Reviews with content warning for Panic attacks/disorders - The Goldfinch

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The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

64 reviews

libraryofpeculiar's review against another edition

challenging reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

I don't really get the hype around this book. I think I would've DNFed this if it weren't for the audiobook and 2x speed.

The writing wasn't bad, but the story kept on dragging on and on and on. The pace was painfully slow. I wasn't really interested in things that were going on, and the fact I've seen the movie before reading didn't contribute to this since I already knew what was going to happen.

I also found Theo to be incredibly stupid, and his several existential crisis had me soooo annoyed. Dunno, this book didn't really give me any pleasure whatsoever... I can't say that it was a bad book, but simply nothing in it happened to be my cup of tea. The movie was better because it cut out all the boring and unnecessary parts, which was like a good portion of the book.

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hazychapters's review

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

It was long, too long. Don't get me wrong, it's a good book but... I think yet I had too high expectations. I loved The Secret History by this author (one of my favourite books) and I was excepting the same mystic atmosphere. Instead, I didn't feel any empathy for the characters. Things kept happening in Theo's life but I was like "well, good luck" and kept reading. And the moments/characters that interested me were completely secondary and quickly put aside (I love you Pippa. No kidding).

I was also quite lost in this "universe". Not being American (and not living in an English-speaking country), I did not understand the many nods to brands, TV channels, the streets of New York, etc. And not knowing much about art either, I was quickly lost when we started to mention the names of painters and their works. So the long descriptions were quite boring, but I also couldn't read diagonally because every detail is important at some point. So if you skip something, you might get lost a few pages down the line. The length of the chapters was also a problem: on chapters of 150 pages, it ran out of steam a bit in the middle, before obviously ending on a cliffhanger at the end.

The story remains very beautiful, the writing very poetic, and it would be a lie to say that Donna Tartt did not surprise me more than once.

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faerieevee's review

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dark emotional sad 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

4.5

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abhess's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

4.75

It took me around a year to read this book. The pace is painstakingly slow at times, but there was something that made me keep reading (probably Donna Tartt’s writing). The ending felt a bit anticlimactic, but there were a lot of passages that stuck with me. Overall worth the read, but it takes patience.

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