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3.52 AVERAGE
3.52 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
mysterious
slow-paced
This book was entirely way too long.
I liked the story line, but it was hard to stay interested. It could have been half as long.
Don’t be a detective in Ireland or commit a crime there.
I liked the story line, but it was hard to stay interested. It could have been half as long.
Don’t be a detective in Ireland or commit a crime there.
This was my first adult mystery book. It did keep me on the edge of my seat at times, but the ending felt off and rushed--particularly in light of the slow pace leading up to the climax. There are a few messages in the story, but readers need to be willing to wade through a large cast of mostly unlikable characters to get to them.
dark
slow-paced
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Who are we really? Do our experiences shape us? Or do we respond to those experiences based on who we really are? Toby markets a small art gallery. He enjoys the work even though he knows he would succeed at a larger company. When a coworker comes up the idea to develop a show featuring underprivileged youth, Toby is soon caught up in a scam as he knowingly markets an impostor youth. After the gallery owner finds out about it, his coworker is fired and Toby is put on leave while the owner figures out what to do with him. While on leave, Toby is attacked in his apartment and is left for dead by the burglars. Golden boy turned invalid, Toby is left to pick up the pieces of his life and soon goes to live with his terminally ill uncle Hugo at the family home. It is at the Ivy House that Toby and two of his cousins spent idyllic summers and Toby, accompanied by his girlfriend, rehabilitates. But after his cousin's son finds the decomposed body of a high school classmate hidden in the hollow of the garden wytch elm, Toby comes to see the world as it truly is, without privilege and without luck, and falls under the suspicion of the lead detective on the case. Events unfold that leave Toby a speck of the person he once was.
Adult
Adult
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
If Agatha Christie's "Absent in the Spring" was a murder mystery.
This was my first Tana French. Looking back, I think this gets a lot of flack cos it's quite different from the usual cop mysteries she wrote. But I say this is her best book. Just don't expect the usual.
This was my first Tana French. Looking back, I think this gets a lot of flack cos it's quite different from the usual cop mysteries she wrote. But I say this is her best book. Just don't expect the usual.
Oof. I was really excited for the first 1/4 of this and then realized it wasn't edited properly. The plot is at it's heart pretty good, but not nearly good enough to excuse nearly 500 pages of explaining itself.
after struggling to get in to the book, and reading mediocre reviews, i am putting this one aside for now.
I don't get the hate on this one--I loved it! Toby is a great unlikeable narrator and the atmosphere is terrific.