The goldfinch follows Theo Decker from the day on his mother was killed in a terrorist attack when he's thirteen years old. Theo miraculously survives the explosions and manages to steal his mother's favorite painting and as he learnes of her death, his only reminder of her. Because of that picture he's slowly drawn into the criminal underworld over the next ten years but he ultimately can't let go of this piece of art since it would mean letting go of his mother as well.
"A great sorrow, and one that I am only beginning to understand: we don't get to choose our own hearts. We can't make ourselves want what's good for us or what's good for other people. We don't get to choose the people we are."
I was so intimidated by this huge book, not just because of its length of 864 pages, but also because I usually rarely read adult fiction and was kind of worried I wouldn't enjoy it at all. Anyway, after putting a lot time and effort into reading it, I feel so accomplished and glad, since this is probably one of those books that stay in your heart for your whole life and in some way even change you. The writing is fantastic and I didn't even care that there are a lot of detailed desciptions, which of course slowed the book down a bit, so I'd only advise you to read it if you have enough time to devote yourself to the book or else it's gonna be super frustrating and boring and might even cause a huge reading slump. I absolutely loved the plot although there aren't many extremely exciting moments in it, and especially enjoyed seeing not only the main character Theo, but also various minor characters grow up. It was in a way very bittersweet for me to read about this process since I love coming-of-age stories and seeing how Theo's life changes for the better made me so happy, but at the same time it did make me feel a bit worried and unhopeful for my own future because of how much also goes very wrong in his life and how easy all your potential, hope and dreams can be destroyed. To make a long story short, this book made me think and deliberate a lot (actually, it still does) and that's what's at least in my opinion important for the book to have genuine lasting effect. The whole novel is amazing and I loved it so much, but if I had to choose my most favorite part, I'd definitely go with the ending because it's just spectacular. It doesn't only bring together all the different story lines perfectly, but also kind of summarized what the story, what life really is about in such a touching and beautiful way. Even though I have basically no idea about art and I'm usually not even particularly interested in it, I still enjoyed how art and antique furniture are incorporated into the story and play actually a quite important role all through the book and to be honest, reading this book made me want to visit an art gallery so badly. I don't think I've ever read a book that deals so much with drugs and addiction, which is actually quite upsetting because this story shows with way more effect than the projects I did in school on drugs and alcohol why you should stay the hell away from drugs, so I think it's super important to have more books, especially in the YA genre that deal with this topic as intensely as The goldfinch does.
I loved the variety of characters and seeing them grow over a long time span is truly amazing. I really liked the main character Theo and it's heartbreaking to read about his tragic story and his development from an innocent child to this broken man who had to deal with too many losses. To be honest, reading from his point of view was sometimes pretty frustrating since he does make a lot of stupid mistakes, but you can't blame him because of the situation he's in. For me, it was actually pretty difficult to form my opinion of Pippa since we only get to see her trough Theo's extremely biased point of view, but she is definitely different than the usual love interests of the main character and quite refreshing. My favorite character though is Hobie. He's such a nice and supportive guy and his personality is simply beautiful. I love how he never judges anyone and just spends his time doing stuff that's important to him.
Anyway, I can't even stress enough how fantastic this book is and how much I loved it, so you should check it out. I'm certainly gonna pick up another one of Donna Tartt's novels.
Rating: 5/5 ✹
I hope I didn't ramble too much and you still enjoyed this review. Have a great day!
Leah
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