The Goldfinch

Let me start by saying that the writing is amazing – colorful, evocative, rich in detail. Now I understand why people have been waiting for so long for Donna Tartt to publish another book. However I just couldn't give this more stars. It started out with a bang – the first act really was great. The second part of the book also had me completely hooked but for completely different reasons. It was so gritty and real, I couldn't stop reading. But then it started to lose me. The story and the main character just went meandering along. It all seemed to be too good to be true (which it is) and then abruptly we're thrown into a violent, drug-induced, too crazy to even possibly happen portion of the book. I didn't want to give up though since I only had another 100 pages or so, but then when everything was tied up neatly and the main character started “talking” to the reader I felt cheated. I would love to read another one of Tartt's novels since I loved her voice, but I'm not sure this was the story for me.