Rating: 
Summary: Hideous cover, not a murder mystery, great characters
Review: I think so much of the disappointment with The Little Friend is due to its characterization as a murder mystery which is reinforced by a creepy china-faced doll on the cover. I would call it, How I Spent my Eleventh Summer with a Family Beaten Down by Grief in a Small, Quirky, Semi-Gothic Mississippi Town. It's more of a rambling, colorful home movie of southern life than a thriller.(I was puzzled by the title, too, until I came across a reference toward the end of the book describing Danny Ratcliff as Robin's "little friend".)The real joy in this book is the completely developed inhabitants of the novel. Tartt has lavished attention on all of her major and minor characters. I was astonished by Edie, the formidible matriarch and delighted with the Ratcliffs - a family of brothers beyond dysfunction involved in burglary, methamphetamine production and snake-handling. Tartt even provides a sly epilogue for an escaped cobra. If you like novels to be plot-driven, this is 500+ page book will seem endless. If you want an entertaining meander through some great southern writing, give it a try.
Rating:
Summary: Look closer for an impressive accomplishment
Review: After reading The Secret History, The Little Friend isn't at all what I expected. Donna Tartt has accomplished something in this one that seems to have gone almost completely unrecognized on this forum. Yes, I have read better plots and stories, but I have never seen race and social class explored in quite this way. Tartt describes the issues in great detail without ever presenting them as issues, or out and out preaching about them. She never gives you her own voice directly about this weighty subject, but lets you see glimpses in the mirrors of her characters and third person narrative. I almost put the book down at first, because of the heroine's cold and thoughtless racism. I kept reading, though, when Tartt objectively points out that Harriet could have misread the motives of a poor mixed-race child who tries to retrieve a library book from a trashcan. The fact that she's a child underscores the subtle criticism of saccharine platitudes about children's inherent innocence about racism. Character development in this book gives an accurate description (from my experience having lived most of my life in the south) of class and race dynamics. I was impressed with the ring of truth to all the characters and indeed to a story line which, as in reality, goes far and wide of what one expects. Most people in this book are complete people, not stereotypes lacking in faults, strengths and complexity. I don't think you can talk about race and class without this meaningful kind of character development. Tartt explored not only the upper-class white folks' complete lack of empathy, (with some realistic exceptions)but also the more difficult notion of racism and class warfare within the blacks and poor whites of the south. [warning, SPOILERS ahead]
I thought it realistic that Harriet doesn't come away from her life's lessons with a brand new egalitarian mantra, as one might expect from a novel so keenly observant of racial relations. Instead she comes away with just the beginnings of personal shame for her own lack of understanding, and possibly with a hint of critical thinking skills that might one day lead her to look closely at all levels of society with empathy and reason. Then again, she might not, judging from her shameful act with the red gloves, and the missed opportunity to help her Aunt's maid receive her rightful legacy. That Tartt's choice of title directly refers to the lower-class ruffian who almost kills Harriet in a drug induced rage implies that his story line is indeed important and tragic. (it's in the book, towards the end, someone refers to Danny as 'the little friend' of Robin.)The character's inherent talents combined with his violent and oppressive upbringing left me caring about what might become of him after his impressive surviving of the water tank. His friendship with Harriet's deceased brother gets bandied about and misunderstood throughout the course of the book. One wonders what might have happened had Harriet's brother lived. Donna Tartt had expressed dismay in an interview that The Secret History was described by some as Southern Gothic. The Little Friend is a prime example of what the genre should be.
Rating:
Summary: Aw, Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?
Review: Harriet Dufresnes and Hely Hull are considerably more sanguine about snakes than Indiana Jones is though, and Donna Tartt makes their adventures with reptiles both funny and horrifying. The observations of Loyal Reese about snake handling could serve as an epigraph for the book: If the snake doesn't bite you, it's a miracle. If the snake bites you, and you live, it's a miracle. If it bites you and you die, it's the greatest miracle of all because you get to go to heaven. This novel is a not-so-small miracle. I've never had an experience quite like it, and I'm a college English teacher, so I've read A LOT. On one level, I wanted to stop reading the book; it seemed to be taking forever. On another, I couldn't quit. Tartt's prose is that addictive. Fortunately (?) I got sick and had to spend a couple of days in bed which allowed me to read nearly nonstop from about 1/3 of the way through to the end. It's hard to believe, but it really is a fast-moving story, as long as you don't have a life! I'm puzzled by those (including almost every review I read on this page) who want a tidy little package tied up with a bow at the end. Sure, it would have been nice to have the mystery fully solved, but that ain't how life works. This is an episode--a childhood picaresque without the geographical journey. The journey is inward. Harriet learns about loss through both death and a kind of betrayal, she comes to understand more about her family, she realizes that vegeance isn't hers to take, and overall, spends a pivotal summer in her life. I do have a couple of minor complaints that account for the missing fifth star: The novel could be more carefully edited. Word-for-word repetitions are not uncommon. Also, why on earth can't a 12-year-old and a 17-year-old throw in a load of laundry? If you've read the book, you know what I mean. If you choose to read it, and I surely hope you do, you'll find out. It's a fine, perceptive, evocative novel. I'm grateful I stayed the (occasionally daunting) course. The downside: I can't find anything else to read right now that measures up!
Rating: 
Summary: oh, donna
Review: I enjoyed the entire book until the last few pages. so much build up, friction, tension, beautiful(yet, sterotypical) storytelling, and in the end, a total frinking cop out.
Rating:
Summary: Worthy of attention, but readers beware
Review: The Little Friend is the type of book that could get nominated for the National Book Award and yet will not please many of the readers who enjoyed The Secret History. Tartt is a gifted writer, breathing life into an engaging twelve-year-old protagonist who sets out to solve a murder in the midst of two different families in the South. Local media (e.g. the San Francisco Chronicle) has been dying to give away the ending and finally did last week, probably with the blessing of Tartt herself, in town for an interview. But the ending is beside the point, as is the plot for the most part.
This book is driven by its characters, their language and rich inner lives hidden from the adults in the household, and their often outrageous actions - children hauling guns and poisonous snakes around town, outwitting a family of drug dealers. Harriet is a bit of Huck Finn and Scout Finch in a modern world, but in a much heavier epic which I found too tedious to enjoy completely despite many exquisite passages.
Rating: 
Summary: Closure Please
Review: Donna Tartt has a beautiful style of writing, but evidentally has never heard of CLOSURE. That was the most disappointing ending I have ever read. She did not tie up
one loose end. It was not even written so we could surmise what would happen. What a disappointment.
Rating:
Summary: A BIG, SPRAWLING, DISAPPOINTMENT
Review: Do NOT get sucked in by this book! Do NOT give in the pages and pages of lush prose and evocative characters and locales! Do NOT let "The Little Friend" get the better of you! Why not? Because the absolute LEAST a 600-page novel about a girl searching for her brother's murderer should do is tell you whodunit! And it does not! What a big, beautiful, sprawling waste of time this is. What a disappointment.
Rating:
Summary: There is NO ENDING, it JUST STOPS
Review: There are so many well written reviews already, that I will just add my biggest complaint. Donna Tartt FORGOT TO ADD AN ENDING! I thought a couple pages had been torn out of my book! Since not every reviewer complains about this, perhaps it is an accepted style of writing. However, after all the character development, and potentially exciting sub-plots, and after chasing down a potential murderer for so many pages...we are left with NOTHING. So there was no point to read it. No conclusion. Just colorful characters, none of them likeable, and vivid descriptions of disgusting predicaments that left me nauseous. I disagree, however, with giving this book 1 star, since Ms. Tartt's writing is not bad writing. A stupid romance novel can get one star. This book draws you in and makes you feel like you are in the world with the characters, and can see and smell what they do. You come to understand what kind of people they are. It just doesn't do you any good.
Rating:
Summary: The Little Friend
Review: What?????????? The book drew me in. Very proselike. The book was dreamy and full of hope for a good mystery. At times the lengthy novel would bore me, but I wanted the mystery solved. And in the end there were just too many questions left unanswered. "Will there be a Little Friend 2-Danny's Revenge?". I just put the book down and I'm a little angry at the loose strings.
Rating:
Summary: Compelling, but...
Review: You don't read a Donna Tartt book as much as you open it and are sucked into the pages, like a fly in a Venus flytrap. I have to say I really enjoyed this book, but I have to agree with many of the reviewers about the off-putting ending and subplots that apparently signified nothing. I guess when you're a famous novelist you can just finish up a book any way you want.
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