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Donna Tartt: The goldfinch (2013) 4 stars

"The author of the classic bestsellers The Secret History and The Little Friend returns with …

Review of 'The goldfinch' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

It's difficult for me to find the words to sum up my feelings about this book succinctly and adequately, but I suppose that's okay since it's how I feel about Donna Tartt's writing as well.

What at times is a highly entertaining coming of age story with a dash of adventure thrown in bogs down at regular intervals in a lot of overly precious prose, while the end chapter is a bunch of soapbox moralizing that seems to have been lifted from an entirely different work.

I enjoyed Theo's story arc well enough despite the flaws to keep reading on, since he's an interestingly sympathetic anti-hero. It was fun deciding just how long I could continue forgiving his many bad decisions and transgressions. It's more of a three and a half star read for me, but I bumped it up that extra half star because Theo held my interest beyond where the events and the prose should have turned me off.