While being a perfectly good book, I was not blown away by The Goldfinch.

I think it was partially the meandering style of the writing along side the heavy drug and alcohol themes that detracted from my enjoyment overall.

Theo’s relationship with his mother was very sweet and this enabled some heartfelt connections later on in the book such as Hobie and Mrs Barbour. I found it impossible not to love Hobie, he was the perfect, gentle, father figure that Theo so missed out on as a child and the cluttered, homely descriptions of their shop and home were endearing.

As a hopeless romantic, the fact that Theo did not end up with neither Kitsey nor Pippa was disappointing especially since it seemed at the start that red-headed Pippa was going to be the thread tying Tartt’s story together (I clearly misread the intentions there).

All in all, I’m glad I read it despite it being heavy going and will endeavour to read The Secret History when I can.