2019/70: The Twisted Tree -- Rachel Burge

For now, all you need to know is that our ancestor, a weaver woman named Aslaug, made a sacred vow that she and her line would take care of the tree in the garden. [loc. 921]

Martha adores her Norwegian grandmother, who she calls Mormor -- but she hasn't heard from Mormor since the accident in Mormor's garden, when Martha fell out of a tree and lost her sight in one eye. She's also acquired the ability to read a person's thoughts by touching their clothing. Can Mormor help? Without her mother's knowledge, Martha sets out for Norway, heading for the tiny island of Skjebne where her grandmother lives.

Except that when she reaches her grandmother's house, Mormor is nowhere to be found -- but there's a strange boy, Stig, sleeping there. And nobody's been watering the tree in the garden...

This is a dark fantasy rooted in Norse mythology. There are some interesting ideas, but I didn't find Martha very coherent as a character: she is ashamed of her appearance, crushes on Stig, witnesses the aftermath of violent death, is hunted by a monstrous creature, crushes on Stig ... And Stig is a mystery. Because the narrative is from Martha's POV, we never get to find out Stig's story -- only the scraps that he confides to Martha, and the conflicting emotions that she picks up when she touches his jacket.

I did not find the conclusion satisfactory. There are too many loose ends. What happened to Nina? Who's going to water the tree? If a dog is saved, why not a human? And of course, the perennial annoyance: why did the characters not communicate with one another? Most, if not all, of the horror could have been avoided...

Kudos, though, for a body-positivity talk from Hel; a sensible, if not always sensitive, treatment of mental health issues; a sense of female empowerment (most of the characters, alive or dead or immortal, are female) and plenty of echoes of Norse mythology.