donna tartt

Only read the secret history, a long time ago, thought it was fantastic and that's impressive because I hate long books. Went to see her talk about her new one ('the little friend' i think??) and she was entertaining and intelligent even though she loved to name drop that she was chums with Brett Easton Ellis. Very pretty too in a dark vampire queen sort of way. Thaswaayerec.

I was disappointed with The Secret History. I felt I'd read it all before. A good first novel, yes, but unoriginal in its story line - it just didn't have much to say.Haven't tried the Lttle Friend yet but I dare say I will get round to it sooner or later.

Apparently she only writes one book every ten years. That's what I read somewhere, anyway. Thought The Secret History was brill.

Just finished Secret History.. why I posted this.. it certainly kept me interested but certainly didn't live up to all the 'Modern Classic' type stuff that was on the blurb (if any of those terms mean anything anyway) There was a lot of guff that she could have gotten rid of.. a lot of extraneous and downright useless subplot. It works well as a thriller but you get the impression she's going for more than that ..and yet not succeeding somehow ..I felt the same way about The Tesseract by the guy who wrote The Beach. Is it just me ..or is her narrative style just poncey as hell?or was this some cleverly devised aspect of etc etc?) Anyway ..will still have a bash at The Lickle Fiend soon-ish.

secret history was great... i bought her latest one, i've read a little, but it hasn't grabbed me and has been relegated to one of those books by the bed, that you pick up every now and again, and might take a few years to read....

i thought the secret history was fantastic and have read it three times already this year. I couldn't get enough of the characters and their lives. Bunny although he was technically the bad person of the group, was such a well-rounded character and i identified with the main narrator (richard) the conflicting emotion he had of hating him yet also loving him at the same time. oh and i also thought, towards the middle of the book, it had the best description ever in a novel of someone suffering from freezing conditions and nearly dying from hypothermia. one to read again come x-mas time, sitting in front of a warm fire and out of the cold. definitely the best book i have read in a long-time and miles better than half the guff coming out these days