In the Woods by Tana French

In the Woods by Tana French

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Ooh. You know how sometimes you read or watch a story a lot, because everyone has a version, and it's never good, and so you start assuming that the not goodness is inherent to the story rather than the tellers? And then someone comes along and does it so well that all you can do is say "oh," and go meekly away to think about it?

Yeah. The story is the one about the cop investigating a modern-day murder that intersects with a traumatic, unsolved crime from his childhood. And this book is the one that does it right.

And by 'right,' I mean ouch. This is a grinding, mesmerizing portrait of slow destruction. And one of the sharpest portrayals of the long-term effects of PTSD on personality I've ever read. It's also related by an unreliable narrator who is pitched so well, actual chills went down my spine when the shape of one of his lies to me became clear.

I'm making this sound harrowing, which it kind of is. But it's also clever and grimly funny and smart. I finished it a week ago, and little pieces of it keep clicking into place even now, illuminating the picture in new ways.

Seriously, the next time some cop procedural pitches one of these 'cop with a past' stories during sweeps, I'm not even going to be able to watch and make fun, because now I know how good this story can be.




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