The Wych Elm, Tana French, Penguin Random House, ISBN: 9780241379530

TOBY has lived a privileged life. He is handsome, charming, popular, financially well-off and – as everyone around him seems to believe – extremely lucky.

However, after a brutal attack leaves him impaired and with some memory loss, Toby starts on a downward spiral.

As he struggles to recover from the attack, he’s hit with more bad news: his favourite uncle is dying. While staying with him, a skeleton is discovered in the backyard of his childhood home, and Toby is quickly identified as the main suspect. Worse yet, he begins to suspect someone is framing him.

Consumed by paranoia and PTSD, Toby sets off to identify the person trying to frame him. Not only does he make things worse, but he discovers that most of what he thought he knew about himself and his beloved family have been a lie.

There was so much to love about this book. I was intrigued by the concept – it’s like a modern and less festive rendition of A Christmas Carol. I also enjoyed how the book explores moral ambiguity, identity, the consequences of actions and inactions, and how one’s point of view changes the truth. And, with quite a number of unreliable narrators, I was kept on my toes.

However, there were also few issues that made this book a chore to read. For one, Toby is an insufferable character. He is self-absorbed, arrogant, self-righteous and condescending. Then there is the slow pace of the book. It often felt like we were going off on a tangent, where nothing significant happens for one or two chapters. Perhaps this was a way for the reader to experience Toby’s world post-brain injury. However, it was just a bit wearisome.

As for the ending? It was nothing short of depressing. Even though I did not necessarily find myself rooting or empathising for Toby, I found his apathy regarding his physical and mental recovery frustrating. – Mariclair Smit 3/5 stars