Just finished it this weekend. I'll admit that it started verrrrrrrrrryyyyyy slow for me. Tart's style is kind of hard to adjust to. She leans towards what I would call "hyper-descriptive" writing. At times, it seems like she spends a page and a half describing the texture of the wall in a room where two characters are having a conversation. I felt like things tended to drag until Theo leaves the Barbour's and goes to live with his father in Las Vegas (although later in the book it makes more sense why we spent so much time with the Barbour's). I really started to buy in once we meet Boris - in my mind, he is one of the great literary characters of the 21st century - especially when he comes back as an adult. I would totally read a sequel novel that traces Boris' ascent to become.....whatever exactly it is Boris becomes (I do feel like Tartt punted a little bit by not telling us exactly what it is Boris does to make his money - it's pretty clear that he's involved in some kind of criminal endeavor, but I think Tartt thought we would be a lot less sympathetic to him if we found out he was a drug dealer). I was really impressed by how well she wrote the "heist" portion at the end of the book - for a novel that isn't really an action novel, I thought it flowed really well and felt very realistic.

In the end, things do seem to tie up a little too tidily for Theo (honestly, it would have seemed more realistic if he had ended up committing suicide in the Amersterdam hotel room), but we're all so invested in him by this point that we're happy he makes it out. If I could have tweaked the book a little, I'd have included a liiiiiiiittle less detail on the furniture restoration (I get that it was important, I just got bored sometimes), and wayyyyyy more Platt Barbour (I love boozy adult Platt - I also feel like Platt and Boris would have gotten along like a house on fire - maybe save that pairing for the sequel). I also think that considering Pippa is the love of Theo's life, we should have spent a little more time with the two of them together.

Overall, I enjoyed the messages of the book - that art can connect people through generations, and that's what makes it important. That we don't always know what impact our actions, good or bad, will have on the world. I give the book a solid A (I'd have gone A+ if it hadn't seemed to bog down in a couple of spots)