Rating: 
Summary: 180 degrees
Review: I thought this book was wonderful! The other reviewers here express disappointment with the plot, which I found to be very entertaining, but I was much more interested in the main character's development and growth throughout the novel. The plot simply served to move her development and coming of age along. The other characters were well developed without being overly quirky or blatantly antagonistic. I liked that the reader couldn't quite draw any conclusions or anticipate the impact of certain scenes. As a matter of fact, I liked this book better than A Secret History, which I found to be a little too self-important. ACK! A dissenting voice - tie me to a stake and strike the match!
Rating: 
Summary: Mississippi misfire
Review: Lord, when the South falls, it falls HARD! This overblown experiment in Southern Gothic, written by a Mississippi native, reads like it was written by someone who's never even been to the South! Tartt's last novel took place in a high-class New England town. This one seems to take place in Fantasyland. I didn't believe even a single word of her prose here, much to my chagrin. Tartt seems cowed by the Southern Gothic genre. But you have to give the girl an A for effort. She tries her damnedest to make this book work! But all the words in the world - and believe me, it feels like she uses them all (including some I've never even heard before!)- can't help her pull it off. Frankly, I'm not sure what she's trying to pull off in The Little Friend. But as a mystery, it flops. And as a coming-of-age-in-the-Deep-South mood piece, it's stupefyingly dull. Too much heat and moss, not nearly enough emotion. Or not the right kind of emotion, anyway. Not much action either. I can't quite put my finger on what's wrong with this novel. It's a puzzlement. But I can say, with no hesitation, WAIT TIL YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY GETS IT!
Rating:
Summary: Appalling ...Marketing
Review: I so enjoyed the Secret History that, like every other American whose purchase made this book an instant best-seller, I rushed out to buy Donna Tartt's latest. I too then spent a weekend slogging through 550 pages of murky, torpid prose--otherwise known as a literary quagmire. Notice how, in almost every picture, Donna Tartt looks like she just tasted something sour? It must be rereading this book that caused it! ...the many, many, many bad reviews from other readers is ridiculsous that they won't allow a rating of no stars out of five, which is definitely what I would have awarded this book (though it doesn't quite deserve even that.) If you still feel that you must read this book, I have two words for you: public library.
Rating: 
Summary: Men won't get this book
Review: I didn't read TSH so had no preconceptions. I read the prologue and was blown away. It was wonderful. But it was only a few pages. Then the book began. As a male reviewer I have to admit that a book about a twelve year old heroine didn't grab me. I loved Scout in TKAM, as a kid liked Nancy Drew, and I love my younger sister, but Harriet?...a cliche more annoying than real. As were all the other characters. Many Amazon readers have nailed this: the aunts, blacks and males are B movie stereotypes from the Forties. A book about a twelve year old can be revealing and meaningful--Anne Frank for example--but this book gives us nothing. Can the woman write? Yes! But sentences, not a 555 page novel. Truly, a good editor could have cut this book by 200 pages. Now about the men--mostly bad by the way. This is supposed to be a deep dark penetrating psychological novel (lots of symbolism by the way--snakes galore!), yet not one of the countless male characters thinks a second about sex, and one of these is a twenty year old lifeguard. Give me a break! I've never read a more clueless book by a female about men. I think the author needs to date. Mostly this is a juvenile book and pretty silly ,yet there are some beautiful sentences and wonderful writing. I don't mean to be dismissive because I very glad I read the book and very glad Ms. Tartt wrote it. I enjoyed it very much; it isn't trash, it isn't minor, but neither is it very good. In the extraordinarily apt description of People Magazine, "It's a glorious mess."
Rating:
Summary: Lacks The Power of The First
Review: I am on page 200 and have just started using this book as my bedside drink coaster. This is where I relegate such books that I cannot finish but am ashamed to put on the shelf yet! I was mesmerized by Ms Tartt's first book but this has absolutely no draw. It is reminiscent of "Other Voices, Other Rooms" but not as corrupt and tantalizing as Capote's work. It smacks of Tennesee Williams, but not hard enough to read through. I was waiting for "The Secret Friend" since the day I read the last page of Ms Tartt's previous book, "The Secret History". I am sorry that she seems to be distracted because I KNOW she can write such things as dreams are made.
Rating: 
Summary: Expert and hypnotic
Review: I've never even considered writing a review before, but having read the ones posted I had to add my dissenting voice...I thought that this was one of the most luscious and expert pieces of writing I've ever read. Granted, the first few pages are inauspicious, but the dialogue, the characters--I don't know, I found them completly convincing and absorbing. In fact, I'm probably doing this out of sheer demented exhaustion, since I haven't been able to put this down for a couple of long nights, and probably tossed and turned from a creepiness I usually hate in a book, but really respected here for it's ability to drag me by my feet into a totally unfamiliar world, to make me respond to characters I have no business understanding.
I liked The Secret History a lot, but it was very much a first novel; the characters were really entertaining but, to me, completely unreal. What a difference a decade makes in this writer's ability to create people! To each her own, but I loved it.
Rating:
Summary: Quantity does NOT equal quality
Review: With mucho expectation did I open this thick novel, only to find myself nearly unable to get through the chapters and chapters of pointless description and forced poetry. I confess it was painful - that awful feeling where you want to keep your eyes open, but they just won't stay open! In fact, I fell asleep a couple of times as I toiled. Is this a fun read? No way. Is it edifying in any way? Afraid not. It's just long. Tartt seems to think very little of her readers; she tries to impress with length, thinking you won't notice her lack of conviction or her inability to create vivid characters - or to plot an epic novel! People aren't as dumb as she thinks. And she should respect how hard most of us have to work to earn the money we make to buy her books! Well, never again. She's lost this fan for good.
Rating:
Summary: Wanted: Plot
Review: TLF is really a let down. I didn't enjoy it a bit - and I was determined to finish it. And believe me, it wasn't easy. Tiresome passages, annoying characters, threads left hanging. I do not understand why the author thinks that she doesn't have to explain what happened to Harriet's brother or pick up on any other interesting potential story lines she introduces? Oh, is it because it's an in-tell-eck-chew-al book? The murder is not the point of the book? Is the murder just a "vehicle" for Harriet to discover something about herself (she doesn't)? And I didn't discover anything about MYSELF by reading it either, except how quickly I can fall alseep when I am bored. Or is the murder, God forbid, a metaphor for something else? Oh, that must be it. According to a writer in Book magazine, Donna Tartt is the smartest person in the room, so maybe Donna Tartt can explain to us dumb readers what the heck she's trying to prove with this turgid, tiresome tome. I think TLF is pretentious litter-a-chore. Emphasis on "chore". And by the way, I have been in the same room with Donna Tartt, and I don't think she was the smartest person there...maybe in some other room, but not the one I was in. But anyone who feels that way about themselves should look for a profession other than writing, because writing requires you to have some respect for your audience.
Rating:
Summary: Reminds one of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
Review: Donna Tartt had to have been thinking of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD while she was writing this book. There are too many similarities to ignore. The book is set in Alexandria, Mississippi, just a stone's throw from Maycomb, Alabama. Harriet Cleve Dufresnes, the lead character, could be Scout Finch six years later. The villain of the piece, Farish Ratliff, will remind you of Bob Ewell. Harriet even has a little boyfriend who worships the ground she walks on.
Harriet is a great character, feisty and brave, willing to take on a copperhead in order to get even with Danny Ratliff, whom she blames for the murder of her brother who'd been found hanging from a black-tupelo tree when she was a baby. Just as captivating are Harriet's great aunts, Edie, Addie, Libby, and Tat. These are truly original characters; no one has written senior citizens better since LADIES OF THE CLUB. Edie, Harriet's grandmother, is an older version of Harriet. When she looks Harriet in the eye, she sees herself looking back at her.
This is a finely textured book, with lots of atmosphere and
folklore that Tartt positions between action sequences. Tartt is great at foreshadowing. There's a scene at the beginning where Harriet learns how to hold her breath (like her hero Houdini) that will come in handy later on.
There's so much to like about this book I have to give it at least a four, but it's not a seamless novel. There's too much description, the kind that the author had to have put in later to give the book verisimilitude. Much of this is repetitive, lots of light playing off of the sides of buildings. I'm not the type to skip description, but I can understand why some readers might want to skim over some of this. The ending is also disappointing, leaving the reader dangling. Any mystery lover (as I am) is going to want to throw the book up against the wall when he finishes. What happens to Danny Ratliff is also completely unrealistic. You'd think at least one of the forty-some people Tartt thanks in her acknowledgments would have balked at some of this.
Rating: 
Summary: Another story about a neglected twelve year old
Review: There is bound to be disappointment if this story is read with the expectation of it being a thriller/horror story. The hype about Harriet meeting up with true evil is just that - hype. Still, this is a good yarn. There are several very well written heart pounding scenes and I was drawn into the southern gothic mood. I will always be more conscious of the possibility of snakes when outdoors. Stories about neglected children of this age are not uncommon. Martha Grimes book Paradise Hotel was also about a young girl unloved at home trying to solve a murder from the past. It was more believable to me because there was at least some kindness shown to that girl by likeable characters outside her family in the book. There is very little of it in The Little Friend. There was so much loss, indifference and meanness is this story it was very hard to connect with. We have all had times of darkness in our lives but poor Harriet has nothing but.
It will be hard to recommend this book to friends and family because they will race through it to find out who the killer was and then complain when it's not clearly resolved...
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