The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

This is the story of Theo Decker, it starts when he's thirteen and we follow him right into adulthood. It's a story of love and loss (lots of loss), of good friends and bad decisions.

We enjoyed the story, lots happened but it was far too long. The ending was very rambly, it could of ended at least 100 pages sooner. We felt some events were glossed over, for example Theo getting engaged to Kitsey, how did that happen?

We decided to change our scoring, each person will give a mark out of 10 and the average is the book's score.

Characters - We liked Boris, such an optimist.
Who to slap? - Most of the characters.
Concept - Good
Plot - Too long but well written.
Ending - Too drawn out, could have ended when Boris returned in Amsterdam.
Add a twist - Make the book 300 pages shorter and give the painting back at the beginning (however this would lose the point of the book).
Page Turner - No.
Where's the cheese? - No cheese, far too serious for cheese.
Would we recommend? - No
Better as a ... shorter book (sense the theme yet?)

Average score: 6/10

The next book was chosen by Jen and it's Before I Go To Sleep by SJ Watson and we'll be reading that for the April meeting. Lisa is hosting the next meeting.