Broken Harbor
Tana French has a way of getting in my head and under my skin. I love her books, but they consume me. When I'm reading one, it's difficult for me to engage fully with the rest of my life. I come up for air as needed, because I do have a life outside of books. But French's books make me struggle with that. I want to linger over them, make them last as long as possible. I also find myself racing to the end, hoping that when I finally close the book I'll get myself back. That I'll be able to return to the rest of my life.
Broken Harbor was no exception. In fact, it got to me even more than usual. This book terrified me. It actually gave me nightmares. These books are not fantastical. There's nothing supernatural here, not even a whiff of magical realism. But the way French plays with your perception makes you doubt that. Just as I called The Likeness a ghost story, on some level this is a book about a haunted house. A house haunted by all the crumbling hopes and dreams of a family crushed by the recession.
The murder in this book packs a wallop, and it's a big part of the reason I was so affected. A family has been killed: the children strangled in their beds and mom and dad stabbed in the kitchen. A suspect is quickly found, a man who has been stalking the family. But the more the detectives look into the case, the less it makes sense. As they take their time to ensure that they have a rock-solid case against the suspect in custody, it all starts to unravel.
I deeply love these books, but they are also deeply disturbing. French is some kind of witch, creating these atmospheric pieces that haunt you. Creating characters who are so strong and well-rounded and have one fatal flaw and then pushing on the flaw and seeing what happens. The four books I've read so far have featured four different detectives in deeply personal cases. Two of those cases ended up being career-enders, which really ups the stakes in any given book.
Broken Harbor was no exception. In fact, it got to me even more than usual. This book terrified me. It actually gave me nightmares. These books are not fantastical. There's nothing supernatural here, not even a whiff of magical realism. But the way French plays with your perception makes you doubt that. Just as I called The Likeness a ghost story, on some level this is a book about a haunted house. A house haunted by all the crumbling hopes and dreams of a family crushed by the recession.
The murder in this book packs a wallop, and it's a big part of the reason I was so affected. A family has been killed: the children strangled in their beds and mom and dad stabbed in the kitchen. A suspect is quickly found, a man who has been stalking the family. But the more the detectives look into the case, the less it makes sense. As they take their time to ensure that they have a rock-solid case against the suspect in custody, it all starts to unravel.
I deeply love these books, but they are also deeply disturbing. French is some kind of witch, creating these atmospheric pieces that haunt you. Creating characters who are so strong and well-rounded and have one fatal flaw and then pushing on the flaw and seeing what happens. The four books I've read so far have featured four different detectives in deeply personal cases. Two of those cases ended up being career-enders, which really ups the stakes in any given book.
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