Review - The Twisted Tree by Rachel Burge

The Twisted Tree by Rachel Burge

Published 10th January 2019 by Hot Key Books

Star Rating - *****

Goodreads Challenge - 41/50

I received an ARC copy from the publishers, Hot Key Books, in exchange for a honest review.

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

Part ghost story, part Nordic thriller - this is a twisty, tense and spooky YA debut, perfect for fans of CORALINE and Michelle Paver.

Martha can tell things about a person just by touching their clothes, as if their emotions and memories have been absorbed into the material. It started the day she fell from the tree at her grandma's cabin and became blind in one eye.

Determined to understand her strange ability, Martha sets off to visit her grandmother, Mormor - only to discover Mormor is dead, a peculiar boy is in her cabin and a terrifying creature is on the loose.

Then the spinning wheel starts creaking, books move around and terror creeps in . . .

Set in the remote snows of contemporary Norway, THE TWISTED TREE is a ghost story that twists and turns - and never takes you quite where you'd expect.

My Thoughts

So it seems like I have a last minute contender for a place on my favourite books of 2018! I loved this book. Even though it was short it definitely packed a punch. It was creepy but compelling and it kept me turning the pages right until the very end. This book follows Martha and her journey as she discovers all about her family history and who she really is. The ideas are rooted in Norse mythology and I love anything mythological. I'm not as well versed in Norse mythology as I am in other areas so it was really refreshing to learn about O history. The writing was fantastic. As I said before it was a really compelling read and I kept thinking to myself just one more chapter so much that I finished it in a couple of days. It's quite a short book but there's a lot packed in here and the author does a fantastic job of evoking feelings of unease as you read. The story was creepy but not so much as to go as far as horror, to me it was the perfect balance. It was also highly atmospheric, both the setting and the story. The author was able to fully immerse the reading into the setting and this made the story even better. I really enjoyed the characters too. Martha was great. She was strong and independent but also wasn't afraid to want or ask for help when she needed it. Stig was also a very intriguing character. There was a lot more to him then first meets the eye and, although we have some of his background revealed to us as the story goes on, there is still enough unsaid to keep his character quite mysterious. The romance was okay too as it was quite a slow burn, no instalove insight. I also liked that this book focused a lot on the females in Norse mythology, such as the Goddess Hel and The Norns, instead of the male gods most media focuses on. Overall I really enjoyed this book. It was deliciously dark and creepy. I loved the atmospheric writing style and setting and the well developed characters. I would definitely recommend picking this one up. One of my favourite books of 2018. Overall Rating