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3.71 AVERAGE
3.71 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-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
Loved the first 90% of the book, hated the ending.
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A completely fine read. Nothing challenging, I was not bored and for the most part enjoyed my time with it. Better than most thrillers out there but still limited in impact for a variety of reasons. I don’t need resolution in the back story but I do need it to serve a purpose, otherwise I’m wasting my time learning about this characters back story. It’s not connected to anything and felt like the connection it attempted to make to a current murder was trite, at best. There was a lot of over explaining at the end and while you could have possibly figured out the mystery the middle of the book is filled with red herrings , backstory and inter personal relationships that by the end the impact intended was underwhelming. I was entertained during but feel unsatisfied after finishing which is better that hate finishing a thriller, I guess.
This book appears on many "best books of..." lists, but I did not really like it as much as I thought I would. Reasons:
1. It was a bit too long. It could easily have been trimmed down by at least 50 pages, though I understand this was French's first novel, so I do cut her some slack.
2. I never really felt that I knew the narrator/protagonist character. Yes, you know about him and the backstory, but not really his internal motivations and feelings, which was striking because the story is written in first person. All I really felt that he was innately selfish, which I don't think was intentional.
3. There were a few red herrings about paranormalcy that I found too slight and affected to be effected.
In its favor, I didn't figure out "whodunit" until the same time as the characters, which is always a plus for a mystery. And the author didn't feel the need to tie up the lose, unsolved ends of the backstory mystery.
1. It was a bit too long. It could easily have been trimmed down by at least 50 pages, though I understand this was French's first novel, so I do cut her some slack.
2. I never really felt that I knew the narrator/protagonist character. Yes, you know about him and the backstory, but not really his internal motivations and feelings, which was striking because the story is written in first person. All I really felt that he was innately selfish, which I don't think was intentional.
3. There were a few red herrings about paranormalcy that I found too slight and affected to be effected.
In its favor, I didn't figure out "whodunit" until the same time as the characters, which is always a plus for a mystery. And the author didn't feel the need to tie up the lose, unsolved ends of the backstory mystery.
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
This story is so much more than a detective tale. It's the story of a broken boy who grew into a broken man.
It's not a story of revenge as it could have been, nor a complete and utter story of detective out to get the bad guy no matter what although it is a part of it.
In The Woods a 12 year old girl has been murdered and dumped in an excavation site. She was the star of the small town of Knocknaree. Bound for an elite dance school with the whole world at her feet. All that snatched away by an evil she wasn't able to comprehend.
Detective Ryan and Maddox have been given the case. One, the youngest on the Murder Squad another the only female, with a background in psychology and criminal profiling. Together they set about finding a suspect and a motive that sticks to get justice for Katy. During the case memories that Rob has suppressed start to re appear, he starts to remember himself as a little boy with his two best friends who went missing so many years ago. Left only with a pair of runners soaked from the inside out with blood and no memories, will he be able to cope with a case so close to home or will it break him even more than it already has?
This story as I already said was so much more. It was absolutely beautifully written with lines like:
“My memories of them had rubbed thin with overuse, worn to frail color transparencies flickering on the walls of my mind”
Rob and Cassie's relationship at the beginning of the book was just everything for me. I'm all for platonic best friends and finding soul mates in the form of a friend. Those people you meet for a minute and can talk like you've known each other your whole life. This is what Rob and Cassie had and I enjoy every silly moment of friendship:
“How can I ever make you understand Cassie and me? I would have to take you there, walk you down every path of our secret shared geography. The truism says it’s against all odds for a straight man and woman to be real friends, platonic friends; we rolled thirteen, threw down five aces and ran away giggling. She was the summertime cousin out of storybooks, the one you taught to swim at some midge-humming lake and pestered with tadpoles down her swimsuit, with whom you practiced first kisses on a heather hillside and laughed about it years later over a clandestine joint in your granny’s cluttered attic. She painted my fingernails gold and dared me to leave them that way for work…We climbed out her window and down the fire escape and lay on the roof of the extension below, drinking improvised cocktails and singing Tom Waits and watching the stars spin dizzily around us.
Cassie is one of my favourite characters, while Rob is refreshing from all other male leads I've read in a long time. Cassie is seemingly carefree, easy going, smart, funny, outgoing. Rob is not your brooding asshole don't need no girl typical character that we see oh too much, yet he also is?
Rob is seriously messed up from his childhood and can be an asshole but never A asshole if that makes any type of sense to you. I can't quite describe his character other than he's brilliant but broken.
I don't think this was ever meant to be a 'sad' book but the ending nearly broke my heart, not for a character in particular but for the case and everything these detectives worked for in their lives.
Spoilery bits:
The Killer
Rob and Cassie
I like Cassie and respect her but I also just want to bang Rob on the head and make him apologise. I think Sam and Cassie will be great together and hope Rob pulls it together and makes friends again even if it seems like a long shot.
It's not a story of revenge as it could have been, nor a complete and utter story of detective out to get the bad guy no matter what although it is a part of it.
In The Woods a 12 year old girl has been murdered and dumped in an excavation site. She was the star of the small town of Knocknaree. Bound for an elite dance school with the whole world at her feet. All that snatched away by an evil she wasn't able to comprehend.
Detective Ryan and Maddox have been given the case. One, the youngest on the Murder Squad another the only female, with a background in psychology and criminal profiling. Together they set about finding a suspect and a motive that sticks to get justice for Katy. During the case memories that Rob has suppressed start to re appear, he starts to remember himself as a little boy with his two best friends who went missing so many years ago. Left only with a pair of runners soaked from the inside out with blood and no memories, will he be able to cope with a case so close to home or will it break him even more than it already has?
This story as I already said was so much more. It was absolutely beautifully written with lines like:
“My memories of them had rubbed thin with overuse, worn to frail color transparencies flickering on the walls of my mind”
Rob and Cassie's relationship at the beginning of the book was just everything for me. I'm all for platonic best friends and finding soul mates in the form of a friend. Those people you meet for a minute and can talk like you've known each other your whole life. This is what Rob and Cassie had and I enjoy every silly moment of friendship:
“How can I ever make you understand Cassie and me? I would have to take you there, walk you down every path of our secret shared geography. The truism says it’s against all odds for a straight man and woman to be real friends, platonic friends; we rolled thirteen, threw down five aces and ran away giggling. She was the summertime cousin out of storybooks, the one you taught to swim at some midge-humming lake and pestered with tadpoles down her swimsuit, with whom you practiced first kisses on a heather hillside and laughed about it years later over a clandestine joint in your granny’s cluttered attic. She painted my fingernails gold and dared me to leave them that way for work…We climbed out her window and down the fire escape and lay on the roof of the extension below, drinking improvised cocktails and singing Tom Waits and watching the stars spin dizzily around us.
Cassie is one of my favourite characters, while Rob is refreshing from all other male leads I've read in a long time. Cassie is seemingly carefree, easy going, smart, funny, outgoing. Rob is not your brooding asshole don't need no girl typical character that we see oh too much, yet he also is?
Rob is seriously messed up from his childhood and can be an asshole but never A asshole if that makes any type of sense to you. I can't quite describe his character other than he's brilliant but broken.
I don't think this was ever meant to be a 'sad' book but the ending nearly broke my heart, not for a character in particular but for the case and everything these detectives worked for in their lives.
Spoilery bits:
The Killer
Spoiler
I guessed Rosalin from a mile away, as soon as she said all girls were jealous of her and badmouthing Cassie, yes girl I got you you jealous sister killing bitch. I didn't see Damien involved so that was a nice twist. I like the way Tana made me feel bad for someone who did a horrible crime. It was his fault but I also felt sad that he was prayed on and manipulated.Rob and Cassie
Spoiler
I wasn't impressed with him sleeping with her, I understand it was a moment of grief and confusion, someone looking for comfort but I knew it would end badly. I was hoping they'd both quit and become PI's scoping out cheating bastards and making fun of people on the beach *sad sigh*.I like Cassie and respect her but I also just want to bang Rob on the head and make him apologise. I think Sam and Cassie will be great together and hope Rob pulls it together and makes friends again even if it seems like a long shot.
Spoiler
The disappearance of Jamie and Peter, I still don't understand what happened in the woods, was it something supernatural? An ancient god? An evil person? What ever it was I'd love to find out once and for all
The setting for this crime thriller - Ireland- is one of the big appeals of this book. The central murder mystery, and the sub-plot of a mysterious event in the lead detective's past was alternately gripping and exasperating, especially as you come to realize that the more interesting subplot will remain unsolved in this book. I am curious enough now to take up the next book in the series.
challenging
emotional
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
DNF at 60% but I'm still counting it as finished because i skimmed to the end.
I hated this, made me fall in a reading slump because of how BORINGGG IT IS.
I hated this, made me fall in a reading slump because of how BORINGGG IT IS.
Spoiler
And we don't even have the reveal of what happened when he was a kid ???? like fym it's a mystery/detective book ??? give me the resolution to the mystery ????
I really enjoyed my first novel by Tana French. Beautiful and descriptive writing and carefully developed, complex characters made this much more than your average police procedural/murder mystery thriller. Anxious to pick up the next in the Dublin Murder Squad series.