An interesting look at post-trauma stress.

Toby has managed to save his job after some rather clever analysis as to why his boss, Richard should not fire him. He’s so pleased with the fact, that instead of simply a few drinks with his friends, Dec and Sean, he gets very drunk and instead of going to his girlfriend, Melissa’s, he decides to return to his own flat. Mistakes that are going to have serious repercussions for him as two yobs break in and he tries to stop them resulting in him being seriously injured, causing very serious brain injuries.

When he eventually leaves the hospital, his memory is still very patchy. He has developed a limp and slurred speech. Physiotherapy helps, but with the brain damage, it’s decided that he can’t return to work immediately. Instead, he moves in with his uncle Hugo, who has been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. Hugo has always been the rock not only in Toby’s life but also for his cousins, Susanna and Leon. They are similar in age and since early childhood has spent all their holidays with Hugo at Ivy House.

Zach and Sallie, Susanna’s children are exploring the garden at Ivy House. The adults here a scream and discover that Zach while exploring the mighty cavity within the Wych Elm, has dislodged a skull. The police are called and a body is discovered hidden in the Wych Elm. It turns out that it’s a boy who went to school with the three cousins. Why would he be hidden in their uncle’s tree?

I’m still in two minds about this book. I loved the characters, especially Melissa, Toby’s girlfriend. However, I found a lot of the story repetitive, the drinking, smoking dope and trying to suss out the identity of the murderer. I found myself saying, “Not again!” many times during the five-hundred-odd pages but was scared that if I skipped some of the narratives, I might miss an important piece of information. On reflection, I could have easily sped-read lots of the dialogue!

There have been rave reviews of this book. Would I want to add my voice to them? The idea of finding a skeleton buried in a family garden was brilliant and that alone deserves five stars. The discovery of the real murderer was also unexpected, but it’s the bits in-between that annoyed and bored me to tears.

Treebeard

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.

The Wych Elm by Tana French is a long book and it starts very slowly, so it’s a book to savour rather than one to rush through. I was engrossed in this psychological thriller, a standalone book, as dark family secrets gradually came to light. It isn’t a page-turner and yet it is full of mystery and suspense about a family in crisis.

Toby Hennessy, the narrator, is twenty eight. He’s a good looking and charming young man from an affluent and supportive family who love him. He has had an easy start to life, everything had just seemed to fall into place for him. He works for an art gallery in the centre of Dublin, where he does the gallery’s PR and is thinking of getting a place together with his girl friend, Melissa. But then his luck and his life change dramatically when he is brutally attacked by burglars in his flat, leaving him in a terrible state, physically and psychologically damaged. The first mystery is to find out why he was burgled and so savagely beaten. The police investigation doesn’t get very far and Toby is left to solve it himself – for a while at least.

He then learns that his Uncle Hugo has terminal cancer and he and Melissa go to stay with him at the Hennessy family home, the Ivy House, to care for Hugo and to recuperate. Their large family – his parents, his aunts and uncles, and his cousins, Susanna and Leo – descend on Ivy House for lunch every Sunday and one Sunday afternoon Susanna’s young children discover a human skull in the hollow trunk of a wych elm, the biggest tree in the garden.

So there is a second mystery to be solved – and one that is slowly unravelled taking Toby back to his teenage years and he realises that there was so much going on in his friends’ and cousins’ lives that he had just not known about. It’s as though he was cocooned within his own comfortable bubble, totally unaware of the bullying and struggles that other people had to face. He really finds it hard to come to terms with this. Much of the rest of the book is made up of long conversations with his uncle and cousins and the police investigations.

The Wych Elm is an intense book, digging deeply into the nature of privilege, luck and empathy, with the dynamics of relationship, with memory and coming to terms with the past and with death. There were times when I wasn’t sure just how reliable Toby was as a narrator and then I wondered which of the other characters were telling the truth. The account of Hugo’s illness, the way he copes with it and his family’s reactions are completely convincing. This is a nuanced book, with several complex layers and when I wasn’t reading it I was still thinking about it. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

My thanks to the publishers, Penguin UK, for my review copy via NetGalley.

A new Tana French novel is the highlight of my reading year. ‘The Wych Elm’ is a departure from her Dublin Murder Squad crime novels in the sense that the story is told from the perspective of the victim of the crime rather than the investigators but, like that series, is a character-driven story which really gets into the psyche of the protagonist.
When we meet Toby he is on a night out with his friends, middle-class Dublin rugby types, apparently fairly harmless, if slightly unlikeable, slightly full of themselves. But, when Toby confronts burglars at his apartment that night, he suffers head injuries and memory loss in a vicious assault. Returning to The Ivy House, his uncle’s home at which he spent a lot of his childhood, Toby’s convalescence is, at first, bolstered by helping his uncle cope with his own, terminal, illness. The two support each other and fall into an easy routine, aided by Toby’s girlfriend, and, through conversations with the cousins with whom he grew up, Toby tries to regain the memories he has lost.
Tana French is a master at these familial relationships, the small interactions, the petty jealousies and misunderstandings between people who ‘love’ each other. Toby is an unreliable narrator, all the more so because of his brain trauma, but there is a sense that each of the characters is hiding something or, at least, reframing their own narratives, editing their own stories. Then the discovery of human remains in the hollow trunk of the ancient Wych Elm tree in the back garden of The Ivy House starts Toby on a path of investigation, casting suspicion on his cousins, his uncle, even himself. As the police tear apart the garden so Toby’s questions open up old wounds, gradually unravelling first his relationships, then his self-image, his sense of who he is.
‘The Wych Elm’ is a story of psychological disintegration told with Tana French’s keen ear for dialogue and ability to get inside the minds of her characters. It is a slower novel than the Dublin Murder Squad books but no less compelling. I enjoyed it and thank Penguin Random House and NetGalley for the early access.

The Wych Elm is the first book I have read by Tana French, so I had no idea what to expect but I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a slow-burner but in a good way, this was a book to be savoured.

The Wych Elm left me reeling. It was one of those books that stays in your head afterwards.

Toby has been lucky his whole life and he knows it. Then one night he is viciously attacked and left for dead. The attack leaves him changed both physically and mentally to the point where he is barely willing to leave the house.

Toby’s memories of that night are few and those he does have are blurred. Equally damaged are his memories in general, that night has made him doubt everything he knows about himself.

Toby is fed up of everyone tiptoeing around him and is trying desperately to convince people that he is fine, or at least on the mend.

When Toby’s cousin Susanna calls out of the blue asking him to go look after his dying uncle. Toby is reluctant to say the least but then his girlfriend Mellissa talks him into it, and they head for Ivy House.

Then a skull is found in the wych elm in the garden and Toby is forced to question everything he thought he knew including himself.

Ivy House is special to Toby because he and his cousins used to stay there for the summer and he has fond memories of it, which explains why he didn’t want to taint those memories by going there in his poor condition.

“I couldn’t even think about being at the Ivy House, not like this…twilight hide-and-seek among the moths and silver birches, wild-strawberry picnics and gingerbread Christmases, endless teenage parties with everyone lying on the grass gazing up at the stars – All that was unreachable now; that night was a flaming sword burning the way. The Ivy House was the one place that, more than any other I couldn’t bear to see from this far shore.”

Hugo, Toby’s uncle was my favourite character in The Wych Elm and his deterioration was handled delicately.

One of the twists in the book felt slightly unrealistic to me but that didn’t attract from my enjoyment of the book. I won’t say which one though as I don’t want to ruin the story for anyone.

I am really pleased I chose to request this book for review.

Having never read any Tana French before, I was looking forward to reading this, due to the description/plot. I did enjoy it, although I found the pace a little slow at times, although I imagine that would be a reflection on how the characters were feeling - when you're potentially being accused of murder, life must slow down quite alot.

The characters were believeable, relatable, annoying, and plain irritating - a perfect reflection of a large family! A few plot twists here and there to lead you in the wrong direction, although the discovery of who commited the crime didn't surprise me at all! What surprised me was what followed after!

All in all an enjoyabel read.

After a night out with friends Toby goes home and awakens to find 2 men burgling his home and is then subjected to a viscous assault that hospitalises poor Toby.

Normally Toby is a very lucky man but after being discharged from Hospital, he discovers that his uncle Hugo is dying of terminal brain cancer. Toby moves into his ancestral home with his girlfriend Melissa to care for him, along with his 2 cousins Leon and Susanna, who spent childhood summers together but have drifted apart since adulthood.

When a gruesome discovery is found in the garden, Toby’s luck has well and truly scarpered!! The police start to interview him but his memory has deteriorated since the attack and Toby is feeling very vulnerable.

I did enjoy this book, but it was a little too long winded at times but I am glad I plodded on, as Tana French is a very talented writer and I was still intrigued as to how this would all end.

Even though this is my favourite Tana French’s book I would definitely look out for her next creation.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy on exchange for a review.

This book took me a little while to get into but I persevered and ended up really enjoying it. Different from the previous books I've read from this author but would most definitely recommend.

My thanks to Penguin Books U.K./Viking for an eARC via NetGalley of Tana French’s ‘The Wych Elm’ in exchange for an honest review.

I fell in love with Tana French’s writing when I read ‘In the Woods’, which was the first in her acclaimed ‘Dublin Murder Squad’ series. So I was very excited to have the opportunity to read this stand-alone psychological thriller/murder mystery.

Although this is on one level a mystery, it is also a work of literary fiction with in-depth exploration of the relationships between its characters and the fluid nature of memory.

Set in Dublin its narrator is Toby, a 28-year old who seems to have everything going for him until a traumatic event shatters his seemingly charmed life. I don’t want to say much about the plot as it reveals itself over time.

Following the initial trauma, the narrative slows down significantly to explore the aftermath of that event before the central mystery presents itself. The pace then starts to increase to a shattering climax that left me shaking.

Admittedly Toby is a bit of a lad, though quite good natured and I had a lot of empathy for him as he was swept up by events beyond his control.

It is a complex novel that demanded close reading with rich language, powerful and believable characterisation and multiple layers to be explored. It’s a book that I expect to be excellent for reading groups that are looking for thought-provoking novels that are also readable.

Unfortunately this book is painfully slow!
I started this book a couple of times, and failed to connect with it in anyway. I just felt like nothing really happened. I expected to be drawn into a world of turmoil, and mystery. To feel the pain and confusion with Toby, our main protagonist. I wanted my heart to be with him, and be consumed in his confusion, out of touch with a life he thought he knew. Unfortunately, for me this felt completely flat, and uninteresting. I wasn’t enthralled with the story, and it failed to hold my interest. It just felt a little shallow, and long winded.
I have not read anything by Tana French, but I understand she has some great books out, so may be tempted to try one of those in future.
I would like to thank Netgalley, Tana, and penguin books (UK) for the ARC of this book in return for an honest review. I wish you all the best with the launch.

Toby seems to have a perfect life but it all blows up after a burglary that leaves him seriously injured. He goes to his Uncle Hugo's to recoup and look after him. But a body is found in the Wych Elm in the garden. What else can go wrong? Read and see. Gripping novel, well written that keeps you wanting to read more until the last pages, enjoy.

A scary standalone thriller, that will keep you awake at night wondering what is going on! Recommended!

#TheWychElm is one of the most immersive things you'll read this year. From the outset, Tana French had me in her grip. The characterisation and settings are each so vivid, so perfectly rendered, that I felt I was reading about somewhere I'd been, news from old friends. But then, how well do we really know our friends - or even our family?

It's a given here to say the writing itself is impeccable. Ms French knows how to weave a sentence and the words at her command are a joy. But much more than this, what I loved most about this book were the moral and existential questions the central character uses to sift through his memories of a summer that was very different things to different people and the way this amplified all the twists. What is a good person anyway? What a bad one? Which one are you? If you can't trust your memories, then who are you really? And who, or what, can you trust?

This book definitely didn't go where I thought it would. It is an order of magnitude more interesting than your average crime novel. The whole time I was reading this, forcing myself to put it down at times to make it last longer, I had that Goldfinch feeling. So I'm not remotely surprised that other reviews have been saying this is as good as Donna Tartt. Nor will I be surprised when the next Donna Tartt arrives and people start saying it's one for fans of Tana French.

With many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for letting me see an advance copy of this title in exchange for an unbiased review.

Delectably creepy, a perfect winter read curled up by the fire. I've seen the word spellbinding used to describe this book and couldn't agree more. Can't get enough .

A well crafted mystery. This book explores family ties and secrets. I have read mixed reviews about this book, and it is a bit of a slow burn at the start, however, I found it to be compelling and would recommend it to any mystery/crime fans.

The Wych Elm finds Tana French writing with her Barbara Vine hat on as opposed to her Ruth Rendell one. As a fan of her Dublin Murder Squad books, it was a joy watching the investigation unfold from the baffled perspective of the suspect and adjacent persons, and she's so good at both the slow, inexorable slide into catastrophe and some breathtaking hairpin turns. A detailed, classy, psychologically rich thriller with some beautiful writing.

Toby is the central character. The reader finds that he's had a fairly charmed life, is happy at work and has a lovely girlfriend, Melissa. But everything changes for Toby when burglars enter his home and he is very badly beaten - so badly that he nearly dies. When he comes out of hospital, he has problems with his memory and his coordination, now walking with a limp and often losing the thread of any conversation. Being in his flat his stressful for him, bringing back memories of the night he was attacked. He moves in with his uncle, Hugo (who is dying of cancer), to the house where he spent a lot of his very happy childhood - the Ivy House. And then a skull is found by the Wych Elm at the bottom of the garden and everything changes.

I've never read Tana French before and expected more of a page-turner than this delivers. I didn't really care that much about Toby - or his cousins - and the reveal of the truth of the events that led up to the point at which a body came to be in the hole in the tree seemed to drag on for too long. In addition, there was a subsequent scene which I won't describe as it would be a plot spoiler, but a fight in the garden seemed pretty implausible to me (particularly the outcome). All in all, I got the end (which is a plus) but was relieved that it was over,.

Oh dear, I really wanted to love this - I had hoped it would be a modern retelling of the Bella in the Wych Elm myth, but other than a body in a tree with a missing hand it wasn't anywhere close to being that interesting.
I was so confused by this book - the first half and second half didn't seem to match or be relevant to each other at all, if it was a murder mystery then the overly long and detailed first half wasn't needed. (Especially as we discovered in the end the two parts weren't linked at all).
Being with Toby, Hugo and his cousins was like being stuck in a waiting room with a really boring family keen to discuss the minutiae of their lives with you.- detailed descriptions of lunches, rooms and past events just felt too much and I had to skim a lot.
The endless interior dialogue and irrational reactions of Toby was frustrating and pages and pages of monologues from Susanna and Leon explaining in depth every little permutation of their teenage lives the same.
The murderer reveal monologue by Susanna and Leon could have been a book by itself! And also completely unexpected and a bit of an anti-climax.
I liked that past actions from Toby had set the murder up - not that he admitted to it - and the author is very good and describing emotions and senses.
But quite unlikeable characters, a murder that I didn't really care about, an unsatisfactory ending and far too long all in all. I was relieved to finish the book. .
Sorry! Just not for me.

A great sweeping embrace of a novel that holds you tight and plays with your preconceptions of self and identity and good and bad people. One to be savoured.
Thank you to netgalley and Penguin books for an advance copy

Although I am aware that this author has a very successful series, I haven’t read anything by Tana French before. As such, when this stand alone novel came along, I thought it would be interesting to give it a try and I am so glad that I did.

This very much falls into the category of literary fiction, building the storyline and characters slowly and setting the scene with layers of detail. We have Toby, a young man who feels he lives a gifted life. Great job, wonderful girlfriend, close friends, his own flat. However, when something terrible happens, it takes away all of his feelings of certainty and security.

Toby moves into the Ivy House, home of his Uncle Hugo, who always provided a refuge for him when he was younger, along with his cousins, Susanna and Leon. The house has always felt safe and warm, full of family and good memories. Then a skull is found in the garden, and suddenly the rug is again pulled from his feet. Now, Toby is not only questioning his luck, but his family and the memories of his past…

Obviously, I have nothing by Tana French to compare this too and, judging by reviews I have read, this is a much slower read than her series. I have to say that I loved every page of it and became utterly absorbed in Toby, his life, his family and the compelling crime that shadows the Ivy House. Tana French has written a cast of characters that you care about and sets the scene beautifully. I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.

I enjoyed this book very much, although I was a little daunted to see that it was over 14 hours long. NO doubt a huge book. However the story was very absorbing.
The tale of family and intrigue, relationships and where they lead.
A seemingly mindless attack leads to a story that unfolds in subtle ways to keep you interested.
It reminded me of The Secret History by Donna Tartt in some ways.
The Which Elm itself plays a large part in the plot and I am sure that many readers will find themselves lost in the story.