A review by craiglister
In the Woods by Tana French

dark mysterious sad medium-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

4.0

Book Rating: 7/10

I’m going to do something I don't often do and have some spoilers in this review. Because I feel I can't convey everything I want to say about this book without going into spoiler territory. 

I enjoyed this book a lot. I like the first-person narrative the author went with and wished more writers did that more often. While I saw the true culprit coming from a mile away, I, however, enjoyed the journey to the reveal. I loved Rob and Cassie as characters. They played well together until
they slept with each other, and this is where it started to fall apart for me. Their friendship/partnership just disintegrated in a matter of minutes after the deed. If Rob slept with Cassie and moved on to the next conquest, it would have been more tolerable than what we got. Instead, Rob becomes a petulant child and stops talking and starts acting unprofessionally towards Cassie like she committed some unspoken crime between the two. Then the book starts getting more and more depressing. The banter between the characters evaporates, and Rob pretty much goes on strike. Why? God knows. I like damaged characters. They make for better reading. But this guy isn't just damaged. He's utterly broken, and for the life of me, I don't see how he was able to get on the murder squad as he barely functions as a police officer or a human being, for that matter. So as you can see, it upset me that the author went down this path. He even states near the end; no one could have predicted Rosalind being a psychopath. But like I said, it was pretty obvious she had something to do with her sister's death. I think you would need to be a total idiot not to see that Rosalind wasn't an ordinary girl. Cassie ending up with Sam also made zero sense to me since she shown zero interest in him until we find out they're engaged.


I don't think I would read book two if Rob were the main character, but thankfully, I've been told each book has a different character as the main protagonist. This means I will now read book two at some point.
However, the fact we never truly got any resolution towards Peter and Jamie’s disappearance still bothers me. I understand in real life, you don't always get all the answers to all the questions, but since we more than likely wont see Rob again, it leaves me wondering why not wrap that up since you wrapped up everything else?


TL:DR Enjoyable read mostly. Well written. The plot twist was quite evident. Characters are likeable until something happens between the two. The ending was a tad unsatisfying. It's worth the read, and I will be picking up book two at some point.
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