Blog All About It! Luck: The Witch Elm by Tana French

hosted by: Herding Cats & Burning Soup.

Basically there's a word each month and any time during the month you can blog about that word. In any way you want. Review, recipe, photos, stories, etc

 The Witch Elm.

This month due to St. Patrick's Day I chose to focus on reading something that took place in Ireland or was written by an Irish author. I decided on Tana French's new novel


Toby is a happy-go-lucky charmer who's dodged a scrape at work and is celebrating with friends when the night takes a turn that will change his life: he surprises two burglars who beat him and leave him for dead. Struggling to recover from his injuries, beginning to understand that he might never be the same man again, he takes refuge at his family's ancestral home to care for his dying uncle Hugo. Then a skull is found in the trunk of an elm tree in the garden - and as detectives close in, Toby is forced to face the possibility that his past may not be what he has always believed.

The Witch Elm asks what we become, and what we're capable of, when we no longer know who we are.

 The whole book is from Toby's point of view. In the beginning he's clueless. He feels he's been a pretty lucky guy and that he was born with the bit of luck that is rare. Life is good and always has been. Until his luck runs out when he's robbed at home and beaten and left for dead. As he heads back to his uncle's home the Ivy House to recover and take care of his uncle, he learns that his childhood has not been what he remembers. He discovers that maybe his luck wasn't something he could live without, like it's been something that been excised from him.

The mystery is when his cousin's son finds a skull in the witch elm in the backyard and the police are called in to find out who it is and whether they've been murdered. It's soon discovered to be an old friend from high school...but Toby's memories are gone after being beaten so badly in the head. Could he have committed the murder and if so why? Did he truly have a good relationship with his cousins Shannon and Ian?

I enjoyed the disillusion of Toby's memories and how lucky he was to be able to set aside bad memories and ideas until they caught up to him. He is a white and privileged man who got away with everything and didn't understand the consequences left in his wake.

But the story was overly long and Toby was not the best protagonist. It's a depressing end but fitting. And I do understand the human tale French was trying to tell but she lost me a bit in the end with some of the events and consequences. But the idea of luck and how we can create our own luck by our thoughts and actions was definitely an interesting idea and something to mull on.