I do love a book about Norway and legends so this fitted the bill perfectly. It’s a YA title and I often find so many hidden gems in this category which introduce the reader to legends, mysteries and more. This one was particularly chilling though and even if I’m *slightly* older than the target audience *cough* , it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up!

The landscape and mythology make this novel. So does the writing and the peppering of Norwegian phrases throughout. It ticked all the boxes in one go!

It was the way the mysterious side of the story linked to the legends and the ghostly aspects which really made the book sing for me. The story of a girl who can tell things about a person just by touching their clothes made me shiver from the get go. Once this girl Martha gets to her grandmother’s cabin in the woods, I was on edge!

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!

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

It’s a brilliantly evocative read and I loved everything about it. The cover is one of my favourites of 2018 too.