The Likeness

Tana French is not a poor writer. She is an exceptionally talented prose stylist and creator of atmosphere, and she is skilled at exposing the emotional fault lines within her narrators. However, I do not think The Likeness is consistently disciplined about resolving the narrative machinery it constructs. French often seems more interested in bringing a character to the point of psychological collapse than in fully exploring what should logically follow from that collapse. Once the central emotional revelation occurs, the legal, professional, psychological and relational consequences receive abbreviated—and, to me, deeply unsatisfying—treatment. Cassie’s actions reveal serious psychological instability and significant professional misconduct, yet the ending largely bypasses both. Her return to her former life and relationship does not constitute a convincing recovery, particularly when she has neither fully confronted her behavior nor disclosed everything she learned during the investigation. The novel is richly atmospheric and psychologically absorbing, but it is incomplete in its narrative accountability. I can appreciate French’s considerable strengths as a writer while still finding the story’s unresolved character arc and inadequate consequences profoundly frustrating. For me, the ending does not feel meaningfully ambiguous; it feels insufficiently completed.

Fascinating I really enjoyed the plot- I was gripped most of the time. Such a rich situation- I could feel these friends!

Sometimes, wasn’t sure what the author was saying. Good read, but at times laborious.

This is my favorite work of fiction in all the world. I, too, never wanted this world to end.

It’s a murder mystery but it’s really a beautiful and touching story of people and the needs we all share. Brilliantly constructed. Masterfully told. Tana French starts with a premise that is so implausible that another author would have ended up with something silly. Instead she manages to not only make it work but has written a deep and moving masterpiece.

Book #1, In the Woods was fantastic; so I kept going. The Likeness took me longer to read than any book in my life. Great story, but the drawn out over description and analyzing of characters and their thoughts was incredibly boring. I had to walk away from this book several different times and make myself continue on just to finish it. I thought it would never end and was grateful when it finally did.

Who cares about any of these twits? Nowhere near as good as her other books.

Too long

As the title notes, the structure of the student “family” is a clear riff on the earlier work by Pulitzer Prize winner, Donna Tartt. That said, it’s rather a nice homage to the original concept, although the plot gets muddled in places.

I had a lot of problems with this book. First, the basic plot was a ridiculous stretch. Seriously, someone is replaced by someone else and her roommates (at least most of them) don't even notice? Second, our heroine, a hard-nosed detective,gets completely enamored of this group of flighty immature students. Doesn't seem realistic. In terms of the writing, I found it to be excruciatingly slow and way too wordy. I only finished reading it because I spent $12.99 on it, but don't make the same mistake I did. Reread something by Raymond Chandler instead.