After not finishing The Goldfinch, I was encouraged by several people to not give up on Donna Tartt. I'm glad I listened. I realized that the reason I gave up on The Goldfinch (after reading 2/3 of it) was because I didn't like ANY of the characters, and therefore didn't care what happened to them. The characters in The Secret History were flawed & did some despicable things, but I liked (most of) them enough that I cared what happened. (cont)