The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
The Goldfinch is certainly not short on acclaim. It won the Pulitzer, and was ranked one of the 100 best novels of the century by the New York Times. It has the kind of premise other writers would die for: a young man visits the Metropolitan Museum with his mother, and when a bomb goes off in the building, walks off with her favorite painting. Theo Decker is the boy in question. Theo is 13 and it’s just him and his mom at home after […]
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Trigger Warning for abuse, violence, depression, suicidal thoughts, drug abuse, addiction I’ve had a copy of this book for years, knowing from its blurb and from what I’ve read about it that I would probably love it, but at 960 pages, it’s a brick and a bit intimidating to start. I finally decided to tackle it, and I finished it in less than a week. I would have finished within days if not for the pesky need for sleep and doing laundry and the like. […]
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
The Story: the narrator (Richard, although his name is used so rarely that I kept forgetting what it was) leaves an unhappy existence in California to attend the small, private Hampden College in Vermont. There, he decides to study Greek under an enigmatic professor, Julian, alongside a small, elitist group of other Classics students: cold and intellectual Henry, anxious hypochondriac Francis, twins Charles and Camilla (I wish I could find descriptors for these other than “twin,” but unfortunately they’re both very thinly drawn), and Bunny, […]
These Violent Delights by Micah Nemerever
I’m not sure if I can categorize this book as dark academia, but the characters and the story remind me so much of what I enjoyed about “If We Were Villains” and “The Secret History,” it is impossible for me not to draw parallels between them. All three stories are linked by a sudden and violent death, and how those left behind cope with their secrets. Paul is a seventeen-year-old who has recently graduated from high school. He lives with his mother and his two […]
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Alright, maybe not a total banger – more like a satisfyingly slow burn – but I wanted to finish my Cannonball Read with something I’ve wanted to read for a while and it ended up being this. I was planning on reading it someday, so when I came across a copy in at a thrift store (cost me about three bucks in conjunction with The Little Friend) I figured fate was trying to tell me something. I was working as a lowly book shop employee […]
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
A month or two before, I would have been appalled at the idea of any murder at all. But that Sunday afternoon, as I actually stood watching one, it seemed the easiest thing in the world. ― Donna Tartt, The Secret History “Time, and repeated screenings, have endowed the memory with a menace the original did not possess. -Donna Tartt, The Secret History Based on my experience reading The Goldfinch, I knew that my next Donna Tartt book would be a serious undertaking. After being […]
