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smalefowles 's review for:
The Witch Elm
by Tana French
I absolutely tore through this book, and now the summer project is to work my way through the rest of Tana French's detective novels. If that's not a strong recommendation, I don't know what would be.
That said, this book isn't perfect. It's a crime novel, but the main crime doesn't appear until halfway through. The protagonist-narrator is generally awful, but by the end you don't only pity him, you wonder how similar you might be, in the shadowy recesses of your mind. It's a book that makes you think, and that's sort of a stupid cliche, but it does. Not just "omg whodunit," but fuzzier, more unsettling thoughts about what makes up a personality, and a life.
I would really accept even what bothered me about the book, if it weren't for that final twist, which I found unlikely and unlikable and unnecessary. Which means I perhaps don't entirely get what French was doing, but it soured my impression a bit at the end. So difficult to end a novel well! Anyway, I'm already reading In The Woods, and its first book 'ambitiousness' (that's the nice way to put it) is making me like this book even more.
That said, this book isn't perfect. It's a crime novel, but the main crime doesn't appear until halfway through. The protagonist-narrator is generally awful, but by the end you don't only pity him, you wonder how similar you might be, in the shadowy recesses of your mind. It's a book that makes you think, and that's sort of a stupid cliche, but it does. Not just "omg whodunit," but fuzzier, more unsettling thoughts about what makes up a personality, and a life.
I would really accept even what bothered me about the book, if it weren't for that final twist, which I found unlikely and unlikable and unnecessary. Which means I perhaps don't entirely get what French was doing, but it soured my impression a bit at the end. So difficult to end a novel well! Anyway, I'm already reading In The Woods, and its first book 'ambitiousness' (that's the nice way to put it) is making me like this book even more.