I found this whole book rather fascinating. I loved the almost overwritten aspect to it. Donna Tartt writes in such a compelling way and I love how her sentences unfold. It draws me in so completely to the story.

I also really liked the pretentiousness, which is a very weird thing to say. This book and its characters just embody 'pretentious' and at times it did get to be a little too much, but overall I really enjoyed it.

My favorite part is how borderline sociopathic they all were and how we got to see it from their perspective. For long sections of the book, it was almost easy to forget that they weren't in the right. But there was one moment when Richard was at a funeral witnessing other people's grief that the character actually realizes for the first time what he's done. I adored that moment.

I think overall, I quite enjoyed this book, but there wasn't a whole lot I loved about it. It was definitely a solid four stars, but probably not one that will make my favorites list for the year. I'd recommend it if you don't mind pretentious characters or writing.