A review by madeleinealise
Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton

5.0

This book is like a Japanese puzzle box with a deadly, atomic weapon inside. Unassuming under its cover and layered with a configuration of nuance, it takes time to unfold and just when you’ve gotten closer to reaching the truth, the bloody inside absolutely detonates itself onto you. The tension in this book is crafted masterfully - perhaps a little too masterfully - but then I guess that was the point all along.

There was foreshadowing, I will admit. I had been warned in Part I when the author discussed

Spoiler

a certain character’s adeptness with a certain type of sporting firearm. We could feel Mira being hunted from the start but I didn’t know how it was all going to play out. I knew he was going to end up killing someone but forgot about this detail until the final scenes and, once again, I was caught off guard.

But the ending is not what you think it is.

It’s richly fascinating when an author can create a story with engrossing characters, intelligent plot points suffused with penetrating ideology, and a wholly unique and interesting premise. In many ways, I felt this book was the prototype of the perfect novel, with its effacing front and guiling interplay in which the core objective is disguised as almost something else entirely. It’s utterly brilliant and also horrifying at the same time.

This is what I mean when I talk about good fiction.

Holy shit.