Review – The Twistrose Key by Tone Almhjell (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Middle Grade
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 384 pages
Publisher: Puffin Books
Release Date: September 2, 2014
ISBN-13: 978-0142423455
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Twistrose Key series
Source: Bought
Rating: 3/5 stars

“Something is wrong in the house Lin’s family rented. The clocks tick too slowly. Frost covers the flowerbed, even in a rain storm. And when a secret key marked “Twistrose” arrives for her, Lin finds in a crack in the cellar and unlocks a gate to the world of Sylver. This frozen realm is the home of every dead animal who ever loved a child. Lin is overjoyed to be reunited with Rufus, the pet she buried under the rosebush. But together they must find the missing Winter Prince in order to save Sylver from destruction…and they’re not the only ones hunting for the Prince.”

I was drawn to the beautiful cover on this book and found the premise intriguing. I actually started reading this out loud with my 11 year old son. He thought it was “creepy and boring” and wanted to stop reading it after the first few chapters. I ended up finishing it on my own and have to agree; the story moved slow and was boring.

Additionally I struggled with the characters; they didn’t have much personality and didn’t really engage me as a reader. I thought the fact that the main animal (Lin’s lost pet) was a red backed vole was weird and hard to relate to. The story was very predictable as well.

It wasn’t all bad. There is some beautiful description throughout but this was strangely offset by a very simplistic writing structure. The story does a dark fairy tale feel to it which I kind of enjoyed. However, this dark fairy tale vibe is coupled with life size pets, which feels a bit contradictory at times Neither me or my son liked the fact that the cats in here are portrayed as evil (we are big cat fans in my household).

Overall this was okay but not great. I don’t plan on reading more by Almhjell. The story just moved too slowly, was too predictable, and was full of characters that were bland and uninspiring.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– Goodreads Reading Challenge
– Mount TBR Reading Challenge