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The Wych Elm: The Sunday Times bestseller

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The Wych Elm: The Sunday Times bestseller by Tana French

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By Tana French

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8 reviews

Reviews

04 Jun 2021

Donna May

St Just Thursday Evening Reading Group 6th May 2021.

The Wych Elm. Tana French.

An interesting ‘reading group book’, this provoked a number of different views. Some readers enjoyed it very much: “Lots of book jackets claim that the book is a "page-turner", but we often disagree. For me, this really was”; “an excellent book … and once started, I had to finish it”; “really enjoyed it”; “fascinating”; and “I found this book really skilfully written, by an author I hadn't heard of but will now look out for”. Others had reservations, finding the characters and the plot unconvincing. Some also were gripped from the first page; others said it was hard to get into but improved later on. One reader thought all the characters were likeable; two others found the narrator very unlikeable.

What most people did agree upon was that the novel raised many questions. How well can we ever know another person? How far can we trust them? Was the narrator’s account true, or not? Might he have become confused after his head injury, or because of his medication? How well, therefore, do we really know ourselves? Can we trust our instincts, and are we seeing things as they really are? By the end of the book, one reader felt that doubt had been cast upon almost everything…

Not so much a crime story as a psychological novel, with many plot twists and interesting elements, quite a long story, possibly pushing the boundaries of credibility for some, and received quite differently by different readers. Comparisons were made with Donna Tart, and several said they would be interested to read more of Tana French’s titles.

This book was read during April 2021 and the continuing restrictions due to the Covid-19 virus, and so the discussion was not 'live' as usual, but took place via a Facebook group, email and telephone conversations.

13 May 2020

Oundle Crime

Recently we decided to try and read at least one book by an author previously unknown to us. I have, on and off, read books by an author called Nicci French and quite enjoyed them. It was a while before I realised that there were actually two authors side by side on the shelf both with the surname French. I am talking about the Irish crime writer Tana French. As she fitted the remit, I picked up her 2018 psychological thriller The Wych Elm.

The Wych Elm is set in Dublin. The main protagonist is Toby, a young and hip PR consultant in a modern art gallery in the best part of town. He has a lovely girlfriend, a smart apartment, a very nice car, lots of friends plus all the other accoutrements of a charmed life.

One night everything changes for Toby. He’s subjected to a brutal attack in his own home which leaves him physically wounded, brain damaged and deeply traumatised. He can no longer walk well, his speech is slurred, he has lost all his strength on one side, and his memory is unreliable and very patchy. Worst of all he’s afraid, always afraid – that he’ll never recover and get back to his old sunny self; that the hospital’s neurosurgeon is not telling him the truth about his future prospects; that his golden job is in jeopardy; and most of all, that his attackers will come back to finish him off. He feels that his mind is splintered and that his whole personality has been fractured.

After a while, his family persuade him to go back to the family home to recuperate and look after his oldest, very ill uncle, because by now Toby is managing (with the help of drugs) to appear to be much better than he actually is. But it’s not the ideal place to be, because the house is filled with memories of wild strawberry summers and teenage parties with his cousins.

One day shortly after Toby arrives a skull is found in the garden; and then a whole skeleton is discovered tucked into the hollow in the Wych Elm of the title. The detectives close in on Toby and his family, and then the shocks come thick and fast. First the dead man is identified as a friend from when Toby and his cousins were teenagers. Then it’s discovered that he was murdered and hadn’t killed himself, as everyone thought and hoped. And then the murder weapon is identified as something that once belonged to Toby. As the story progresses, Toby, with his unreliable memory and fractured mind begins to wonder if he could have done the murder for reasons now totally lost to him.

I really liked the hapless Toby. Before the attack on him he was a bit of a lad but essentially harmless. Afterwards he is so lost, grappling with the fog of his mind and the complicated, half-remembered relationships of his youth.

When the solution to the murder is revealed it’s appalling and not at all what I was expecting. But it’s nothing to what happens afterwards, which is truly shocking. In fact, the whole story left me feeling unsettled and wondering about trust and relationships. Can you ever really know others and what they are capable of?

The writing is compelling. I found myself reading and re-reading passages to make sure I understood the meaning. I think it is proof of the author’s skill that she’s written a 500+ page book that was so compelling I couldn’t put it down. And that I was left thinking and wondering about it for days afterwards.

I give this book 5-Stars and my husband, who read it as well, gives it 4.5 Stars. His missing half star is because he felt that, at 500+ pages, the book is a little too long. But I suggest you read it and see what you think.
Freyja

29 Feb 2020

Cotcom

I really enjoyed this book. It’s a well written, current mystery with lots of unexpected twists and turns. If I had one criticism of this story it is that the narrative does get a bit wordy and off track from time to time. There were some sections that I simply skimmed to get back into the more riveting story.

The main character tells the story from his point of view and this keeps things pacey and moving along. There are a number of key players in the mystery and one is never sure ‘whodunit’. Perhaps a bit farfetched in the end, but that didn’t take away from the readability of the book.

The dialogue is realistic, and the author gets into good detail for each of the characters. Perhaps the small children in the book could be deleted as they didn’t really advance the story – except for finding the tree, etc., but that’s minor. I enjoyed reading this book and would recommend it.

08 Feb 2020

Macclesfield Library Reading Group

The Macclesfield Library Book group received free copies of this book from the Reading agency in exchange for reviews- here were the groups thoughts:

'I thought the book was very long winded BUT very readable. I read it very quickly and enjoyed the twists and turns of the story - there were a lot of red-herrings that tripped me up!'

‘Very disappointed could not get invested in any of the characters. Boredom rather than tension built up. The after effects of the attack on Toby were interesting but overlong. The loss of self was well done but the memory thing was the thing that was needed for the story. Overlong and did not hang together.’

‘Rather long-winded and I found it difficult to believe: 3 brothers all have an only child at the same time who all attend the same school and are left with another uncle all summer whilst the parents travel?? And could two teenagers plan a perfect murder winching a large body into a hole in the top of the tree?!’

‘Tana French obviously has a vivid imagination, with this intricately woven and rather long winded tale! It’s a well written style but should have been a lot shorter.’

‘Well written story full of twists and turns’

‘The pace of the book is so slow. It’s a bit like treading water. We got there in the end! Not a great story but I did read it to the end’

‘Good in the middle with boring bits at the beginning and the end’

‘Wouldn’t call it a thriller. A bit long winded didn’t dislike it but wouldn’t recommend’

‘Good read, plenty of interesting people with lots of different problems’

06 Dec 2019

Gilly

Really enjoyed this novel. It started off at a real pace and instead of, in my opinion, being a thriller it turned out to be a serious of very unfortunate events some with dire consequences.

28 Nov 2019

Cerisaye

I've been watching the BBC adaptation, The Dublin Murders, of two of Tana French's earlier books but this is the first one of hers I've read. It's a genuine page-turner, and it only took me a few days to get through, though it's a hefty book, just over 500 pages. I enjoyed the Dublin setting, though it's not especially place specific if not for little details such as Guards and police ranks. It is a dark psychological thriller about families, identity- who we are, what shapes us, how circumstances affect us- secrets and life-changing events.

Toby is a lucky man, young, good-looking, charming, from a well-off middle class Dublin family, works in an art gallery, owns a nice flat, has a lovely girlfriend and a circle of friends. Then something happens that turns his life upside down and makes him question everything he has so carelessly taken for granted, about himself, his family, his place in the world. He retreats to the Ivy House, the family home, a big, old house with its enclosed garden gone a bit wild, where he and his cousins spent every summer while their parents went off on holidays, under the casual supervision of unmarried, good-natured Uncle Hugo. Now his uncle is ill and in need of care, Toby can't work and needs structure to his life, so it seems appropriate he move in for a while as a companion. Things don't go according to plan, however: his peaceful haven and quiet convalesance is shattered by a shocking discovery that ripples across memories of childhood and adolescence, what he thinks he knew about the family and himself.

I really enjoyed the book. It's well written, with interesting characters and a complicated family dynamic. The Ivy House, where most of the story takes place, is that special place we know from childhood, a constant in a changing world and personal circumstances. Tony is flawed but sympathetic. We see everything from his pov, and he's an unreliable narrator. There's a police investigation but that's not the focus of the novel. The crime element is used to examine who Toby is, how his own image of himself related to how others see him and how that can be changed by events and circumstances, and by extension encourages the reader to reflect upon their own self-perception, privilege and how our limited perspective affects how we see others. That is a much more interesting story than a simple Whodunnit police procedural.

As a footnote, the (I presume American?) title listed on Goodreads is 'Witch' not Wych elm, as in my copy.

28 Nov 2019

susbor

Absolutely loved this book - not a quick read as it’s fairly long and the writing is beautifully constructed so lingering over the descriptions is a must to really appreciate the insights to family relationships , the human mind, social norms, male privilege and so much else. Altho it is described as a crime thriller ( and that’s not untrue ) but it feels so much more - a very intelligent work of exemplary literary fiction ... would highly recommend

22 Nov 2019

laura.lb

I haven't read any of the authors previous novels, but after watching Dublin Murders on TV and really enjoying it, I was quite excited to read Wych Elm.
The book began with great promise, however the plot began to be quite unbelievable, and also it was far too long.
It really could have been cut by at least a third. All in all, it was quite forgettable.

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