Reviews tagging 'Pedophilia'

In the Woods by Tana French

32 reviews

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced
Loveable characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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dark mysterious slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I was pretty thoroughly engaged and invested for the first like 2/3 of the book, and then Rob threw what little sympathy I had for him in the trash and it all went downhill from there.

If you've read the synopsis of this book, it's most likely you will be disappointed by at least one thing, if not many. Generally, this was tagged as a mystery thriller and it's actually quite slow paced. I'm not sure how it could be considered a thriller, it's 90% standard detective work of interviews and checking records and the main character giving self-important monologues.
The mystery of Rob's backstory that opens the book and keeps getting called back to constantly is not solved. Rob and Cassie do not stay friends or partners because Rob uses, ghosts, and betrays her. The mastermind behind the murder is fairly easy to figure out, but Rob is completely fooled and assumes the reader is as well.
There is so much casual misogyny and sexism. 

I'm giving it a three right now because of how locked in I was to the first half of the book at least, but I wonder how much my opinion of the book will sour over time due to that stack of disappointments.

The audiobook narrator was fine, although he did raise and lower his tone so often that I was vacillating between having my volume at 10 and 20 just to catch everything he was saying without blowing my ears out. 

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emotional reflective slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Well written but slow and heavy. Left me unsatisfied.

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adventurous dark reflective sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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mangela_28's profile picture

mangela_28's review

3.25
dark slow-paced
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No

I listened to the audiobook, which was decent, but I thought it was about 2 hours too long.

Right off the bat I thought the main chatacter (Adam Tyan) was sexist, but then you learn he hates everybody, men and women alike. Thenthe main character was endearing and he has a great relationship with his detective partner, Cassie. Eventually Ryan's attitude sours and I don't really understand why besides the current case they are on could be related to the trauma he went through as a kid. That makes sense, I just didn't get the motivation for why he does exactly what he does other than he needs to go to therapy.

The ending was good and interesting, I just zoned out for some bits in the middle there.

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Context: years ago I read a popular book that I didn’t like one bit. For some reason I thought Tana French was the author and so I avoided this crime series. Not only was I missing out on an excellent novel but I was wrong about the author. Ms French did not write the earlier novel and the names are not even close to one another. Fortunately I have now corrected the error. 
 
Ms French’s character work and her descriptions of the surrounding environment are excellent. I was reminded of Kate Atkinson except Ms French’s adult female characters are much more believable. I particularly appreciated the depiction of how childhood traumas are carried into adulthood and continue to grow, disabling the person in ways those closest to them can not imagine. 
 
As far as a murder mystery this is quite good. All the elements are there and the story is tightly woven with many red herrings to follow. I did not pick out the murderer for sure until the last few chapters. I did pick out who was the psychopath early on. If that was due to my being able to pick out a mystery novel trope or past unfortunate acquaintances I’m not sure. I did skim a chapter due to the intense gaslighting. 
 
While I will always wonder what happened in those woods in the 1984 I found the ending satisfactory. Not all crimes are solved in the end. 
 
Two things not really related to the book. In the afterwords Ms French discloses that in real life Dublin does not have a dedicated Murder Squad. She described the squad so well I’m a little disappointed that it doesn’t exist. Second the library that I checked this out from has a 7 day check out period and this was a 600 page book with a waiting list. I am thankful to my library but 100 pages a day is a bit much to expect. (Yes, I did put other things to the side and finished it on time.) (This also means I am reviewing the book without being able to look at it to refresh my memory.)

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m_moon's review

1.5
dark mysterious slow-paced
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Not really about the missing friends or him remembering the situation; his childhood friends going missing ends up not even being related to the current case,
plus MC is kind of an asshole so it made me like this story even less. Not interesting, engaging + unlikable characters…2⭐️ At most 

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