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Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment, Alcohol
What made me pick it up: One of the Tennessee R.E.A.D.s prompts for June is to read a book by or about an artist. 'The Goldfinch' has been on my TBR for a while and it was finally available at my local library and seemed to be the right time.
Overall rating: DNF @ 35%
Holy buckets, let's get this out of the way first, 'The Goldfinch' is a honker of a book. I'm talking lead weight, unnecessarily overpacked, TMI, engorged honker. I always get so torn with books like this because it's not my style. I'm not a slow-paced book girly. I wanted to get into the action, and having Tartt so dutifully explain every intricate detail had me almost DNFing nearly every five minutes. To be honest, I kept waiting for 'The Goldfinch' to get better, but it just didn't and I didn't feel like I wanted to keep slogging through the mundanity of Theo's life. I made it to 35% and we still hadn't made it over a year past the incident. To me, there was truly nothing brilliant or enthralling about 'The Goldfinch,' there was however boredom and wishes for Tartt to simply get to the point.
Reader's Note: 'The Goldfinch' includes themes of domestic terrorism, death, abandonment, drug and alcohol use - including use by minors, and child abuse.
Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Violence, Death of parent, Abandonment, Alcohol
Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Blood, Vomit, Grief
Moderate: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child death, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Vomit, Car accident, Abandonment
Minor: Animal cruelty
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Bullying, Domestic abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Racial slurs
Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Murder, Abandonment
There was just one section of the book I found boring and I felt the character was wallowing in self-pity with not much going on for a while. Luckily the pace quickly picked up again. The end fell a bit flat, but I guess it was a choice lol.
I don't understand why so few people mention this but unfortunately there are a lot of racial stereotypes being portrayed. Any character who isn't American is basically a stereotype of their culture and even their dialogue is written in heavy accents, which I found unnecessary. As if as a rule immigrants can't learn to speak English well? For example, all Russian characters have the exact same voice and similar personalities. I would rate it higher, if it had been less obnoxious with that.
Also, given its widespread success, the number of people involved in writing this book, and many reprints I found it surprising that there were several mistakes made when the author was trying to write Dutch words.
Overall, a very amusing read that leaves you thinking about what it all meant, but be prepared for racism...
Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Death of parent
Moderate: Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt
Minor: Racial slurs, Racism
Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Car accident
Graphic: Child abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Vomit, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent
Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Abandonment, Alcohol