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3.52 AVERAGE
3.52 AVERAGE
With a heavy heart I give my Tana only 2 stars for this one... It was a drag.
The story was very boring and slow. It reminded me of "The secret history" for some reason and I DNFd that one...
The twist was expected. The plot was unbelievable... The ending was blah. I don't know....
I didn't particularly fancy "The Trespasser" either but man.... This was such a chore to read.
It will take some time for me to rally up and pick up "The searcher", but if that one turns out not so great too, I'm laying off Tana for a while, or until Dublin Murder Squad is back.
The story was very boring and slow. It reminded me of "The secret history" for some reason and I DNFd that one...
The twist was expected. The plot was unbelievable... The ending was blah. I don't know....
I didn't particularly fancy "The Trespasser" either but man.... This was such a chore to read.
It will take some time for me to rally up and pick up "The searcher", but if that one turns out not so great too, I'm laying off Tana for a while, or until Dublin Murder Squad is back.
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Not as compelling as her Dublin Murder Squad series and the ending was a bit rushed/implausible - but still. She's such an amazing writer and she captures human disorder so well.
It was so nice to have a new Tana French novel to sink my teeth into. I enjoyed this, as the character exploration was fascinating. It wasn't really suspenseful or a fabulous mystery. But I'm not sure that's what I read French for anyways.
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book was a bit slow in places but I think that it needed to be so that you could really get it. I enjoyed it thoroughly and look froward to another of her books.
A Tana French book that I liked but didn't love.
I was so excited to read this book. A stand alone Tana French book that has something to do with a witch elm? Yes! There is an old unsolved mystery about a skull found in a witch elm in 1940s England, 'Bella in the Wych Elm,' and I wondered if this book was inspired by that tale. It probably was, but this novel is set in the modern day with very modern problems driving the conflict.
I think my two problems with this book were 1) it is too long, and 2) I didn't like the characters. This book is less than 500 pages long but feels longer. The beginning is tedious, you don't even get to the mystery plot of the book until about a third of the way through. The middle part drags and it seems that all of the characters just sit around eating meals and talking to each other for a hundred or so pages. It feels claustrophobic and made me long for French's other novels where the characters are always on the move, interacting with the outside world.
The characters are interesting and purposely written so that you don't know who is a reliable narrator. But this too gets old after a while because I got tired of trying to keep track of each character's motivations and figure out which one was the most likely sociopath.
But this was still a Tana French book, so it had a great ending that you don't see coming and I will read whatever else she writes in the future.
I was so excited to read this book. A stand alone Tana French book that has something to do with a witch elm? Yes! There is an old unsolved mystery about a skull found in a witch elm in 1940s England, 'Bella in the Wych Elm,' and I wondered if this book was inspired by that tale. It probably was, but this novel is set in the modern day with very modern problems driving the conflict.
I think my two problems with this book were 1) it is too long, and 2) I didn't like the characters. This book is less than 500 pages long but feels longer. The beginning is tedious, you don't even get to the mystery plot of the book until about a third of the way through. The middle part drags and it seems that all of the characters just sit around eating meals and talking to each other for a hundred or so pages. It feels claustrophobic and made me long for French's other novels where the characters are always on the move, interacting with the outside world.
The characters are interesting and purposely written so that you don't know who is a reliable narrator. But this too gets old after a while because I got tired of trying to keep track of each character's motivations and figure out which one was the most likely sociopath.
But this was still a Tana French book, so it had a great ending that you don't see coming and I will read whatever else she writes in the future.
Definitely a departure from her Dublin Murder series - I found it interesting but a bit predictable, not as twisty as her other books. I like the exploration of how one event so changes Toby's life and his whole understanding of who he is as a person, but I kind of mostly found the whole book a bit bland and depressing.
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced