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apendragon's review
5.0
A fantastic thriller story! It had me up well in to the night, too scared to close my eyes for more than a millisecond. Helen Grant is a brilliant author and her characters are believable, charasmatic and unlike most novels, don't have any special powers to make them more interesting - the plot line makes up for that!
The novel follows Steffi Nett, a shy young adult who works at her parents' bakery. She aspires to do more, but her quietness makes her easily overlooked. Her parents almost seem to wish that she had gone missing a few years ago, not her older sister, and her group of friends seem to be abandoning her slowly, not to mention her boyfriend who is starting to have eyes for another. The only person she really develops anywhere near a close friendship to is Hanna, described as "robust" and "dark-haired".
One night, the drunken group of friends stumble up to the crumbling house of the supposed witch "Rote Gertrud". The house is isolated in the nearby woods and for centuries, many people have stumbled up there, begging Rote Gertrud to grant their pleas. There, they each make a wish on a scrap of paper, none of them expecting anything to come from it, but all of them with a faint glimmer of hope as they go their separate ways and fall into bed.
Except - Steffi's wish does come true. Egged on by her friends, she makes another, and then more and more: and each time, they come true. Scared by what is happening, Steffi confides more and more in Hanna, who is the sole person who Steffi feels she can trust. With these wishes comes the surprise return of Steffi's sister, and the true reason for her sudden departure.
But is there more to the story than meets the eye? Is it really Rote Gertrud who's casting Steffi's wishes?
The novel follows Steffi Nett, a shy young adult who works at her parents' bakery. She aspires to do more, but her quietness makes her easily overlooked. Her parents almost seem to wish that she had gone missing a few years ago, not her older sister, and her group of friends seem to be abandoning her slowly, not to mention her boyfriend who is starting to have eyes for another. The only person she really develops anywhere near a close friendship to is Hanna, described as "robust" and "dark-haired".
One night, the drunken group of friends stumble up to the crumbling house of the supposed witch "Rote Gertrud". The house is isolated in the nearby woods and for centuries, many people have stumbled up there, begging Rote Gertrud to grant their pleas. There, they each make a wish on a scrap of paper, none of them expecting anything to come from it, but all of them with a faint glimmer of hope as they go their separate ways and fall into bed.
Except - Steffi's wish does come true. Egged on by her friends, she makes another, and then more and more: and each time, they come true. Scared by what is happening, Steffi confides more and more in Hanna, who is the sole person who Steffi feels she can trust. With these wishes comes the surprise return of Steffi's sister, and the true reason for her sudden departure.
But is there more to the story than meets the eye? Is it really Rote Gertrud who's casting Steffi's wishes?
owls_rainbow's review
4.0
This was a really good book. At first I was put off by the German place names and other words and debated giving up but I started it on my lunch break at work and didn't have anything else on me and by the end of the half hour I was hooked.
The characters were interesting even if we didn't know much about them. There was a romantic history hinted at between Steffi and one of her friends which isn't explored enough in my opinion. I liked the place descriptions.
This would have been a 5 star but the ending was a little predictable. I worked out who it was a little bit before Steffi did and the why when who was confirmed was kind of obvious.
Bonus enjoyment of the character sharing my name: Stefanie! Spelling and everything :D
The characters were interesting even if we didn't know much about them. There was a romantic history hinted at between Steffi and one of her friends which isn't explored enough in my opinion. I liked the place descriptions.
This would have been a 5 star but the ending was a little predictable. I worked out who it was a little bit before Steffi did and the why when who was confirmed was kind of obvious.
Bonus enjoyment of the character sharing my name: Stefanie! Spelling and everything :D
thedystopian's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
goldluula's review
3.0
I'm sorry. Just, whenever I feel in need of a laugh, I will scroll down my to-read list just to find this book so that I can laugh at the cover. I mean, really? What on Earth happened?
Helen Grant had really lovely covers for her other books... But this one...
Helen Grant had really lovely covers for her other books... But this one...
nollreads's review
2.0
Having previously read The Glass Demon by the same author, and having liked several aspects of it immensely while it ultimately fell short of noteworthy, I decided to give her one more chance. I'm glad I did, but only insofar as I now know not to read any more.
As with The Glass Demon, this novel started off promisingly, and I think even about a third of the way in, I was convinced it was going to be a four star read. But ultimately I think Grant gets an idea in her head, and forces it to work, by way of extremely unlikely events and cardboard characters who all serve no purpose but to further the plot. This means the characters are generally unpredictable, 2-dimensional and for some reason, all absolutely terrible people. Every man Grant writes (in both books) at least suffers from problems, if is not an outright sexual assaulter or murderer. Not that her women get away with much - the main character in this is extremely inconsistent, unlikeable and immature. Another female character is fat and gluttonous, another a busybody out to ruin lives, another is a sociopath - Grant must hate people! The plot started off well, but became quite ridiculous and largely impossible by the end.
It's a shame, because Grant definitely has the capacity to write interesting and absorbing prose - that's how I got through both books. Unfortunately, she really needs to work on her characters and on branching out from the one plot formula she seems to use in every book.
As with The Glass Demon, this novel started off promisingly, and I think even about a third of the way in, I was convinced it was going to be a four star read. But ultimately I think Grant gets an idea in her head, and forces it to work, by way of extremely unlikely events and cardboard characters who all serve no purpose but to further the plot. This means the characters are generally unpredictable, 2-dimensional and for some reason, all absolutely terrible people. Every man Grant writes (in both books) at least suffers from problems, if is not an outright sexual assaulter or murderer. Not that her women get away with much - the main character in this is extremely inconsistent, unlikeable and immature. Another female character is fat and gluttonous, another a busybody out to ruin lives, another is a sociopath - Grant must hate people! The plot started off well, but became quite ridiculous and largely impossible by the end.
It's a shame, because Grant definitely has the capacity to write interesting and absorbing prose - that's how I got through both books. Unfortunately, she really needs to work on her characters and on branching out from the one plot formula she seems to use in every book.
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