Finished reading: In the Woods by Tana French 📚
Gorgeous writing. Good plotting. It unraveled slowly, and I got impatient, but I don’t think the pace was wrong. It fit in with the main character’s own unraveling. Heavy themes, violence, trauma. Sadness bordering on bleak. I was frustrated with several plot choices, including the resolution, but saying more will spoiler it. I’m also not sure they were wrong choices. In terms of doing what fit with the characters and themes, they worked, perhaps too well; I just hated what was happening (or not happening) because I wanted better outcomes for people involved. I want to read the next book in the series, I think. I don’t trust French enough to know where she’s taking me and if I want to spend the time to get there. But the writing is so good I’ll risk it.
An easy sidestep from Louise Penny to Tana French but with French, the cozy element pulls you in so the subsequent shattering of it hits even harder and all is not necessarily restored to order. No neat bow and calm conversation in a sunshine dappled garden at the end. Instead you’re left with pieces of a mess too great to be undone and forced to see justice and closure and neat endings as fantasy; reality itself is something layered, darker, still beautiful, but grim.
Art Kavanagh FWIW here’s what I wrote about it. It’s a bit too long, so I can’t exactly recommend it but you might find parts of it interesting. I should probably prune it.
Martin McCallion That’s very interesting. I read book 5 in the series on my creative writing course a few years back. Bit strange to jump in at that point, but it worked well on its own.
I said then I’d like to read more in the series, but had sort of forgotten about it, so thanks for the reminder.
I think some of them have been adapted for TV, too.
annie's micro(b)log @artkavanagh I did find that interesting, thanks for sharing. Makes me want to go back and read the book actually, I feel like I missed a lot.
annie's micro(b)log @devilgate I think I’ll read the next for sure and see where it takes me. The writing is really so, so good.
Art Kavanagh I think it would be impossible not to miss anything in this book. After three reads, I still feel as if I missed plenty.
@devilgate I found the adaptation really disappointing. It covers the first two books, i.e. this one and The Likeness. I felt that it didn’t capture much of their strangeness, their off-kilter quality. The characters seemed no different from those you’d expect to find in any run-of-the-mill police procedural.