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3.96 AVERAGE
3.96 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This read like a classic in that it had some very beautiful descriptions and a rich narrative and also in that it was 300 pages longer than it needed to be and I was constantly jumpscared by bafflingly casual racism.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
reflective
medium-paced
i wanted to give this up a million times in the “later years” of theo’s life but honestly i am soooo glad i stuck it out because i really do like this book. i desperately wish it was just a little bit shorter, while also really loving how DEEP and in depth these beautiful run on sentences can get. utterly mundane and completely fascinating. tbh i am tempted to give this a 3.5 but honestly the journey was worth is so 4 stars it is!!
Infuriating novel. To begin with I loved it and was carried along by the storyline and use of language. But as I went deeper it became rambling, confused and too long.
Good descriptions of the Las Vegas suburbs and New York –I found myself looking up the street names and districts on google maps to give me a feel of where I was – which is always a good sign for me that I am feeling a real sense of place.
I wanted to like more of the characters but found that I could only really relate to Hobie and Pippa.
Twenty-four hours after completing it, I still can't stop thinking about it...
Good descriptions of the Las Vegas suburbs and New York –I found myself looking up the street names and districts on google maps to give me a feel of where I was – which is always a good sign for me that I am feeling a real sense of place.
I wanted to like more of the characters but found that I could only really relate to Hobie and Pippa.
Twenty-four hours after completing it, I still can't stop thinking about it...
fast-paced
Ah, man. First of all, Donna Tart’s prose is an absolute gift. After reading The Secret History, I felt no issue taking on the approx. ~800 pages that The Goldfinch is because of this. I feel that I can get lost in both the mind’s of her characters and even the very real setting that is NYC … however … It was just too slow for me. I did not genuinely feel tied to the plot of the story until about the last 20% of the book. Donna knows how to write on the human condition, and she does it so beautifully, but I feel that so much of the middle of the book was unfortunately lost on me. I was there. I knew what was happening. In some ways it was mundane, which is *fine* and not an issue to me, but in other ways it just felt a bit of the same repetitive narrative to get to the same point. I do think that this book needed some length to have the effect that it does, but I am just not sure it needed this much. These characters are so real, and I once again felt connected to them…but I can’t say I felt this way throughout the entire book. Certain ones had my heart from the get go, specifically one, but others it took until the latter end to have develop this connection. All in all, I really enjoy Donna Tartt and hope we see another book soon…as it has been over 10 years! I will most likely take a break from her and then eventually try out The Little Friend.
challenging
dark
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I know this was award winning and people loved it but I STRUGGLED to get through it. Not only was it laden with casual racism, but it seemed to drag on through a series of totally unlikely coincidences and situations, just to end in a way that left me thinking "...why the hell did I just bother to read 800 pages for it all to just end like this?"
Personally, I would not recommend, but it obviously won a Pulitzer for a reason!
Personally, I would not recommend, but it obviously won a Pulitzer for a reason!
Beautifully written and carefully plotted, with surprises I never saw coming. A book to savor and return to and discuss, if not a likely candidate for loved-to-pieces favorite. And I still think it would have been a better book at 500-600 pages than it is at 700 (...she says of the Pulitzer-winning novel, cough).