Winterwood Review

Novel By Shea Ernshaw

5/5 stars

Synopsis- (sourced from Goodreads)

Be careful of the dark, dark wood…

Especially the woods surrounding the town of Fir Haven. Some say these woods are magical. Haunted, even.

Rumored to be a witch, only Nora Walker knows the truth. She and the Walker women before her have always shared a special connection with the woods. And it’s this special connection that leads Nora to Oliver Huntsman—the same boy who disappeared from the Camp for Wayward Boys weeks ago—and in the middle of the worst snowstorm in years. He should be dead, but here he is alive, and left in the woods with no memory of the time he’d been missing.

But Nora can feel an uneasy shift in the woods at Oliver’s presence. And it’s not too long after that Nora realizes she has no choice but to unearth the truth behind how the boy she has come to care so deeply about survived his time in the forest, and what led him there in the first place. What Nora doesn’t know, though, is that Oliver has secrets of his own—secrets he’ll do anything to keep buried, because as it turns out, he wasn’t the only one to have gone missing on that fateful night all those weeks ago.

Review

Plot - I loved Shea’s other book Wicked Deep and so I was ecstatic to read Winterwood. This author is turning into one of my favorites with her beautiful imagery. I dream of writing descriptions as detailed and engaging as her. Despite the bleak landscape she brings winter alive in a way that makes it beautiful and deadly. The story revolves around Nora trying to figure out why Oliver is alive when he shouldn’t be, it’s a mystery with twists and turns and a wonderfully laid out ending. (I loved the ending.)

Characters - I’ll be honest, except for Nora and Oliver I didn’t really like anyone else. Which might have been the point, so we as readers don’t get too attached to a character and decide they couldn’t have done anything wrong. That being said, I loved Nora and Oliver. Together, separately, and everything in between. She’s feral and yet knows better than to show that to people until it suits her. Oliver is trusting and broods, but not in that really annoying way that YA males tend to brood. He needs time to think, and thankfully we get to see what he’s thinking about for the most part.

Style - Weaving Nora’s ancestral book into the the narrative was done so well. Every few chapters we got to read a page or two from it. I liked that it was concise and words weren’t wasted, and when the last few pages become relevant it really ties into the story well rather than being an odd info dump no one really wants.

Overall I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to read some beautiful descriptions that don’t weigh down the narrative. It’s also a curious mystery with a very spooky twist at the end that I loved. Sit down with a cup of tea and let the winter chill in.

Hope that was helpful,

JC Scraba