In The Woods - Tana French *some VERY minor spoilers!*

[melrose226]

Believe it or not, this was an assigned reading in my college honors english class. Before you read any further, you should know that it is, without a doubt, my favorite thing I've ever read for school, and I have read a LOT for school (I'm the nerd who took extra english classes in high school just because she wanted to see what they were like). So keep in mind, no matter what I say in the review below, I actually did love this book.

Detective Rob (or, if you prefer, Adam) Ryan is a freaking idiot. Now, that doesn't mean he is a horrible detective, or a bad guy, or a lackluster main character. In contrast, he is a fairly good detective, a decent guy, and a BRILLIANT main character...which is probably why I'm so frustrated with him in general.

I don't have a huge amount of patience for people who overreact to things. Yes, Ryan has a bit more leeway to overreact than most, because when he was twelve he lived through a horrendous and traumatic nightmare event in which his two best friends vanished and were never heard from again (these aren't spoilers, they're right there on the back of the book). So when Ryan started being rather....unstable once he began investigating Katy Devlin's murder in the exact same place where his friends vanished twenty-three years before, I accepted it, because it seemed realistic. But then he starts getting pretty freaked out and bizarre over some things that should decidedly NOT leave a person freaked out and bizarre, and I started to get annoyed. And then the end of the book came and most of what happened was his fault and I got REALLY REALLY ANNOYED.

Something else you should know: I can't and won't give too much away here because of spoilers, but if you're the kind of person (like me) who likes pretty neatly wrapped up endings, be prepared to be frustrated as can be with this book. I'm not saying don't read it, because it's a brilliantly written, perfectly heartbreaking, and surprisingly hilarious read, but read with caution, because there is a chance you'll want to throw the book at something in the end, and I wouldn't want you to accidentally break a lamp.

Rating: Pretty solid 4.5 stars, if I wasn't so frustrated with certain events it would probably be 5.

[gali]

Duplication