I did enjoy this book, but felt confused in parts and couldn't follow along. For this reason, I gave it a 4*. I would still recommend this book to my family and friends.

I liked Eleanor Catton’s The Rehearsal a lot, and while this is equally well written, I didn’t find it to be particularly successful.

Tech/capitalism skewering is a popular subject for novels these days, and while the spirit of books like this always feels correct, the actual experience of reading them usually winds up being tedious and either too clumsily on the nose (like this one) or too wonky and abstract, I’m not sure where the ideal balance lands, but authors seem to be struggling to find it:

Despite the titular reference, this also didn’t feel especially Shakespearean, and the plot felt too predictable and isn’t anything particularly unique.

I think it’s fine to make a statement with the subject of a novel, but it still has to be a good read, and this one is a lot longer on message than it is on reader experience. There’s no arguing that Catton writes sharply and evocatively, but the plot is a miss.

Following on from her Booker Prize-winning THE LUMINARIES, which the author herself described as an 'astrological historical murder mystery', Eleanor Catton takes a turn by delivering her version of a slow-burn psychological thriller, as an activist horticultural group becomes entwined with, and comes up against, a foreign billionaire. Catton draws readers into a fascinating tale with her skilfully rendered characters and wonderful writing, Bubbling beneath are a variety of modern and timeless issues, nods to Shakespeare (esp Macbeth) and more. An intriguing, very well written novel from an extremely talented author.

Birnam Wood is one of my favorite reads of 2023. I found it captivating- it took me a good 20-30 pages to get into it, but then I tore through it so quickly. It is smart and witty and oh so dark. If this is where we are heading with climate fiction, I'm all in. My book club was similarly struck by it, and I think this is a book that bears a lot of discussion (though maybe your group isn't so lucky to be full of Shakespeare snobs and librarians as mine). Five stars!

I honestly did not expect to enjoy this book so thoroughly. I didn't have much connection or sympathy for the characters from the outset and even though I do not need to like the characters to like a book, I thought I was in for a long ride. I was proved to be wrong. The story of Birnam Wood was told with such intrigue that it sucked me right in.

Eleanor Catton is a genius at crafting compelling, believable character dynamics. This novel feels fresh and urgent, and the ending gut-wrenching but entirely justified.

Thank you @netgalley for the Advanced Reader Copy of Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton. It is the story of a group of guerilla gardeners who find empty land and plant things on it, because they believe that capitalism is the enemy, and anyone should have access to land. I got through maybe 30% of it and then DNF'd. I had a hard time following the characters, and an even harder time caring about them. Possibly will try it at another time.

I was so excited to read this. The story immediately hooked you in with rich characters and their world. I enjoyed learning what motivates them and about their relationships and connections with each other. It was a very character driven plot.

And then. And then the hook fell off. The story began to slog and I lost all interest. It took a weird turn and I wondered if I was reading the same book. There were twists and turns that felt far fetched and forced. In the end I couldn’t tell you what was up or down or the point of it all.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for providing me the ARC for review.

This is a book that seamlessly intertwines the beauty of nature with a gripping mystery, creating a reading experience that is both enchanting and thought-provoking. Set against the backdrop of the eponymous forest, the narrative unfolds with a poetic grace that captures the essence of the woods. The author's vivid descriptions breathe life into the natural surroundings, making the forest a character in its own right. From the rustling leaves to the dappling sunlight, every detail is meticulously crafted, immersing readers in the atmospheric splendor of this novel. The plot weaves a captivating tale of intrigue and discovery, as characters delve into the mysteries concealed within the heart of the forest. The pacing is expertly calibrated, allowing suspense to build organically while maintaining a sense of wonder. The author skillfully blends elements of mystery, folklore, and the supernatural, creating a narrative that keeps readers eagerly turning pages. Character development is a strong suit of "Birnam Wood," with each protagonist contributing a unique perspective to the unfolding mystery. The ensemble cast brings diversity to the story, and their individual journeys are interwoven seamlessly. The emotional depth of the characters adds resonance to the overarching narrative, ensuring that readers invest not only in the mystery but also in the fates of those navigating the woods. 4.5 rounded up!

Admittedly it took me ages to read this. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't a highly-compelling page-turner with the pace of a thriller and the heart of great literary fiction. Highly recommended!

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing an advance copy in exchange for honest feedback.

Can't tell if this book is a brilliant reminder of the perils of climate change and the responsibility we all hold to preserve and protect our world, or a lazy plot with an abrupt ending (devolves into a caper, then an apocalyptic slash). Catton's an intellectual and thought-provoking writer, and the New Zealand setting a smart and interesting perspective.

For years I’ve wanted to read Catton’s tome, The Luminaries, but by waiting so long, along came Birnam Wood, a book that spoke, in many ways, directly to my life.

… their real objective, as they understood it, was to help an alliance of western nations work in secret to wrest rare-earth market dominance away from China, securing a rare-earth supply chain, from mine to magnet, for the United States.

This quote seems to mirror my current reality, except Catton got it wrong.

For me, it’s Canadian copper mine, Faraday, “exploring” (i.e. destroying) the mountain range in front of my home that I love so dearly… (only this company is sending our U.S. “domestic” copper away to Asia – to China – whereby the US has zero benefit, and our government allows it to happen under the guise of “We need this copper for green energy in the US”). All around us, in Arizona, is this reality: Canadian-, Mexican-, Australian-, and UK-owned mines paying little to no export taxes for our resources, thanks to 1872 mining laws still intact. Pure profit to foreign entities, while “green” energy, with its thirst for copper, devastates the sensitive, riparian desert environment that supports millions of migratory birds from South America. I digress… or maybe I don’t.

This story is about capitalistic greed and emphasizes the race to control the world’s mineral resources. Hmm. Sounds hauntingly familiar.

Unfortunately, that’s mostly where it ends regarding a gelling between me and this book. Sure, there are millennials in this novel concerned about helping the Earth (I am not a millennial, but have the same passionate concerns, as an old tree-hugger, who, once upon a time, would have bought an electric vehicle, not knowing their cost on the environment).

So there was that common environmental concern. But there also was lots of whining and finger-pointing at my generation for the cause of global warming and capitalistic greed (funny – as a Gen X’er, I could finger-point all the way back to the Industrial Revolution, or colonialism, or maybe more accurately, European/Christian beliefs about dominion over the Earth).

Who knows. Maybe Catton is making fun of her own generation. Or maybe she’s further magnifying her generation’s anger toward the previous generation (which so much literary fiction does today). We all have a lot to be angry about as the world warms and greed seems to be the uniting factor between all nations.

What I do know with certainty is that I felt the author’s “voice” throughout this entire book, instead of the characters’ voices; I’ve watched recordings of Catton at speaking events and she’s intelligent AF. There are plenty of intelligent people in this world, but I have a hard time believing that every, single 20- to 30-something in an illegal “farming-to-do-good” cooperative is going to be a great philosopher and deep, existential thinker.

They all spoke (and ruminated in their heads) like they had Ph.Ds. or studied with the world’s great philosophers. That was a mega slow-down in my enjoyment of this book and killed much of its authenticity for me. Sure, you’ll have some brilliant people in every group, but not all of them experts on political ideology. That and the fact that the novel is painfully slow to take off. I started on e-book, and it just wasn’t working. So I moved to audio. And that, too, had my mind wandering off to anything but what I was listening to. I switched back to reading, then back to audio and finally I was able to stick with it. In the end, I’d have been happy to finish it, because the middle actually got interesting and intense. But then… the ending…

I will leave you with ellipses because the ending infuriated me. I’m still parsing out what it meant. I think I know. I think it might be accurate in answering “is the world worth fighting for?” question. But from a craft perspective and, in fairness to readers, it was a cop out.

So, why a “3” (translated as liked)? Because I appreciate books that tackle humanity’s tendency toward self-interest over the good of many; that tackle greed; that tackle environmental issues; that shine a spotlight on mining greed and habitat destruction. Sure, the writing could feel pretentious at times, but – in all reality – I liked the last third of the book immensely. Mostly.

This didn't work for me for a number of reasons that I've been trying to articulate about the state of modern literary fiction. And I know it's not fair to hang all of my complaints on this one novel, but this is the novel that helped me finally shape the thought. In the last three years, I've read more novels that I hate than novels that I love and they all have something in common with Birnam Wood. these books are not character focused, or plot driven. Rather, they are social commentary with character and plot hung over them like a hat and a scarf.

This book has a lot to say about the relationship between capitalism and activism and a lot to say about the nature of how ideological purity clashes with practicality. Two philosophical concepts that I am extremely interested in. The problem comes when Catton's narration refuses to let that conflict play out naturally in the character's actions and development. Instead, numerous pages are spent giving the characters space to psychoanalyze themselves internally in a way that doesn't move anything forward. It doesn't feel necessary to spend paragraph after paragraph explaining how Tony feels about being financially well off while crafting an image that says otherwise when we can see that insecurity play out perfectly well through his actions and dialogue.

There is a significant lack of editing here and the end result is a book that feels like the author had character biographies written that accidentally got left in the final draft.

Birnam Wood is a reference to the Scottish forest near Dunsinane Hill, a key element in Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

Eleanor Catton, in her latest multilayered and thought-provoking literary thriller, skillfully integrates elements of “Macbeth.” The story is set in New Zealand and revolves around an idealistic anti-capitalist guerrilla gardening group called Birnam Wood, led by Mira Bunting. This group often engages in illegal crop cultivation on unused land. When a landslide isolates the town of Thorndike on New Zealand’s South Island, Mira sees an opportunity for her group to expand on an abandoned farm owned by businessman Owen Darvish. However, it turns out that Darvish has sold the farm to American billionaire Robert Lemoine, who plans to build a bunker there.

The story takes unexpected turns and explores uncharted territory, with the clash of strong-willed individuals who don’t see eye to eye resulting in mind-boggling consequences.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for sending a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Eleanor Catton’s most recent novel, Birnam Wood, seems destined to achieve the same literary and critical acclaim as her first two novels, The Rehearsal and The Luminaries. Since its publication only a few short months ago it has been hailed as a “best book of the year(so far)” and a “must read” by many leading critics and publications and already is a finalist for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction and a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice. This hefty novel, weighing in at over 425 pages (almost half as many as the Man Booker Prize winning The Luminaries) deserves all of the credit it has received thus far.

The book is inventive, compelling, and wonderfully complex, full of twists and turns from beginning to end. It takes its name from a passage in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, in which one of the witches exhorts Macbeth to “Be lion-mettled, proud . . . and take no care where conspirers are. Macbeth shall never vanquish’d be until Great Birnam Wood to High Dunsinane Hill shall come against him.” Macbeth responds that “That will never be! Who can impress the forest, bid the tree unfix his earth-bound root?” Macbeth believes himself invincible because logically a forest cannot be moved and carried to where he, in his castle sits. Yet, that is exactly what happens when an attacking army sent to destroy him is told literally to cut down the boughs of nearby trees and use them to conceal themselves until they reach the castle. Cleverly, this passage portends the plot of Ms. Catton’s novel, though it doesn’t become clear until the novel’s very end. I found this to be absolutely fascinating, and I highly recommend reading this brilliantly executed book.

My sincerest apologies for the late response to the review. I sincerely appreciate the opportunity to review this book early and have an eARC, and I also have a signed copy from the author herself. My life got extraordinarily busy around this time.

But on to what you're actually here for. My review of this wild book.

I absolutely loved it.

The author had me in the first half not going to lie to you. It was one of those intricately paced books where everything was being carefully laid out. Mira, Tony, Shelley, Lemoine and even the Darvishes all basically have their life stories and motivations boiled down to their simplest atoms. However, Catton basically uses all of this set up against you and unleashes one of the most chaotic, bait and switch final acts I've ever read in my entire life. I mean this is a novel in which literally every character is hiding something from someone, and everyone motivations and actions are completely slippery. Lemoine views an interaction totally different than Mira and vice versa and they all have such polar opposite goals from each other that it all leads to their spectacular downfall by the end of the book.

Catton is a genius. This book is incredibly intelligent and so thrilling that by the end of it I was dreading turning pages because there was no way it was going to end well. Everything was sizing up to be a Shakespearean tragedy in terms of the ending and Catton delivered sevenfold.

Thank you to Netgalley and FSG for this ARC. My deepest apologies once again for the incredibly late response.

as a shakespeare lover, i was incredibly excited to read this book from the title alone. the book started off a bit slowly, but catton's writing is easy to get immersed in as the plot moves along. everything felt very careful and deliberately planned—an element i love in mystery books. i do wish lemonie had been a bit more of a nuanced villain. i feel like the plot was so well thought out and as a reader that was great to see, but i wish the same energy had been shared for characters as well.

This book was hard for me to get into at first. Then the story grew on me. Definitely pick this up if you like satire and commentary on modern life.

Overall, I did enjoy this story—it raised some good questions and I was surprised by how tense the final act of the book was—but I found it to be too talky and the ending too abrupt.

3.5/5