This novel was a really slow start for me. The narrative was super long, and there were so few page breaks it sometimes felt like explanations went on forever.

While I liked the idea of the story, I didn’t love that we got the “bad guys” POV and knew what he was up to the entire time. It took all the mystery out of the mystery thriller.

While there was some suspense throughout the story, it didn’t really get intense until the last 80% when things started to get out of our villain’s control. But then everything just kind of fell apart, and the ending surprised me, and then it did just that, ended, and I felt a little unsatisfied with the ending. It didn’t feel like anything was truly accomplished, or if it was we don’t get any sort of look at the aftermath.

As for characters, I like when characters are flawed, but most of the characters in this book are at all likable.

I also felt there was some pieces of the story that got a little “You” (book version, I haven’t see the show) where things are just a little too easy to coverup. And you’re like would that ACTUALLY happen that way that easily? How did no one get caught? And why are these characters just so accepting and okay with how this all played out? And they weren’t at all afraid of the villain, they were skeptical but also seemed to not really care?

Overall, I didn’t LOVE this. It was an interesting read once I got myself to just sit down and read it through. It was very slow up until about 60%, then speeds up. If you love typical thrillers, this takes a different approach and it might be something for you to try out, but it wasn’t for me.

3.5🌟

Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton is a clever novel, and I mostly enjoyed it, but sometimes it seems to get lost in itself. I think it would have benefitted from streamlining.

Thanks to Farrar Straus and Giroux and Netgalley for providing the advance copy of Eleanor Catton’s new novel. I really enjoyed it. I thought she did a great job capturing the zeitgeist of the moment about environmentalism and capitalism. The main characters were interesting and their thoughts and dialogue rang true to me. I wasn’t enamored of the ending, but that’s mainly because it didn’t end in the way I wanted, so that’s on me. I liked this enough that I may go back and tackle The Luminaries (I’ve started that a few times without finishing). Highly recommend this for all.

If I could split 𝗕𝗜𝗥𝗡𝗔𝗠 𝗪𝗢𝗢𝗗 by Eleanor Catton down the middle into two different books, there'd be one I struggled mightily with and another I enjoyed. So, let’s go with that for a bit. The first half of the book sets everything up for the second half as we’re introduced to its main characters. On one side we have Mira, Shelley and Tony all members of an underground gardening collective in New Zealand. On the other side are Darvish, the current owner of a plot of land they’re using without his knowledge, and Lemoines, the mega rich American who wants the land for his own big $$$ purposes. The problem with all that set up? For me, it was just WAY TOO wordy. So much unnecessary background and unimportant tangents. I would have DNF’d, but had seen good reviews, so kept going.⁣
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The second half, though never fast, at least had a lot of action and real storylines that could keep me engaged. Everyone in the story was a bit of a stereotype and their roles played out as such, but it was a crazy ride, making the ending fun. I especially appreciated that the character I most disliked throughout the book totally surprised me in the end. That, coupled with the story’s latent action 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 saved it for me. As for its Shakespearean comparisons, I think those are what worked to make the first half so dense and slow. Overall, I’m sort of on the fence with this one. ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫⁣⁣⁣
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Thanks to @fsgbooks for an electronic ARC of #BirnamWood.

Each one of Eleanor Catton's novels is different and every one of them has been a treat. The Luminaries will always be my favorite, but Birnam Wood is a close second.

Birnam Wood is marketed as an environmental mystery. The title, besides referring to Macbeth, is the name of a activist environmental collective, which plants sanctioned gardens but also takes over unused green spaces for crops. Mira, the group's founder, has struggled to break even with the group, resorting to stealing much of what the group needs. But then, a mysterious American billionaire offers the group the chance of a lifetime. Mira and the group must decide whether they should compromise their values for this opportunity.

Catton is so good at writing complex characters, and that's where my love for the book lies. When each character is introduced, they are not clearly "good" or "bad". Even as the story progresses, the information we learn about each character continues to paint most of them as morally gray (except for one, but no spoilers here).

Even more than that, I was gripped by the story. Though the summary presents a simple plot, there are so many threads that Catton weaves together in a complex web that makes the book hard to put down. The way the plot shifts between the different characters seamlessly reminded me of a movie, or a Jane Austen novel.I didn't see a couple of the twists coming and the ending is positively explosive. This would be a great book to discuss for a bookclub.

Thanks to the publisher for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

This is a book that takes a bit of time to pick up speed, because it features a broad cast of characters and we seem to spend time in their heads as we first get to know that. Once all the characters are in play, though, it moves at a rapid pace.

Mira, Shelley, Tony and several others are Birnam Wood, a guerilla gardening collective. Robert Lemoine is a billionaire who is ostensibly up to kooky billionaire things but is actually up to the run-of-the-mill, evil-mastermind billionaire type things--like illegally extracting rare minerals from a national park in New Zealand. Sir Owen Darvish owns a farm on the edge of the national park--perfect for both Birnam Wood's guerilla gardening schemes and Robert's need for a cover story. When these worlds collide on Darvish's property, it's a clash of ideals, politics, wealth, and morals--all leading to an inevitable combustion.

I had no idea where this was headed in the early chapters or who I was meant to be rooting for; everyone was ripe for skewering. (I am not sure, by the end, that anyone comes out the winner--but some are definitely more villain than others.) All the time spent getting to know the characters from the inside early on paid off in the later chapters, through escalating conflicts and cascading criminal activities.

It was easy for me to put the book down in the first of the three sections. I can imagine some readers will abandon it early on, but it's the kind of book that rewards you for sticking around. It's also the kind of book that sticks with you even after you've finished. It's provocative, at any rate, and an interesting, provocative, and often cinematic story like this is worth the read.

This book was absolutely incredible! I loved it It is the perfect combination of plot and character development and meaningful thought-provoking economic, social and ecological issues.

I was looking forward to this read as The Luminaries is one of my all-time favorites! Set in New Zealand, this is a contemporary thriller. Birnam Wood is the name chosen for an activist collective, founded by Mira Bunting, that plants crops sometimes legally, most often not. Looking for their next major opportunity the group finds one in an abandoned farm, following a landslide that isolates the town of Thorndike. There’s Shelley, Mira’s right-hand person, Tony who was part of Birnam Wood recently returned after have been away for some years, the owners of the property - the Davishes, and the entrepreneur American Robert Lemoine who wants the land for his own purposes. It’s an intricate web of characters, desires, goals, and ambition. Some of the characters in particular were well portrayed - complex and conflicted (I won’t say who wasn’t!), intelligent yet gullible, and in many ways blinded by a naive drive to “do good.” I thought the themes in the book are so on point - contemporary and relevant. I will say I didn’t like the ending! I thought the book was well done and enjoyable and definitely recommend it. Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

A daunting opening to a book (but worth the slog) that I actually thought was going to be about raising vegetables.

What starts out as a long exposition of the political viewpoints of our main characters, becomes a literary statement on economics and the environment, and ends as a thriller. Phew! Each character represents a slice of society with their own agendas, and through the close proximity of this clandestine garden, we get to see how they all interact. I predict there will be much discussion of the off-the-rails ending!

Thanks to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for an advance readers copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Birnam Wood is the story of a guerrilla gardening collective, of the same name, who plant crops all around New Zealand, in discreet locations. The group, led by Mira and Shelley, had been struggling financially for years when an American billionaire, Robert, offered to finance the groups’ activities on his property. The book continues on to explore the doubts amongst the community about the true nature of Robert’s intentions and what this partnership means for their group.

This book was definitely a slow burn and took a bit of time for me to get into in the beginning. However, in each sitting, once I got into the story, it was easy to stay hooked, especially because of the authors stellar writing. There was a lot of character buildup and many philosophical conversations but, they were easy to enjoy and get lost into. I enjoyed the character development quite a lot and appreciated the holistic view of each person’s strengths/flaws. I think the book picked up steam for me about halfway through and from there, I was quickly turning pages until the end (which was very dramatic and excellent!).

I’d definitely recommend this to literary fiction fans, especially if you enjoy a slow burn literary mystery. It was not a fast paced thriller by any means but, rather I think the kind of story that makes you feel satisfied/accomplished after reading!

I had high hopes for Eleanor Catton’s Birnam Wood, a thriller set in New Zealand and featuring an American billionaire who’s snatched up land for his end of times luxury bunker and a guerrilla gardening collective who views the same property as the ultimate squat for farming.

I struggled with this book. The first half was a slog and focused on the inner ideological monologues of several main characters. The second half of the book saw more action and lots of dialogue.

It just didn’t work for me, sadly.

What?!

I went to bed upset by this book, I woke up upset, and I’m still fuming—in the best way.

We have a guerilla gardening group, the kind that’s mostly harmless and that would just be called gardeners (or maybe farmers) in the world they call the Third. We have a scheming billionaire, who wants what all billionaires want: more $$$. And then we have the hapless farmer and his wife who have land in an area the billionaire is interested in, abutting a national park in New Zealand—which is where the three sets of characters intersect.

I mean, I take my hat off to Catton for the form she used to entrap me. The first 64% of the book honestly feels like a really long run-on sentence, like Virginia Woolf’s famous “invention”, stream-of-consciousness, or like Katherine Mansfield’s Bliss (which is a good intimation, btw)—in other words, you’re just getting basic monologues of the characters’ thoughts. Also actual monologues. I was at about three stars out of five up to that point; like, sure, good, mindless literary fiction, let’s enjoy all of the many words (except, I was thinking to myself I know I’ve been exposed to too many romance book blurbs because I truly didn’t expect the billionaire to be an actual baddie in the bad sense of the word, in spite of the hint in the very name of the book). At 65%, Catton decided to switch up on me, and I couldn’t put the book down anymore.

I remember struggling through the 848 pages of The Luminaries, wondering if I could stick around long enough for things to get going; and at first I really thought I was about to have the same experience with Birnam Wood. I am happy to report that this is satisfyingly, emphatically not what happened. I cannot shout more loudly about the horror of what Catton does to the characters, and to us her poor readers. I imagine her chortling as she writes the first two thirds of the book, delighting in how she’s about to bring down the sky on all of us. Because that, dear Reader, is what happens in the rest of the book.

So, if you want to read a chew-your-nails-off thriller this year, this is it. This is your book. 5/5 stars.

Oh, and the Macbeth reference? Yes.

Thank you to Farrar, Straus and Giroux for this very fun (in the end) ARC.

A piece of land, a National Park. A lord and his wife.A billionaire. An aspiring journalist. A group of kamikaze gardeners trying to make the world a better place. And finally a mining of precious metals.
There is a lot packed into this novel. Birnam Wood is a group using sustainable practices to grow foods that is then used to continue the support of their group but also to feed people. They have issues, all of them.
The billionaire wants his land, but not for the reasons he states. And the journalist wants that big story.
It all comes crashing together in this novel that reads in part, like an action novel, and a love story.
Highly recommended. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me this ARC

A multilayered thriller, part eco drama, part political commentary, with billionaires, class privilege and eco-terrorism juxtaposed against the ideals of the founder of Birnam Wood, a collective that plants vegetables in unmarked and uncared for lots and sustains its operations by the sales of the plantings its cultivates. This is also a deep character driven story as well: Mira Bunting, the collective's founder has found a financial savior - Robert Lemoine - for the group in an unlikely American billionaire in the business of drone surveillance. In agreeing to Lemoine's support, Mira has literally and unknowingly made a deal with the devil.

I'd suggest that readers stick with the first third of the book which is dense with the philosophy of Mira and her peers, along with Lemoine, and kind of goes off on very long tangents that definitely foreshadow events to come in the later portions of the book. It picks up speed and by the last third it morphs into a thrilling page-turner. Lots to ponder as the book concludes. Not sure I loved the ending but it surely will provoke dialogue versus making this a treatise on good versus evil. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

This book, set in New Zealand centers around a young group of gardeners who feel all land needs to be used for good. To promote this, they trespass and set up gardens in secret. While their intentions are to do good, they definitely have a rebel streak. While they have worked together for years, there are tensions in the group that begin to break things down. Each character had many different “faces” This book delves in crime and politics yet was beautifully written and intriguing.

Eleanor Catton is a fine writer, and I really enjoyed <I>The Luminaries</I>, but this book didn't do anything for me. The main issue is that I couldn't bring myself to care about any of the characters, as the cast consists of a frankly psychopathic billionaire and a bunch of environmentalists who spend half of the time engaged in a kind of cannibalistic leftist argument about ideological purity and so on that I find exhausting. I don't think they're supposed to be likeable, per se (I seem to remember a snippet of another review that quoted a Catton interview where she said she wanted to write a book where everyone was in the wrong but thought they were in the right), but it's still an obstacle, and when things take a more "eco-thriller"-y turn most of the way through the book I found myself entirely uninvested in whether anyone would get away with any of the handful of crimes and schemes swirling around.

Wow! Smart, complex, and such great writing where the characters leap off the page - the dialogue had me laughing like I was watching a play - that’s how the words leapt off the page for me. This is a story about an ecological group intersecting with a billionaire and the choices and decisions therein. GREAT for a book group to discuss. Pick this one up now.

Out darn spot! This book reaffirms that no matter the context, Eleanor Catton is an exquisite writer. Birnam Wood is long, but doesn’t drag and is able to explore imagery and character development in-depth without compromising the pace. It’s a very intriguing story, that felt like a bit of a bibliophiles dream. It was very philosophical and introspective without being overly cerebral. It felt like a practical philosophy book.

The story of Birnam Wood, closely parallels Shakespeare’s Macbeth and reminds us that “Absolute power corrupts, absolutely”. I’m still in shock from just how quickly the end of the book escalated, snowballing into the perfect storm.

I have nothing but the highest praise for Birnam Wood. From its complex characters to its beautiful writing and perfectly executed plot, there’s something for everyone in this political thriller/tragedy. In addition, it’s just a ton of FUN! A must read.

Complex, multi-layered, and compulsively readable, Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton is a gripping thriller, with teeth. This story defies categorization; with political and philosophical elements, all wrapped up in suspense. The characters have real meat on their bones, and you really can't help but hope it works out for them, even in the face of their cynicism. There were some sections a bit dry for me, maybe just because I don't know New Zealand politics particularly well. Thank you to Farrar, Straus, and Giroux and Netgalley for the chance to review this advance copy.

I read this book too recently and I've not really recovered yet. With clear inspiration from Macbeth, it's full of characters with strong personal goals and ambitions, and with obvious blind spots where their morality collides with their self-interest. I loved Mira and Shelley in particular, and getting to know them from inside their own heads. The shifting of perspective was really effective; even point-of-view characters I didn't much like, I felt like I recognized. With the shifting points of view including a detailed exploration of each character's willful self-deceit, the book was also often softly amusing, in a quiet, Kiwi way—until it was decidedly, brutally, not. I didn't need this novel to tell me billionaires are unethical in their very existence and thus have an extremely distant personal relationship with ethics, I have all of reality to tell me that—but I have the impression that other people, who have gotten very different messages from reality, might get something very different out of this book.