Audiobook Review - The Twisted Tree

• Title And Author: The Twisted Tree by Rachel Burge
• Publisher: Hot Key Books
• Physical, eBook or Audiobook: Audiobook
• Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Borrowed from local library via BorrowBox
• Length: 256 Pages or 6 Hours 41 Minutes

This might be my last review/write-up of 2019! It depends how fast I can finish my current read (unless I finish it prior to this weekend). Anyway, back story. I went the to the Hot Key Blogger Launch to The Twisted Tree earlier this year at the publisher and we were all intrigued by this. A ghost story with hints of Norse mythology? Sign me up!

But I kept putting this off. So, in the end, when I saw the audiobook version on the BorrowBox app (in connection with Essex Libraries), I requested it and listened to this over the course of several days at work.

Ever since the accident, Martha can sense things. She can tell things about a person by touching their clothes. Their emotions, memories, regrets, all soaked into the fabric. Trying to come to terms with this new, unsettling gift and how the accident left her blind in one eye, Martha goes to her grandmother - Mormor - house in Norway. But when she gets there, she finds that her Mormor is dead and a runaway is living in her cabin. Not only that but something is outside the cabin, waiting… and all the while, the Twisted Tree is watching. Watching and waiting…

Oh boy… ok, this is going to be hard to write as I had such high hopes for this. I want a ghost story that creeps me out and put me on edge. I was ready for it!

And yet…

And yet, it never quite worked for me. Which means I’m in the minority as nearly everyone I know who has read this really enjoyed it.

And, here’s the thing. I can see why. I can see the potential this book has. The writing is good, the idea is good and how everything links together is good. And yet… and yet, I kept thinking “This isn’t sticking the landing. It’s not quite there for me.”

Plus, there were things I went “Huh?” and hugely dislike. I disliked how fast the relationship between Martha and the runaway she met, Stig, develops. It was rushed and I kept going “You only just met him and he broke into your dead grandmother’s house! And now… now, you’re cooking him dinner and trusting him with your life!?” I dislike the one/two occasion I felt that Martha being blind in one eye was a plot device rather than an issue or trauma she has to overcome.

And the concept of ghost story and Norse myths. Oh, I wish I knew what it was. Because there were ghostly elements I liked, but once these elements were removed and it became norse mythology explantation, it lost it. The story lost that edge of spooky.

I can see the author can write, and I am willing to reading something else by her, but this… the idea had potential, but the execution didn’t live up to what I hope it would be. But, I know that a ton of people have read and enjoyed it, so if you want to read this, go for it and I hope you enjoy it!