Book Review: The Witch Elm | Tana French

This is book #15 that I read this year. It was published on October 9, 2018 and therefore does not count toward my 20 for 2020 challenge. I launched the Books By Bullets (BBB) project recently and the first BBB post I made was for The Witch Elm. Check out my BBB post for the Witch Elm for a detailed (but simple to understand) plot breakdown. My discussion below will include a spoiler section (as always you will be warned before we get there).

I enjoyed this book. I liked seeing how the story progressed. I really like that I also liked learning more about the mystery and putting all the pieces together.

My favorite thing about the book was Toby's character. I enjoyed was seeing how his character developed over time. Toby was a very interesting character and I liked hearing the story from his perspective. A character doesn't have to be good for me to like a book. I'm completely fine with a character being annoying or a bad role model or whatever, as long as the author writes them that way on purpose. I seriously hated Toby. He was the worst and I like it when a book can make me feel this strongly about something or someone. He was so oblivious or dismissive of his family and friends struggles and bigger issues overall in the world. He was so frustrating to listen to because of how entitled and privileged he is in everything he does. But this was all done on purpose, so I appreciate how effectively Tana French was able to get me to hate this guy. For me to enjoy a book I really need to develop an emotional connection to the story or characters. Here I did have an emotional connection to Toby in a sense that I hated him so much. I can't really get into too much detail about this in the spoiler-free section, so see the spoiler section for more discussion on this.

I do think I got a little bored at certain parts of the story. I think I am a very plot-driven reader. If it’s a mystery or thriller I am eager to get to the end to where we find out everything. Or I at least am eager to learn about each of the clues and go through all of the leads. It takes a while to even get to the skull in the tree (not a spoiler- this is in the summary given on the back of the book). By the end you realize that the skull in the tree is just the mechanism to tell Toby’s story and to show how that affects him as a character and the relationships between the surrounding family. After reading this book, I think I would appreciate it a lot more during a re-read now that I have a more accurate idea of the intent of the story.

***SPOILER DISCUSSION***

My favorite part of this book was Toby’s development. He starts as this privileged guy who has never gone through any hardships, who then goes through this incredibly traumatic moment. This traumatic moment makes him think how he didn’t deserve this and how he’ll never get back to his charming, perfect self that got everything he ever wanted. He doesn’t think about how no one would ever deserve that, yet this happens all the time in the world to innocent people. He doesn’t ever stop to get the perspective that he already had such a privileged life in the first place. When that privilege and luck was stripped away from him, he just spiraled further downward like a child throwing a tantrum. Once he was in this mindset that he was now weak and worthless because of his injuries, he lashed out at Detective Rafferty to show that he was strong again. And then he was proud at how he was able to manipulate the jury into feeling bad for him. He was proud that he got away with murder and had no empathy for the Detective. It all made perfect sense that this is where the story would end up.

Throughout the entire story, his narrative and thought process is so self-centered, even when things have nothing to do with him. We see how he interacts with his family and friends and how he dismisses any hardships they've gone through (such as poverty, homophobia or sexual assault). Because these things never affected him personally, he either refuses to believe they happened or is just completely oblivious to it all. I love how many layers there are to Toby's character and I loved reading about it.

***END OF SPOILER DISCUSSION***

I think that I would like this book even better during a re-read. I think I was focused on where the mystery would end up, or looking for exciting moments to happen that I didn’t appreciate the more subtle character moments or writing that ended up being my favorite parts of the story in the end. So overall, I really enjoyed this book. I’d give this book a 4/5. Have you read this book? Let me know your thoughts down below!