Tinder is a retelling of the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale The Tinderbox, that takes places during The Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648). Be expecting a dark, traditional style, fairytale here.

Otto Hundebiss is surrounded by death and destruction, he has lost his own family.
A chance encounter with a young woman called Safire, whom Otto finds breathtaking, changes his path. As quickly as he meets her, she has soon disappeared, but he presumes she is still alive. The love he has found drives him forward through the horrors of this world.

”Love takes you out the dung heap and shows you the stars. This world without love is but an unlighted candle.”

Otto soon finds himself in the lair of the Lady Of The Nail - a ghastly woman who wants him for her own. He believes she knows Safire’s location, she says she will help him to find her and give him a lot of riches if he can retrieve her tinderbox from a dungeon. But can this Lady be trusted?

This is only the beginning of our heroes’ true quest. Armed with riches, he sets off to find Safire.
However, once he reaches the town where she resides, this tinderbox keeps appearing. No matter how much Otto tries to destroy it, he can’t seem to get rid of it. There are also attacks happening in the town, seemingly by wolves…

The ending of this was SO dark. Wow. It took my breath away. Absolutely one of my favourite endings to a book for a long while.

David Roberts’ nightmarish illustrations often added so much more to certain parts of the story. They have a beautiful, haunting art style.

”Night is an unforgiving time; it makes the horror of dreams last longer until you can’t tell where dreaming ends or waking begins, and both seem as unreal as the other.”

4.5 stars