Why does a book about a murder have to tell you who committed the murder? From the beginning it was clear that the little girl was not going to solve a crime committed before she was born. The book is a brilliant story of a little girl growing up with a family who has had to live through something horrible, and how she learned to cope.

This story is NOT about a family whose 9-year old son is killed years before the story takes place. It’s about his sister, but beyond that I can’t tell you what it is about. Two thirds of the way into the book I was with it. I was excited. The climax, I was there. I LOVED the way Tartt drew me and had so subtly made me care for the “villain” and everyone involved. It was wonderful.

But the end offers no answers to questions raised at the beginning. A character comments “well, that explains so much,” but NOTHING has been explained. It is just a sadistic book which draws you in, emotionally invests you, only to abruptly end.

If you have read this book, but not The Secret History, you should really not give up, The Secret History is an amazing book.

I finished this book while All Consuming was out-of-order. About half way through I started to see why other people spoke poorly of this book (though I haven’t read her other book, which others say is better). Basically this book is just way too long: 20 CDs at about an hour each. The characters are well developed, the plotline is interesting, and the book is generally well written. But about half way through I started to feel antsy and by the end I was just waiting for it to be over. And it’s not like the ending was spectacular either. I think the writer needed a brutal editor to take a hatchet to this book and then it could’ve been really good.

March 2005 – Book on CD from library. This is a story about a family whose 9-year-old son was murdered a decade before. So far it seems to concentrate primarly on the youngest daughter who is obsessed with her deceased brother and finding his murderer.

Pretty disappointed with this one—the plot is interesting, the characters are interesting, but reading the book felt like trying to run in deep mud.

A big disappointment :(

I mean to finish this someday.