Take a photo of a barcode or cover
lonelycrow 's review for:
The Goldfinch
by Donna Tartt
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.