Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

L'arbre du mal by Tana French

21 reviews

stjohnswarts's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This book is dark, even for Tana French - particularly the ending. Her books rarely have happy endings but man. She’s great at writing hugely unlikeable characters and then throwing so much shit at them that by the end you just feel sorry for them more than anything else.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Self harm, Blood, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

krissymcgeehan's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Sexual assault, Suicide, Violence, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

allynat's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcoholism, Self harm, and Alcohol

wizcarlyfuh's review against another edition

emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Terminal illness, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Murder and Injury/Injury detail

seadeepy's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Bullying, Cancer, Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Terminal illness, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Drug use, Sexual assault, Grief, Stalking, Gaslighting, and Classism

Minor: Self harm, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

corncake's review against another edition

mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

Excellent characterization, but the pacing of this book is painfully slow. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Cancer, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Blood, Medical content, Grief, and Alcohol

Minor: Homophobia, Misogyny, Self harm, and Vomit

cfell's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Self harm

surefinewhatever_'s review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

Thanks, I hated it.

Let me start with the one redeeming quality of this book, Tana French can write a damn house! Just like the home in The Likeness, I could picture the Ivy House perfectly! It was cozy (until it wasn’t) and atmospheric and just so vibrantly written. 

But that skill is not enough to save this book. Not only is every single character (except Hugo, whom I felt affection for and wanted to see more of) unlikeable, but our protagonist is the *most* unlikeable of the bunch. Seriously. Irredeemably so. I guessed the killer prior to the reveal, but that’s not saying a whole lot as this book is SLOW. And lastly, though frankly most importantly, this book is ableist and fatphobic as FUCK. Like, jarringly so. I felt like I was constantly being pulled out of the story because I was taken aback by the ableist comments. Bad bad bad.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Cancer, Death, Drug use, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Fatphobia

ellipalmer's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

It's hard to say much about what I liked about The Witch Elm without venturing into topics that feel like spoilers. It took about 150 pages to get to the meat of the story, which felt like a long time. If it were another author who I didn't know I might have felt annoyed, but in my experience Tana French knows what she's doing. While I still feel like the first 1/3 dragged a bit, pushing through definitely paid off. The writing is top knotch, French a master of plot and psychologically complex character development. I watched an interview with her where she said that she's less interested in "who did it" than "who the detective is" and the impact of the mystery/story on the person trying to work their way through it and find the truth. I think that's what makes her stories so good. You want to know who did it, but the payoff is deeper and longer lasting because solving the mystery doesn't put the world back in order. The detective is forever changed and solving the case doesn't bring the satisfaction and closure they hoped it would. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Terminal illness, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Addiction, Bullying, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

vanlaire's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail