I have trouble remembering why I was so excited about Catton’s third novel that I put it on my Most Anticipated list for 2023, especially given my decidedly mixed feelings about The Luminaries (my most popular Goodreads review of all time!). I’d read a lot about Birnam Wood so its plot held no surprises for me. An American tech billionaire is up to no good on a New Zealand nature reserve; though the members of a guerrilla gardening group summon courage to fight back, his drones see all.

From early on I had little interest in the cast and their doings, especially the buzzword-filled dialogues, and skimmed the rest. Literary fiction usually distinguishes itself from commercial genre fiction by its focus on character depth (and prose quality), but in Catton’s case that was achieved through endless backstory. Her attempt at edginess entails adding at least one F-word to each spoken sentence. I’d heard that the ending was a knockout, so I skipped ahead and did find the last 40 pages gripping and the gruesome final tableau worthy of the Shakespearean allusions, but there’s a lot of blah to wade through before that.

This felt like I was reading a book at a rapid pace, even if it was quite dense and very layered. I was not familiar with the author previously but will definitely be on the lookout for more and also go back and read The Luminaries. This wasnt always an easy read (like I said fast paced in terms of writing but did need a breather here and to here) but worth it. 3 stars.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Farrar, Strous and Giroux for the ARC of this book.

Wow! I haven't read The Luminaries yet but Eleanor Catton, but if it's anything like this book, I better get my thinking cap on.

First off, great idea! Secondly, if you get through the beginning, and trust me it's hard but not in a boring way, you'll wind up finishing this book but not where it started.

Is this book blurbed as a crime story? Someone told me not to read the blurb going into it because they didn't think I'd like it. I did like it.

This group who are anarchists, speechy, do criminal things..sometimes and collectively gardeners plant things all around. Every space that they think is not being used for the greater good. Even if that space is on private property, and they abhor how the rich don't use every resource on their acres so they plant everywhere they can. When natural disaster strikes, a landslide it closes off farmland that's abandoned.Now they have a place to stay and grow, but they are running out of money.

Than, American billionaire buys the land to build a bunker for HIS end of the world plans and when he catches Mira snooping, well all sorts of things happen. I love when Catton throws a wrench in plans and she does so often.

I loved how sCatton portrayed the characters, Every facet of them. Mira and Shelley's growing grudge also kept me going. The tension could be cut by a knife.

I really liked this book even though yes the prose was long, and now i want to read The Luminaries. 3.8 stars rounded to a 4. I recommend this book with a good dose of patience!. I will say stick with it, you may just like it.

Birnam Wood is a collective, one of those groups where all decisions are voted on and the chair of meetings rotates around the membership, at least half of whom are vegan. But really Mira is the driving force. This guerrilla gardening collective is her idea and it's her energy that drives in on. Shelley is the one who does all the administrative tasks and makes Mira's ideas work. But it's never been self-sustaining and now Shelley wants to leave. She hasn't told Mira yet, but Mira can see the cracks as well as anyone. And then Mira finds a perfect place to do some larger scale gardening and there's even a billionaire there who is talking about funding them in a way that could really get the project from a volunteer project to a viable concern. Of course, this means trusting the kind of person Mira had always considered the enemy and hiding a few details from the rest of [Birnam Wood], but this is far too good an opportunity to turn down, isn't it?

Eleanor Catton's book is one that begins as a character study of a diverse array of stock characters, to a sort of eco-thriller in its final third. Does it work as a novel? Yes and also I expected more from Catton, a superlatively gifted writer who gave us both the unsettling The Rehersal and the expansive and intricate The Luminaries. I do like what Catton attempted here, with all the many characters going in their many directions and the way she is poking gentle fun at the dynamics of groups and left-leaning individuals, and less gentle fun at the wealthy. Her plot was improbable, but she wrote it so well that I was able to go with it. It was ham-fisted at times, but within acceptable limits. Which is to say, had the author been anyone else, I would have had a more favorable opinion of it, but is it fair to hold Catton to a higher standard when even a great author is going to have less-than-great books? After all, I honestly enjoyed this novel.

The first few chapters into the book I didn’t know if I would like it. As each character developed, I became more engaged. Overall, a decent plot. I was extremely disconcerted and frustrated with the ending. I can’t say more without spoiling things. Thanks to NetGalley for a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

“Birnam Wood” by Eleanor Catton is a literary thriller set in a gardening collective in New Zealand. The story involves two young idealistic young women who unfortunately get tangled up with an eccentric billionaire up to no good. It was a slow burn, but extremely well written book. I really enjoyed the writing.

An interesting cast of characters: anarchist rebel gardeners, an uber wealthy gazillionaire with zero scruples, and a recently knighted social climber and his lady wife. They all collide in this unpredictable narrative set in New Zealand.

A recent landslide has isolated the wilderness where the story takes place, allowing the plot to take off into absurd-land. But with our aforementioned gazillionaire's dollars (he's American, of course), anything is possible.

Catton examines all sides of her characters. They are fully realized, the good and the bad. The book is serious (we're looking at the intersections of environmental stewardship, ecological disaster and obscene wealth) but funny. Some of the scenes are just berserk. Catton maintains this balance through to the very last page.

My thanks to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the ARC.

I loved The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton, with its Victorian pastiche and painstakingly plotted mystery. While Birnam Wood is brilliantly written, the plot never really grabbed me and held my attention the way a thriller should.

The beginning of BW is an overwhelming barrage of information — characters’ opinions, pasts, and motivations all given in rapid concession. While Catton is great at giving readers an in-depth look at the psych of her characters, it felt like too much right off the bat. Despite the rapid fire of information, the beginning/middle of the book is very slow plot-wise. The story does not really get moving until about 75% in.

I did appreciate the backstory later in the novel because this book mirrors Macbeth beautifully in that all of the character's wants and desires (their fatal flaw) end up culminating in a very bloody, traumatic end for all involved. I didn’t have an issue with the ending, but I would have loved more tie-in/connection back to the larger themes of the book.

I also loved the in-depth look at the cultural and political life of New Zealand. However, I did have to do a lot of googling to really understand the connections Catton was making, which took me out of the story and felt a little tedious at times.

Thank you to NetGalley and Farrar, Status and Giroux for the eARC.

I found this book extremely slow to start. There was so much backstory that I almost gave up on it, but the pace definitely picked up after the first section. Once the story got established, I did find it intriguing and was anxious to figure out the mysterious circumstances.

Eleanor Catton’s Birnam Wood is a must-read novel for all who like intellectual thrillers and unexpected endings. Catton provides just enough hints of the intense thriller to come as she takes readers through background material early in the book. Although I was initially surprised by long, seeming digressions into character’s thoughts, I soon began to appreciate the insights into the main characters—their backgrounds, their ways of thinking, their history with Birnam Wood, and the history of their relationships with one another. I was especially struck by Catton’s effective contrast between the flowing background sentences with which she introduced the characters’ thoughts and the frequently halting, colloquial dialogue that mirrors the way people often speak.

Mira Bunting founded Birnam Wood, a gardening collective that grows herbs and vegetables wherever it can find free space. Shelley Noakes, a long-term volunteer, wants to leave. Tony Gallo, a former member, has returned to New Zealand after several years in Mexico. Each of them has secrets, Each makes wrong assumptions influencing his or her thinking and behavior.

Birnam Wood is in danger of financial collapse if it can’t find a way to grow more crops to sell. An opportunity arises when an earthquake causes landslides that close roads and largely cut off a large farm abandoned by its owner, Owen Darvish, due to the landslides. What if Birnam made use of that privately owned land sure to be abandoned for months if not years until roads are cleared and repaired? As Mira travels to check it out the Korowai farm site, she discovers Robert Lemoine on the land. A self-declared survivalist and owner of Autonomo, a drone manufacturer, Lemoine is in the process of buying Darvish’s land to build a luxury bunker, or so he says.

Mira takes up Lemoine’s offer to show him what Birnam Wood can do, and she recruits a group of volunteers eager to camp on the land, grow crops on a larger scale, and make Birnam Wood solvent, maybe even successful. However, nothing is quite what it seems to the characters and to the reader. Strange things are happening on the farm in in neighboring Korowai National Park. Suspense is building.

Catton divides the novel into three numbered parts, the first ending with the tense meeting in which Birnam Wood eventually votes to take on the new project and the second with a shocking moment leading into the increasingly suspenseful third. By the time you reach the final part, prepare to stay up until you have finished the book. On the other hand, perhaps it's better not to read the ending before bed. As I did, you might have a sleepless night.

Thanks to NetGalley and Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux for an advance reader copy of this suspenseful new novel by Eleanor Catton, Booker Prize winning author of The Luminaries.

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Thank you to FSG and NetGalley for the ARC!

The Luminaries is one of my favorite books of all time and I was very excited to see that Elanor Catton wrote another book. This one is very unique about murder, money, guerrilla gardening, living off of the land and more. I loved every minute of it!

I wasn’t prepared for Birnam Wood, for its pure entertainment and delightfully mean-spirited snipes. I couldn’t put this book down and kept coming back to it whenever I had a moment. I wanted not only to find out what happened but also enjoyed the many different conversations characters had about big themes like purpose, activism, social responsibility, economics, privilege, etc.

And it all ends with a memorable ending that will definitely create lots of discussion. I will be pushing to read this one for book club!

I always love a thriller book, and especially love reading one of these books when the length of the novel, itself, is just the right length. Not too long and not too short. Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton kept me hooked from start to finish and I am so appreciative of my advanced reader access. I am so thankful to the author, NetGalley, and FSG/Macmillan.

A gorgeously written novel, with all of the ambitious plotwork one expects of Catton. What stands out most is how sharply observant Birnam Wood is -- of our most human contradicts, desires, and entanglements. Catton is a deft mimic of contemporary political archetypes, imbuing each with an arresting realism. A timely page-turner.

What an utterly and compulsively readable novel! This is my first Eleanor Catton book and I'm so glad I picked it up. The premise, plot, characters, and prose are all working together to create an elevated piece of literary fiction that completely surprised me. It is slightly dense, but full of thoughtful ideas and compelling dialogue that it kept me raptured.

Set in New Zealand, the story centers around two women who have started a guerrilla gardening collective. Things aren't going great and Mira decides that she needs to get in bed (literally and figuratively) with a mysterious American billionaire she happens across while doing surveillance. He strangely offers to fund their project, a a lang that he (maybe?) owns, and things spiral from there. Told from various perspectives, including an old member of the collective who has recently shown back up after years of being way, this is a book that is hard to classify. It is part crime, part social drama, part liberal manifesto. It is brimming with ideas and the story is completely unexpected. I loved it.

This novel was a really slow start for me. The narrative was super long, and there were so few page breaks it sometimes felt like explanations went on forever.

While I liked the idea of the story, I didn’t love that we got the “bad guys” POV and knew what he was up to the entire time. It took all the mystery out of the mystery thriller.

While there was some suspense throughout the story, it didn’t really get intense until the last 80% when things started to get out of our villain’s control. But then everything just kind of fell apart, and the ending surprised me, and then it did just that, ended, and I felt a little unsatisfied with the ending. It didn’t feel like anything was truly accomplished, or if it was we don’t get any sort of look at the aftermath.

As for characters, I like when characters are flawed, but most of the characters in this book are at all likable.

I also felt there was some pieces of the story that got a little “You” (book version, I haven’t see the show) where things are just a little too easy to coverup. And you’re like would that ACTUALLY happen that way that easily? How did no one get caught? And why are these characters just so accepting and okay with how this all played out? And they weren’t at all afraid of the villain, they were skeptical but also seemed to not really care?

Overall, I didn’t LOVE this. It was an interesting read once I got myself to just sit down and read it through. It was very slow up until about 60%, then speeds up. If you love typical thrillers, this takes a different approach and it might be something for you to try out, but it wasn’t for me.

3.5🌟

Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton is a clever novel, and I mostly enjoyed it, but sometimes it seems to get lost in itself. I think it would have benefitted from streamlining.

Thanks to Farrar Straus and Giroux and Netgalley for providing the advance copy of Eleanor Catton’s new novel. I really enjoyed it. I thought she did a great job capturing the zeitgeist of the moment about environmentalism and capitalism. The main characters were interesting and their thoughts and dialogue rang true to me. I wasn’t enamored of the ending, but that’s mainly because it didn’t end in the way I wanted, so that’s on me. I liked this enough that I may go back and tackle The Luminaries (I’ve started that a few times without finishing). Highly recommend this for all.

If I could split 𝗕𝗜𝗥𝗡𝗔𝗠 𝗪𝗢𝗢𝗗 by Eleanor Catton down the middle into two different books, there'd be one I struggled mightily with and another I enjoyed. So, let’s go with that for a bit. The first half of the book sets everything up for the second half as we’re introduced to its main characters. On one side we have Mira, Shelley and Tony all members of an underground gardening collective in New Zealand. On the other side are Darvish, the current owner of a plot of land they’re using without his knowledge, and Lemoines, the mega rich American who wants the land for his own big $$$ purposes. The problem with all that set up? For me, it was just WAY TOO wordy. So much unnecessary background and unimportant tangents. I would have DNF’d, but had seen good reviews, so kept going.⁣
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The second half, though never fast, at least had a lot of action and real storylines that could keep me engaged. Everyone in the story was a bit of a stereotype and their roles played out as such, but it was a crazy ride, making the ending fun. I especially appreciated that the character I most disliked throughout the book totally surprised me in the end. That, coupled with the story’s latent action 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 saved it for me. As for its Shakespearean comparisons, I think those are what worked to make the first half so dense and slow. Overall, I’m sort of on the fence with this one. ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫⁣⁣⁣
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Thanks to @fsgbooks for an electronic ARC of #BirnamWood.

Each one of Eleanor Catton's novels is different and every one of them has been a treat. The Luminaries will always be my favorite, but Birnam Wood is a close second.

Birnam Wood is marketed as an environmental mystery. The title, besides referring to Macbeth, is the name of a activist environmental collective, which plants sanctioned gardens but also takes over unused green spaces for crops. Mira, the group's founder, has struggled to break even with the group, resorting to stealing much of what the group needs. But then, a mysterious American billionaire offers the group the chance of a lifetime. Mira and the group must decide whether they should compromise their values for this opportunity.

Catton is so good at writing complex characters, and that's where my love for the book lies. When each character is introduced, they are not clearly "good" or "bad". Even as the story progresses, the information we learn about each character continues to paint most of them as morally gray (except for one, but no spoilers here).

Even more than that, I was gripped by the story. Though the summary presents a simple plot, there are so many threads that Catton weaves together in a complex web that makes the book hard to put down. The way the plot shifts between the different characters seamlessly reminded me of a movie, or a Jane Austen novel.I didn't see a couple of the twists coming and the ending is positively explosive. This would be a great book to discuss for a bookclub.

Thanks to the publisher for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

This is a book that takes a bit of time to pick up speed, because it features a broad cast of characters and we seem to spend time in their heads as we first get to know that. Once all the characters are in play, though, it moves at a rapid pace.

Mira, Shelley, Tony and several others are Birnam Wood, a guerilla gardening collective. Robert Lemoine is a billionaire who is ostensibly up to kooky billionaire things but is actually up to the run-of-the-mill, evil-mastermind billionaire type things--like illegally extracting rare minerals from a national park in New Zealand. Sir Owen Darvish owns a farm on the edge of the national park--perfect for both Birnam Wood's guerilla gardening schemes and Robert's need for a cover story. When these worlds collide on Darvish's property, it's a clash of ideals, politics, wealth, and morals--all leading to an inevitable combustion.

I had no idea where this was headed in the early chapters or who I was meant to be rooting for; everyone was ripe for skewering. (I am not sure, by the end, that anyone comes out the winner--but some are definitely more villain than others.) All the time spent getting to know the characters from the inside early on paid off in the later chapters, through escalating conflicts and cascading criminal activities.

It was easy for me to put the book down in the first of the three sections. I can imagine some readers will abandon it early on, but it's the kind of book that rewards you for sticking around. It's also the kind of book that sticks with you even after you've finished. It's provocative, at any rate, and an interesting, provocative, and often cinematic story like this is worth the read.