Ranking the Novels of Donna Tartt

The Secret History, The Little Friend, and The Goldfinch. In this video, I rank the three great novels of Donna Tartt.

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[barokokolo]

I agree, while The Secret History is very engaging, The Little Friend is simply next-level both in terms of atmosphere and in terms of psychological portrayal. Great analysis as always! :)

[ripper-gnoz]

i wasnt expecting much of the little friend after reading the secret history but i got fascinated with plot, atmosphere and horror of a book at the same time. my most loved book

[taravincent]

Thank you. I have only read the secret history and the goldfinch. I loved both and have been hesitant to read The little friend. I feel like I can tackle it now a free your review. She is due for her next book soon. cannot wait!!

[Paromita_M]

Where has this video been all this while?
Hello from a huge Donna Tartt fan.
I love all three of her published novels, she is my favourite living writer.
Ranking all of them are 9 to 9.5/10 but I guess in terms of minute differences:

3. The Little Friend
2. The Secret History
1. The Goldfinch

I love them all.
The Little Friend is the expanded successor to another all-time favourite To Kill A Mockingbird.
The Secret History is the pillar of the dark academia genre (along with The Name of the Rose and maybe Possession? or My Name is Red) for me.
The Goldfinch...David Copperfield works but I think of it more as a modern day Great Expectations because of the Theo-Pippa and Pip-Estella parallel. Great Expectations is also my favourite Dickens novel.

All three masterpieces.

Great video. Really enjoyed listening to your thoughts.

[gregorybroussard]

Donna Tartt is my favorite contemporary writer. She’s immensely talented. I read The Secret History and The Goldfinch. I recently tried to read The Little Friend and was disappointed. I felt like nothing was happening and stopped reading around page 100. After watching this video, I think I’m going to pick it up again and push on.

[lazyitus]

Excellent analysis. I only recently discovered Tartt a couple years ago and I just finished The Little Friend. I thought it was great, much better than the goodreads score led me to believe.
I love them all but when I rank them, I'm thinking:
The Secret History
The Goldfinch
The Little Friend

I can foresee re-reading each of these in coming years. And I can't wait for a new Tartt novel. Seems like it should be about time now.

[karltons]

Great video! I read each of these shortly after it came out and I love them all. Each stayed with me a little less than its predecessor. It’s been a couple of decades and The Little Friend did strike me as the most authentic, so I guess a re-read is in order.

[carlawisch]

I would rank her books the same way as you. I loved "The Little Friend"; and I do love Southern Gothic. I had read "The Secret History" before that and although it was a pretty quick read for me, I also found some aspects of Richard's character not very believable. I'm still plowing through "The Goldfinch", three+ years after having started it, and having read both the other two books after starting it. It's weird, I recently finished "Demon Copperhead" by Barbara Kingsolver, which is also described as "Dickensian", so I decided to go back and try to finish "The Goldfinch". I've got less than half left to go.

[evasliteraryparlour]

Thank you for this video! The Secret History is one of my favourite books. I wasn’t planning to read The Little Friend, but now I will. I would rather read a character driven novel than a plot driven story.

[tadhgcronin]

I really enjoyed this ranking. For me The Little Friend is such a beautiful book, the story is great and the characters are brilliantly drawn. Second The Goldfinch, absolutely amazing a great read and I loved your description of it. The Secret History, I see why people like it, the pace is great, the writing is wonderful but the characters are truly a degenerate, unlikeable and self absorbed pack. This I probably won't read again the other two I definitely will. A link to consider for The Little Friend is True Grit. Donna Tartt has done a great narration of this book by Charles Portis and she has a lovely essay or interview on it. The plucky young girl on a mission of revenge. The audiobook is on YouTube.

[track-n-trace]

I read The Secret History first, then The Goldfinch because I wanted more of the same after being enamored with the world Tartt created in her first book. I thought it was a fun journey but overall not as gripping. After finishing that, I took up The Little Friend because I still wanted more Donna. Ive read a few reviews briefly about how it was disappointing and not worth the read. But I think The Little Friend had some of the most transportive set pieces I have ever read. Hely with his comic book coming into contact with the Ratliff brothers for the first time. When Hely and Harriet ride over to the Ratliff apartment with the snakes and break in and then ultimately escape. Some of the most tense scenes ive been inside of while reading. The summer Mississippi humid setting. So bleeping good. What Donna did with these parts of The Little Friend wowed me more then she wowed me with The Secret History.

Completely agree with:
LF > SH > GF

[WowUsernameAvailable]

I remember being entranced by "The Secret History" (of which literally the only two things I remember now is how the gay character kissed the narrator, and how the narrator survived through Christmas in his cold attic room, which was described in a really atmospheric way), but then "The Goldfinch" did nothing for me. It dragged and dragged, and this whiny protagonist walked around remembering the kinds of shampoos his mother used to have, and the only worthwhile character was Boris because he was alive and witty.

[GhostofErnest]

Hi Joshua, I’ve read all 3 and I would rank them the same way. Have you read To Kill a mockingbird? I felt like it was a more modern version of that. Tartt did grow up in the south (I think Alabama) and I also think she was references her life as a child. (Obviously not the murder stuff but I think she had some kooky aunts around)

[hbb]

I found Little Friend the hardest to engage with, maybe it was because I first read The Goldfinch which I madly love and that feeling was only surpassed when I read The secret story (man, that's quality Netflix material right there) and then with Little Friend I felt kind of a down with the phasing but is a worth to read novel nonetheless.
Again, thank you for your effort giving us this videos.

[juanmiguelsuarezlopez]

My ranking is exactly the opposite as this… still, three masterpieces

[sorkiemernie]

I read The Secret History & The Little Friend years ago - loved them both. Donna Tartt is amazing.
I did not read Goldfinch yet (went against my rule and saw the movie first which was good). I met D. Tartt once…she was cool. She signed my copy of The Little Friend.