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rachel7588's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Drug use, Infidelity, Drug abuse, Self harm, Mental illness, Grief, Death, Bullying, Gun violence, Vomit, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Suicide attempt, Abandonment, Suicidal thoughts, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Murder, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Alcoholism, and Addiction
ewwniamh's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Gun violence, Blood, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Death, Addiction, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Violence, Drug use, Domestic abuse, Murder, Grief, and Drug abuse
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Cursing, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Racism, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Vomit, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Medical content and Medical trauma
nils_0's review against another edition
- 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? No
4.0
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Animal cruelty, Drug abuse, Murder, Addiction, Alcohol, Cursing, Violence, Alcoholism, Grief, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Car accident, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders and Vomit
marianneiriss's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
If you’ve read and enjoyed other long, slow, and at times frustrating books (for example, Crime and Punishment!), you like to read books with entirely unlikeable characters and unreliable narrators, and you don’t mind forays into odd, illogical, trains of thought and extremely long sentences - yes, definitely read The Goldfinch!
If you’ve read and enjoyed The Secret History, and you are hoping for something in the same vein of content/themes from The Goldfinch - I probably wouldn’t recommend it to you, because it’s honestly nothing like TSH, and I think you might be disappointed if you go into expecting it to be similar!
Personally, I thought that although it’s not an easy read, it was worth it. I’ve not been able to stop thinking about The Goldfinch since I finished last month.
I loved the lyrical writing - Donna Tartt has beautiful prose. And she captures this feeling of a kind of resigned despair so well, it pervades the entire book. I actually had to take a bit of a break from reading it at one point just to read something a bit less unhappy (I wouldn’t class this as ‘a sad book’ necessarily, but it is an unhappy book, at times desperately so). I’ve included some content warnings at the end of this review, and I would recommend looking into them before you decide to commit to reading The Goldfinch, as it does deal with heavy subject matter.
All this being said, I did think that it is a fantastic book overall, and if you’re currently battling through it I would recommend sticking with it, as you’ll be glad by the end that you did. Despite how frustrating it feels at times - I certainly felt like yelling at Theo “please, just don’t do that, just don’t” at multiple points! - it is well worth persevering with it.
Graphic: Addiction, Cursing, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Suicide, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Death, Drug use, Death of parent, Drug abuse, and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Blood, Gun violence, Toxic friendship, Murder, Abandonment, and Infidelity
eher1305's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Drug abuse, Drug use, Domestic abuse, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Violence, Vomit, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Mass/school shootings, Panic attacks/disorders, and Physical abuse
the_book_nook's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Graphic: Drug use, Drug abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Death of parent, Murder, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Violence, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Sexual content
sarahbliss's review
- 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
4.25
Graphic: Grief, Death of parent, Addiction, and Drug use
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Toxic friendship
k3volutionenergy's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
0.25
Some of the main reasons as to why I didn't like it:
-It felt as though POC characters were used as a plot device rather than being seen as really people. The majority of these characters didn't have names, instead being referred to as 'The [ethnicity or race] man/woman', not to mention that the only role they seemed to serve was forwarding the lives of the all white main cast. As for the POC characters who were named, they were so incredibly stereotyped - The Latino doormen are the biggest examples of this
-It felt like an excuse for Tartt (a white women) to says slurs, particularly the n-word. Boris, a character who's first language is Ukrainian, starts to say the n-word as he likes rap (not kidding, Tartt wrote that). I think this was in an attempt of Tartt to show that Boris isn't allinged with what she deams as more western ideals of what is acceptable and that he isn't American however, Tartt can't mention Boris without mentioning that a) he is Ukrainian/is not American (eg. Pointing out the way he pronounces English words incorrectly) or that b) his morals are deemed unacceptable in her American lense. Either way, Tartt using the n-word as a white women is unacceptable, no question, but it just feels worse when it's just thrown in there for literally no reason (eg. Portraying racism (though, still no excuse))
-There is so many mentions of underaged boys wanting to sleep with/actually sleeping with fully grown women - there is more mentions of this that mentions of sex that is legal. I'm not accusing Tartt of anything but it definitely feels like some fixation with how much it's mentioned. I want to add, there is never sex between two consenting adults mentioned, at least not as explicitly as sex between two underaged boys or between underaged boys and adult women.
-Tartt seems to use queerness as a lazy plot device and nothing more. Boris and Theo's relationship in a romantic and sexual sense is only seen a few times when they are teenagers, more times vaguely with one time to my memory being outward (their kiss before Theo leaves Vegas). It mentioned offhand in their adulthood with Boris mentioning Theo is the only man he has ever slept with. This book seems to be pushed as a queer book and though the main characters may be queer despite their preferences to women, I definitely feel like the queer aspects of the book are a lazy plot above anything else - queerbating, really.
-This gripe is definitely very small compared to my others but I would still like to mention it - She mixed up the languages of two different countries. She writes of a Welsh side character named 'Kellin' when that's the Irish spelling of the name, the Welsh being 'Celyn'. Again, small gripe, but still something that stood out to me as a Welsh person.
I really wouldn't recommend reading this book, it's personally put me off Tartt's writing completely despite how acclaimed some of her other works are.
Graphic: Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Drug abuse, Toxic friendship, Addiction, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Sexism, Racism, and Xenophobia
her_little_library's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Violence, Grief, Drug use, Addiction, Toxic relationship, and Drug abuse
this book also features domestic terrorismoyasum1's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Child abuse, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, Addiction, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Drug abuse, Mental illness, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Death, Abandonment, Bullying, Car accident, and Death of parent
Minor: Gaslighting, Vomit, and Gun violence