If you’re drawn to books set in the United States, especially those that explore the quietly charged atmosphere of the American South, The Little Friend by Donna Tartt is a novel worth sinking into. Her second book is rich in detail and languid in pace, but emotionally complex. It offers a very different experience to her cult hit The Secret History, but one that for me is just as layered and unforgettable.
I’ve written before about how books sometimes seem to find you at just the right moment, as if by some uncanny intuition. Or for me they do at least. Set in the heavy, listless heat of the American deep South, the theme of death is quietly present throughout the pages of The Little Friend. I myself happened to pick it up on my way to Morocco, shortly after suffering a bereavement of my own. Languishing on the rooftops of Marrakesh, caught between grief and the relief of getting away from the oppressive atmosphere that follows, this novel mirrored some feeling in me, and in doing so offered an odd kind of comfort.
Southern Gothic
Set in small-town Mississippi, The Little Friend opens with a chilling, unresolved death: twelve-year-old Robin Cleve Dufresnes is found hanged in the family yard on Mother’s Day. A decade later, his precocious younger sister Harriet sets out to solve the crime. What unfolds is less of a murder mystery and more of a slow-burn psychological study of a family’s unravelling, a town steeped in decay and a girl trying to anchor herself in a world that refuses to offer clear answers.
The setting is almost a character in itself: sweltering summers, faded Southern mansions, crumbling reputations. Tartt captures the deep textures of place and class with an eye for beauty and rot existing side by side. If you loved the atmospheric world-building in Delia Owens’ Where the Crawdads Sing (another US favourite of mine), this book takes a similarly immersive approach. The Little Friend leans more gothic and surreal than lyrical and romantic.
Why I enjoyed it
What I found so gripping about The Little Friend wasn’t just the central mystery, but the way it explores childhood through a darker, more cynical lens. Harriet, the young protagonist, is fierce, clever and often out of her depth. Her thirst for justice isn’t just about her brother. It’s tangled up in her need for control and understanding in a world where the adults around her have long since given up.
There’s a rawness to how Tartt portrays violence, not just in the literal sense but in the emotional atmosphere of the book. The threat of harm hovers constantly, as if everyone is teetering on the edge of collapse. The tension builds not through action but through the slow realisation that there may never be neat conclusions and that perhaps Harriet’s mission is a kind of self-deception.
A divisive read but powerfully written
Some readers struggle with the novel’s slow pace and lack of resolution. It’s true that The Little Friend doesn’t follow a typical thriller arc. There are threads left dangling and some characters seem to fade rather than conclude. But that ambiguity feels deliberate. Tartt seems more interested in the psychic weight of grief and curiosity than in delivering a tidy ending.
For me, that open-endedness added to the book’s realism. It mirrors how childhood often works: full of invented narratives, misunderstood motives and the slow, painful discovery that adults aren’t always right or even paying attention.
Books set in the US
If you enjoy books set in the US that blend coming-of-age stories with social critique and a strong sense of place, The Little Friend fits beautifully into that space. It reminded me of the lonely, nature-steeped world of Where the Crawdads Sing, another Southern story where a young girl must navigate isolation and injustice. And while very different in tone, there are echoes of The Secret History in how Tartt again explores obsession, morality and youthful disillusionment, this time from a younger and more fragile viewpoint.
My verdict
The Little Friend is not a conventional mystery, nor is it a fast-paced page-turner. But it’s an elegant, unsettling Southern Gothic with an unforgettable heroine and a world that feels as rich and heavy as the heat it describes. I’d recommend it for readers who like complex prose, psychological depth and the kind of story that leaves space for your own interpretation.
You can buy The Little Friend on Amazon here.
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