A review by remlezar
In the Woods by Tana French

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

What starts as an intriguing double mystery -- what happened with the primary murder the detectives are working on AND what the hell happened with the main character as a child?? -- becomes something more like an autopsy of the main character. I personally loved this, but could also understand how someone might find this frustrating. Especially since there's much more abstraction and vagueness in some aspects of the story where the reader might be wishing for something more concrete. 

I loved it and found it tragic and heartbreaking, even beyond the obvious reasons. 

Spoilers below:

I love Cassie as a character and ultimately think where she ends up makes sense and is good for her, but am so sad for Rob/Adam. Much like the young murder victim of the case Rob and Cassie are working to solve, Adam had his childhood taken away from him through no fault of his own. He did not die, but instead ended up in a state of arrested development. Emotionally stunted and unable to understand others, even as an adult, he is never able to move past this enough for anything to change for him. 

He's an ass, so to reiterate I'm not saying I wish he ended up with Cassie at the end of the story, but the fact that he is unable to mentally get his shit together, even at the very end, is so gut wrenching and tragic to me. Learning that he's not a part of the next book in the series made this aspect of the book even sadder, because it means there is no possibility for the audience to get to see anything ever get better for him down the line. :(