Enter a Magical Realm of Nightmares and Talking Animals with Thornghost
Thornghost, by Tone Almhjell, is an excellent fantasy to offer any young reader who loves brave animal companions in adventure.
Niklas lives with his grandmother and uncle on their family farm of Summerhill in Scandinavia, growing up with stories of trolls and games of troll magic. When his mother died, a little while before the book begins, he decided that rather than being a pitiful orphan he’d be a daring rouge. He set off on a course of mischief, but only playing his tricks on those he thought deserved it, like the neighboring farmer, whose lambs he sets free so that they can enjoy the last of the summer’s grazing. But he finds to his horror that he’s released them into horrible danger. Trolls are real, and they are out there, hunting. And Niklas himself is their main target.
How can a boy defeat these nightmarish trolls, even one who spent his childhood playing at troll-hunting? How can he turn back the creeping darkness that has brought the trolls to his valley, threatening everything he loves? When he’s befriended by a wild lynx, who’s magically able to talk with him, the two decide to find the source of the dark taint at the headwaters of Summerhill’s river, and there they step out of our world through a tangle of thorny briars into a place of dreams and nightmares.
The lynx (whom Niklas has named Secret) and the boy enter the ruins of Jewelgard, once a peaceful haven for all beloved animal companions after their deaths, but now a beleaguered enclave beset by nightmarish creatures. Night is when the trolls hunt, daylight is when skeletal birds, working for the sinister Sparrow King, patrol the skies and slay or capture anything they see moving. Only the Rosa Torquata, the twisted rose with it thorny ramparts, protects the animals, and now the Rosa itself is sick and falling prey to the darkness.
Niklas is determined to be brave and daring, like the trickster and rascal he imagines himself to be, and with Shadow at his side he enters the stronghold of the Sparrow King. There he finds the reason for the nightmares besetting both the world of the animals and his own valley. It’s a dark secret that drove his mother mad with grief and guilt, that has been haunting his own life, and which now has made her nightmares come true.
With Secret’s wild animal caution to balance his impetuous nature, and with a new understanding of his family’s story, Niklas grows into a true hero, one who can send the nightmares off once and for all. The mystery of Niklas’s mother is skillfully unwound, with unexpected twists that all make sense in the end. The descriptions are vivid, and not for the faint of heart. Though it’s never explained in any detail how the fantasy world is tied to the dreams of people in our world, if you accept the premise and let the story carry you along, it all works. It feels deeply real and it’s vivid enough to offer plenty of scope for adventure, and plenty of tugs on the heartstrings of anyone who’s ever loved an animal.
The nightmarish creatures are pretty creepy–don’t give this one to anyone who might be made anxious by bird skeletons!
Thornghost is a companion to The Twistrose Key, and although it isn’t necessary to have read that one first, it does make this one an even richer read. The Twistrose Key is the story of how Niklas’s best friend, Lin, had her own magical journey to the land of the beloved animals, and how she had to save if from a different, but equally formidable, danger.