized very well here. Richard’s retelling of events is not only fun but a bit unreliable, yet it’s difficult to tell where he embellished and where he didn’t, leading one to wonder about the truth of most events.
The beginning of the book is slow, but it really does get better as it goes on. The second half really gripped me. It was fun seeing the characters unfold and show their true colors as the novel progressed. I couldn’t have imagined the type of people any of them would be, going into this. It’s hard to say whether I like any of them or not.
I expected this book to be pretentious, but it has a lot to say about the shallowness of the academia aesthetic and using intellect (or perceived intellect) as a status symbol rather than actually caring to challenge oneself and learn.
I don’t always enjoy first person POV but it’s utilized very well here. Richard’s retelling of events is not only fun but a bit unreliable, yet it’s difficult to tell where he embellished and where he didn’t, leading one to wonder about the truth of most events.
The beginning of the book is slow, but it really does get better as it goes on. The second half really gripped me. It was fun seeing the characters unfold and show their true colors as the novel progressed. I couldn’t have imagined the type of people any of them would be, going into this. It’s hard to say whether I like any of them or not.
I expected this book to be pretentious, but it has a lot to say about the shallowness of the academia aesthetic and using intellect (or perceived intellect) as a status symbol rather than actually caring to challenge oneself and learn.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Suicide, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Cursing, Gore, Homophobia, Incest, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexism, Antisemitism, and Classism
Minor: Ableism, Racial slurs, Rape, Vomit, and Islamophobia
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gun violence, Incest, Rape, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Antisemitism, Murder, and Outing
be_emvi_ous's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Homophobia, Misogyny, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Classism
Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death
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.
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 wassamanthaleereads'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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Sexism, Suicide, Antisemitism, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol
Moderate: Medical content and Suicide attempt
Minor: Animal death, Domestic abuse, Incest, and Vomit
lisa_m's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This book was definitely something. It was way longer than I expected it to be and also quite slow paced but for some reason I still could not put it down. I read it in pretty much a day. It was kind of like a train crash you can't look away from but not because it's bad, just because it's so insane.
The story gets told to us by Richard who is the new guy and through whom we get to know the other protagonists. The setting and the whole group of strange classics students is very intriguing and you just want to know more about them. But as the story continues their behaviour becomes stranger and stranger.
So much is happening that I don't even know how to properly summarise my thoughts on this book. I think the easiest would be to talk about each character individually:
- Bunny: I have to say that I did not like Bunny. I did not like any of the characters really but they still intruiged me. Bunny though is pretty much the exact person I would hate to be confronted with in reallife. He is manipulative, selfish, elitist and very prejudiced. We find out right in the beginning that by the end of the story, he will be dead and I can't say I was very unhappy about that. He is the first one who actually talks to Richard and includes him but after that good first impression it pretty much just went downhill. I feel bad for him, not just because of his family and upbringing but also because he was murdered by his best friends. I wish we got to read the message he left for Julian in full. He seemed so desperate and scared (and for good reason) After all the bad things he said and did, it humanised him to me again.
- Richard:He is new and wants to fit in with the others in the group very badly. He is a very morally grey person. As a reader we are automatically sympathetic to him because we learn about everything from his perspective. Still I do not like him.
- Camilla and Charles: I can only talk about the twins as a pair. Honestly for the majority of the book they were my favourites. Yes they were complicated and also involved in the insanity going on but they were kind and very welcoming to Richard. At least to me the further development of their characters was very surprising. Charles goes completely off the rails and I can't fully merge the kind Charles we get to know in the beginning with the reckless driver-sleeps with and abuses his sister-alcoholic-irrational-tries to shoot someone with a gun-Charles he is towards the end. Camilla was also quite different when I first read about her. To me she was a sort of Artemis figure like how she is described during the Bacchanal. I didn't like how later in the book instead of developing her character individually she just becomes this romantasised love-interest to pretty much everyone except Francis. I didn't like that she was just depicted as this callous woman who likes making people fall in love with her. I also don't believe she was actually in love with Henry. He rescued her from a terrible situation but I don't think he is capable of love. I think he was obsessed with her and very much liked to possess her and she knew that too.
The incestuous relationship between the twins was teased a couple of times but even though I was supicious of it I liked them too much to actually think it was happening. When they kissed in front of Richard I was very shocked. But even more so when Camilla tells him that she is scared of Charles and that he abuses her. I saw that coming even less with how close they seemed to be.
- Francis:I felt quite bad for Francis a lot of the times. Not only was one of his best friends a raging homophobe who he can't even be alone with for that reason, the boy he actually likes pretends nothing is happening between them and prefers to sleep with his own sister. He is also so stressed about everything happening he has a panic attack and later tries to kill himself. Still through all of that he is not a good person either. (None of them are).
- Henry:Oh Henry. He's a complicated one. I was very intruiged by him in the beginning as well. He was my second favourite after the twins. Not only is he very generous he's also very focused on his studies which seem to be everything to him. He's clearly very intelligent but in the beginning you don't see that as a bad thing. The more the story continued though, the more I started to doubt him. Many things about him never get explained. He clearly is a psychopath and a very dangerous one too. He's the only one who actually kills anyone. The others were just there and so loyal to him they didn't turn him in. I don't think I will ever fully understand him. Did he leave the plane tickets out for Richard to find? It seems like a stupid oversight that's very unlike Henry. I think he wanted Richard to know. I don't understand why he killed himself. Did he really think he would survive? I don't think it was because of anything like remorse. What was the actual relationship between Henry and Julian? It was way closer than between Julian and the other students but we never find out.
I'm also very curious if Henry would have continued killing if he hadn't died. I really think he would have. He said himself that he enjoyed it and he was the one doing the actual killing. Also even though he denies it I am convinced he tried to kill Charles too. Charles may have been a bit irrational but I think he was very justified and correct in being scared of Henry and what he might do to him.
Henry for a majority of the book had control over the group. He's the one who makes decision and tells them what to do. He tells Richard about everything. The biggest warning sign was when he poisoned his neighbors dogs to to try out the poison with which he wanted to kill Bunny. Thats psychopath 101
- Julian:I expected Julian to not only play a more important role in the story but also just to show up more. Except for being the one who chose every student individually he doesn't really have much to do with the story. Unless of course there is something we don't know. Henry looked up to him very much and he's the one who came up with the idea for the Bacchanal. So what if the idea was actually Julians? That would perhaps explain why he ran and cut contact with them all. Julian is definitely a very strange character. He's not a good person either but we don't actually know how much of an influence he had on his students. He isolated them and made them rely solely on him and each other. I wish we got a few more answers about him and his perspective and intentions.
Okay now that we went through all the main characters let's move on to some theories and thoughts I had while reading.
1. I think it was Richard and Francis who are driving together in a car when they have to stop and they see something that is neither a deer nor a dog and they say it's a big cat. As soon as I read this part I was CONVINCED it would turn out that this big cat was the one who killed the farmer. Wouldn't that have been a twist? If shortly after they kill Bunny it turns out they aren't responsible for the first murder? That they just murdered their friend for nothing? I really thought that would happen, but sadly it did not.
2. I think it's so insane how pretty much the entire group is in some kind of big love triangle. Henry and Camilla, Camilla and Charles, Charles and Francis, Francis and Richard, Richard and Camilla. The only one uninvolved was Bunny and he would be SHOCKED if he ever found out about all this.
3. As much as I did not like Bunny, he had the only understandable reaction to murder. He found his best friends drenched in blood after having killed a man in their delirium. It makes sense that he cannot just move on.
4. I think we never got the full truth about what really happened during the Bacchanal. We only heard Henry's account of it and he clearly only told Richard what he wanted him to know. I wish we got different perspectives on it. I'm not sure I trust anything Henry is saying actually. The whole thing intruiges me but we never get any real answers.
I'm not sure if this is actually a review or just me rambling and venting my thoughts on this book but oh well. I had a couple of issue but all in all I understand why this book is seen as the classic example for Dark Acadmia. It's a bunch of rich, pretentious and educated people trying to rationalise murder. I don't even know what more to say. If you like Dark Academia you will probably like this.
The story gets told to us by Richard who is the new guy and through whom we get to know the other protagonists. The setting and the whole group of strange classics students is very intriguing and you just want to know more about them. But as the story continues their behaviour becomes stranger and stranger.
So much is happening that I don't even know how to properly summarise my thoughts on this book. I think the easiest would be to talk about each character individually:
- Bunny:
- Richard:
- Camilla and Charles:
The incestuous relationship between the twins was teased a couple of times but even though I was supicious of it I liked them too much to actually think it was happening. When they kissed in front of Richard I was very shocked. But even more so when Camilla tells him that she is scared of Charles and that he abuses her. I saw that coming even less with how close they seemed to be.
- Francis:
- Henry:
I'm also very curious if Henry would have continued killing if he hadn't died. I really think he would have. He said himself that he enjoyed it and he was the one doing the actual killing. Also even though he denies it I am convinced he tried to kill Charles too. Charles may have been a bit irrational but I think he was very justified and correct in being scared of Henry and what he might do to him.
Henry for a majority of the book had control over the group. He's the one who makes decision and tells them what to do. He tells Richard about everything. The biggest warning sign was when he poisoned his neighbors dogs to to try out the poison with which he wanted to kill Bunny. Thats psychopath 101
- Julian:
Okay now that we went through all the main characters let's move on to some theories and thoughts I had while reading.
2. I think it's so insane how pretty much the entire group is in some kind of big love triangle. Henry and Camilla, Camilla and Charles, Charles and Francis, Francis and Richard, Richard and Camilla. The only one uninvolved was Bunny and he would be SHOCKED if he ever found out about all this.
3. As much as I did not like Bunny, he had the only understandable reaction to murder. He found his best friends drenched in blood after having killed a man in their delirium. It makes sense that he cannot just move on.
4. I think we never got the full truth about what really happened during the Bacchanal. We only heard Henry's account of it and he clearly only told Richard what he wanted him to know. I wish we got different perspectives on it. I'm not sure I trust anything Henry is saying actually. The whole thing intruiges me but we never get any real answers.
I'm not sure if this is actually a review or just me rambling and venting my thoughts on this book but oh well. I had a couple of issue but all in all I understand why this book is seen as the classic example for Dark Acadmia. It's a bunch of rich, pretentious and educated people trying to rationalise murder. I don't even know what more to say. If you like Dark Academia you will probably like this.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, and Car accident