Rating: 
Summary: This book is a mixed bag, but worthwhile
Review: After the adulation Donna Tartt recieved for her first book, "The Secret History", the bar was placed almost frighteningly high for her sophomore effort. It's really very hard to judge whether she managed to vault that bar, because "The Little Friend" is not an easy book, and certainly not a book for every taste. Simply put, this is the story of Harriet, a young girl who selects a pretty heavy summer project for herself--to bring to justice the killer of her brother Robin, murdered some 10 years previously, whose memory hangs heavily over his family and its sleepy Southern town. Tartt doesn't give us a beach-novel whose pages zoom to a satisying wrap-up, she gives us Literature with a capital L and atmosphere by the pound--some of it works, in a To Kill A Mockingbird-on-Acid kind of way (the scene where the children are trapped in a house full of snakes had me nailed to the page), but there are long, arid, frustrating stretches as well, not well-suited to what is essentially a mystery-thriller novel. Tartt is an exceptional writer, but her meticulous craftsmanship can be problematic in a genre where expectations are geared towards fast movement and neat resolutions. I enjoyed this book and was frustrated and impatient with it, in almost equal amounts. Recommended, but with reservation.
Rating: 
Summary: Divine secrets of the Yawn Yawn Sisterhood?
Review: If Donna Tartt had not been the author of best-selling book 'The Secret History' I doubt if this rambling book would ever have been published. I expected an intriguing story of a young girl doing some detective work to solve her brother's murder, instead Tartt just uses this initial premise as the opening gambit for another character-driven novel about the American South. All the stock characters are there - the matriarchial grandmother, the ditzy aunts, the neurotic mother, the devoted black servant, the crazy redneck family, the fanatical preachers. Suffice to say no cliche is left unturned and after a promising start the book rambles on for pages and pages with nothing happening. It gets better towards the end (though some of the kids' escapades were about as convincing as Scooby Doo) but the ending - well the ending made me lose the will to live. I guess the message is don't expect your curiosity to be solved - this is no simple detective story - it is a piece of GREAT AMERICAN FICTION. What it honestly feels like is that the Tartt had a bad case of writer's block and had to force every word of this long uninvolving, rambling epic on to the page. A waste of my time ...
Rating:
Summary: This book does have some redeeming qualities
Review: I too am tempted to vent my frustration with the ending of this book by giving it the lowest number of stars possible. I felt cheated by the author's abrupt conclusion, like many other readers.However, like life, this book was more about the journey than the goal. I was jolted by the realization that the identity of Robin's killer would never be revealed, but then I thought back on some of my favorite parts and realized maybe reading the entire lengthy novel may not have been such a phenomenal waste of my time after all. Here are some of my favorite parts: 1. The way you keep thinking that nobody cares about Harriet, yet at one point her mother becomes frantic with worry when she mistakenly believes her daughter has stayed out all night. 2. The fact that Harriet's life is saved at the water tower because all summer long she's been practicing holding her breath at the country club pool. 3. I loved the portrayal of the pubescent girls at Camp Lake de Selby. These "Christian" girls are rude, crude, and completely realistic. In the entire book this is the only reference made to adolescent "coming of age" which I found uncharacteristic and very refreshing. Most books about 12 year old girls would at least mention a crush or a first period, a la Judy Blume or the movie "My Girl." I'm glad Ms. Tartt refrained. (I don't know if authors ever come on here to find out what we the public thought of their work, but if they do, perhaps my comments will help alleviate a little of the humiliation and shame some of the more scathing reviews here will have caused Ms. Tartt.)
Rating: 
Summary: The Past Is Never Dead
Review: In Mark Twain's _The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn_, Huck Finn exposes the failings and hypocrisy of 19th century American society, and in the end, decides to turn his back on, choosing to begin his life in the wild, uncivilized West. In Donna Tartt's _The Little Friend_, Harriet Dufresnes draws into relief all of America's cultural institutions, limning the class distinctions, racial boundaries, religious ethics, and gender relations, as well as the past that created them, for all to see; but, unlike Huck, who experienced America as an outsider, observant and critical, Harriet experiences America as a child, unconsciously and uncritically. Tartt, unlike Twain, isn't interested in using her to critique society. She's interested in observing the ways American culture reproduces itself, again and again, generation after generation; she's interested in taking Faulkner's observation "The Past is never dead. It's not even past" and showing her readers how that's possible; and she does that very well. Her book, _The Little Friend_, is a wonderful read.
Rating:
Summary: aye not bad
Review: This book is really frustrating. The first hundred pages are brilliant - you get a main character who is completely unique, funny and intriguing placed in a community with a terrible history. At page 100 you're mouth is watering at the prospect of how Harriet powered by her imagination is going to unravel the mystery and in the process cause an outpouring of chaos and disorder in the town. Then instead of maybe another couple of hundred pages of drama and powerful conclusion 'The Little Friend' turns into a big rambling bore of a novel - where you actually begin counting the pages and feeling pleased you got through another half-inch of it. I am sure the purpose of the middle section is to deepen the characters and the sense of place but many of these long passages are simply repetitions of other character/place development passages. I always thought brevity was a virtue and repetition a vice of literature and I'm sure Tartt's main aim here in writing this section was to write something 'long'. It's terrible to see her sacrifice all of the suspense and intrigue she has created initially but this is what she does. It reminded me of the film 'The Graduate' where the director plays the 'Strawberry Fayre' tune over and over again until you actually feel as irritated as Hoffman's character. Is Tartt trying to irritate us too? I always wonder if these 'hype' books get away with so much bad editing because of the writers ego or maybe because the 'hypers' haven't read anything better. In which case for a dramatic and evocative vision of the south I recommend Flannery O'Connor's 'The Violent Bear it away' Daniel Woodrell's 'The Ones You Do' and Joe R Lansdale's 'The Bottoms'.
Rating: 
Summary: Couldn't put it down
Review: Sorry about all the readers who wanted a more conventional ending, in which we find out for sure who killed Robin. The author hints that, yes, it might have been Danny (consider what his nightmares are about), then leads us to believe that, no, maybe Danny was innocent. Either way, what's important is that Harriet (and Hely) decide to try and kill him based on a hunch (and on class prejudice?) not on any real evidence. And yet...he is an evil man, who tries to kill Harriet. And yet...he survives.
And the story ends, and yet...it's not over. Will Harriet move to Nashville? And why would the father give up his mistress? And will Eugene decide to leave Harriet alone? Will Harriet challenge Edie's genteel racism? Will Pem and Allison get it on?
The tale continues to resonate.
Rating:
Summary: And the point is...?
Review: I haven't read The Secret History yet, but apparently I should have started with that one. I was really intrigued by this book at first, but it is entirely too wordy, with many sections that just don't need to be there at all. And I'm still trying to figure out what the title refers to...
Rating:
Summary: What Happened?????
Review: I wish this book had ended differently, Actually, I wish that it had just ended. I thoroughly enjoyed reading "The Little Friend" with its wonderful attentive detail to atmosphere and characterization, but when I closed the cover, I felt cheated. I'm dismayed that I spent all the hours, many of them late at night, turning pages and devouring word after printed word, only to find that when it ended, there was no resolution. Nada, none, zip, zilch. Bleah. I like my books to have an ending. It doesn't have to be a warm, fuzzy, happy, feel-good ending, just an ENDING!
I sure didn't find it here.
Rating:
Summary: Not again!!
Review: I guess I should leave well enough alone. I was absolutely captivated by The Secret History as were most. I rushed out to buy The Little Friend (in hardcover I might add). While I enjoyed it well enough, it was pretty disappointing to discover that this is what we've all been waiting for. Besides the big let-down, I also was unsatisfied by the Little Friend because too many questions were left unanswered and it left me feeling empty and annoyed.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Nice effort, but I think her editor let her down on this one...needed some judicious trimming.
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