The Witch Elm

I despair over Goodreads' blunt rating system. I want to give this a 3.8/5; it feels like an crucial distinction to me.

I benefitted from having read some reviews of the book prior to reading, which in effect warned me that the mystery of this novel was much less compelling than those of previous French books, and I think that appropriately adjusted my expectations. But I also knew that Tana French is a writer whose works I would appreciate having read regardless of how compelling I found the plot lines, because they are secondary to her writing style and her characterizations and her deep understanding of human nature. (Off the top of my head, Jane Austen, Ian McEwan, Roxane Gay, and Donna Tartt fall in this category. The Tartt-French comparison feels particularly apt to me. Secret History vs. The Likeness, anyone?)

Mystery aside, I think this book is at its best when it illustrates the discomfiting fact that random events can so thoroughly shape a life, and how privilege and circumstance of birth can impede a narrator's ability to understand half of what's going on around him at any given time.