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tabbrower 's review for:
The Witch Elm
by Tana French
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
Strong character development:
Complicated
3.75 A spiritually wild, technically tame Tana French outing that really enriches her past books for me. It's so weird to have it better illuminate something she's been doing in all her books (delightful) and then feel like, in the book where that technique is the point, it actually...doesn't do it? The way I expected? Like I thought I finally understood something, but...maybe not?
The ending both swung wider and was tamer than I anticipated--I was out for blood but not that way! I think I just wanted something different out of the Witch Elm but I like what I got, anyways.
Susanna's a tremendous character btw. And it's so fun to see the detectives from an outside perspective because you know their games!! They're not as sneaky as they think they are but damn they're good! and Rafferty's hot and I'm not used to falling for a Tana French character 🤗
Will be thinking and reading about this one a lot!
Second read: Reeeally good, much stronger to me this time. A 4.5? Horrible to be in Toby's head in a way I don't remember feeling last time...what a gamble for a stand-alone, nothing much happening for a while...but what a fucking treat (bleak, but a treat) on a reread. God love her.
The ending both swung wider and was tamer than I anticipated--I was out for blood but not that way! I think I just wanted something different out of the Witch Elm but I like what I got, anyways.
Susanna's a tremendous character btw. And it's so fun to see the detectives from an outside perspective because you know their games!! They're not as sneaky as they think they are but damn they're good! and Rafferty's hot and I'm not used to falling for a Tana French character 🤗
Will be thinking and reading about this one a lot!
Second read: Reeeally good, much stronger to me this time. A 4.5? Horrible to be in Toby's head in a way I don't remember feeling last time...what a gamble for a stand-alone, nothing much happening for a while...but what a fucking treat (bleak, but a treat) on a reread. God love her.