The Little Friend - Donna Tartt

This book is one of the top 50 books to read of all time, and it most certainly deserves its place for the quality of writing. The scenes and characters evoked are realistic and well described. The actual plot, however, is not as expected. It verges off from the storyline that permeates the first couple of hundred pages and takes a backseat to the rest of the story, which brings frustration and disappointment to the reader when trying to understand why the writer bothered to put the first chapter in - the only reason it seems to be there is the fact that it is beautifully well written, but it seems to be almost a different story to the rest of the book. Towards the last ...  Read the complete review

I spent about an hour yesterday writing a review of this book... and then promptly lost it when I tried to post it. Why? Because I chose to ignore the nice, red, visible, and as it turns out, eminently sensible advice placed conveniently above the text box, and did not either type my review elsewhere, nor save a copy before posting... But is is a testament to how much I loved this book that I am determined to try again - and again and again, if need be - until I have shared with the world how great this book is, and convinced you all to go out and buy your own copy. (Actually, if I'm honest, I also want to convince people to buy it because I got a cut price copy ...  Read the complete review