Very young adult but dark 
Not sure about the hipe
The ending / what happen to oliver is very obvious

The good: I fell in love with this book instantly just on vibes alone. The author’s writing is incredibly beautiful and atmospheric, and she made a blizzard on an isolated lake into something so much more. I think the Wicker Woods are my favorite creepy, sentient forest that I’ve encountered yet, and I felt for them more than some of the actual characters in the book. 

The bad: this book (at least the edition I have—the OwlCrate edition) needed another run through an editor. There’s some sentences that are blatantly missing a word in order to make it a complete sentence, and it happened enough that it would pull me out of the story each time. And as much as I adored the prose of the book, it became incredibly repetitive at points. Some of the repetition could have been the author’s attempt at a callback to something that happened early on in the book, if only she hadn’t mentioned it twenty other times since the first time. It was bad enough that it made the book feel slow at points, and it got to the point where I got tired of reading the same sentence about miners offering items to the forest, even though it does play an important part in the plot. The repetition seemed to cause the author to lose the plot at some points, and I had to remind myself a few times what the central plot point of the book was supposed to be. 

Overall I definitely enjoyed the book, and look forward to future releases from Ernshaw.

Winterwood by Shea Ernshaw is an atmospheric, dark book follow the MC, Nora Walker. Nora Walker is descended from a long line of witches, all born in an old house beside the Jackjaw Lake. The Walkers have always shared a special connection to the Wicked Wood, the forest surrounding the Fir Haven. One day, Nora Walker finds a boy, Oliver Huntsman, who disappeared from the camp for wayward boys two weeks ago. While Nora attempts to discover how Oliver survived in the forest for that long, and how he got there in the first place, Oliver has his own secrets to keep. Ones he'll never unearth.

I Liked

I Didn't Like

This was the first book in a while that I didn't want to stop reading. While not a favorite read, I think this was worth it.

Keep in mind, Chinese is not a language, rather, an umbrella term for multiple Chinese languages/dialects.

Updated to 5 stars in 2023 after third read.

If you're looking for the perfect spoopy book to enjoy during Halloween - or you just need a great low fantasy to enjoy this autumn/winter, this is the book for you!

I'm definitely not someone who enjoys being scared. I hate horror movies and I can't even read thrillers. So, I was a little weary going into this book because I just wasn't sure if it would be too spooky for me or not. It definitely wasn't! It felt like paranormal fantasy (nothing too creepy) mixed with a mystery!

My mind was so focused on "solving" everything that was going on that I barely even noticed the more "spooky" parts - and I wouldn't even consider them all that spooky. More just... slightly eerie? And only because they take place in a somewhat haunted forest. 

It was beautifully written and made me want to take a trip to the mountains in the winter - but hopefully not to get snowed in with a strange boy! *wink wink*