Reviews - The Goldfinch | The StoryGraph

21.6k reviews for:

The Goldfinch

Donna Tartt

3.96 AVERAGE

teragram04's review against another edition

2.75

dark reflective sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

losersfiction's review against another edition

5.0

I enjoyed this book a lot, and only started tiring of it in the last leg. There’s these weird sections of exposition almost - a lot of worldview stuff randomly. The story is fascinating and somewhat out there. I never really knew where it was going, and I enjoyed the ride. It reminds me of a more dramatic Boyhood (the movie).

I do have a few small critiques of it:
1) Too many semi-central characters die, by the time you get to Andy and his dad, it just feels a little ridiculous like “lemme guess - their dead?”
2) the bad guy, mArtin, who is killed by Theo is of course a stereotypical white sociopath. This seems to be a theme for narratives when they have the main protagonist kill someone or do something violent against somebody, they play up the evil of that injured or killed person by making them this mentally ill violent white guy. I never really noticed this either until a Goodreads reviewer pointed it out in the book Kiterunner.

devinadivecha's review against another edition

1.0

I am really sorry because I'm clearly going against the crowd here, but I found the book overly long when it really could have been concise. I found no sympathy or empathy for the main character in any way, shape, or form, and frankly, the last few pages of the book which go into a trippy philosophy of life and whatever else was just painful.