Winterwood is perfect for a tree-hugging, spooky-minded, person who may or may not want to move to the woods to become a hermit.
I went into this book without even reading the description. I saw a TikTok on Pinterest recommending it as a winter young adult fantasy book, saw someone compare it to the movie Practical Magic, and bought it. The gorgeous cover art definitely helped the process along as well. What can I say? How else am I supposed to judge a book?
Within the first chapter I fell in love with the prose. The descriptions are wild and cosy in a way that shouldn’t work together but really do. The entire book gives off the energy of sitting next to a warm fire, safe inside, while a snow storm rages on the other side of the window. It is both peaceful and frightening.
I would definitely call this book a thriller, albeit, a YA thriller. Set in the weeks after a massive snow storm, the story takes place in a remote lakeside vacation community. During the summer, all of the houses around the lake are full, the water is covered in boats, and the smell of barbecue is never far away. But this story takes place during the winter, when all but two of the houses are empty, the lake is frozen over, and the forest seems both quieter and more powerful. We get two first person narrators, Nora and Oliver, with quick interludes from a spell book telling the stories of Nora's ancestors and the history of the area. Nora is the anchor of the story. She is confident and intelligent, and knows about as much as the reader does at a given moment. Oliver is a mystery and it is very clear there is something not quite right about him from the start.
I think one of the things I like the most about this book is that it works. That might sound simple and silly, but this book has a really narrow scope. There is one clear plot line and nothing to distract from it. No grand adventures or battles or even changing scenery to make up for bad writing or poor plotting. And, it doesn't need a distraction. Its genuinely good. It places us in a small setting, gives rules for the world, and makes every moment believable.
One of the first things that any young adult novel has to do is figure out why teenagers have to solve the problem. Where are the adults? Winterwood gives a really logical answer. They're at the bottom of the mountain and the roads are blocked by snow. Why can't they call the police? The phone lines are down and electricity is out. The only adults in the area are the unnamed counselors who work for the Jackjaw Camp for Wayward Boys, who clearly have their hands full with said wayward boys and, frankly, don't get paid enough to really care about the plot. The other adult we see is Old Floyd Perkins, an elderly man who offers some encouragement and wisdom to Nora, but is frankly too old to care anymore.
Then, of course, we have the world building and the rule making. This is a low fantasy novel, meaning that it takes place in a world like our own, but with fantastical elements. Most of the characters are ordinary teenagers who talk about school and have cell phones and make stupid choices. Nora is the exception and the fantasy element. She is from a long line of witches who have lived in this forest for generations. Each of them have a gift or, as the book calls it, a nightshade. Nora's grandmother could see other people's dreams. Her mother can calm bees. The interludes from the spell book tell us more stories of past nightshades. Nora, though, doesn't know what her's is. She is isolated from her peers because they fear her and she is isolated from her family history because she does not know what her gift is. She is alone entirely and I would say that that is a key element of the novel. Because suddenly, when she should be more isolated than ever with no access to the outside world, Nora is no longer alone.
The rest of this review is definitely going to have spoilers.
So, save this link, go read the book, and come back.
Then we can talk. If you're not convinced download a sample or read the first page in a bookstore. The writing is stunning and will absolutely capture your attention if you let it.
You have been warned.
Ok, so, let's chat about the plot twist. We know that Oliver is suspicious right away, because, come on, he was was found in the super scary, super personified woods. Within the first five chapters, I knew our guy was no longer among the living. Some might say that this makes a poor plot twist, but, I would like to remind those hypothetical people, that this book was written for teenagers. So, congratulations for guessing the twist written for someone ten plus years younger than you. Also, only bad plot twists get no set up. It makes sense that Oliver is dead. No one except Nora sees him. The bone moth leads her to him and follows him. He is literally dead when she finds him. And we learn early on that Walkers can see things that others can't. This book doesn't rely on the plot twist to be good. I read it, with full confidence that Oliver is dead and thoroughly enjoyed the process of watching Nora figure it out. That, my friends, is because this is not a book about a boy who went missing. This is a book about a girl who is cut off from community and has decided that she's ok with that,
learning how to let people in, even if it is dangerous and scary and opens her up to hurt.
I think that is also why the ending works. If this was a book about a boy going missing, the ending would feel cheap and easy. They undo all the damage and make it so the boy never actually went missing so we can all live happily ever after. The end.
No.
It isn't that story. We have to set her world on fire in order for Nora to find her gift. She has to undo the events of the novel so that she can put into practice the things that she spent the last hundred pages learning. If Oliver stayed dead, she would simply be proven right. That people can only bring pain. By bringing him back, she has to open herself up to the possibility of his rejection, knowing that the potential of his love it worth the risk.
This book is honestly beautiful. Fives stars out of five.
Content warning: death, drowning, fantasy witchcraft, bullying
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