A review by knkoch
Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton

adventurous dark tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I liked this a lot! It's a great literary thriller, and I ripped through it. The plot, and central conflict, is compelling and definitely not simple. Sure, there's right and wrong, but no easy solutions or clear-cut heroes. I liked the way each character was elusive; I never had a firm grasp, and thus judgement, on any of them. I enjoyed the allusions to Macbeth, especially as this wasn't a direct retelling or reimagining. I suppose this felt more in conversation with that play and its themes of political power, manipulation, gamesmanship, and the way those larger schemes compromise human psychology, personal morality, and integrity. This felt just like Macbeth in the sense of huge power struggles (with enormous consequence) being played out between just a handful of crucial individuals. Yet technology plays such a big part in this too, set in our current industrial-dystopian era, very far from the medieval setting of Macbeth. Macbeth was the first Shakespeare play I read as an adult and felt real things for. I remember the power and heaviness of that story shocked me, demonstrating for the first time why these four hundred year old works are still so widely read and relevant. Birnam Wood makes me think I should reread it again soon. 
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