Winterwood by Shea Ernshaw | Book Review

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Winterwood by Shea Ernshaw
Published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers on November 5, 2019
Genres: YA Fantasy, Romance
Pages: 336
Format: Hardback
Source: Purchased

Content Warnings: Alcohol, Death, Drowning, Hazing, Kidnapping, Murder, Bullying
Rating:

Be careful of the dark, dark wood… Especially the woods surrounding the town of Fir Haven. Some say these woods are magical. Haunted, even. Rumored to be a witch, only Nora Walker knows the truth. She and the Walker women before her have always shared a special connection with the woods. And it’s this special connection that leads Nora to Oliver Huntsman—the same boy who disappeared from the Camp for Wayward Boys weeks ago—and in the middle of the worst snowstorm in years. He should be dead, but here he is alive, and left in the woods with no memory of the time he’d been missing. But Nora can feel an uneasy shift in the woods at Oliver’s presence. And it’s not too long after that Nora realizes she has no choice but to unearth the truth behind how the boy she has come to care so deeply about survived his time in the forest, and what led him there in the first place. What Nora doesn’t know, though, is that Oliver has secrets of his own—secrets he’ll do anything to keep buried, because as it turns out, he wasn’t the only one to have gone missing on that fateful night all those weeks ago.

Shea Ernshaw is one of my favorite authors. She has some of the most beautiful prose I have ever read, and she is the only author to date that I have marked passages and quotes to return to later. While I didn't mark nearly as many passages in Winterwood as I did The Wicked Deep, it was still a 5-star rating for me. Since finishing, I have not been able to stop thinking about the story, characters, and language, and still get emotional thinking about the ending.

Winterwood is told from the perspectives of Nora Walker, a young witch coming into her own, and Oliver, a boy who disappeared and reappeared in the Wicker Woods...a boy who should be dead. Scattered throughout the story are passages from the Walker's spellbook, which details the long line of Walker women who have inhabited Fir Haven since before memory. I loved these snippets from the spell book, which also included spells written by the Walker women, spells that, while not real, are rooted in true correspondences and folklore. Some have mentioned that the repetition bothered them, but I understood Ernshaw's meaning. First, the number three is a highly magical number, associated with protection, harmony, wisdom, and understanding, which directly corresponds with the story and Nora and Oliver's journey. As a witch myself, I love Ernshaw's attention to detail in this regard. Without giving too much away, the repetition is also associated with Nora's magic, which I think many of those critiquing the repetition failed to understand.

Winterwood is an enchanting mystery with hauntingly gorgeous and chilling world-building. While you may see the twist from a mile away, it still took my breath away, leaving goosebumps and a chill that ran down my spine. It's quiet and slow, intense and chilling, which left me wanting so much more. As I mentioned, I am always completely and utterly enthralled by Ernshaw's writing and Winterwood is no different. My only fault with the book was the romance, which seemed very quick for me considering the time over which the book unfolds. Others say it felt natural, so I'll leave that up to you to decide. Despite this, I can't stop thinking about the book and will very likely revisit it again in the future. Thank you, Shea Ernshaw, for leaving me captivated until the very end.