Broken Harbor in What's the Name of That Book???

Apr 17, 2013 Eh?Eh! rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: babble-added, weep

I crave family. Not my own poor, battered and scarred little nuclear one that raised me, the one that's settled into a comfortable but rather arms-length tapdance that I can't quite figure out how to consciously approach with the same depth of instinctive draw that wells up in emergencies. I crave the idea of that eff word, the individuals who rely on each other for supportive encouragement and the liberty to deliver buttkicking reality checks, who don't question a welcome, who will listen to an I crave family. Not my own poor, battered and scarred little nuclear one that raised me, the one that's settled into a comfortable but rather arms-length tapdance that I can't quite figure out how to consciously approach with the same depth of instinctive draw that wells up in emergencies. I crave the idea of that eff word, the individuals who rely on each other for supportive encouragement and the liberty to deliver buttkicking reality checks, who don't question a welcome, who will listen to and maybe at worst absorb outbursts, who won't flee when another gets ugly figuratively, who will laugh at your jokes and make you laugh. Isn't that what family is supposed to be, anchoring points?

There are examples all around and I am, to put it simply, boiling over with jealousy. Do they realize how fortunate they are?? The miracle of differing personalities finding enough common ground and what gets wrapped up in little packaged meanings, often trite and way too oversimplified, like spark, chemistry, fellowship, love, bro, sister, bffs 4evah, besties, comrade, we tight yo,...family. With the explosion of social networking, I see these examples even more as folks post photos and cute little stories of their families. I hunch over them like a hypothermic hobo over a steel drum fire, trying to warm my hands but remaining cold all over. How can pictures of the joy of others replace a hearth fire of my own. I don't resent them, but I do covet.

But I was talking to someone recently about this and that, and ended up getting told, without really being prompted by me, in response to something about how sweet his wife and girls are and how lucky he is, that it may look like that but it isn't usually that great, that it takes a lot (you could hear the combination of italics, bolding, and underlining in his voice) of work. My immediate thought was a resentful feeling that I knooooow that, but the result! Look at the result! Focus on what results, you douche! Why are you raining on my thought parade.

That's a strange reaction, isn't it? How dare he subvert the artifice I've built in my mind of How Things Should Be (And How I Imagine They Are For Everyone But Me, Waaaahhhhh (the self-pity is strong in me)). It's an idiotic reaction, the defensive protection of the imaginary. But isn't that how we all operate? We have a self-image that we build and constantly maintain. We're taught to believe in ourselves, even when maybe we shouldn't, and this is often not successful because look at all the insecurity undermining this confidence we're supposed to have...whew, we're a mess.

And that's the thrust of this book, this spear into the underbelly of my mind: The image we build of others and ourselves and how we depend on them, the extent we may go to in order to preserve them despite competing reality and their crumbling.

Do you ever read something and then feel a little sick? Like you brushed too close to something that would topple you? It'll fade, probably too quickly. It's not like we're good at learning from others. We have to experience for a lesson to really stick. ...more

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May 05, 2014 Punk rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery

Mystery. Brianstown should have been a beautiful estate with dozens of posh houses by the sea, but the developers pulled out and many of the lots are empty, the houses unfinished. Only a handful of people live there now, spread out across the abandoned development. It's a ghost town, and something's gone badly wrong there.

This is easily the creepiest book of the series. It also wins the award for most gruesome, as well as most mysterious. Scorcher's past lightly seasons the mystery, but it's not Mystery. Brianstown should have been a beautiful estate with dozens of posh houses by the sea, but the developers pulled out and many of the lots are empty, the houses unfinished. Only a handful of people live there now, spread out across the abandoned development. It's a ghost town, and something's gone badly wrong there.

This is easily the creepiest book of the series. It also wins the award for most gruesome, as well as most mysterious. Scorcher's past lightly seasons the mystery, but it's not all about him, which also sets this book apart from the others. I can't tell if I missed that level of personal involvement or not. On the one hand, maybe it would have made Scorcher more sympathetic. On the other hand, Scorcher is a boring dickbag. Having his personal issues overwhelm the story might have only made him more intolerable. The good thing about him, though, is that he's totally transparent. You can see all the spots where he's fooling himself, how those lies are necessary to his world view, and the ways they inform his investigation. He has to believe these things in order to get through the day, but his coping strategies totally steer him wrong, here, and probably even back in Faithful Place. He's maybe not as good a detective as he thinks. He gets an idea and then can't let it go. Knowing this doesn't make him any more tolerable—No, Scorcher, a flashy BMW is not the quality that victims of violent crimes most want to see in a detective—but at least you know where he's coming from. He earns your sympathy, or, I don't know, maybe it's pity instead, because you can see right through him and you just want to pat his hand and slap him about the face a little until he wakes up. Probably not in that order.

Scorcher's other redeeming quality is Richie. Scorcher's relationship with his new partner is sweet and hopeful. It warmed my heart to see him getting along with another human being, gradually coming to realize he could rely on this person to have his back and take his side, their shoulders pressed together as they stare at their suspect through the interview room window. Of course, well, if you know Tana French, you know how that ended.

The thing that really makes this book stand out is its atmosphere: The housing development with its half-built houses, its distant residents, the damp, dark, oppressive roar of the sea. The house where the murders take place is its own mystery, and I found the saga of the internet message boards strangely gripping. Like reconstructing someone's internet history is exciting? But it was. Because the mystery of the attic!!! What the fuck is up there!!! I thought it was a great way to deal with that part of the story because the medium—the internet—can be just as wild, exaggerated, and unreliable as human imagination, and its serialized nature made me eager to know what happened next.

Four stars. Though the reveal is fairly prosaic, it genuinely frightened me, how fragile our grip on civility really is, and how far some people will go to maintain that facade.

Contains murdered children, and a wrong-headed and hurtful view of mental illness. ...more

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Jan 03, 2015 Laura rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mt-bookpile-2011-2015, old-reads, library-loan

It really does look like reading this series out of order won't be a problem, as neither of the two detectives featured in The Secret Place are in this one.

Instead, we have a veteran who hasn't had great luck recently taking a rookie under his wing as they investigate a multiple homicide (parents and children). Of course there's no sign of break in, although the home appears quite broken: so who, and how? Not to mention, why?? The detection here is pretty good, with none of those annoying leaps ...more

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Dec 03, 2015 Sarah rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery

I've now accepted the fact that I don't love Tana French's writing style. I tried, because she's one of those authors that so many of my friends who have similar taste love, but it's just not for me. I am a person that likes the mystery in her mystery books to be resolved. I prefer straightforward writing to prose that is more ornate. For anyone who loves flowery language, French's books are filled with it. This is just one example where I rolled my eyes:
"Outside the window the light had moved. ...more

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Nov 13, 2012 Kate rated it liked it · review of another edition

Another Tana French detective gets a case that pokes all of his psychological bruises and causes him to completely fall apart by the time he solves the murder. I found this spooky, and emotionally involving, but also a little tedious.

If you're not planning to read it, but you're walking past it in a library/bookstore, I recommend picking it up and just reading the first four paragraphs of chapter 18. Even without the context, that's a good way to spend 60 seconds. ...more

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Nov 20, 2012 Jessica rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Tana French is one of the best mystery writers out there, full stop, and Broken Harbor displays her skills at their peak the story is taut, psychologically astute, and always suspenseful.

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Mar 11, 2022 Lauren rated it liked it

I found French either totally captivating or HUH? and this one fell into the second category for me. And it was so bloody long.

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Nov 09, 2022 Chrissie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: t-reads

The greatest testament I can give to this book is that the ending felt like a real stretch....but I didn't care.

Also, credit for taking a character who was quite unlikeable in the series and humanizing him in a realistic way. ...more

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