The Witch Elm by Tana French
The Witch Elm is Tana French’s first novel not connected to the Dublin Murder Squad series. I loved the DMS books, so I had mixed feelings about starting this one. I liked that it would be a completely fresh slate; but, I also disliked it for that very same reason. But no matter what, I knew that her novels are interesting and complex and suck you in, so even though my favorite characters would not even be footnotes in this book, I was excited.
Toby has always been a relatively lucky guy. He has never been in a horrific accident, never been publicly dumped in an embarrassing way, and never found himself in a situation he couldn’t talk himself out of. But then everything changes the night he wakes up to find his house being ransacked and he is beaten within an inch of his life. But that’s not the worst thing to happen to Toby. A couple months into recovery, he learns his Uncle Hugo has an incurable brain tumor and only months to live. Toby and his girlfriend, Melissa, move into the Ivy House to help Hugo. What none of them saw coming was what would be found in the garden, and the secrets that would be dug up with it.
"I've always considered myself to be, basically, a lucky person. I don't mean I'm one of those people who pick multi-million-euro lotto numbers on a whim, or show up seconds too late for flights that go on to crash with no survivors. I just mean that I managed to go through life without any of the standard misfortunes you hear about. I wasn't abused as a kid, or bullied in school; my parents didn't split up or die or have addiction problems or even get into any but the most trivial agruments; none of my girlfriends ever cheated on me, at least as far as I know, or dumped me in traumatic ways; I never got hit by a car or caught anything worse than chicken pox or even had to wear braces. Not that I spent much time thinking about this, but when it occurred to me, it was with a satisfying sense that everything was going exactly as it should." (p. 1)
So let me start with my hatred of Toby as a character. Even before his incident at the start of the novel, he is an arrogant prick. He starts off the book talking about how lucky he is. If you ask me, he has confused luck with privilege. He is a white, upper class, straight male with connections up the wazoo, who is relatively attractive. Even if he is “lucky,” he takes his luck for granted. He has no respect for what he has and the influence he is capable of. This is evident in his lack to cooperate with police after his accident when he doesn’t tell the detective about his “mistake” at work because he is more worried about the trouble he could get in with that than actually figuring out who attacked him and why. And to top it all off, he is a shit boyfriend. Melissa is so patient and caring after everything happened, not just the accident but also when the body is found in the tree. She lets him do his amateur detective work in the beginning after it’s discovered it is a person Toby and his cousins went to school with. But when she warns him he is getting in too deep, he ignores her, and continues to ignore her until it is too late.
I have similar issues with Toby’s cousins, but not as strongly. With one being female and the other gay, and both being harassed for these reasons at different points in their life, they are more understanding with how their privilege and money can be used positively. Even the aunts and uncles, and Toby’s parents are frustratingly naive about what the middle and lower classes have to do to survive in the world. The only redeeming characters are the detectives, Melissa, and Hugo. I cannot remember the last time I read a book and hated 75% of the cast.
Because of the books more recent release, I will not say who did it. But what I will say on that subject is that I was pleasantly surprised. I was not right, but I also was not wrong with my suspicions of who was involved. Because I am use to reading the DMS books which are from the perspective of the detective, it was hard not knowing what the detectives knew. Toby was also not reliable because of two reasons: his brain damage from the accident and he did not pay attention to anything that was not him in high school so he was unaware of how many people did not like the man that was found dead in the tree. While that made for a wonderful psychological thriller, it made me miss the DMS books. Any time a detective or someone from the police department was mentioned, I kept hoping I would hear a familiar name from one of the other books. But this was a true stand alone novel.
Despite hating almost every character, I still really enjoyed the book. I love French’s style of writing. It reads like no one else’s, at least any other author I’ve read. Her plots are unique and inventive. And if someone can write a novel where you despise almost every character and still love the book, you have an incredibly talented author. I do not know what she is working on next, but I will read it, and probably love it.
Rating: 7/10
Author: Tana French
Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Thriller
Dates Read: April 25-May 2, 2019
Toby has always been a relatively lucky guy. He has never been in a horrific accident, never been publicly dumped in an embarrassing way, and never found himself in a situation he couldn’t talk himself out of. But then everything changes the night he wakes up to find his house being ransacked and he is beaten within an inch of his life. But that’s not the worst thing to happen to Toby. A couple months into recovery, he learns his Uncle Hugo has an incurable brain tumor and only months to live. Toby and his girlfriend, Melissa, move into the Ivy House to help Hugo. What none of them saw coming was what would be found in the garden, and the secrets that would be dug up with it.
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| (Source: Kelsey Darling) |
"I've always considered myself to be, basically, a lucky person. I don't mean I'm one of those people who pick multi-million-euro lotto numbers on a whim, or show up seconds too late for flights that go on to crash with no survivors. I just mean that I managed to go through life without any of the standard misfortunes you hear about. I wasn't abused as a kid, or bullied in school; my parents didn't split up or die or have addiction problems or even get into any but the most trivial agruments; none of my girlfriends ever cheated on me, at least as far as I know, or dumped me in traumatic ways; I never got hit by a car or caught anything worse than chicken pox or even had to wear braces. Not that I spent much time thinking about this, but when it occurred to me, it was with a satisfying sense that everything was going exactly as it should." (p. 1)
So let me start with my hatred of Toby as a character. Even before his incident at the start of the novel, he is an arrogant prick. He starts off the book talking about how lucky he is. If you ask me, he has confused luck with privilege. He is a white, upper class, straight male with connections up the wazoo, who is relatively attractive. Even if he is “lucky,” he takes his luck for granted. He has no respect for what he has and the influence he is capable of. This is evident in his lack to cooperate with police after his accident when he doesn’t tell the detective about his “mistake” at work because he is more worried about the trouble he could get in with that than actually figuring out who attacked him and why. And to top it all off, he is a shit boyfriend. Melissa is so patient and caring after everything happened, not just the accident but also when the body is found in the tree. She lets him do his amateur detective work in the beginning after it’s discovered it is a person Toby and his cousins went to school with. But when she warns him he is getting in too deep, he ignores her, and continues to ignore her until it is too late.
"Maybe this is why I still consider myself a lucky person: now more than ever, I can't afford not to. If I've realized nothing else, you see, in the long strange time since that April night, I've realized this: I used to believe that luck was a thing outside me, a thing that governed only what did and didn't happen to me.... I believed that if I were to lose my luck I would be losing a thing separate from myself, fancy phone, expensive watch, something valuable but in the end far from indispensable; I took for granted that without it I would still be me, just with a broken arm and no south-facing windows. Now I think I was wrong. I think my luck was built into me.... (p. 509)
I have similar issues with Toby’s cousins, but not as strongly. With one being female and the other gay, and both being harassed for these reasons at different points in their life, they are more understanding with how their privilege and money can be used positively. Even the aunts and uncles, and Toby’s parents are frustratingly naive about what the middle and lower classes have to do to survive in the world. The only redeeming characters are the detectives, Melissa, and Hugo. I cannot remember the last time I read a book and hated 75% of the cast.
 |
| (Source: Giphy) |
Despite hating almost every character, I still really enjoyed the book. I love French’s style of writing. It reads like no one else’s, at least any other author I’ve read. Her plots are unique and inventive. And if someone can write a novel where you despise almost every character and still love the book, you have an incredibly talented author. I do not know what she is working on next, but I will read it, and probably love it.
 |
| (Source: Giphy) |
Author: Tana French
Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Thriller
Dates Read: April 25-May 2, 2019
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