The Little Friend - Donna Tartt. Worth sticking with?

[Thewhingingdefective]

I am kind of enjoying it, but making such slow progress that I am losing the will. Is it really a great book I should hang on in there with or do I shelve it?

[DuchessofMalfi]

I read it a few years ago and enjoyed it immensely. It isn't as good as The Secret History but I'd say definitely carry on with it and just enjoy Donna Tartt's writing.

Keeping my fingers crossed that one day she'll publish another novel :)

[pictish]

Oh yes hanf g on in there. I enjoyed it, but it is a slow burner. x

[pictish]

hanf g?

[DieWilde13]

It won't get any better

I love the Secret History, the Little Friend was such a letdown!

[FloatyBeatie]

I liked The Little Friend. I don't think the weight of it is in the ending, though, just the whole sad trajectory of the thing.

It did leave me feeling a little as though I wanted to go and drown myself in murky water, but it achieved that effect with great skill, so hey.

[KateSMumsnet]

Really enjoyed reading it, but the end just kind of splutters out like a damp firework. You end up with that kind of "oh" feeling.

I though The Secret History was the same, ending with not with a bang but with a whimper, but was generally more satisfying that The Little Friend.

[KerryKetosis]

yep it's the "oh" feeling alright.

ditch it, life's too short.

[Thewhingingdefective]

It is absorbing, but I don't feel it's going anywhere. I haven't read The Secret History. Maybe I should do that one first. I'm about 150 pages in to TLF - not even a third of the way through.

[KerryKetosis]

the secret history is great! much more of a beginning, middle, end kind of story.

unlike TLF which is more beginning, middle...middle?

[CharlotteBronteSaurus]

not really, no
i bought it when it came out, and have just finished it, at the third attempt
i found it too mired in the day to day fog of the family falling apart to be a proper pacey thriller, yet not focused enough on the relationships to make it work as a quieter sort of piece.

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

I read it years ago and can remember precisely nothing about it. I don't think I thought much to it tbh. I read the other one too, which again I can remember little about but seem to think I liked it slightly more.

[OneHolyCow]

O definitely ditch.. it made me so angry, it was weak and fuzzy. Did like the Secret History so felt terribly let down.

[shriekingnora]

Ditch it - it's awful. I have been given THREE copies of it over the last few years. I have given every one to the charity shop. The Secret History is excellent though.

[Sunshinenow]

Awful. Ditch it. Loved The Secret History.

[PuffPants]

No.

Tedious book. Confusing, complicated, drawn-out. The only scene I can recall is the girl hiding from the nutter in a water tower...

[hackmum]

I couldn't put The Secret History down. I put The Little Friend down lots of times, but kept ploughing in the hope that all would be revealed in the end. What a disappointment! Like PuffPants, the only scene I can recall is the water tower one - how odd.

[Thewhingingdefective]

CharlottBrontesaurus I think you've hit the nail on the head.

I have ditched it.