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marinariazag's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
slow-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
4.75
Necesito dejar por escrito mis pensamientos mientras leía este libro maravilloso porque what a ride
- Andy :(
- Uf la historia del padre es muy triste, no supieron ayudarle realmente, eso pasa mucho
- Boris…. no se que pensar. Little rascal pero su relación con la novia…con las mujeres en general…
- CUANDO THEO ESTÁ A PUNTO DE DECIR I LOVE YOU A BORIS omg my boy is so gay I love him
- por que está obsesionado con Pippa??? en plan ummmm
- COMO QUE SE VA A CASAR CON KITSEY!??? me he quedado loquísima
- Boris casado y con hijos????? no lo sé Rick, parece falso
- Cuando Theo habla con Mrs Barbour del bullying del colegio, joder, era muy fuerte, me gusta que no lo toquen todo de una, que vayan dando pinceladas y te haces una imagen
- Kitsey oculta algo….y me gusta….
- Ya no me gusta lo que oculta la tía esta #cancelled
- QUE COÑO HA PASADO THEO HAS MATADO A ALGUIEN
- y encima el cuadro se vuelve a perder diosssss
- uf el momento contemplación del suicidio ha sido duro…
- la última conversación con Hobie me parece TAN INCREÍBLE
- me gusta que al final no sea: y ya está todo bien, en plan Theo ha cambiado y mejorado y está buscando su camino, puede que nunca lo encuentre o puede que si
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction
Moderate: Suicide attempt and Suicidal thoughts
freakysappho's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- 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? It's complicated
3.75
i was all set to be The Goldfinch's biggest fan bc i am a donna tartt megahead and i've been looking forward to this one for a LONGGG time. But. Well. a few notes:
the first part was. SO. Good. like amazing. following theo through the horrifying whirlwind of a thirteen year old's kid turned upside down; the apathy, the emptiness, the grief.. it was amazing. the city, vegas, back to the city; tartt's character work with hobie and boris especially i loveeeeed <3 basically every part up to when theo turns 26 years old. womp, womp
nice prose; although, perhaps blinded to it, i did notice that tartt used a lot of emdashes-- you know, like so-- and sentences run on, and on, and on like this; many semicolons; I do not recall this little, or perhaps massive and thus emphasized by this book's length, writing quirk in TSH, although i feel-- ha!-- terribly for her editor.
um. okay now the things i didn't like which were a lot. the entire second half of this book was lowkey a chore, moseying and meandering through theo's philosophical pinings. every single time theo pined for pippa was agonizing to read. pippa pippa pippa. Bitch you've seen her three times what's her favorite color. What's her favorite season? if there's one thing donna tartt cannot write it is a romance. like she cannot convince me a main character is in love or even unreasonably obsessed which i guess is what we were supposed to take away from that whole painful agonizing ordeal. this was the case in the secret history too. why i cannot say.
the ending reminded me of an essay i'd write for my art history class i took my freshman year where my professor would start her comments by saying Rory, I think this could use some work.. but it had a "happier" ending than TSH, i guess, so if you're in the market for that.. look here. i guess i just kind of hate "diary-style" endings to books but this book is middlemarch-ian in absolute length (though not in time covered) and i guess it had to end somewhere
yawn. snore.
i honestly don't think the length of this book was an issue but the post-childhood theo parts could have been sawed down Immensely. like there is no growth there and. he was so whiny and pathetic that i could not believe he was like, a successful salesman in any capacity, and i guess that's where i get finicky about the length. and i fuckig love a pathetic human being but he was just boring to read about, so realistic that i can see him sitting across from me in a diner. and it's like. whatever give me back henry from tsh.
but whatever i liked it enough. and i get that theo is not a perfect person but i really just disliked him as a human being . Anyway i could say a lot about this book but i'll end it here. long book gets long thoughts. Overall rating: meh
the first part was. SO. Good. like amazing. following theo through the horrifying whirlwind of a thirteen year old's kid turned upside down; the apathy, the emptiness, the grief.. it was amazing. the city, vegas, back to the city; tartt's character work with hobie and boris especially i loveeeeed <3 basically every part up to when theo turns 26 years old. womp, womp
nice prose; although, perhaps blinded to it, i did notice that tartt used a lot of emdashes-- you know, like so-- and sentences run on, and on, and on like this; many semicolons; I do not recall this little, or perhaps massive and thus emphasized by this book's length, writing quirk in TSH, although i feel-- ha!-- terribly for her editor.
um. okay now the things i didn't like which were a lot. the entire second half of this book was lowkey a chore, moseying and meandering through theo's philosophical pinings. every single time theo pined for pippa was agonizing to read. pippa pippa pippa. Bitch you've seen her three times what's her favorite color. What's her favorite season? if there's one thing donna tartt cannot write it is a romance. like she cannot convince me a main character is in love or even unreasonably obsessed which i guess is what we were supposed to take away from that whole painful agonizing ordeal. this was the case in the secret history too. why i cannot say.
the ending reminded me of an essay i'd write for my art history class i took my freshman year where my professor would start her comments by saying Rory, I think this could use some work.. but it had a "happier" ending than TSH, i guess, so if you're in the market for that.. look here. i guess i just kind of hate "diary-style" endings to books but this book is middlemarch-ian in absolute length (though not in time covered) and i guess it had to end somewhere
yawn. snore.
i honestly don't think the length of this book was an issue but the post-childhood theo parts could have been sawed down Immensely. like there is no growth there and. he was so whiny and pathetic that i could not believe he was like, a successful salesman in any capacity, and i guess that's where i get finicky about the length. and i fuckig love a pathetic human being but he was just boring to read about, so realistic that i can see him sitting across from me in a diner. and it's like. whatever give me back henry from tsh.
but whatever i liked it enough. and i get that theo is not a perfect person but i really just disliked him as a human being . Anyway i could say a lot about this book but i'll end it here. long book gets long thoughts. Overall rating: meh
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Violence, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, and Alcoholism
Moderate: Racial slurs and Car accident
farrahsoa's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Drug abuse, and Drug use
Moderate: Gore, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Death of parent
rachel7588's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- 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
Content Warnings
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
bingled's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Drug abuse, Violence, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, and Death of parent
_sophahs_'s review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-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
‘Only - if you care for a thing enough, it takes on a life of its own, doesn’t it?’
If I’m honest, I spent most of this book wondering what the hell it was about. Obviously, at surface level, it’s a story of a young boy who faces tragedy and turns to a tangible object to help him through it, from which he faces a number of issues. But it took me a long time to figure out the message of this book. And it was only towards the end that Boris introduced me to what I believe is one of the key takeaways of this novel. It’s a novel about morality, but, more than that, it questions innate morality. ‘That line [between good and bad] is often false. The two are never disconnected. One can’t exist without the other.’
‘The Goldfinch’ is also about growing up, and the way the past affects the present. Theo is just thirteen when the novel begins and so much changes for him. By the end, his life is completely different - both parents gone, a drug addict, a thief, a murderer - and yet, somehow, his thirteen-year-old consciousness is still there. We as readers can still recognise him.
You could easily argue that the painting threw Theo off the rails, but I would suggest it put him on the rails.
Another thing I love about this book is the side characters, namely Boris and Hobie. Almost unarguably the most important people in Theo’s life following his mother’s death, they are complete opposites, and yet we are somehow made to connect to both of them. That’s not to say that we necessarily like Boris (though in a way I do, very much so), but we care for him nevertheless. Despite his flaws, he saved Theo, and helped him through his rocky (to say the least) childhood. As for Hobie, bless his goddamn heart.
I know I just described Hobie and Boris as opposites, but perhaps they aren’t so opposite as one might think. They say similar things about good coming from bad places towards the end - “What if our badness and mistakes are the very thing that set our fate and bring us round to good?” / “Can’t good come around sometimes through some strange back doors?”. So perhaps the major, underlying theme of this novel is humanity. That’s what it all comes back to.
Anyway, I adore Donna Tartt. ‘The Goldfinch’ is so different to ‘The Secret History’ but the distinctive features of her writing are present in both. Her novels are long, but you don’t necessarily notice the length because you just want to keep reading. They follow characters who are flawed, misguided, lost. But for me, the defining feature of Tartt’s works are the opening lines. Being told the answer, or a snippet of the future, at the very beginning of the book, and thus knowing that the details you read will eventually tie everything together. The opening lines of ‘The Goldfinch’ and ‘The Secret History’ are definitively ‘hooks’, and they keep you hooked, even 800 pages later…
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Addiction, Alcohol, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Murder
glasshalffull713's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Violence, Murder, Alcoholism, Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, Drug abuse, and Death of parent
babbieabbi's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
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
3.0
I wanted to rate this book higher, because I really loved the first half of it. The prose was beautiful throughout the book. I enjoyed the plot and the characters were great. But I can’t rate this book much higher because it also had some drawbacks. The first was the length. It was way longer than needed, and most things were drawn out much longer than necessary, especially in the last half of the book. And while I found the book poetic and meaningful, the ending felt a little forced, a little too insightful (for lack of a better word) to match the rest of the book or to let me draw my own conclusions about what was meaningful. Overall I liked it, but I don’t think I would read it again
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, and Vomit
Minor: Racism
kou_'s review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- 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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Drug abuse, Addiction, and Death of parent
Moderate: Blood, Suicide attempt, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit
ewwniamh's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
it took me almost a year to finish this book and although i have some problems with it, i do really have a strong attachment to it and it's characters.
whether that be because of how long it took me to read it or because i actually enjoyed it as much as the secret history, I'm not sure but that last chapter was absolutely incredible so donna tart has got me in a chokehold again for a second time I guess
Content Warnings
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