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challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
Bombings
challenging
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
One of my guilty pleasures is reading about the monstrous activities of wealthy characters. As such, I adored Tartt's 'The Secret History'. Unfortuantely, I cannot say the same for 'The Goldfinch'. I was expecting dark academia, history, priviledge of art. Instead I got a bore. The book is long, and it feels long. The excruciating detail does not add anything substantial to the story and borders on hypergraphia with inconsequential tangents galore. At many points, it just plain bored me.
I was most interested in the art world, art theft, and dodgy dealings underworld of antiques, and yet the book frustratingly spends little time there. All glossy descriptions and no substance of narrative. Why it won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction I don't know. The book attempts at some grandiose reflection of life, juxtaposing beauty and purpose and the transcendent universiality of experience through time (through the painting and Hobie), against chance or a higher 'pattern' (through gambling, drugs, and Boris). The last 3 chapters or so are just incoherent rambling of Theo trying to justify his life through these reflections. I am not convinced that Tartt successfully justifies/condones his choices or criticises them. A series of bad events happen to an unsympathetic character, maybe if the story was cut down it would have held my interest. It started strong with an interesting premise, then meandered its way through Theo's chaotic life, never truly addressing the consequences to himself or others. Altogether, very disappointing. The famous painting itself however, is exquisite.
Bits that did resonate with me:
I was most interested in the art world, art theft, and dodgy dealings underworld of antiques, and yet the book frustratingly spends little time there. All glossy descriptions and no substance of narrative. Why it won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction I don't know. The book attempts at some grandiose reflection of life, juxtaposing beauty and purpose and the transcendent universiality of experience through time (through the painting and Hobie), against chance or a higher 'pattern' (through gambling, drugs, and Boris). The last 3 chapters or so are just incoherent rambling of Theo trying to justify his life through these reflections. I am not convinced that Tartt successfully justifies/condones his choices or criticises them. A series of bad events happen to an unsympathetic character, maybe if the story was cut down it would have held my interest. It started strong with an interesting premise, then meandered its way through Theo's chaotic life, never truly addressing the consequences to himself or others. Altogether, very disappointing. The famous painting itself however, is exquisite.
Bits that did resonate with me:
- I identified with being in a family that's not your own/familiar (The Barbours, class divides), and the description of Theo's Dad/Xandra (in relation to my own Dad)
- Walden - "the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation". Examining city life vs country life e.g. car dependency
- Boris, anti-capitalist
- Boris - "None of us ever find enough kindness in this world do we"
- The Goldfinch painting itself, in particular the bird's torturous chain. The description on pg 342 "fluttering briefly, forced always to land in the same hopeless place."
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use
Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship
Minor: Blood, Murder, Abandonment
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
very chaotic, everything was dragged out too much, especially the conversations between boris and theo toward the end of the book. I was bored by the end of it. I did really like boris, hobie and mrs barbour as characters though, their softness and warmth was a welcomed contrast between theo and his dad.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Death of parent
Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Suicide attempt, Injury/Injury detail
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I heard the book is boring. But for me it was beautiful the plot the characters it was amazing. One of my favourite books. It has Dark Academia vibes.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Violence, Grief, Murder, Alcohol
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I adored this book: at first I struggled with the book - picking it up and putting it down constantly, however I quickly became invested in Theodore’s story and wondered what he was to do about the painting. I throughly enjoyed the childhood years spent with Boris and the insight this later gave to his adult character. I truly felt connected to the painting as Theodore did and I worried about what he would do. The relationship (or lack there of) with pippa and how it developed over time showed me diffrent facets of Theodore’s personality. The way he spoke about her and the actions he performed in order to remain in her favour highlighted Theodore’s instability as well as allowing the reader to understand why he was feeling this way. This prompted me to wonder about the attachments we make through traumatic experiences and the continued affect these attachments can have on us. I thought his independence and the criminal actions he chose to perform with his new found freedom showed us that although we want to like and support the main character (as we wanted when he was a child suffering from the terrible los of a parent) there were aspects of his personality so inherently unlikable and wrong that we struggled to come to terms with them. His relationship with Kitsy in perticualr showed how Theodore had’nt grown. It clearly showed how desperate he was for family and how (like with Hobbie and Piappa) he was willing to do whatever it took to keep his life the way he thought it should be. I picked up this book due to my enjoyment of ‘The secret History’ another work by Donna Tartt and was not disappointed. The writing style though academic in fashion was understandable and consistent - watching the life of Theodore through his trials and the passing of time allowed me to understand the actions he took as well as the consequences of those actions.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent
Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Toxic friendship, Alcohol
Minor: Gun violence, Blood
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
10 months of this book... 10 months of all this stuff going on with drugs and alcohol and obsession and guilt. the plot is slow and not much going on. We follow Theo's life. His life is a catastrophe as he puts it. He drinks and takes drugs, thanks to Boris. The whole story is without a direction, we start with Amsterdam and it seems he's in trouble. Then, we continue from when he was 13. The story is long and without a purpose. We are as lost as Theo. yes, its long but at times it is very intriguing but for the other parts, boring... The last 100 pages to be should not exist. Better to leave Boris seeing Theo in the hotel room the second time. I did not need that much closure... for a book that says that there’s no moral or story, there’s no resolution, we didn’t need 40 pages worth morals and what Theo learns from this life.
Theo is not an interesting character, self-destructive, sad and definitely guilty. He has borderline creepy obsessions over the things he "love". Probably thanks to the childhood trauma he has of losing his mother.
Boris is a mess. He seems to be doing well despite his horrible lifestyle and health. Maybe he's pretending very well.
Pippa is not as interesting as Theo sees her.
Anyways, saving grace of this book is the writing. Thank goodness for it. it's beautiful and fluid, might be too descriptive but the way Donna describes loss and emotions. I love it.
YEs, I'm complaining here but I did enjoy the book but just disappointed that I did not love it.
Theo is not an interesting character, self-destructive, sad and definitely guilty. He has borderline creepy obsessions over the things he "love". Probably thanks to the childhood trauma he has of losing his mother.
Boris is a mess. He seems to be doing well despite his horrible lifestyle and health. Maybe he's pretending very well.
Pippa is not as interesting as Theo sees her.
Anyways, saving grace of this book is the writing. Thank goodness for it. it's beautiful and fluid, might be too descriptive but the way Donna describes loss and emotions. I love it.
YEs, I'm complaining here but I did enjoy the book but just disappointed that I did not love it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Disappointing regarding the hype
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Death of parent, Alcohol
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Vomit
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Five stars, but a complicated five stars.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol
Minor: Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
After I finished The Secret History I buy this one immediately because I love Tartt’s writing and I’m glad to say she did not disappoint me
The length of the book kinda overwhelmed me at first but now that I finished it, it was not a long boring book with useless description or sub-plot. It was, in fact, a really fascinating book. Although I find that some part could be cut off but it was not irritating and still enjoyable. Would definitely reread it some time.
The length of the book kinda overwhelmed me at first but now that I finished it, it was not a long boring book with useless description or sub-plot. It was, in fact, a really fascinating book. Although I find that some part could be cut off but it was not irritating and still enjoyable. Would definitely reread it some time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug use, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment, Alcohol
Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Blood, Car accident
Minor: Cursing, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Medical trauma
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
honestly took me so long and did in fact drive me into a reading slump but it was a really good and interesting book i think donna tartts novels are always quite dense and you have to pay attention a lot to grasp what’s going on and i haven’t been able to even be present irl so ……. but i did enjoy this a lot!! also the ending was probably one of the most beautifully written things i’ve read in a while :,)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Violence, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol
Moderate: Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Murder
Minor: Eating disorder