This is my first two star read of the year (2019). If I could rate a book solely on the writing of the author, I would give it 3 stars. Her style of writing can be beautiful.

However, the topic she chose to include in this book alone is disturbing, disgusting, and cancels out how beautiful her writing is.

I would consider this book triggering.

I’m giving this two stars based on there were parts that I really did enjoy. Sadly, the pedophilloic romance between Wavy and Kellen left me sickened. And the saddest part is, I could see it coming from the first time they met.

A child with parent issues? An adult that had parenting issues? Said adult falls into a pseudo parenting role for that child while her parents sell drugs and fall off of the deep end and don’t care?

Pedophilloic relationships should be something not included in books. Sometimes things written in novels can be considered normalized, and it is not. Plain and simple.

While I did enjoy reading about Wavy with her aunt and cousins and with her roommate, Renee, I did not enjoy the rest of it.

I felt disgusted with myself for even continuing to read it after I almost DNF’d it not even halfway through.

This book may be for some people, but it is NOT for me.

Michelle Obama is truly a woman that everyone woman, regardless of political affiliations, should look up to.

As she shares in her book, it’s okay to not love your first job. To doubt that you made the right decisions. Everything she shared about her life in high school, college, law school, young adult life, etc is something that young women and all women alike, need to hear.

Women ( and men) growing up with disabled parent(s), you’re not alone!!

I truly enjoyed listening to the audiobook version of Becoming. Michelle’s tenderness and tone emphasizes the parts of her life which she holds most dear.

This was a reread as part of a buddy read with an increase in stars. First time reading: 4/5 stars. Now, 5/5 stars.

My feelings: This book has brought back my love for long books and has restored my faith that authors can still grow a story throughout a book without making it feel like filler. In my opinion, nothing about this book is filler.m, if anything the ‘filler’ is the amazing character detail Tartt goes into that makes The Goldfinch what it is.

Donna Tartt is a very talented author who gives so much detail about the characters, the paintings, and each scene that you almost feel like you’re in the scene with Theo and whoever else is with him.

The Goldfinch starts out with Theo, the main character in Amsterdam as an adult, hiding out in a hotel for a reason that will unfold through the story.

Tartt then takes the story back to Theo’s childhood in New York City, where tragedy strikes and his life will be changed forever. He’ll meet Hobie, after following a dying wish of his business partner and Pippa, the girl who also survived tragedy. With nowhere else to go in NYC, he’ll live with the Barbour family for a bit while everyone around him tries to help him make sense of his new life.

From there he’ll go Las Vegas where one world traveling, multi-lingual character will change his life later on.

Then, back in New York he’ll run back into Hobie and live with him while going through college prep, college, and early adulthood in the antique shop.

Some bad decisions will lead Theo back to an old friend on accident and from there, Theo will be lead down a path to redemption on something that started in NYC back when he was 13.