Review of The Witch Elm by Tana French

Umm, in all honesty and to put it succinctly, The Witch Elm is an f’ed up story… but not in a bad way.  I couldn’t put this book down as it simultaneously intrigued, confused, and frustrated me.  I figure a good psychological thriller will mess with the reader’s head a little, and The Witch Elm messed with my head a lot.  The Witch Elm also messed with the main character’s head.

Toby Hennessy is a lucky person.  He lives in Dublin, surrounded by a close-knit family.  He has a good job.  He has a nice girlfriend he’s thinking he wants to marry.  He makes mistakes but doesn’t ever seem to face serious consequences.

Then one night, two men break into his apartment and beat him almost to death, leaving him with a head injury and less than his usual happy-go-lucky personality.  When he recovers enough to leave the hospital, Toby can’t get comfortable in his apartment.  So he goes to live with his Uncle Hugo, who’s dying of brain cancer.  In helping to take care of his uncle, Toby finds that he’s starting to feel normal.

But that changes when, during a family gathering at Uncle Hugo’s house, Toby’s young nephew discovers a skull in the giant Wych Elm in the house’s backyard.  The police end up cutting down the tree and discover an entire skeleton.  The victim turns out to be Toby’s high school classmate, who disappeared around the time of graduation.  The detective in charge suspects Toby, and because his memory is shaky from the head injury, Toby begins to suspect himself.  To save Toby, Uncle Hugo suddenly confesses to the murder and then dies a few days later.

Not believing his uncle was guilty, Toby decides to keep asking questions.  What he learns, though, both sickens him and leaves him feeling jealous.  The detective, who also doesn’t believe Toby’s uncle was the killer, keeps pressing Toby to tell the truth, which pushes Toby to lose control and do something that changes his life again.

Disturbing, captivating, annoying – they all describe The Witch Elm.  Toby’s confusion, self-doubt, and frustration were palpable.  And while I was shaken by what he ended up doing, I wasn’t surprised.  Psychologically, Toby was hanging on by a thread until the thread finally snapped.