Norwegian woods
This fictionaltale of far off places, secrets and magic is quite the page-turner.
WHAT happens when heroes fail? What if a world nev er gets rescued? That’s what Norwegian author Tone Almhjell explores in her second nov el, Thornghost. The book stands squarely on the shoulders of children’s classics which hav e come before, with nods to C.S. Lewis and Enid Blyton, but Almhjell mak es the genre her own by giv ing her tale a distinctly Norwegian flair.
We are tak en to a magical land called Brok en, which was failed by a hero years before Thornghost happens. Brok en is populated by dead pets and wild animals that were k illed before their time.
It’s not as gruesome as it sounds, though. These pets were so lov ed by children that they were reborn into a new world while fondly remembering their liv es with their former adoring owners. For anyone who’s had a pet die, it’s a comforting thought that your belov ed friend may be liv ing in some far-off place, hav ing a wonderful new life, and still remembers who you are.
But just who or what a “Thornghost” is driv es this story forward. It follows teenager Nik las Summerhill, who liv es with his uncle and grandmother on a farm in the countryside. All families Author: Publisher: hav e secrets, and the Summerhills are no different. When Nik las was fiv e-years-old, he ov erheard the last words his mother said before she died: “Keep him away from me. I’m dangerous. I’m a Thornghost!”
Nik las doesn’t k now much about his mother. His uncle and grandmother refuse to talk about her. Whispers in the v illage of Willodale are that his mother was crazy at the time of her death. It is talk lik e that which encourages Nik las into acts of naughtiness against the v illagers.
Nik las begins alone as his best friend and partner-in-crime, Lin, has mov ed to the city with her family in the week s before the book begins. He spends his days tramping through the woods surrounding the farms, his head filled with stories of trolls, singing stones, and all sorts of wild magic.
He’s a mischiev ous boy who filches plum jam from cellars, fills farmers’boots with manure, and shoos lambs out of their pens and into the forest to giv e them a taste of freedom. Not allowed a pet of his own, he cares deeply for the farm animals.
But his latest prank of freeing the lambs ends in tragedy when the runt of the flock is k illed by something in the forest. Nik las doesn’t k now that a v icious new predator is loose in the woods – a creature so clev er, so cunning, and so much more than what it appears to be.
As the story unfolds, Nik als befriends a wild lynx, and as the magic builds, it allows the lynx to talk with him. Through their interactions, they come to understand that a diseased magical taint is spreading across Brok en and Willodale. If they don’t stop it, both worlds will be destroyed.
Whatev er the reason for family k eeping secrets, there are always consequences down the line. In my own family, my brother and I had no idea that the man who joined us for meals at my grandmother’s house was our grandfather. They had separated before we were born, and while our parents k new who he was, to us he was just the strange old man from down the street. For Nik las, not k nowing this about his mother could mean the destruction of ev erything he cherishes.
Almhjell shows v ibrancy in her descriptiv e prose, lov ingly creating Willodale with its tall mountains, ambling farms, dark forests and chill Summerchild lak e – all of which isn’t surprising, considering it’s based on the v ery farm where she summered as a child in Norway.
She also incorporates some great twists to k eep her nov el feeling fresh, despite its familiarity. Thornghost is filled with magic, longing and the ramification of choices we mak e. And in k eeping the chapters short and actionpack ed, Almhjell has written quite a page-turner. She’s definitely a bright, fresh v oice in the young adult fantasy scene.