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bluerobyn123 's review for:
In the Woods
by Tana French
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.