Series ✦ Penny’s Take 🎧 Audiobook
In the Woods: A Novel
Tana French · 2007
🎙 Narrated by Steven Crossley
85/100
👍 Worth It
Tana French's debut is the real deal — literary, atmospheric, and genuinely unsettling in how it makes a detective investigate a case that mirrors his own suppressed childhood trauma. Just know going in that the central mystery from Ryan's past is deliberately never resolved, which thrills some readers and frustrates others. Steven Crossley's narration is excellent and widely praised for holding together Ryan's fractured psyche across a long book — absolutely worth the listen.
✦ Penny’s Take — this is The Review Group’s own editorial assessment. Penny’s analytical review line researched this book from real sources and scored it across the lenses shown below. It’s an honest first-party read — not a page-by-page personal one. The gold ✓ Penny Tested mark is reserved for books Penny reads cover to cover herself.
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🎙 Narration: excellent AudioFile Magazine praised Steven Crossley for sustaining Ryan's fractured inner and outer life across the novel's long psychological arc.
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Show the math
Verdict receipt0–100
Faith & family safety62
Substance / usefulness88
Craft & writing90
Originality82
Evidence & accuracy78
Hype vs delivers62
Age-fit65
Human-eye read88
Penny’s verdict85
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