The Witch Elm by Tana French ISBN: 9780735224643
Published by Penguin on October 9, 2018
Genres: Mystery
Pages: 528
Format: Paperback
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Toby is a happy-go-lucky charmer who’s dodged a scrape at work and is celebrating with friends when the night takes a turn that will change his life—he surprises two burglars who beat him and leave him for dead. Struggling to recover from his injuries, beginning to understand that he might never be the same man again, he takes refuge at his family’s ancestral home to care for his dying uncle Hugo. Then a skull is found in the trunk of an elm tree in the garden—and as detectives close in, Toby is forced to face the possibility that his past may not be what he has always believed.
A spellbinding standalone from one of the best suspense writers working today, The Witch Elm asks what we become, and what we’re capable of, when we no longer know who we are.
I’ve been a Tana French fan since In The Woods- she writes unreliable narrators so well, you feel compelled to keep reading even if you’re gritting your teeth at their ignorance.
The Witch Elm starts off promising, with that narrative trick where the MC is relaying a story and teasing bits to you that hint at future twists and turns. However, it quickly got bogged down in then establishing the character and his family dynamic. After finishing it, I understand why, but the uneven pacing for the first half or so of the book made it a bit of a struggle to get into.
By contrast, once the crime this story centers on is revealed, things start to gallop. As MCs go, this one suffers from a TBI and thus his memory is unreliable (and boy howdy, did I relate in painful ways).
But the further we go, the more we see beyond that. He’s always been a bit of a golden boy- beloved because he’s genuinely kind and easygoing, but also totally blind to the struggles of others because he’s always had things come easily to him. And who among us didn’t have a friend or relative like that at some point? You love them, but sometimes you want to shake them for being so damned naive.
French deftly weaves mental health and trauma into the actions and decisions of all characters involved, even though they had excellent home lives and a loving family. And THAT feels so, so important. She touches on the misogyny of Ireland’s pregnancy laws (until very recently), the homophobia, the “boys will be boys” excusing of terrible behavior, and the classism.
As far as the mystery goes, things unraveled in a way that kept me guessing. I wasn’t agreeing with the MC, but there were just enough hints and red herrings for me to have a handful of suspects. I absolutely believe it was justified and necessary, but the entire situation gave me chills. And then things just….kept unraveling from there until the very end.
Honestly, if you can get through the slog in the front of the book, it’s a gripping mystery and a scathing indictment of the kind of long-lasting effects bullying has and those in power who turned a blind eye to it for generations.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- Labyrinth TBR
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