The Twisted Tree: An Amazon Kindle Bestseller: 'A creepy and evocative fantasy' The Sunday Times

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It soon turns out that something is lurking in the woods, something connected to the twisted tree in the garden. If they are to stay alive the pair will need to rely on each other and Martha’s new skill of being able to see things with her blind eye. Another amazing book and will def become one of my favourites! I need a movie adaptation for this one! 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 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. We begin by meeting Martha as she travels to visit her grandmother. Martha is blind in one eye after a terrible accident involving the tree at her grandmother's house. When Martha arrives at her Grandmother's she discovers a strange boy inside and that her grandmother has died. I bought this book after seeing the cover on my Facebook feed. I'm a big book cover fanatic and I just love abstract covers. This one is so beautiful and I'm so delighted to be able to say that the story matched it perfectly. This spooky, grim, story is dark and twisted with just the right amount of angst for a YA novel. The writing style- This is linked to both of the above points. The way that the author pulls all of this together is done in such a natural way that it really draws you in I feel I should make it clear that I have not been a "YA" for quite a long time. However I have read and reviewed a few YA books over the past few years. The outline of this one appealed to immediately. In part I think this was because of the reference to Neil Gaiman whose books I love generally.Even Martha's mum is strong. She thought she was going crazy. Can you imagine how you would cope with that? She had visions that she could only work through by painting terrifying pictures, doctors told her it was because of what her mother had told her when she was growing up, she wanted to protect her daughter...what would you do? Probably the exact same if we're honest. Because you do anything to protect your kids. Even though she knew Martha might hate her, even though she had terrifying visions, when she realised Martha might be in danger so was straight on a plane to be with her and protect her as best she could. The insta-love was so cringey and unnecessary, but it's YA so has to have romance right?! Also, the love interest was called Stig, which just made me think of the book, Stig of the dump Every. Single. Time. 😂😂

This is a Hot Key Books publication which means it is aimed at a Young Adult (I loathe that term SO much) audience. However, do not be misled this a creepy and tense novel that will give an inordinate amount of pleasure to anyone who enjoys a good old-fashioned tale of the supernatural. It has everything - ghosts, demons, ancient Gods and a promise made a millennia ago that cannot be broken - DELICIOUS!The only reason for not giving this 5 stars? I felt there was a lot of unfinished business with Stig. At the end of the novel I had more questions than answers with regards to his past and personality and I felt more could have been done to tie up these loose ends.