#tlf lb

[llycaons]

HARRIET CLEVE!!!!!

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mouse idk how far into this book you are but sppilers for ch5

two 12 yrs olds comitting manslaughter via COBRA??? through the sunroof????? as revenge for a murder they absolutely have no proof of???

[llycaons]

I am still thinking of the blackbird. a doomed mission...harriet as the trapped blackbird also. loss of innocence and childhood

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jfc 😭 more spoilers

there is nobody stupider than a redditor. im trying to find hints for robin's murder because I'm nosy and people are being INSANE. someone said curtis. the five-year old disabled boy????? HELLO??? people are saying tat and ida. you're out of your fucking minds. this is why I hate murder mysteries and their readers. no the least likely person is not the murderer!!!

and ppl saying danny 😭 did you read the fucking BOOK. DANNY DID NOT DO IT. THAT'S THE POINT!!! and why tf would pem's knowledge of snake catching be suspicious? they live in the south!!! ppl pointing out that danny's nightmares of a struggling demon bird child indicate he might have seen something tho...

and the theories abt it being ida...wow...the balck housekeeper...not like that makes any sense either!

anyway it was probably farish. the guy's violent, unstable, willing to kill children, had a postman uniform, and he had access to the cord that was used. he probably went after him for some imagined slight against danny idk. but danny and robin were friends!!!

that means that danny took revenge for robin 🥺

oh and this redditor points out that maybe he tried to kill himself out of guilt...yeah. well it was a pointless tragedy. just like the whole book lol

[llycaons]

FINISHED THE LITTLE FRIEND

girl what the fuck. ummm really strange novel. loose and has a very open ending. extremely slow and plodding pacing for much of it and the descriptions are really not fun which is the point

the recurring themes of chains and suffocation and drowning as harriet struggles to make a mark and be significant and powerful and smart and strong in her hot, misogynistic, tiny town...harriet's white and rich so she doesn't see it as much as the odums or the ratliffs or ida rhew but classism and racism grind others into the dust as well. really what she's terrified of is losing her freedom and power as she ages into a body that's sexualized and dismissed. she's sexualized now, but not quite so obviously. she never seems to consider that aging could bring power of its own with it - she only sees adults as weak and lost, while as a child she has focus and determination. I liked her perspective as a young girl, it felt so real and relatable. the powerlessness of youth

harriet realizes the error of her ways and then backslid almost immediately which makes sense as she is twelve. REALLY glad danny isn't dead but it's extremely depressing that he's going to be in prison forever and never play guitar again and its bc harriet was misled by. her mom's black housekeeper. hm yeah I find that loadbearing plot point really unfortunate especially since Ida does offer significant inisght into the racist violence of the ratliffs and of the racist silence of edith in the wake of Ida's injury and the old woman's death due to that violence.

I'm really bummed we don't learn what happened with robin but honestly it didn't even matter by the end and thinking it did is exactly where harriet went wrong. the book probably would have sucked if there was a last-minute reveal. I mean I still would have WANTED to know like wtf and I still think tartt could have done it in a way that was impactful and satisfying. but it wasn't SUPPOSED to be satisfying

this novel is a work of anti-satisfaction. we don't see how almost any plot line ends. we don't learn who killed robin or how. we don't know where harriet goes. we don't know if the gun is ever found. we don't know what happens to danny besides that he's alive

god, danny. I loved his character I can't lie but I do think it's part of an unfortunate pattern that tartt poured this much compassion and sympathy into his depiction - and developing other racist characters - and little into fleshing out the black characters in the story. it does address racism and it was slightly better than I expected - the goldfinch is egregious by comparison which is wild bc theo grew up IN nyc he absolutely met all theae people growing up unlike harriet did - but tlf ultimately a lot more interested in class than race

this novel will haunt me a bit but it really was not to the level of tgf imo. not even because I dislike it tonally and find the ending bleak and empty, I just don't think its as expansive or powerful or meaningful. tsh is also quite a dark ending....tgf is rly the odd one out huh

ultimately I was rather disappointed. a whole lot of nothing, and the reveals weren't really worth the time put into them

[llycaons]

I don't feel so good

[llycaons]

if this scene is historically accurate, neurology exams have not changed in fifty years

[llycaons]

when I learned he wasnt dead I could have wept