3.5 stars

Theo Decker loses his mother in an explosion at an art museum, but he leaves the scene unharmed with a rare painting, The Goldfinch. We follow Theo on his journey of finding a home while finding himself and protecting the painting.

I honestly don’t know how to rate this book. It was beautifully written, but I felt it was too long and drawn out. I enjoyed Theo and his story. He went through so many ups and downs and even at the points in his life when I didn’t like him, I was still rooting for him.

There are so many secondary characters in this book, but the one who stood out to me the most was Hobie. The way this man took Theo in and treated him as a son was so heartwarming. I was glad he was in Theo’s life throughout the book. I also loved learning about his business with restoring antiques. I found that very interesting.

I felt the part in Las Vegas was really drawn out, and I just wanted Theo to go back to New York City. NYC was such a main part of this book that it was almost a character itself.

I listened to the audiobook (mainly because big books intimidate me) and adored the narrator, David Pittu. He does a fantastic job with voicing the characters and using different accents for them. I always knew who was speaking in a conversation by the way he voiced them which is impressive in my opinion. He brought this story to life and I look forward to finding more books that he narrates.

Overall, I did enjoy the story, but wish it had been about 300 pages shorter!