Winterwood review

4/5 stars

Recommended to people who like: fantasy, magic, who-dunnit, witches, dual POVs, small towns

This story went in a direction that I wasn’t entirely expecting. To be fair, I got it as a free book where I could choose from a number of different options and I chose this one without really knowing what it was about, just that it was YA fantasy and other people had positive things to say about it.

I liked the setting. The winter coldness, the weird small-town vibes, the boys’ reform school, the woods, Nora’s house. It all came together quite nicely to create a good setting for the novel. Actually, it reminded me, at least at first, quite a bit of Lakeside from American Gods. Like another reviewer mentioned, I would’ve liked some more to do with the woods, since that is technically what the premise is based on. Knowing more about the woods and also seeing it react more would’ve added to the book, I think. I did like the ‘revelation’ at the end regarding the woods, though I don’t know how none of the Walkers figured it out sooner.

Nora was an interesting character. You get the sense that she’s used to being alone and, while she doesn’t mind it too much, would definitely like a friend or two, or even just her grandmother back. I really have to question her mother’s choices, to be honest, since I don’t know what kind of parent would leave their child alone in a small town that routinely becomes inaccessible in the winter. Wouldn’t you…I don’t know…come back sooner? Or bring her with you? That whole thing was a little weird, especially since there’s no mention of the mom at the end either, so who knows what happened to her.

Anyway, Nora. She definitely thrives a bit more when she has people in the house, though obviously nothing goes to plan. She trusts a little too easily in my book, though I wish things had worked out a little differently for her. She’s determined to figure things out since it seems like only she and the perpetrators know what happened that night one boy died and another disappeared. She does act a little foolhardy in this, though, considering she traipses off to confront them on more than one occasion and doesn’t really bring backup.

Oliver is a hard character to get to know since he just kind of drifts in and out of the story. We get chapters from his POV, but nothing really too substantial, I feel. Part of this is because he was there that night and so the plot kind of hinges on what he remembers and knowing what he knows would give everything away a little too soon. It still makes it hard to know what Nora sees in him, though.

There is definitely instalove, which I think a lot of people are over at this point. Oliver and Nora literally know each other for five seconds and they’re already mooning over one another. They talk/think about it a lot. Luckily, Oliver quite literally keeps disappearing from the house, so we don’t have to deal with it as much as we might otherwise.

The other ‘friend’ in the story is largely unmemorable, I think her name was Sarah but I don’t really know and it’s only been two days since I read the damn thing. I know that she’s wishy-washy and that she gets her feelings hurt waaay too easily over Nora questioning her even though she’s literally hanging out with the other people who were there the night the boys either died or disappeared. Sarah (or whatever her name is) really needs to get her shit together and stop being such a baby. Like, you’d think someone’s life is more important than getting dick, right?

The other characters, aside from the old man, were…downright terrible. They’re boys from the reform school, and not all of them seem too bad, but none of them really do anything when the worst of them steps in to hurt Nora, so. Obviously, that’s the point, we’re not supposed to like them, but it comes across a little heavy-handed at times.

In terms of the magic, I liked learning about the Walkers’ magic from Nora and from the snippets from the spellbook. However, we still don’t get a ton of magicky stuff and I would’ve liked to see more of that in a book that’s supposed to have witches in it. Also, Nora mentions an awful lot that she doesn’t have powers and she’ll be the first Walker without them….but one of the spellbook bios literally mentions that a Walker ancestor died before ever discovering her powers, so it doesn’t seem like Nora’s all that special in that regard. Also, it wasn’t difficult to figure out what was going on with Nora. She seemed to think otherwise, but I figured out the magic stuff the first time something odd was mentioned. The other twist was significantly better hidden, though there if you look for the signs.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and it was a pretty quick read. It really made me want winter to be here. I liked the woods and the magic, and I even liked the mystery. I thought one of the major twists was good, though I did guess the other one way beforehand.