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Goldfinch
Goldfinch | Donna Tartt
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE ""The Goldfinch" is a rarity that comes along perhaps half a dozen times per decade, a smartly written literary novel that connects with the heart as well as the mind....Donna Tartt has delivered an extraordinary work of fiction."--Stephen King, "The New York Times Book Review" Theo Decker, a 13-year-old New Yorker, miraculously survives an accident that kills his mother. Abandoned by his father, Theo is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. Bewildered by his strange new home on Park Avenue, disturbed by schoolmates who don't know how to talk to him, and tormented above all by his longing for his mother, he clings to the one thing that reminds him of her: a small, mysteriously captivating painting that ultimately draws Theo into the underworld of art. As an adult, Theo moves silkily between the drawing rooms of the rich and the dusty labyrinth of an antiques store where he works. He is alienated and in love--and at the center of a narrowing, ever more dangerous circle. The Goldfinch is a mesmerizing, stay-up-all-night and tell-all-your-friends triumph, an old-fashioned story of loss and obsession, survival and self-invention, and the ruthless machinations of fate.
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GatheringBooks
The Goldfinch | Donna Tartt
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Eggs Great quote! 1mo
31 likes1 comment
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Shawna
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Eggs Perfect 🤩 🧡 4mo
28 likes1 comment
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jenniferw88
The Goldfinch | Donna Tartt
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Panpan
dabbe #fanofthepan! 🤩🤩🤩 5mo
46 likes1 stack add1 comment
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monkeygirlsmama
Goldfinch | Donna Tartt
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Suet624 Great quote. 7mo
Cathythoughts Love this quote ❤️ 7mo
27 likes2 comments
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JuliaTheBookNerd
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#InvolvesArt 🖼️ #SpringSkies 🌺🌼🌸🌻🌨️☀️

#BookNerd 🤓📚💙

Eggs Excellent 👌🏼 7mo
59 likes1 comment
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104_goodbuddyy
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I just went on vacation and saw so many people reading this book that I got curious and had to pick it up. Seems like a promising read! #vacationread

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Read4life
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Congratulations, @Elizabeth2 💌
You‘re the winner of The Goldfinch giveaway.

Thank you for being a #LitsyLove member and participating in #FreebieFriday 💙💌💙

Your book will be mailed next week.

Elizabeth2 Aw! Yay! Thank you!! ❤️📚 8mo
Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks Congratulations @Elizabeth2 🎈🎊🎉 8mo
dabbe Congrats, @Elizabeth2! 🤩😃😍 8mo
KadaGul Congratulations 🎈 @Elizabeth2 👏 8mo
39 likes4 comments
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TieDyeDude
Goldfinch | Donna Tartt
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#LitsyLove #FreebieFriday giveaway.

To enter comment or repost and tell us your favorite #chunkster or a chunkster you want to read.

Open to all members. (International and US)

Entries will be tracked using the #FreebieFriday hashtag. Enter, share, and tag us: @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @TieDyeDude Read4life

Winner randomly selected tomorrow

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Read4life
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#LitsyLove #FreebieFriday giveaway.

To enter comment or repost and tell us your favorite #chunkster or a chunkster you want to read.

Open to all members. (International and US)

Enter & Share. Just remember to use the #FreebieFriday hashtag and tag us: @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @TieDyeDude @Read4life

Winner randomly selected tomorrow.

review
Read4life
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Pickpick

Finished this #chunkster. I HATED some parts, enjoyed others and thought it could have been trimmed down. That being said, overall it‘s a pick for me. It won‘t be a favorite read of the year (or even this month) for me but still a pick.
#BookSpinBingo #BookSpin #ReadOrDonate #readyourTBR #Roll100 #TBRtarot
@TheAromaofBooks @julieclair @PuddleJumper @CBee

CBee Definitely a chunkster! Have you read any of her other books? I liked both The Secret History and The Little Friend, but haven‘t read Goldfinch! 8mo
Read4life @cbee I haven‘t read any others but they‘re going on my TBR now. 8mo
julieclair I wanted so badly to like this book when I tried to read it a few years ago. But I just couldn‘t get into it, and ended up DNF-ing it. Glad you ( kind of) liked it! 8mo
TheAromaofBooks Woohoo!! 8mo
58 likes1 stack add4 comments
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Read4life
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You‘ve done it again, Cydney! I love it when you make my life and reading easier 🤓 The biggest physical book on my TBR is The Goldfinch. I‘m already reading it since it‘s my #ReadOrDonate book this month and it‘s a beast. Plus it was a #Roll100 book last month that I didn‘t get to.

Now if you can pick #readyourebooks numbers that match other challenges, too, that would be awesome! 😆

CBee It‘s definitely a chunkster!! And ummmm I‘ll try my best 😂😂🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️ 8mo
Jess I love this book. I hope you are enjoying it. 8mo
PuddleJumper 🎉🎉 8mo
55 likes3 comments
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Read4life
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TheAromaofBooks Woohoo!! 8mo
TheSpineView Enjoy! 8mo
julieclair Happy Reading! 8mo
CBee Yay! 8mo
54 likes4 comments
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Read4life
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March #ReadOrDonate picks.

The Goldfinch was a #Roll100 book for February and I‘m not going to get to it. It‘s time for me to either read it or donate it. (Or both 🤓)

Reunion Pass is another book I‘ve had for a while. It‘s part of a series I love but I‘ve stalled. This should be the motivation I need to read this one and continue the series.

julieclair Perfect reasons for choosing these two as #ReadOrDonate selections! 👍 8mo
48 likes1 comment
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Read4life
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The goal for me is always all three, but with everything going on I know that may not happen. I will get to all rolled numbers by the end of the year.

#Roll100 @PuddleJumper

PuddleJumper 🎉🎉 9mo
52 likes1 comment
review
JillR
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Pickpick

We meet Theo on a normal day, just before his life falls apart. Onwards through his life in New York, Vegas, New York again, then Europe. The writing is so compelling, the car-crash of Theo‘s life so heartbreaking and awful, everything about it I loved. One of those books where this character is constantly inside your head and for the duration of the book you‘re living his life with him. I read this years ago and loved it even more on rereading.

squirrelbrain I never (well, very rarely) re-read books but I can see how this would benefit from a second reading. 10mo
Suet624 Your review made me want to read it again. 😊 10mo
JillR @squirrelbrain I‘m exactly the same, but someone bought me this copy recently not realising I‘d read it already (I‘d passed my previous copy on some years before), so that prompted the reread really, and very glad I did ❤️ 10mo
JillR @Suet624 I say do it! 10mo
49 likes1 stack add4 comments
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Lizpixie
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Bk8 of my #BookMail is the 1st from Novembers mail. A signed special edition of Donna Tartt‘s 2014 Pulitzer Prize winning novel, it‘s set across decades. 13yr old Theo Decker, son of a devoted mother & largely absent, reckless father, he survives an accident that tears his life apart. Alone in NYC, he‘s taken in by a wealthy friends family, tormented by a longing for his mother, he becomes obsessed with a small painting that reminds him of her.

40 likes1 stack add
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Foragingfantasy

“Because I don‘t care what anyone says or how often or winningly they say it: no one will ever, ever be able to persuade me that life is some awesome, rewarding treat. Because, here‘s the truth: life is catastrophe. The basic fact of existence—of walking around trying to feed ourselves and find friends and whatever else we do—is catastrophe.”

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wildwoodreads
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I‘m officially out of room on my tbr shelf. It‘s time for a summertime unhaul. A lot of these were books I expected to love. Some of them I‘ve dnfed and just held onto hoping that they would stick someday. And some of them I haven‘t even started but ultimately lost interest in. I want to make room on my shelf for books that I‘m super excited about.

These are available on my Pangobooks Shop: https://pangobooks.com/bookstore/wildwoodreads

66 likes1 comment
review
Robotswithpersonality
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Pickpick

How do you find meaning? If you can create meaning, subjectively imbue an object or a person with it, can the ideas of objective value, genuine article, coincidence, stand up against elaborate, satisfying, even mythic, illusions, the idea of a fated course? Especially when experience would otherwise lend a pessimistic, nigh nihilistic reading of life without actively seeking out the idea of 'something more', a purpose, relationship, stimulant. 1/?

Robotswithpersonality Beautiful writing can make drawn out moments a lovely place to dwell, but a string of shitty circumstances, even described poetically can render the writing's tendency to dwell a difficult read. Thus, it's exceptionally frustrating to realize in retrospect that the amount of suffering, both hazily and sharply-related by the main character, works to make the ending, if not tidy, then cathartic, impactful. 2/? 2y
Robotswithpersonality It's hard to rail against the protagonist's dimmer view of life, both given his experiences, and because it is tempered by a love of beauty, an inexhaustible appetite for tiny moments of joy to be found too few and far between.
It's hard to rail against the protagonist's choices, as the reader is so intimately familiar with his thoughts, the mixture of a desperate scramble for survival, comfort, contentment, connection, acceptance and the coldly spoiling sporadic luxury and privilege. 3/?
2y
Robotswithpersonality 4/4 Theo is still working things out when we leave him, and I think that state is true to the book's tone.
Not a favourite, but I fully recognize that's because I'm impatient and a sucker for happier reads.
Felt weird seeing so many thugs described first by their nationalities/ethnicities and then their brutish/unattractive physical qualities, I guess technically each was an individual and there was a diverse array, but it feels like a slippery slope to racial stereotypes given the order of presentation.
⚠️Drug addiction, alcohol abuse, PTSD, mental health concerns, homophobia, childhood assault/bullying
2y
11 likes3 comments
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Robotswithpersonality
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Does furniture have more perceptible personality amongst its fellows?🤔

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Robotswithpersonality
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🌧️🌌 Beautiful.

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Robotswithpersonality
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Books can do the same, seeing the world in brighter colours. 🎂

7 likes1 stack add
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TheEllieMo
The Goldfinch | Donna Tartt
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I am posting one book per day from my extensive to-be-read collection. No description and providing no reason for wanting to read it, I just do. Some will be old, some will be new. Don‘t judge me - I have a lot of books. Join in if you want!

#ABookADay2023

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GatheringBooks
The Goldfinch | Donna Tartt
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#MarchMagic Day 16: This is definitely #BkBasedOnPainting - one of them chunksters that took awhile for me to finish, but well worth the read.

Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks Excellent and she‘s a Mississippi author! 2y
Eggs Brilliant 🖌️ 🎨 🖼️ 2y
53 likes2 stack adds2 comments
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JuliaTheBookNerd
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I know a lot of people loved this book but I just couldn‘t with this book. I made it about halfway before I bailed but it is a #BkBasedOnPainting 🖼️ 😬

#MarchMagic 💚💰🌈🍀

#BookNerd 🤓📚💙

Tamra Not a fan of this one either. 😏 2y
Eggs It‘s just not for everyone 🤷‍♀️ 2y
ImperfectCJ I had to listen to the audiobook on 2x and read analysis that helped me catch some of the nuances (things I thought were silly errors, which I couldn't quite square with what I know about the author's style). I ended up appreciating the book, but I can't say I enjoyed it. 2y
53 likes1 stack add3 comments
review
Sharv_Sona
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Pickpick

I finished this book last Thursday, however I haven't been able to bring myself to write a review because of extraordinary way it was written -- especially the last few pages. While the run-along sentences bothered me as I was reading, they were outweighed by the way they were written. The book was a stay-up-all-night page turner, and I absolutely enjoyed every word of it.

5⭐!

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Sharv_Sona

“When you feel homesick,“ he said, “just look up. Because the moon is the same wherever you go“

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Sharv_Sona

Sometimes we want what we want even if we know it‘s going to kill us.

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Sharv_Sona

Stay away from the ones you love too much. Those are the ones who will kill you.

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Sharv_Sona

Nature (meaning death) always wins but that doesn‘t mean we have to bow and grovel to it.

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Sharv_Sona

Fate is cruel but not random.

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Sharv_Sona
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Sharv_Sona

Beauty alters the grain of reality. Namely, that the pursuit of pure beauty is a trap, a fast track to bitterness and sorrow, that beauty has to be wedded to something more meaningful.

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Sharv_Sona

Caring too much for objects can destroy you. Only — if you care for thing enough, it takes a life of its own, doesn‘t it? And isn‘t the whole point of things — beautiful things — that they connect you to some larger beauty?

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Sharv_Sona
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payton.laidlaw
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At a visit at an art museum in New York, Theodore “Theo” decker and his mother get caught in an explosion, which ends up killing Theo‘s mother. After, Theo meets an old man who is dying from his wounds; the man gives Theo a ring and a painting named The Goldfinch.

Theo goes to live with the Barbours, his classmate Andy‘s family due to the lack of a father.

payton.laidlaw Theo later visits the business the ring was from. Theo and the business partner of Welty, the deceased man, Hobie. Hobie looks after Welty‘s niece, Pippa, who was also at the museum when the explosion occurred and now suffers from the aftermath. Theo falls in love with Pippa, but she is later sent away. They see each other when Pippa infrequently visits Hobie in New York City.

Theo‘s father comes back just as the Barbours are set to adopt Theo.
2y
payton.laidlaw Theo moves to Las Vegas with his father and his father‘s girlfriend, Xandra. Im Vegas, he becomes close friends with Boris, a Russian immigrant under similar circumstances as Theo. This entire time, Theo has kept The Goldfinch hidden. For Theo, the painting becomes a memory of his mother.

Theo and Boris spend their days drinking and experimenting with drugs, trying to numb themselves to the neglect and loneliness in their lives.
2y
payton.laidlaw Both come from alcoholic parents. A strange man starts to come to Theo‘s house and ask for his father. Not long after, Theo‘s father forces Theo to call his mother‘s lawyer to ask that a-lot of money be transferred into Theo‘s financial account. The lawyer denies Theo‘s request. Shortly after, Theo‘s father is killed in a car accident, which may or may not have been an accident. 2y
See All 13 Comments
payton.laidlaw Scared, Theo steals money and drugs from Xandra, takes her dog, and buses to New York City. In New York, he arrives at Hobie‘s doorstep; Hobie takes him in willingly. Theo eventually becomes an antique business partner, also as a functioning drug addict. Unknown to Hobie, Theo creates a business scam to sell restored antiques as originals.

The painting remains in Theo‘s possession, carefully concealed.
2y
payton.laidlaw He reads about a group of people who stole artwork during the bombing and have now been arrested for trying to sell them. With concern for himself, Pippa and Hobie. Theo rents a storage locker and hides the painting there. Lucius Reeve, one of Theo‘s business scam victims accuses Theo of stealing The Goldfinch and is using it for crime.Theo dismisses the claims.
2y
payton.laidlaw Shocked by learning about the deaths of Andy Barbour and his father, Theo reconnects with the family and begins to dating Kitsey, Andy‘s younger sister. Eventually, Theo and Kitsey become engaged, despite him still being in love with Pippa. He discovers that Kitsey is also in love with someone else, but they decide to remain together in an unpassionate relationship.

Theo runs into Boris on the street. Boris is now very wealthy the underground.
2y
payton.laidlaw Theo learns that Boris stole The Goldfinch from Theo back in Las Vegas and has been using it for his criminal dealings since then. Shocked, Theo goes to the storage unit only to discover the “painting” is a high school textbook. Boris is sorry, since someone else now has the painting. But,Boris finds a way to get the painting back.

Theo and Boris travel to Amsterdam to get the painting.
2y
payton.laidlaw During a chaotic and frantic series of events that include a shootout, Theo shoots and kills a man. Boris is shot in the shoulder, but the two manage to escape. Boris tells Theo to wait at the hotel where Theo has been staying. Theo remains there for a while, surviving on room service and heroin. He is afraid to leave his room. He decides to commit suicide, but before he can, Boris comes back.
2y
payton.laidlaw Boris hands Theo a great deal of money and tells him that it is his share of the reward for the return of the painting; Boris managed to have the painting returned to authorities. Theo returns to New York City, where Hobie confronts him with details of his business scam. Theo tells everything to Hobie, and they decide to buy back the fake antiques in order to restore the business‘ reputation and honor.

2y
payton.laidlaw Theo‘s life and relationships are generally left open-ended at the end. Pippa tells Theo that she loves him but not romantically. Kitsey and her family invite him to be a part of their lives, whenever he chooses. And Hobie remains a close companion as Theo begins to travel the world alone, finding peace in not being anywhere. 2y
payton.laidlaw If you like books that involve teenagers dealing with hard reality, drug scandals, scams, and art heists you‘ll like this book.

Friendship and Family is a major theme in this book. Theo goes through several different ideals of family, from the comfort of his mother, Hobie and the Barbours, to the rough reality with his father. Through Pippa and Boris, he understood good and bad friendships, and how his life wouldn‘t be the same without them.
2y
MissYaremcio Excellently done Payton! 6/6 2y
chelzy.rosario wow !! 2y
9 likes1 stack add13 comments
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Sharv_Sona
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Sharv_Sona
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Sharv_Sona

People die, sure, but it's so heartbreaking and unnecessary how we lose things. From pure carelessness. Fires, wars. The Parthenon, used as a munitions storehouse. I guess that anything we manage to save from history is a miracle.

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Sharv_Sona
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Sparklemn I love this. Thanks for sharing. 2y
11 likes1 comment
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Sharv_Sona
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review
janerzy
Goldfinch | Donna Tartt
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Pickpick

Dark, broken, depressing… and finding meaning of art and magic in this hopelessness, and perhaps love.

Part I and V are my favorite.

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murfman
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Pickpick

The Goldfinch is an emotional journey for the reader. Tartt sneaks in this vested interest in the characters and ties them to us as readers. The novel culminates in one of the most furiously read and emotionally charged endings that I've come across. At times I wanted to throw it across the room, and others I refused to put it down. A fantastic read, and something different than my norm.

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BarbaraTheBibliophage
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Pickpick

IF you need something dark and long to dive into, this is my latest recommendation. But if the world feels pretty dark (not surprisingly), now isn‘t the time. I loved The Secret History decades ago and shouldn‘t have waited so long to read this one. So many genres and topics all deftly blended together. Tartt is a master of her craft.

Full review https://www.TheBibliophage.com
#thebibliophage2022 #booked2022 #darkacademia

70 likes3 stack adds
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Clwojick
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Four books finished, and starting on the tagged beast. #BigJuneReadathon

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Kshakal
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JuliaTheBookNerd I bailed on this one too! I know people seem to love it but I only made it half way by forcing myself to keep going. Not a fan 😬 2y
Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks I didn‘t finish this one either!! 2y
Eggs The cover sort of repels me 😕 2y
See All 7 Comments
jlhammar I picked this for my book club years ago after reading and loving it. A bad choice based on page count alone (I learned my lesson). Many didn't finish and it wasn't a hit with most who did. So you are definitely not alone! 2y
TheLudicReader I know lots of people hate this one, but I loved it. 2y
DivineDiana @TheLudicReader I Ioved it too! 2y
cmastfalk It‘s super long. A lot could‘ve been cut. I liked it though. 2y
29 likes2 stack adds7 comments
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libraryofjamie
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“What if our badness and mistakes are the very thing that set our fate and bring us round to good?“

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jlhammar
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I was awed by this 771 page tome when I read it back in 2013. I haven‘t yet seen the movie. I later went on to read The Secret History which I also enjoyed. I have The Little Friend on my shelf and hope to get to it soon.

#600+Pages #BookMoods
@Eggs @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

thereadingpal It's on my list to read 2y
Eggs Well done 👍🏼 2y
Kimberlone Skip the movie, it‘s not good! The book is soooooo much better. They need to make a proper miniseries adaptation to fully encompass the book. 2y
jlhammar @Kimberlone Good to know! 2y
51 likes1 stack add4 comments