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3.52 AVERAGE
3.52 AVERAGE
The Witch Elm by Tana French is a story about family secrets. Toby's apartment gets robbed and he is badly beaten by the intruders. While taking time off from work to heal emotionally and physically, he finds out his Uncle Hugo has terminal brain cancer- his cousin, Susannah, suggests that he stay with their uncle to help look after him.
After a couple of weeks with his uncle, Toby is starting to feel like his old self- he's enjoying the simple routine they have created and reminiscing about old times with his cousins, Susannah and Leon. Until one day, when a skull is found in the garden. Since the skeleton is found on family property, Toby, Susannah, Leon and Hugo are all suspects. Toby is fairly certain he did not kill anyone, but due to the injuries he received during the robbery, he hasn't recovered all of his memories yet. Toby wants to find the killer before he goes down for this crime, he's just not sure who is telling the truth- his family or the detectives.
This was an enjoyable story- a bit slow and wordy in spots but filled with surprises.
#tanafrench #thewitchelm #mystery #mysterybooks #readin2019 #audiobook
For more of my reviews visit https://www.facebook.com/groups/WhattheBook/ or follow me on Instagram @whatthebook__.
After a couple of weeks with his uncle, Toby is starting to feel like his old self- he's enjoying the simple routine they have created and reminiscing about old times with his cousins, Susannah and Leon. Until one day, when a skull is found in the garden. Since the skeleton is found on family property, Toby, Susannah, Leon and Hugo are all suspects. Toby is fairly certain he did not kill anyone, but due to the injuries he received during the robbery, he hasn't recovered all of his memories yet. Toby wants to find the killer before he goes down for this crime, he's just not sure who is telling the truth- his family or the detectives.
This was an enjoyable story- a bit slow and wordy in spots but filled with surprises.
#tanafrench #thewitchelm #mystery #mysterybooks #readin2019 #audiobook
For more of my reviews visit https://www.facebook.com/groups/WhattheBook/ or follow me on Instagram @whatthebook__.
We read this book for book club.
This book is not a mystery, and once I accepted that I had a much easier time with this book.
This book is really more of a deep character study of Toby Hennesy, and he happens to get involved in a mystery.
That's not to say this is not a good book. This book is beautifully written, and you do leave it feeling like you know Toby personally. There are some amazing scenes dealing with grief and depression and paranoia and the slow spiral into depression. There is some really amazing stuff here.
Toby is the picture of a good looking privileged white man, but he attributes things always working out for him as "being lucky". He's the popular boy in high school, he's a rising star at work, he had the perfect girlfriend, and a flat his parents bought for him, and everything in his life has been easy. All of that changes when, after a night out drinking with his mates, his home is burgled and he is nearly killed in the encounter. Suddenly, he isn't the perfect good looking man anymore. His eyelid droops, he slurs his speech, he has a weakened hand, and a limp. Maybe even more damning, his memory is full of holes.
Now, he can't just talk his way out of encounters, he doesn't just get away with things, nothing is easy for him. And it's clear, through living in his head for 500 pages, that this is a fate worse than death. He starts to realize that the world he thought was fine and wonderful and perfect, is actually a lot darker and more dangerous for people who didn't have his advantages. The family he always assumed he was close with, turn out to think very differently about him. It turns out he's not the Hero, the Dragon-Slayer, the Protagonist.
He is really a very well crafted, if unlikable, character.
So why only three stars?
I dithered a lot about what to give this book. This was my first Tana French book, and I didn't know what to think when I was 200 pages in, and only now had we found the skull that I had assumed would be the center of the story. I was so frustrated, I went looking for spoiler free reviews to find out if this kind of delay of the inciting incident was normal for her books or not. What I found, is that normally she writes from the point of view of Detectives, and that all of her stories are heavily character driven, so when you are a detective, the mystery slots seamlessly into that narrative.
With Toby though, he is, despite his strenuous assertions otherwise, a victim. And the break in and beating are not the focus of the story. This first part of the story, is 200 pages long, and it feels meandering and aimless, for what I was assuming was a mystery. We spend about half of those first 200 pages dealing with the attack and it's aftermath. We live with Toby, and his fear of being alone, and his fury at having been made (to his mind) less. The next 100 pages or so are spent at the Ivy House with wonderful Uncle Hugo and saint girlfriend Melissa. He starts to heal and get in a better place mentally and everything starts to look like it might turn around.
Until the mystery actually starts.
While those pages were interesting, and very well written, I feel like some of it could have been cut and we still would have had a perfect understanding of Toby and his mental state. This is a problem that extends into the rest of the book as well. We get passages that feel very circular or repetitive or we go off into a daydream that is then discarded out of hand. In fact, most, if not all, of the final chapter felt unnecessary, and I found myself having to force myself to finish the book. There were multiple times where I was bored and just wanted to get on to something interesting.
The other problem I had, was that the mystery didn't feel very interesting to me. The only interesting part, was that it was told to us through the MOST unreliable of narrators. Toby not only doesn't remember things, he remembers things through his privileged rose tinted glasses. Yeah, he remembered so and so picking on his cousin, but it was bad, just kid stuff. Actually he almost drove your cousin to suicide. No I don't have any enemies, I'm a great guy, why would someone hate me? Actually you're co-worker got fired for a scheme you were both in on while you got three days paid vacation, that sounds like motive. We can't trust anything he thinks or says, and that was really the only thing that made the mystery interesting.
As soon as they discovered that skull, I knew who done it. And my opinion never changed, not when they were throwing breadcrumbs all over the place, not when other people were tossing lures, not when Toby's delusions got in the way. It was clear to me on page 179 who had done that murder. I didn't find it overly clever.
Which circles around nicely to my opening statement. This book is not a mystery. The mystery is only tangentially important to the story. So if you are reading this book because what you are looking for is a deep complex murder mystery with lots of twists and turns and close calls? This book maybe isn't for you. But if you're looking for a deep complex look into the head of a man who had everything handed to him only to loose it in one single horrible life shattering night, this is the perfect book for you.
Despite my problems with it, as a character study, this book is extremely well written. And while Toby is everything I hate in a "nice guy" I think we aren't supposed to like him, and that made it easier to read. Once I let go of my expectations for a mystery and embraced the character study, I had a much better time. My problems with the pacing still stand, and I still maintain that this book could have been 100 pages shorter and still just as good, but I think I would recommend it to a friend.
Just not as a mystery.
This book is not a mystery, and once I accepted that I had a much easier time with this book.
This book is really more of a deep character study of Toby Hennesy, and he happens to get involved in a mystery.
That's not to say this is not a good book. This book is beautifully written, and you do leave it feeling like you know Toby personally. There are some amazing scenes dealing with grief and depression and paranoia and the slow spiral into depression. There is some really amazing stuff here.
Toby is the picture of a good looking privileged white man, but he attributes things always working out for him as "being lucky". He's the popular boy in high school, he's a rising star at work, he had the perfect girlfriend, and a flat his parents bought for him, and everything in his life has been easy. All of that changes when, after a night out drinking with his mates, his home is burgled and he is nearly killed in the encounter. Suddenly, he isn't the perfect good looking man anymore. His eyelid droops, he slurs his speech, he has a weakened hand, and a limp. Maybe even more damning, his memory is full of holes.
Now, he can't just talk his way out of encounters, he doesn't just get away with things, nothing is easy for him. And it's clear, through living in his head for 500 pages, that this is a fate worse than death. He starts to realize that the world he thought was fine and wonderful and perfect, is actually a lot darker and more dangerous for people who didn't have his advantages. The family he always assumed he was close with, turn out to think very differently about him. It turns out he's not the Hero, the Dragon-Slayer, the Protagonist.
He is really a very well crafted, if unlikable, character.
So why only three stars?
I dithered a lot about what to give this book. This was my first Tana French book, and I didn't know what to think when I was 200 pages in, and only now had we found the skull that I had assumed would be the center of the story. I was so frustrated, I went looking for spoiler free reviews to find out if this kind of delay of the inciting incident was normal for her books or not. What I found, is that normally she writes from the point of view of Detectives, and that all of her stories are heavily character driven, so when you are a detective, the mystery slots seamlessly into that narrative.
With Toby though, he is, despite his strenuous assertions otherwise, a victim. And the break in and beating are not the focus of the story. This first part of the story, is 200 pages long, and it feels meandering and aimless, for what I was assuming was a mystery. We spend about half of those first 200 pages dealing with the attack and it's aftermath. We live with Toby, and his fear of being alone, and his fury at having been made (to his mind) less. The next 100 pages or so are spent at the Ivy House with wonderful Uncle Hugo and saint girlfriend Melissa. He starts to heal and get in a better place mentally and everything starts to look like it might turn around.
Until the mystery actually starts.
While those pages were interesting, and very well written, I feel like some of it could have been cut and we still would have had a perfect understanding of Toby and his mental state. This is a problem that extends into the rest of the book as well. We get passages that feel very circular or repetitive or we go off into a daydream that is then discarded out of hand. In fact, most, if not all, of the final chapter felt unnecessary, and I found myself having to force myself to finish the book. There were multiple times where I was bored and just wanted to get on to something interesting.
The other problem I had, was that the mystery didn't feel very interesting to me. The only interesting part, was that it was told to us through the MOST unreliable of narrators. Toby not only doesn't remember things, he remembers things through his privileged rose tinted glasses. Yeah, he remembered so and so picking on his cousin, but it was bad, just kid stuff. Actually he almost drove your cousin to suicide. No I don't have any enemies, I'm a great guy, why would someone hate me? Actually you're co-worker got fired for a scheme you were both in on while you got three days paid vacation, that sounds like motive. We can't trust anything he thinks or says, and that was really the only thing that made the mystery interesting.
As soon as they discovered that skull, I knew who done it. And my opinion never changed, not when they were throwing breadcrumbs all over the place, not when other people were tossing lures, not when Toby's delusions got in the way. It was clear to me on page 179 who had done that murder. I didn't find it overly clever.
Which circles around nicely to my opening statement. This book is not a mystery. The mystery is only tangentially important to the story. So if you are reading this book because what you are looking for is a deep complex murder mystery with lots of twists and turns and close calls? This book maybe isn't for you. But if you're looking for a deep complex look into the head of a man who had everything handed to him only to loose it in one single horrible life shattering night, this is the perfect book for you.
Despite my problems with it, as a character study, this book is extremely well written. And while Toby is everything I hate in a "nice guy" I think we aren't supposed to like him, and that made it easier to read. Once I let go of my expectations for a mystery and embraced the character study, I had a much better time. My problems with the pacing still stand, and I still maintain that this book could have been 100 pages shorter and still just as good, but I think I would recommend it to a friend.
Just not as a mystery.
After having just finished it, the word that comes to mind is ... "devastating." But then Tana French's books usually pack a wallop with me. The book is probably a bit too long, and as I was reading it, I felt it took too long to get to the story, but when it finally got going I was taken along in the whirlwind. I see some people not liking the book because they didn't like the main character. I agree that he's not totally likable, but then not all characters need to be.
The book is elegantly plotted, and nicely written. I might need a few days before I pick up fiction. I'll need to sit with this one for a bit and let it soak through me.
Note: I listened to the audio version, and the narration was quite good.
The book is elegantly plotted, and nicely written. I might need a few days before I pick up fiction. I'll need to sit with this one for a bit and let it soak through me.
Note: I listened to the audio version, and the narration was quite good.
I've been wanting to read something by Tana French but I struggled to find a standalone that was available at my library—The Witch Elm is the first one I spotted and I thought of Bella when I read the title, so that caught my attention. I liked this one well enough that I'm up for reading more. I enjoyed the setting and thought the mystery was interesting enough. Some characterizations baffled me but I think it was just part of the ride.
Man, what an unlikable narrator, though. Yeah, he's supposed to be unreliable, but he's such a toolbox!
(three and a half stars)
Man, what an unlikable narrator, though. Yeah, he's supposed to be unreliable, but he's such a toolbox!
(three and a half stars)
DNF - quarter of the way through it and I was still waiting for the story to start!
As usual TF is a literary goddess. It took me a little longer to get into this one but I’m glad I did- and I was even able to crack the mystery (which literally never happens ever)
Happy go lucky Toby comes home from the bar late at night and is attacked by burglars who are rifling through his apartment. They leave him with a traumatic brain injury, which turns his life upside down. After some months of trying to recover, Toby agrees to move in with and look after his uncle Hugo, who is dying of brain cancer. Hugo lives in the Ivy House, a house that Toby and his two cousins Susanna and Leon have known and loved all their lives. When a human skull is found in the hollow of an old elm tree in the yard, old secrets start to surface as well.
This was a creepy novel. French makes the most of Toby’s uncertainty, so that I didn’t know how much to believe his telling of the story, even though he is the narrator. Also, throughout the story Toby reveals himself to be oblivious to other people’s feelings and problems, self absorbed, and mean, and as the story goes on, Toby begins to understand a little bit of this himself. The murder is solved ambiguously, and by that time Toby has lost his assurance that he knows himself. I didn’t like Toby, but I liked the book.
This was a creepy novel. French makes the most of Toby’s uncertainty, so that I didn’t know how much to believe his telling of the story, even though he is the narrator. Also, throughout the story Toby reveals himself to be oblivious to other people’s feelings and problems, self absorbed, and mean, and as the story goes on, Toby begins to understand a little bit of this himself. The murder is solved ambiguously, and by that time Toby has lost his assurance that he knows himself. I didn’t like Toby, but I liked the book.
This book is very well crafted. And the story really draws you in, right from the beginning. It's well written, well paced, full of interesting characters, and for the majority of the book it's just a wonderful read. But, On that basis, despite all the other strengths of this novel, I am giving it 4 stars. I'll also be checking into other books by this author.
Spoiler
I cannot give it 5 stars, because I detest the ending. I'm so sick of characters that have to be bad. I really liked Toby. I had mentally given the author kudos for telling the story of this great bond and relationship he and Melissa built, despite all the troubles. And then, bam. You know, there really isn't anything wrong with books that have optimistic endings and basically decent protagonists who don't kill people. What's worse is, it felt contrived to me. I cannot wait for this 'but bad people are so much more interesting' trend to be over and done. I like a protagonist to be someone I would like, or at least not mind, knowing.
Without a doubt, Tana French is one of the best crime writers going these days. I’ve loved every one of the Dublin Murder Squad series, and highly recommend them to anyone looking to explore her work. The books follow different characters in the murder squad and need not be read in order. Her writing is always top notch - and a few of these books have ended with a gut punch of a twist that took my breath away.
Perhaps because French has set such a high bar, I came away from THE WITCH ELM disappointed. The book starts great, taking the POV of the main character, Toby, a likable guy who works at an art gallery, and seems to have it all, including a pretty and sweet girlfriend. But then things go awry for Toby. He gets caught up in a scandal at the gallery and gets suspended from work. While he’s out of work, he wakes up in the middle of the night as his apartment is being robbed. When Toby confronts the burglars, instead of running off, they beat him to within an inch of his life, leaving him with a severe brain injury. He recuperates at his uncle’s home in the country, a place where Toby and his cousins used to hang out and party at while in high school. One afternoon while having lunch, his cousin’s son and daughter climb a large witch helm in the backyard and discover a skull inside a hole in the tree.
So far, so good, right? I was pretty hooked on this book by this point. Are the three events connected? Will Toby be able to make a comeback from his injuries?
But the last 2/3rds of the book slowed way down, at least for me. Then, at the end of the book, there’s a massive twist that just seemed so out of character for Toby, brain injury or not, that I ended up feeling cheated.
If you’re new to French, you’d be smart to skip this book and instead pick up any of the Dublin Murder Squad books.
Perhaps because French has set such a high bar, I came away from THE WITCH ELM disappointed. The book starts great, taking the POV of the main character, Toby, a likable guy who works at an art gallery, and seems to have it all, including a pretty and sweet girlfriend. But then things go awry for Toby. He gets caught up in a scandal at the gallery and gets suspended from work. While he’s out of work, he wakes up in the middle of the night as his apartment is being robbed. When Toby confronts the burglars, instead of running off, they beat him to within an inch of his life, leaving him with a severe brain injury. He recuperates at his uncle’s home in the country, a place where Toby and his cousins used to hang out and party at while in high school. One afternoon while having lunch, his cousin’s son and daughter climb a large witch helm in the backyard and discover a skull inside a hole in the tree.
So far, so good, right? I was pretty hooked on this book by this point. Are the three events connected? Will Toby be able to make a comeback from his injuries?
But the last 2/3rds of the book slowed way down, at least for me. Then, at the end of the book, there’s a massive twist that just seemed so out of character for Toby, brain injury or not, that I ended up feeling cheated.
If you’re new to French, you’d be smart to skip this book and instead pick up any of the Dublin Murder Squad books.
I definitely have to sit with this book for a while before I give it a star rating, but I do want to write down some of my thoughts on the first Tana French novel I've read.
I got this book on a whim from Libby one morning when my girlfriend was still asleep and I didn't want to turn on the light to read a physical book. I realised pretty quickly that e-books aren't really my thing (especially when I have to read on my phone), but the story of this novel gripped me from the beginning. Having read and adored [b:The Secret History|29044|The Secret History|Donna Tartt|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1451554846l/29044._SY75_.jpg|221359] a while prior to picking up The Wych Elm, I was looking for another book where a mystery is told in hindsight, the narrator reflecting back on what has happened to them. While that is not as apparent here as in The Secret History, it still shapes the narrative structure of the novel, and satisfied my hunger for that style.
Once my Libby loan ran out and there were holds on it, I got a physical copy from my library. That's when I really started binge-reading this novel in chunks, going through 100 pages a day easily even when busy with schoolwork and social stuff. I've read a lot of disappointed reviews of this novel, but I think what helped me fall in love with it was that I haven't read any Tana French before, and therefore had no expectations for this book. From what I can gather, her Dublin Murder Squad series are a bit more fast-paced and more traditionally detective/thriller novels, while The Wych Elm is an absolute slowburn, more a literary fiction novel with a mystery element. However, I am a sucker for slice-of-life literary fiction, especially when the focus is on family, which is a central focus here, too. I didn't know what to expect from a Tana French novel, and I was happy with what I got.
The characters truly make the book. Our narrator, oblivious, privileged Toby Hennessy, now stunted by an awful burglar-attack-gone-violent. His cousins Susanna and Leon, siblings who would go to war for each other, and whose siblingly love is stronger than the bond between them and Toby, despite what Toby might perceive. Not to mention the vibrant, kind, warm Hugo Hennessy, Toby's uncle living in the Ivy House, dying of brain cancer. While the plot progressed very slowly over the novel's 500-ish pages, I became enamored with this bunch, as well as the myriad of characters surrounding them, from Susanna's unassuming husband Tom, to whacky aunt Miriam, and everyone in between. I love a good character-driven novel, and I did not mind meandering through the plot with this bunch.
However, the ending itself did come a bit too rushed for me, which is funny considering the book's 500+ pages of length. That's why I'm hesitant to give this a star rating just yet - I adored the characters and the setting French put me in, but the ending just felt quite unsatisfactory to me. However, it has not put me off reading more of French's work - [b:In the Woods|2459785|In the Woods (Dublin Murder Squad, #1)|Tana French|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1562761513l/2459785._SY75_.jpg|3088141] is sitting on my bedside table as I write this review, waiting for me to crack it open. I guess The Wych Elm has changed my perspective on star ratings, and I would like to have this same approach for the future books I read: sit with the novel for a while before rushing to give it a star rating, which is only a small representation of how I truly feel about a book.
I got this book on a whim from Libby one morning when my girlfriend was still asleep and I didn't want to turn on the light to read a physical book. I realised pretty quickly that e-books aren't really my thing (especially when I have to read on my phone), but the story of this novel gripped me from the beginning. Having read and adored [b:The Secret History|29044|The Secret History|Donna Tartt|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1451554846l/29044._SY75_.jpg|221359] a while prior to picking up The Wych Elm, I was looking for another book where a mystery is told in hindsight, the narrator reflecting back on what has happened to them. While that is not as apparent here as in The Secret History, it still shapes the narrative structure of the novel, and satisfied my hunger for that style.
Once my Libby loan ran out and there were holds on it, I got a physical copy from my library. That's when I really started binge-reading this novel in chunks, going through 100 pages a day easily even when busy with schoolwork and social stuff. I've read a lot of disappointed reviews of this novel, but I think what helped me fall in love with it was that I haven't read any Tana French before, and therefore had no expectations for this book. From what I can gather, her Dublin Murder Squad series are a bit more fast-paced and more traditionally detective/thriller novels, while The Wych Elm is an absolute slowburn, more a literary fiction novel with a mystery element. However, I am a sucker for slice-of-life literary fiction, especially when the focus is on family, which is a central focus here, too. I didn't know what to expect from a Tana French novel, and I was happy with what I got.
The characters truly make the book. Our narrator, oblivious, privileged Toby Hennessy, now stunted by an awful burglar-attack-gone-violent. His cousins Susanna and Leon, siblings who would go to war for each other, and whose siblingly love is stronger than the bond between them and Toby, despite what Toby might perceive. Not to mention the vibrant, kind, warm Hugo Hennessy, Toby's uncle living in the Ivy House, dying of brain cancer. While the plot progressed very slowly over the novel's 500-ish pages, I became enamored with this bunch, as well as the myriad of characters surrounding them, from Susanna's unassuming husband Tom, to whacky aunt Miriam, and everyone in between. I love a good character-driven novel, and I did not mind meandering through the plot with this bunch.
However, the ending itself did come a bit too rushed for me, which is funny considering the book's 500+ pages of length. That's why I'm hesitant to give this a star rating just yet - I adored the characters and the setting French put me in, but the ending just felt quite unsatisfactory to me. However, it has not put me off reading more of French's work - [b:In the Woods|2459785|In the Woods (Dublin Murder Squad, #1)|Tana French|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1562761513l/2459785._SY75_.jpg|3088141] is sitting on my bedside table as I write this review, waiting for me to crack it open. I guess The Wych Elm has changed my perspective on star ratings, and I would like to have this same approach for the future books I read: sit with the novel for a while before rushing to give it a star rating, which is only a small representation of how I truly feel about a book.