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3.71 AVERAGE
3.71 AVERAGE
dark
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
This book, much like the characters themselves, is emotionally complex and frustrating. But in the best way.
Tana French is undoubtedly a beautiful writer, and although I wouldn't call her crime fiction character-driven, it is certainly character-focused. The protagonist here is somewhat unreliable, sympathetic, pathetic, annoyingly arrogant, interesting and tragic - all at once. And the same can be said for every character, even secondary ones. French has a real gift for painting rich and vivid characters that add a psychological complexity to this story - one that doesn't necessarily give us the most satisfying conclusions. But it's in that messiness that lies the real treasure of this book. Humans are messy and frustrating and complicated and rarely do the logical thing at all times. These murder investigations that we all enjoy reading about or watching unfold in our favourite Columbo specials or Poirot serials are really devastating to everyone involved and nobody walks away on top. There are no fist-pumping resolutions.
The closest thing that I can compare this book to is The Killing, one of my favourite TV shows: a deeply personal and psychological study of the effects of an investigation like this on everyone involved. Investigations where things do not resolve themselves neatly tied up with ribbons and a cherry on top. It's a shitshow, it's depressing, it's traumatic, people fuck up and one small mistake can lead to a cascade of small mistakes resulting in total calamity. That's what this book is about.
It's messy, it's frustrating, it's richly complex in its emotional weight and it's mildly unsatisfying by the end. And that's the point. I loved it.
There is a very interesting examination of toxic masculine behaviour, before that became a buzz word, and it really is a measured and intentional examination. Mainly through the voice of the narrator and of the father of the victim, we get to see how some men can do mental gymnastics and jump through hoops to justify certain behaviours. Both infantile and/or abhorrent behaviours at that. It challenges your emapthy in unexpected ways but also makes for quite uncomfortable reading at times. It's very intelligent writing - a huge step up from my last read.
Really glad to have finally tried Tana French. An instant favourite writer. Aside from the story itself, her prose is beautifully lyrical at times and her deep love of Irish (particularly Dublin) culture, sensibilities and humour in the face of tragedy is wonderful to behold. A gem of modern Irish literature.
Tana French is undoubtedly a beautiful writer, and although I wouldn't call her crime fiction character-driven, it is certainly character-focused. The protagonist here is somewhat unreliable, sympathetic, pathetic, annoyingly arrogant, interesting and tragic - all at once. And the same can be said for every character, even secondary ones. French has a real gift for painting rich and vivid characters that add a psychological complexity to this story - one that doesn't necessarily give us the most satisfying conclusions. But it's in that messiness that lies the real treasure of this book. Humans are messy and frustrating and complicated and rarely do the logical thing at all times. These murder investigations that we all enjoy reading about or watching unfold in our favourite Columbo specials or Poirot serials are really devastating to everyone involved and nobody walks away on top. There are no fist-pumping resolutions.
The closest thing that I can compare this book to is The Killing, one of my favourite TV shows: a deeply personal and psychological study of the effects of an investigation like this on everyone involved. Investigations where things do not resolve themselves neatly tied up with ribbons and a cherry on top. It's a shitshow, it's depressing, it's traumatic, people fuck up and one small mistake can lead to a cascade of small mistakes resulting in total calamity. That's what this book is about.
It's messy, it's frustrating, it's richly complex in its emotional weight and it's mildly unsatisfying by the end. And that's the point. I loved it.
There is a very interesting examination of toxic masculine behaviour, before that became a buzz word, and it really is a measured and intentional examination. Mainly through the voice of the narrator and of the father of the victim, we get to see how some men can do mental gymnastics and jump through hoops to justify certain behaviours. Both infantile and/or abhorrent behaviours at that. It challenges your emapthy in unexpected ways but also makes for quite uncomfortable reading at times. It's very intelligent writing - a huge step up from my last read.
Really glad to have finally tried Tana French. An instant favourite writer. Aside from the story itself, her prose is beautifully lyrical at times and her deep love of Irish (particularly Dublin) culture, sensibilities and humour in the face of tragedy is wonderful to behold. A gem of modern Irish literature.
Creepy, creepy murder mystery. Gave me shivers, but I was a left a little unsatisfied at the end.
Wow, I feel like that was a colossal waste of time. My main complaint until the very end was that it was just waaaaaay too long, but that changed in the last chapter. Then I just felt let down, like the author led me to believe that certain things would happen or be resolved, and then they weren't. So I thought, okay, this is a series, right? Maybe the answers I'm looking for will be forthcoming in the next book. But I read the synopsis of the next FOUR books, and the narrator of this book is NOT the narrator of any of the next four books! Will he even make a cameo? At this point, do I even care? Sadly, no, I don't.
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book PMO.
This book started off pretty strong, even though I couldn’t stand the protagonist from the beginning. The last 15% ish of the book literally ruined so much for me & also his lack of character development was infuriating bc it just meant that none of his annoying character was redeemable at any point. I read another review commenting on his lack of detective skill after being duped by Rosalind bc seriously??? All of her conversations made that obvious imo. Loved Cassie & Sam & honestly loved the conversation with Jonathan at the end bc that made him all the more interesting to me. The “mystery” of it all was still enough to keep me reading but yeah this made me mad.
This book started off pretty strong, even though I couldn’t stand the protagonist from the beginning. The last 15% ish of the book literally ruined so much for me & also his lack of character development was infuriating bc it just meant that none of his annoying character was redeemable at any point. I read another review commenting on his lack of detective skill after being duped by Rosalind bc seriously??? All of her conversations made that obvious imo. Loved Cassie & Sam & honestly loved the conversation with Jonathan at the end bc that made him all the more interesting to me. The “mystery” of it all was still enough to keep me reading but yeah this made me mad.
I really enjoyed how this book was written, but by the end I was SO UNBELIEVABLY FRUSTRATED. There is ZERO closure to this book and I found myself audibly being upset a few times in the last 50 pages or so. I usually do like an unreliable narrator, but in the end I was more annoyed than interested.
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
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.)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship
Moderate: Suicide attempt
Minor: Cursing, Pedophilia, Alcohol
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I think I just need to rant about the ending of this book. I usually don't go for mysteries, because I can't handle them in moderation- I get too stressed out and I can't ever do anything else until I've sat down and read the entire thing in one sitting.
After the first chapter and the recount of Rob's childhood unsolved mystery, I put the book down and said to some friends "Actually maybe I can get into mysteries- there's something thrilling about hearing a case and dying to figure out what the hell happened, and then watch it unravel throughout the book until the reveal!" And I happily resumed.
IMAGINE MY SHOCK AND ABSOLUTE AWE. WHEN THE ORIGINAL MYSTERY. IS NOT EVEN SOLVED! NOT AT ALL! It was dead interesting, and there are all these moments- Rob seemingly going crazy as his memories slowly resurface, him seeing figments of shadow creatures throughout the first half off the book, him seeing a creature run across the road. I saw someone saying it might have been trying to play on memory and haziness, but then why include the details about Sandra and the other teenagers also remembering some sort of horrifying noise/creature, all those moments of blurry memory we'd been collecting NOT JUST FROM ROB, who would understandably have missed things, but from the others as well?
I was toying with the idea of an animal, of some sort of illness, of a drug breach, ANYTHING... when I was nearing the last 50 pages I started to get anxious, and by the last 20 of Rob recounting how he never recovered from ruining his own pathetic life I was frantic. All that for nothing? All the details about the strange slices in his shirt, the blood in his shoes, the hair clip and old blood found at the scene. On top of it, the only slightly soluble story we have about the teenagers killing them is discredited right at the end with whatshisname promising they had nothing to do with it. I was so convinced as well that when they were digging up the site finally right at the end they were going to discover their bodies, but no- just some harrowing find of an arrowhead to prove that bad things happen constantly and the dig site was ruined despite what it had to offer. And all a red herring for nothing so I could be slightly distracted from Rob making moony eyes at a 17 year old girl who was obviously playing him?
And she was, by the way- there's this part where he says to the reader, "Oh before you judge me, know that you were fooled by her too-" I WANTED TO SCREAM! The second she went on about how Cassie just didn't seem to care and he was the only one that could possibly understand her alarm bells were going off. I'm not saying I suspected her of murder from the beginning, but I'm shocked how anyone could have been quite as obliviously engrossed in her little act as Rob was. To the point that he didn't even think it was an issue when her (rather shady) piece of evidence about the man in a tracksuit matched Damien's? And accused CASSIE? OF BEING JEALOUS? His character tanked TREMENDOUSLY in the last quarter of the book!
And do not get me started on Cassie and Rob. Cassie is easily the best character, and I would read her book for sure if I wasn't so scared French is going to betray me like she did with this one. I was so, so thrilled with their friendship, and when they sleep together I was devastated- but I thought I could get through it. Until he handles the situation in a way that made me convinced of his absolute lack of character. He did pretty much everything possible to hurt Cassie personally, his best friend... Then goes on to belittle her and call her a liar and a betrayer even after they're not talking. I really misjudged his character- I shouldn't have- looking back he was kind of like that from the beginning. I tried really hard to feel bad for him and just couldn't- he hardly takes accountability at all.
A GENIUS moment on French's part is that last conversation with Heather, his roommate- (who I thought was funny and nice the whole book, by the way, like come on Rob is it really THAT annoying that she likes Sex in the City and wants to chat a bit after work? But maybe that says more about my taste in characters than anything)- where she says Cassie didn't deserve the way he was treating her, despite seeing very limited slices of the situation, and she didn't either? And Rob is Shocked? It just made me realize I really couldn't trust ANY opinion he had on any other character Especially women. Though I guess I should have gotten that from all his paragraph-long soliloquies about how every short blonde woman he saw was a fluttering damsel that he wanted to sweep up in a gust of feathers and roses and deliver from harm and any sense of real human character traits- UGH, AND THE GIRL AT THE BAR THAT HE GETS BORED WITH RANDOMLY AND JUST DITCHES! Okay, he is a quite well written character. A very hate-able one.
Overall, fantastic book- my irritation over Rob and what an ass he turns out to be wouldn't stop me from admitting that- but the insane wild goose chase about the original case which was arguably the most interesting part of the book resulting in the cop-out of just Not Dealing With It is just too unforgivable to me.
After the first chapter and the recount of Rob's childhood unsolved mystery, I put the book down and said to some friends "Actually maybe I can get into mysteries- there's something thrilling about hearing a case and dying to figure out what the hell happened, and then watch it unravel throughout the book until the reveal!" And I happily resumed.
IMAGINE MY SHOCK AND ABSOLUTE AWE. WHEN THE ORIGINAL MYSTERY. IS NOT EVEN SOLVED! NOT AT ALL! It was dead interesting, and there are all these moments- Rob seemingly going crazy as his memories slowly resurface, him seeing figments of shadow creatures throughout the first half off the book, him seeing a creature run across the road. I saw someone saying it might have been trying to play on memory and haziness, but then why include the details about Sandra and the other teenagers also remembering some sort of horrifying noise/creature, all those moments of blurry memory we'd been collecting NOT JUST FROM ROB, who would understandably have missed things, but from the others as well?
I was toying with the idea of an animal, of some sort of illness, of a drug breach, ANYTHING... when I was nearing the last 50 pages I started to get anxious, and by the last 20 of Rob recounting how he never recovered from ruining his own pathetic life I was frantic. All that for nothing? All the details about the strange slices in his shirt, the blood in his shoes, the hair clip and old blood found at the scene. On top of it, the only slightly soluble story we have about the teenagers killing them is discredited right at the end with whatshisname promising they had nothing to do with it. I was so convinced as well that when they were digging up the site finally right at the end they were going to discover their bodies, but no- just some harrowing find of an arrowhead to prove that bad things happen constantly and the dig site was ruined despite what it had to offer. And all a red herring for nothing so I could be slightly distracted from Rob making moony eyes at a 17 year old girl who was obviously playing him?
And she was, by the way- there's this part where he says to the reader, "Oh before you judge me, know that you were fooled by her too-" I WANTED TO SCREAM! The second she went on about how Cassie just didn't seem to care and he was the only one that could possibly understand her alarm bells were going off. I'm not saying I suspected her of murder from the beginning, but I'm shocked how anyone could have been quite as obliviously engrossed in her little act as Rob was. To the point that he didn't even think it was an issue when her (rather shady) piece of evidence about the man in a tracksuit matched Damien's? And accused CASSIE? OF BEING JEALOUS? His character tanked TREMENDOUSLY in the last quarter of the book!
And do not get me started on Cassie and Rob. Cassie is easily the best character, and I would read her book for sure if I wasn't so scared French is going to betray me like she did with this one. I was so, so thrilled with their friendship, and when they sleep together I was devastated- but I thought I could get through it. Until he handles the situation in a way that made me convinced of his absolute lack of character. He did pretty much everything possible to hurt Cassie personally, his best friend... Then goes on to belittle her and call her a liar and a betrayer even after they're not talking. I really misjudged his character- I shouldn't have- looking back he was kind of like that from the beginning. I tried really hard to feel bad for him and just couldn't- he hardly takes accountability at all.
A GENIUS moment on French's part is that last conversation with Heather, his roommate- (who I thought was funny and nice the whole book, by the way, like come on Rob is it really THAT annoying that she likes Sex in the City and wants to chat a bit after work? But maybe that says more about my taste in characters than anything)- where she says Cassie didn't deserve the way he was treating her, despite seeing very limited slices of the situation, and she didn't either? And Rob is Shocked? It just made me realize I really couldn't trust ANY opinion he had on any other character Especially women. Though I guess I should have gotten that from all his paragraph-long soliloquies about how every short blonde woman he saw was a fluttering damsel that he wanted to sweep up in a gust of feathers and roses and deliver from harm and any sense of real human character traits- UGH, AND THE GIRL AT THE BAR THAT HE GETS BORED WITH RANDOMLY AND JUST DITCHES! Okay, he is a quite well written character. A very hate-able one.
Overall, fantastic book- my irritation over Rob and what an ass he turns out to be wouldn't stop me from admitting that- but the insane wild goose chase about the original case which was arguably the most interesting part of the book resulting in the cop-out of just Not Dealing With It is just too unforgivable to me.