However, there were parts of the story that were perplexing for me to read. When I tried to put myself in Theo’s shoes, it was saddening and emotionally painful to think about what he was probably going through. His sudden bursts of energy were well defined, as well as how he suddenly fell back to not caring without any real reason. However, when he made it in, he was apathetic towards his courses and only did the bare minimum, which made his professors more and more disappointed and finally, even resentful.

For example, Theo had had an extreme burst of inspiration and effort as he studied relentlessly for an upcoming test for a pre-college program. He zooms in on one thing, then another, the way a real person would.įor me, this was extremely refreshing and realistic rather than hearing something along the lines of, “Bam! And the building exploded around me.” I especially enjoyed the way this part was written and reread it several times to appreciate the craft in it.Īdditionally, Theo’s mood swings were extremely realistic and helped me to understand his character. Instead, the character explains everything almost in slow motion. For example, when Theo was at the museum and the explosion happened, there was none of the onomatopoeia that I had grown accustomed to reading. The author seemed to have a tone that was both far away yet close at the same time, and the way she described events was extremely original.

Part of the reason why I was so slow reading it was that it was a very different style from what I usually read. I had spent about two weeks reading “ The Goldfinch ,” which was a bit slower than average. While it was a Pulitzer Prize winner, both the book and its movie adaptation received quite a bit of criticism.

Recently, I stumbled on a novel called “ The Goldfinch” by Donna Tart which is about a story of a young boy named Theo who tries to navigate and understand his emotions as he deals with the aftermath of his mother’s death.

The goldfinch novel book review