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Rachel has always been drawn to the macabre. As a child, she would write stories and draw pictures that her mum would take away because they gave her nightmares. The Twisted Tree by Rachel Burge sounded incredible, but while it had a number of intriguing elements, it was a huge let down. The secondary characters were two dimensional, and the main character was whiny and unlikeable. She had a great amount of self loathing about her eye, and we were constantly told that she is ugly and hideous because of her injury/disability. My favourite character was Gandalf the dog by a mile! The Twisted Tree combines Nordic Mythology, a contemporary setting and a ghost story together in what is a twisted tale that involves romance, secrets and lies, the underworld and a remote island in Norway!
And then there's the plot itself. As I said, there were elements to it that were pretty intriguing, but they just weren't developed enough. So there's more to this twisted tree in the garden that meets the eye. Ok, fine. But why? There's a link to Norse mythology, which was really fascinating, but it's just surface level stuff, and if you don't know Norse mythology, like me, then you'll be left with even more questions starting with "why?" And other questions like, what is the creature in the woods? Ok, it's X, but what is that? What does it mean? How and why did Mormor die? Because she seemed to know she would die, but there's no explanation as to why, or what happened. Why Martha's family, specifically? And what happened before they were given this task? There were just so many things that were underdeveloped, world building that wasn't fleshed out enough. I have read a lot of fantasy, and so I'm used to in depth explanations and world building that has an answer to every possible question. It feels to me that Burge didn't put enough effort into fleshing out her world building, and so I feel a little cheated. I received a free ebook version of this from Netgalley. Thankyou to both the publisher and Netgalley for allowing me to read this. My review is still honest! I’m not going to tell you much more at this point as there is no way to tell you more without being a completely spoilers based reviewI can't really fault this story. It was an enjoyable read. It has interesting characters who are well worked. The pace/tension/spooky ness are very good. My rating of 4.5/5 I am more than happy to round up to 5. I'd like to read this author's next book. I have mixed feelings about this one. It's impressive for a debut novel, and something different, but it does have it's issues. I'm not actually going to provide a synopsis for this one as 1. It's a complex little book to summarise, and 2.I think this works way better with no prior knowledge, but in short, it's a YA horror/fantasy/thriller/paranormal set in remote Norway with a mysterious family history and a really creepy old tree.
This was genuinely nicely spooky. The Nordic legends were very well used and explained. The quality of the writing was very good and made for an easy read. I did like the idea of Martha being able to read fabric - that was novel and interesting. Martha with all her emotions and fears makes an excellent character. This is catogorised as a "Teens and Young Adult" book so I'm certainly not part of the intended demographic but nevertheless as someone who enjoys a well written spooky tale I must admit that I found this a most enjoyable read. Combining such diverse themes as romance, disability, Nordic mythology, ghosts, monsters and broken families the story ultimately is about redemption and coming to terms with the past and who you are.
I loved the Norse mythology used as a basis for this story. It's so rich, with so many creepy possibilities but also this strong sense of family loyalty that seems to have bound generations of Martha's family to hold their ancestors agreement. This was a wonderful and relatively short fantasy/reality story. Martha was a great heroine and I loved the combination of fantasy, Norse mythology, creepiness and romance. That doesn't sound like it would work but it really did! Things then start to get spooky ... I won't tell you what happens (because spoilers) but you're in for a great ride! Events that added little to the story – there were a few things that felt a bit ‘non-eventy’ to me that dragged out that first portion of the story and kinda added to the bit above Another amazing book and will def become one of my favourites! I need a movie adaptation for this one!
The use of the Norwegian language. The way that it became natural in the story to have so many mentions of words and phrases was so well written. I actually feel like I learned something! I was SO impressed this was a debut and that when I chatted with the author on TheBookTrail, she told me she’s never been to Norway! How to get the tone and setting this right without going is genius. Imagine where she will take us next!The pacing – while I really enjoyed this book I did feel like the scene setting and getting Martha to the Island and getting to the cabin and essentially the story itself took too long. The ‘events’ of the story then felt rushed a little bit. Four months ago, Martha fell from a tree in her grandmother, Mormor's garden in Norway. The fall left her scarred and blind in one eye, and ever since, whenever she touches people clothes, she has access to their feelings and their memories. Desperate to know what's going on, she has written to her Mormor for answers, without any response. When she realises that Mormor has been replying, but her mother has been burning the letters, Martha decides to fly to Norway to speak to her Mormor. Only, when she arrives, she discovers her Mormor has died and been buried, and a strange boy is living in her house. There's something strange out in the woods that her Mormor's neighbours warn her of with unusual fear - and also that her Mormor wanted the twisted tree in the garden watered from the well. When strange things start happening around the house - a spinning wheel spinning, a rag doll twitching, books appearing, and dark shadows moving - Martha starts to suspect that the unwatered twisted tree is at the heart of it all.
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