320. The Witch Elm
Rating: ☆☆☆☆1/2
Recommended by: Lynn McInnes
Author: Tana French
Genre: Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, Crime
528 pages, published October 9, 2018
Reading Format: Book
Summary
The protagonist in The Witch Elm is a modern day Dubliner named Toby, a carefree twenty something with a job at an art gallery, a nice flat and the perfect girlfriend. Toby’s idyllic life is shattered when he is attacked in his home and left for dead. During his recovery, he moves into the family home to take care of his Uncle Hugo who is dying of cancer. While there, a long decomposed body is found inside the hollow of a large wych elm tree on the property. As Toby and his family begin to uncover the mystery, layers and layers of duplicity are revealed that has Toby questioning his own sanity.
Quotes
“But we’re so desperate, aren’t we, to believe that bad luck only happens to people who deserve it.”
“The thing is, I suppose,” he said, “that one gets into the habit of being oneself. It takes some great upheaval to crack that shell and force us to discover what else might be underneath.”
“I knew straightaway, from his smile, that he wasn’t a doctor; I’d already got the hang of the doctors’ smiles, firm and distancing, expertly calibrated to tell you how much time was left in the conversation.”
“Once the fear took hold, I was fucked. I’d never known anything like it could exist: all-consuming, ravenous, a whirling black vortex that sucked me under so completely and mercilessly that it truly felt like I was being devoured alive, bones splintered, marrow sucked.”
“I’ve never got the self-flagellating middle-class belief that being poor and having a petty crime habit magically makes you more worthy, more deeply connected to some wellspring of artistic truth, even more real.”
“Faye had always been sweet, flaky but sweet, unlikely to ask about your problems but deeply concerned about them if you reminded her they existed.”
“The wych elm’s whole crown was gone, only the trunk left, thick stubs of branches poking out obscenely. It should have looked pathetic, but instead it had a new, condensed force: some great malformed creature, musclebound and nameless, huddled in the darkness waiting for a sign.”
My Take
I thoroughly enjoyed the many hours of reading that I spent with The Witch Elm and discovered a deep appreciation for the writing talent of Tana French. Her characters are so multi-dimensional and so thoroughly fleshed out that you feel as if you are living your life right alongside of them. While the book excels as a character study, there is also a fascinating mystery at its heart that keeps you reading long after it is time to turn off the bedside light. Highly recommended.
