Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Der Distelfink by Donna Tartt

177 reviews

carotx's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Moderate: Violence and Murder

mausekuchen's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.0

A good read, though I expected something different plot-wise because of the blurb (focus on criminal activities, even some mafia involvement). 

The writing style and pacing where once again distinctively Tartt and while there wasn't a part that felt dragged-out for me (compared to The Secret History), I still sometimes wondered if what I was reading right now would actually lead me to a point (I'm not entirely sure, though I'm tending to no).

Overall I enjoyed the book, however I was also glad to finally finish it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Violence, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Racial slurs

Minor: Sexual content and Trafficking

teatimes_'s review against another edition

dark emotional 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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Alcohol

dearbhlanoonan's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark slow-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Alcohol

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, and Trafficking

hgraham98's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Alcohol

isabelcmay2005's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Alcohol

alexandrabelze's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective slow-paced

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

4.5

ignore how long it took me to read this 😍 but, lord have mercy, donna tartt has yet to disappoint!!! though it did kinda slow down a little near the end, there was not a single moment throughout this book where she didn’t have me hooked. from start to finish, i had no clue where we were going but i enjoyed the ride! donna tartt’s writing style is unmatched. of course, i have to applaud her attention to detail; from furniture making to the fine arts, she made sure what she wrote was fact. and the way she makes characters feel so real and alive is insane! boris is probably my favorite of all the characters, along with theo’s mother. finishing this makes me want to reread a secret history T-T

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Moderate: Cursing, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, and Murder

rballenger's review against another edition

challenging sad 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

Type of read: Commuter Read.

What made me pick it up: One of the Tennessee R.E.A.D.s prompts for June is to read a book by or about an artist. 'The Goldfinch' has been on my TBR for a while and it was finally available at my local library and seemed to be the right time.

Overall rating: DNF @ 35%

Holy buckets, let's get this out of the way first, 'The Goldfinch' is a honker of a book. I'm talking lead weight, unnecessarily overpacked, TMI, engorged honker. I always get so torn with books like this because it's not my style. I'm not a slow-paced book girly. I wanted to get into the action, and having Tartt so dutifully explain every intricate detail had me almost DNFing nearly every five minutes. To be honest, I kept waiting for 'The Goldfinch' to get better, but it just didn't and I didn't feel like I wanted to keep slogging through the mundanity of Theo's life. I made it to 35% and we still hadn't made it over a year past the incident. To me, there was truly nothing brilliant or enthralling about 'The Goldfinch,' there was however boredom and wishes for Tartt to simply get to the point.

Reader's Note:  'The Goldfinch' includes themes of domestic terrorism, death, abandonment, drug and alcohol use - including use by minors, and child abuse.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Violence, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Alcohol

hannasifaka's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective relaxing slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, and Alcohol

ktrobbins's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

2.5

This is a tough book to rate. I really liked the beginning, and the end was pretty good too. I could empathize with Theo for the most part, but he became pretty unlikeable, and it made it tough for me to care about him most of the time. The same is true of a lot of the other characters in the book. I feel like there were quite a lot of unnecessary details that made it drag on for so long. I honestly felt relieved when I finished this (I said, "finally")-- yikes!

Maybe listening to it as an audiobook at almost 2x speed made it worse for me, or maybe I'm not enough of an ~intellectual~, idk. It's a decent book but I don't think I would ever re-read it; 3 stars.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Grief, Death of parent, and Alcohol