Good writing does not always trump all

despite what Miss Snark says. I finished Donna Tartt's The Little Friend over the weekend, and while I love the fluidity of the prose, it's not making up for the complete lack of plot. The story advertised on the flap copy makes the book seem like an interesting follow-up to Tartt's far more compelling The Secret History, but the novel in question completely fails to deliver on the promise. While it purports to be about a 12-year-old girl's search for her brother's killer, in reality the "story" meanders so badly that none of its multiple strands find satisfactory resolution anywhere with the 555 pages.

I can now see why this book has been so heavily remaindered everywhere (full disclosure: that's how I got my copy) - it's boring and there's no payoff even if you stick with it. Sometimes it's worth it to slug it out with something that's well-written but slow in hopes that it will pick up, but not so here. Test out a short sample at the library and see if it grabs you, but otherwise, this one's easily skippable.