The Little Friend by Donna Tartt

I know this has nothing to do with corpses and vampires and the victorian era and their dark lolita fashion sense or any of those other romanticized stereotypes but shouldn't this book be filed under goth? Because it's so ... morose (look who's stereotyping). The aura it exudes is so ... I don't know ... <insert-morose-synonym-here?>. It's just so sulky and disturbing. 

Makes me feel normal to know I wasn't the only kid who ever thought about this dystopian fantasy lol

This is one of the most disturbing books I've ever read and not even in a morbid way because Donna Tartt's prose is far from that. It's mostly because the story and emotions the book stirs is morally complex. And I think that's the best kind of disturbing. Like, here's a kid who wants justice for his brother's tragic death so she goes around town investigating and somehow firmly believes she's found the culprit. Only, this person is not it. Now she sets off to make his life miserable (more than it already is) so since then, every major misfortune that happens to his family is related to what this girl did ... no matter how remotely because her plans don't exactly work the way she wanted them to. BUT we feel sorry for the kid and not the family (it was that way for me up to a certain point, anyway). Maybe because she's a kid? Maybe because the Ratliff's are a bunch of hoodlums? Look how at how Harriet reacts to Odum's kids. Like they're way beneath her.

But here's the thing. Notice that the differences between the Dufresnes's and the Ratliff's also made them similar. The Ratliff brothers were "lucky" they had a "doting" grandmother but then her "words of wisdom" aren't exactly words of wisdom. Their dad beat them and made them grow tough and thick skinned. Now, Harriet and Allison practically grew up unsupervised. Their mother has issues and left them to the maid who only really cleans and makes them meals. And not even proper ones. Sure the maid's a fixture in the house for both kids but that's because their mother is, most of the time, alone inside her head. This made them, in a way, tough and able to fend for themselves. So, clearly, both of them has dysfunctional families. Harriet just came from a society respected family tree whereas Danny was from the slums. Maybe this is me reading between the lines but I think that is the genius of The Little Friend. It discussed so many wrong things about the society without the reader realizing it. Not until we really look into it.

Finally, I get why some people say this is the biggest cock tease of a book. It didn't give us answers. The blurb at the back of the book makes it seem like a kid's adventure and it a way it is. But this is adult fiction. And it never promised a happy ending.

Harriet got her closure ... so should you