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3.52 AVERAGE
3.52 AVERAGE
3,5 🌠
I really, really enjoyed the build up , tone and and voice of this book, but felt like the end was dragging a bit. Paul Nugent is an amazing narrator.
I really, really enjoyed the build up , tone and and voice of this book, but felt like the end was dragging a bit. Paul Nugent is an amazing narrator.
3.5 I'm still trying to decide if I round up or down. Full review tomorrow.
Messed me up - 3.5*
I've been reading this book for around about three months. Supposedly, this book was criticised heavily when released and I understand why. I thought this would be my first Tana French book to read (as a standalone) before reading her highly reviewed The Dublin Murder Squad series and honestly, I hope that's better. I just won't be reading it any time soon.
Okay, this book is weird. Like I don't really like Toby enough and I agree with a lot of reviews: he is shallow and unlikable. The story is soooooo slow and takes ages to start off. It really does.
The only reason I've rated it so highly because it's so messed up but that's why it's not too high. I do feel like I've been on a weird Irish psychedelic trip.
I wouldn't recommend this but yeah it's been an experience.
I've been reading this book for around about three months. Supposedly, this book was criticised heavily when released and I understand why. I thought this would be my first Tana French book to read (as a standalone) before reading her highly reviewed The Dublin Murder Squad series and honestly, I hope that's better. I just won't be reading it any time soon.
Okay, this book is weird. Like I don't really like Toby enough and I agree with a lot of reviews: he is shallow and unlikable. The story is soooooo slow and takes ages to start off. It really does.
The only reason I've rated it so highly because it's so messed up but that's why it's not too high. I do feel like I've been on a weird Irish psychedelic trip.
I wouldn't recommend this but yeah it's been an experience.
Where to begin? I found this book reasonably engrossing for a while but it went on and on. And ON. I love reading long books but this one wasn't one of those. Although I think Tana French writes very well, this needed some severe editing. I also found that it seemed to flit around all the characters and give mixed signals so that I didn't become invested sufficiently in anyone. The last portion of the book pissed me off. The promise I felt at the beginning fizzled out completely and I ended up not only dissatisfied but kind of annoyed.
After conquering a nearly 800 page disappointment from a beloved author, I found myself in a book slump. So (perhaps unwisely), I reached for another favorite author—my gal Tana French—in the hopes of finding the enjoyment that I'd expected from my last-read book. But then I worried: would another favorite author let me down? Would reading this after a colossal let-down start some kind of jinx, through which all my favorite authors would become strangers to me? Happily, no and no.
I'd read two of Tana French's books before, the first two of the "Dublin Murder squad" series, and I loved them. I mean LOVED them loved them. With "The Witch Elm" representing a step outside that world, I was a bit nervous that I wouldn't connect to the story or the characters as much, or that some fundamental element of what I love about her books would be missing. But again, happily, I needn't have worried. The more Tana French I read, the more deeply in love I fall.
Her stories are so intricate, bordering on (or fully becoming) quite dark, but beautifully crafted, mysterious, and brooding all the way through. Just the kind of atmosphere I love. But the real power of her books comes through her character development and first-person exploration. You always, always feel like you're curled up and living inside the mind of her main character—even when he or she is being kind of unlikable. In the words of a lesser author, Toby's unlikable moments might have taken the reader right out of his head and into the corner of another character. There were certainly plenty of things that Toby said and did throughout this novel that, from an outside perspective, were either dumb or insensitive. But Tana French wedged me so masterfully inside his mind that I was always on his side. When he had a suspicion, I shared it. When he stopped trusting someone, so did I. The plot device of him having a shoddy memory due to his attack was a good one, keeping me on my toes (since I, like Toby, wasn't ever *sure* of what had happened vs. what could have happened), even though it did at points seem like an easy way out of explaining some things in the moment.
And in addition to being a strong character study on the protagonist, this was also a great exploration of the secondary characters as well—particularly Susanna, but of course Leon and Hugo. Their feelings, motives, and struggles, as they are revealed to us (and to Toby), make them into more complicated but also more compelling supporting characters with every turn of the page. And ultimately, they are the ones (in my view) who drive us to the central theme of the book—what makes us who we are, and what are we willing to do in order to protect that essence? Toby brings us there too, with his ruminations about being naturally lucky despite every bad thing that has ever happened to him. but Susanna and Leon point out those aspects of Toby's character that are far more revealing of his central self, and which don't drive but definitely help along the events of the book as they take shape. And with this technique, Tana French pulls off something really impressive—she teaches us something about ourselves and how we think about what we've done. When held up to the light of how everyone else views us, we may not be who we thought we were; but through it all, even if we . don't like it or even know it, we really stay true to who we are.
I'd read two of Tana French's books before, the first two of the "Dublin Murder squad" series, and I loved them. I mean LOVED them loved them. With "The Witch Elm" representing a step outside that world, I was a bit nervous that I wouldn't connect to the story or the characters as much, or that some fundamental element of what I love about her books would be missing. But again, happily, I needn't have worried. The more Tana French I read, the more deeply in love I fall.
Her stories are so intricate, bordering on (or fully becoming) quite dark, but beautifully crafted, mysterious, and brooding all the way through. Just the kind of atmosphere I love. But the real power of her books comes through her character development and first-person exploration. You always, always feel like you're curled up and living inside the mind of her main character—even when he or she is being kind of unlikable. In the words of a lesser author, Toby's unlikable moments might have taken the reader right out of his head and into the corner of another character. There were certainly plenty of things that Toby said and did throughout this novel that, from an outside perspective, were either dumb or insensitive. But Tana French wedged me so masterfully inside his mind that I was always on his side. When he had a suspicion, I shared it. When he stopped trusting someone, so did I. The plot device of him having a shoddy memory due to his attack was a good one, keeping me on my toes (since I, like Toby, wasn't ever *sure* of what had happened vs. what could have happened), even though it did at points seem like an easy way out of explaining some things in the moment.
And in addition to being a strong character study on the protagonist, this was also a great exploration of the secondary characters as well—particularly Susanna, but of course Leon and Hugo. Their feelings, motives, and struggles, as they are revealed to us (and to Toby), make them into more complicated but also more compelling supporting characters with every turn of the page. And ultimately, they are the ones (in my view) who drive us to the central theme of the book—what makes us who we are, and what are we willing to do in order to protect that essence? Toby brings us there too, with his ruminations about being naturally lucky despite every bad thing that has ever happened to him. but Susanna and Leon point out those aspects of Toby's character that are far more revealing of his central self, and which don't drive but definitely help along the events of the book as they take shape. And with this technique, Tana French pulls off something really impressive—she teaches us something about ourselves and how we think about what we've done. When held up to the light of how everyone else views us, we may not be who we thought we were; but through it all, even if we . don't like it or even know it, we really stay true to who we are.
So much of this is beautifully written. Inside this behemoth is a wonderful provocative thriller. It's just 60 percent TOO BLOODY LONG. Over and over again, we get the lunches and the disorientation and the memories and I'm like get on with it. It's like being in Hugo's house and having to dig through the Chinese menus and the receipts and the old theater programs and moldy toast crusts that are completely irrelevant to the story.
I came away from this book a bit disappointed. Overall Tana French’s writing is well thought out and the characters felt like they could be real people, but frankly I found this work to not be captivating because I did not find any of the main characters particularly likable. I personally found the story to also slow build for the first 250 pages before anything really began to move forward. Overall it was still an interesting read but I would still recommend her writing.
Her writing is always superb! This one paces a little slower for the first third of the book, but once it kicks in, the psychological game is afoot. French dives deep into characters in ways that almost always pay off for the reader.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes