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3.96 AVERAGE
3.96 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
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
This was on my list for many years - and vacation still is the best opportunity to read 800 pages of "modern" american drama.
And tbh I am quite torn about this.
One side: beautiful language, elegant story-telling, interesting personell. A well-crafted coming-of-age, surviving bad parenting, handling with grief book
The other side: too many time-jumps, missing feeling of time and place (how old is everybody now? How much time has passed?). Too often the feeling that sth is not working out or is simply too unrealistic (child-service eg).
But the worst part: the last 200 pages it turns to an action-crime-heist-story - and there is a reason why there are not many good crime-writers. Our hero is doing extremely stupid things, forgets how phones work etc.
And Donna Tartt has obviously never been to Amsterdam (or Europe): nothing here works out, eg our hero looses his passport and therefore can't buy a train-ticket from Amsterdam to Paris... really?
Overall: I enjoyed most part of the first 600 pages, disliked the next 200. And let's not talk about the end which is a contradiction in itself: not really a classic happy-end, not that bad for Theo either, but his last words so unnecessary depressing (life is carastrophe and so on)...
And tbh I am quite torn about this.
One side: beautiful language, elegant story-telling, interesting personell. A well-crafted coming-of-age, surviving bad parenting, handling with grief book
The other side: too many time-jumps, missing feeling of time and place (how old is everybody now? How much time has passed?). Too often the feeling that sth is not working out or is simply too unrealistic (child-service eg).
But the worst part: the last 200 pages it turns to an action-crime-heist-story - and there is a reason why there are not many good crime-writers. Our hero is doing extremely stupid things, forgets how phones work etc.
And Donna Tartt has obviously never been to Amsterdam (or Europe): nothing here works out, eg our hero looses his passport and therefore can't buy a train-ticket from Amsterdam to Paris... really?
Overall: I enjoyed most part of the first 600 pages, disliked the next 200. And let's not talk about the end which is a contradiction in itself: not really a classic happy-end, not that bad for Theo either, but his last words so unnecessary depressing (life is carastrophe and so on)...
I don't know how to pick up another book after this.
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
easily my favorite book ever, it rewrote my view on the world
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I'm really glad I read this book, but I'm not sure if I liked it. I certainly didn't love it. The writing style is excellent, but the story telling and pacing left some to be desired. This book is kinda all over the place.
I really enjoyed the first section in New York. It left me with extremely high expectations for the rest of the book, but I feel the story never reached its potential. The whole section in Vegas spiraled out of control into a mess of delinquency and stupidity. I get that Boris needed to be introduced as a character, but it really killed the pace. I also disliked much of the Amsterdam scenes. Theo was already part of a totally unrealistic scenario. Even if it would be a stretch, I would have rather read about him being apart of the Germany events rather than sitting around pointlessly in his Amsterdam hotel.
I did love the characters of this book. I came to care about what happened to them even if I didn't really like them. That made the end of the novel pretty awful for me. The main plot resolves, but then we just drift out of everyone's lives. What happens between theo and kitsey or theo and pippa? Boris seems destined to die young, but does he? What about Hobart? Mrs Barbour? Heck, even what happens with Lucius reeve and havistock? An epilogue would have been nice...
In summary, this is a good book but has, to my tastes, some shortcomings. I wish it could have lived up to its strong start, but still definitely worth the considerable time it took to read it.
I really enjoyed the first section in New York. It left me with extremely high expectations for the rest of the book, but I feel the story never reached its potential. The whole section in Vegas spiraled out of control into a mess of delinquency and stupidity. I get that Boris needed to be introduced as a character, but it really killed the pace. I also disliked much of the Amsterdam scenes. Theo was already part of a totally unrealistic scenario. Even if it would be a stretch, I would have rather read about him being apart of the Germany events rather than sitting around pointlessly in his Amsterdam hotel.
I did love the characters of this book. I came to care about what happened to them even if I didn't really like them. That made the end of the novel pretty awful for me. The main plot resolves, but then we just drift out of everyone's lives. What happens between theo and kitsey or theo and pippa? Boris seems destined to die young, but does he? What about Hobart? Mrs Barbour? Heck, even what happens with Lucius reeve and havistock? An epilogue would have been nice...
In summary, this is a good book but has, to my tastes, some shortcomings. I wish it could have lived up to its strong start, but still definitely worth the considerable time it took to read it.
An incredibly moving, wrenching, rending novel. Sprawling and profound and deeply upsetting. The kind of novel I need to reread; but one that will have to wait. I think this one will gain significance over time. Just simply stunning. Makes you think about and examine a whole, vast spectrum of things, but Tartt’s writing about art itself seems particularly stunning and singular.