Everyone and their fucking mother told me to read this. So I did. Ahh. It's basically just like every other college story but oh no wait there's a murder. Wow. That's never been seen before. (Note the sarcasm people!) It's basically a Bret Easton Ellis novel but if Bret Easton Ellis was a woman. And yes I know there's an actual connection between Tartt and Ellis and it's really obvious that they spent waaay too much time together. It's not that this novel is bad, it isn't, it's that it's nothing new. I went in expecting a groundbreaking debut novel that's the best thing since sliced pan but I just got an overlong novel about vanilla people. People who are really impressed by this novel are probably the same people who haven't read any "literary snuff" authors (Bret Easton Ellis, Chuck Palahniuk, Hunter S. Thompson, Irvine Welsh etc.) and they don't realise that this is just another common novel from that uncommon genre.