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A review by accidentalspaceexplorer
The Witch Elm by Tana French
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Tana French would be a great spider - she always manages to weave such a complicated web that leaves you asking a lot more questions than just "Who did it?" This one is definitely just as tangled as her other books, although I did mostly guess who had actually done it about 1/3 of the way in.
There are a lot of other reviews saying that they had a hard time liking the book because of Toby, the main character, and I totally understand, although I did not personally feel the same way. He is a privileged man who fundamentally doesn't understand that other people don't share his privilege, and it's difficult to like him for that, but the part that saved it for me was that it was clear that it was a Toby problem. Other people call him out on it very early on, and continue to do so throughout the book.
There are a lot of other reviews saying that they had a hard time liking the book because of Toby, the main character, and I totally understand, although I did not personally feel the same way. He is a privileged man who fundamentally doesn't understand that other people don't share his privilege, and it's difficult to like him for that, but the part that saved it for me was that it was clear that it was a Toby problem. Other people call him out on it very early on, and continue to do so throughout the book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual harassment