I'm a bit torn on this review. This was a very solid 3 star read for me. It had no major flaws, it was easy to read through. The plot kept me going and it was unique in its way.

Yet there was just something about it. Maybe the back and forth from past to present, the changing of perspectives. It felt occasionally jerky, occasionally rambling.

I read it, more to get to the end and learn what happened than for the simple joy of soaking up the words. Was my time wasted? Absolutely not. While I wouldn't read it again, I wouldn't take it back or discourage anyone else from giving it a try. Sometimes, a decent read is enough.

A very eery and atmospheric read but sadly for me there was something missing for me that i can't even say what it was but there was just something throughout this entire book that i felt was missing.

All in all a great eery read and if you are looking for a perfect fall/winter read that will keep you turning the pages and slightly spooked without being scary? This is a great one!

Like Goldilocks’ porridge, this is neither too brief nor too verbose; not needlessly complicated but intrinsically clever in its composition. It pulls together two dark tales, one from the pioneer days when wagon trains headed west to start new settlements, and the other in the 21st century. The town of Hawthorn has, as the title explains, sadness in its very foundations, buried deep in the dirt.

When a series of unexplained murders are committed you can almost smell the coffee and pines of Twin Peaks – this is small-town America, haunted by an horrific killer who is much more than he initially seems… but there the similarities end. We don’t follow the police investigation in The Town, but instead observe events from the perspective of a teenage girl. Harper has become fascinated with her historical counterpart, a member of the town’s five founding families, who wrote a diary all those years ago. The document survives into modern times – and that only makes its sudden ending, and the lack of even a grave for the girl who abruptly disappears from history, all the more mysterious…

Published by Flux who specialise in YA fiction, this book could conceivably be categorised as a coming of age tale but it neatly sidesteps the wince-inducing patronising tone of much of the genre. Nor does it indulge in the embarrassing nostalgia of the mature escapist author seeking simpler times in a sanitised version of teenage dreams. Instead Oppegaard convincingly captures the insecurity and the angst of adolescence, the ennui which comes with the self-awareness of existence, neatly balanced by the absurd energy of youth.

His young protagonists are feisty and intelligent, forthright and observant. He also has the multi-kid family dynamic nailed to perfection – the verbal exchanges between Harper and ‘The Mom’ are spot-on and bittersweet, while the young woman’s interactions with her aging grandmother are saturated with affectionate pathos.

The result is a tense tale of intrigue and mystery, part serial-killer stalker-thriller and part historical recreation. The old myths of first nations underpin the more eerie aspects of the adventure, but at no time does it veer into gratuitous slasher-schlock. Nor does Oppegaard scrimp on the characterisation of his killers – in both eras, the bad guys are every bit as well developed and sympathetic characters as the folk they may prey upon. Life in this particular town is… complicated.

A well-constructed, somewhat unsettling story, then, which flows with deceptive ease and finishes in an entirely satisfying and credible fashion. Only after you’ve finished it do you realise just how quietly accomplished it is. It might’ve been written for a teenage audience (I’d suggest older teens as some of the gory stuff is pretty explicit), but certainly it hit the spot with this rather more mature reader.

8/10

One sitting read, quick and creepy! It's not long, so I'd pick this one up at a time you can get through it all at once. It's nearing October, the perfect season for chilling reads like this one. I stayed up late to finish it, and managed to have a slightly disturbing dream when I finally went to bed. I blame the book.

It's not safe to live in Hawthorn. A serial killer is at large in the town, dumping bodies into the river. The victims have nothing in common but their tragic fate... apparently the killer doesn't discriminate over anything like age or sex. He just kills.

Sixteen year old Harper has the usual carefree attitude of the young. She doesn't think anything bad will happen to her, despite the fact that the body count continues to rise. Nothing terrible will happen to her, she doesn't have to worry... but maybe she should. The boy she's starting to talk to is closer to the crimes than she has any reason to suspect.

She's distracted by an unusual new hobby: researching the life of a pioneer girl from the 1860's whose family helped build the town she lives in. They read a diary the girl wrote at school, but it stops abruptly and no one knows what happened to her. Harper is inexplicably drawn to the girl and doesn't know why... but she does know she wants to know how her story ended.

Beautiful title and cover. I really enjoyed the story. The copy I read did have some clunky moments sometimes with sentence structure. That may be fixed before the final copy, but even if it isn't it doesn't detract from the story very much. I would recommend it for anyone looking for a quick read with a bit of a creep factor.

I received a copy of this book from Net Galley and North Star Editions, thank you! My review is honest and unbiased.

David Oppegaard has written a few books, his previous book "The Firebug of Balrog County" a Minnesota Book Award Nominee (and one that I quite enjoyed). While that one was more realistic/contemporary teen fiction, his newest book "The Town Built on Sorrow" is straight up horror/thriller, with a little historical fiction thrown in for good measure. It's a combination that works pretty well, and sets up for a dreamy and atmospheric setting.

We follow the storylines of three characters. The first is Harper, an ambitious and driven high school girl living in the small town of Hawthorn. She has been obsessing over the diary of a pioneer girl who was part of the settling party of the town in the 1800s, named Sofie Helle. Right off the bat I thought this was pretty unique, as what YA novels as of late have shown their lady protagonists having a healthy interest in history? Perhaps there are some, but I haven't read them. The second is Olav, an outsider from his peers at the high school is is also, spoiler alert but not really, a serial killer. The third is Sofie Helle herself, through not only her diary, but also flashbacks to see what the diary never did. Of the three, I probably liked Harper's the most, just because she did feel like a pretty typical teenage girl, and her interests were of interest to me. And since we know that Olav is bad news, it was rife with tension when we saw her slowly getting to know him and becoming attracted to him. I really liked that aspect of the story, as the suspense about her wellbeing would teeter towards unbearable. I also liked the Sofie story, as the dangers and horrors of the prairie to the untrained interloper can have dire consequences. Right out of the gate a baby is taken and eaten by a wolf, which really got my attention. You know from the get go that Hawthorn is going to have a dark pall over it, and darkness is indeed oozing off the page. It's definitely a dark, dark book, as death is always just within striking distance, and watching it slowly circle Harper in the form of Olav is distressing. And then when a strange dark form appears in a dark room part way through the book, well, the gothic tension just shuddered and oozed off of the page, and damn was it effective. The blend of real life horror and supernatural horror works well here, and I almost always imagined Hawthorn with a dense fog because of how Oppegaard builds it in the reader's mind.

But while the atmospheric notes are tight and on point, the characters themselves, likable as some were, kind of fell a bit flat for me. I liked Harper enough but she didn't really stand out too much outside of her interest in history. Olav gave me the creeps to be sure, but it was definitely rooted in his actions and not in who he was as a person. Sofie, too, is likable enough, but there was little connection to her for me and little investment in what exactly did happen to her. I suppose that I was worried for Harper as I read the book, but only because you are supposed to be.

So while the characters themselves didn't do much for me, Hawthorn the town was enough of a character in and of itself that the chills there made up for it. I think that "The Town Built on Sorrow" would be the perfect read for a chilly autumn night this Halloween season. So wrap yourself in a blanket, pick it up, and if you live in small town setting or in a place with forest and nature surrounding you, maybe try not to get too freaked out as you read it.

A strange book that features a pioneer girl’s diary, a serial killer, and a long forgotten skull. (Yes…a skull…).

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In Hawthorn, Minnesota, a serial killer is dumping his victims into the town’s river, and the police are no closer to finding out who it could be.
While this is going on, Harper Spurling is becoming more and more obsessed with the locally published diary of Sofie Helle, a young pioneer girl and one of Hawthorn’s original settlers.
Sofie’s diary describes the settler’s journey to Hawthorn, as well as the strange things that happen when they arrive. But the strangest thing has to be the way it ends–abruptly, and then there’s the fact that no one knows whatever actually happened to Sofie, since she’d disappeared not long after.
Harper’s obsession has her delving further into this mystery, and doing so also unwittingly brings her closer to the serial killer as well.
But will Harper survive long enough to solve the mystery of Sofie’s disappearance?
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The title of this book is what initially drew me in. Not only did I like the way it was worded, it also intrigued me enough so that I had to request it from Netgalley. But how sad was I to find this book not quite as interesting as I’d thought it’d be?

Anyway, so there are three MCs in this book, Harper, the serial killer (whose name I won’t mention, just because I feel it’s a bit spoiler, though you do find it out fairly quickly), and Sofie Helle’s account, as well.

I thought that Harper’s interest in Sofie’s diary was refreshing, since not many people her age would usually care about an old diary that seemingly has no relevance to the modern teen. It was kind of strange how her accounts in this book pretty much revolved around the diary. For example, she had a party she was going to one night, but after telling her friend she has a date to said party (and being told the things she should do to get ready for it), she grabs the diary to read, and honestly, though the diary had some strange things going on in it, the entries weren’t really all that interesting. Harper mentions that she likes how Sofie ‘notices things most people do not, and that she describes things so well, you can see it in your mind‘…but these things that so impressed her? Yeah, I didn’t quite get the same impressions…

Really, this book just read so random for me in regards to the fact that most of it seemed so…unnecessary…
Harper’s obsession with Sofie’s diary; Sofie’s accounts of the early days in Hawthorn, and the disconcerting/bizarre things that had seemed to plague those settlers; and finally, the serial killer.

Seriously, this town just needs to call the FBI, cause the BAU (Behavioral Analysis Unit for those not in the know) would have had this case solved so fast! The killer was by no means complex, so I’m surprised the police had nothing. Psh.

Along with the whole ‘reading random’ thing, I feel like I have to add that when we get an explanation for the skull I had mentioned earlier, it ended up being so…simple. I had expected something more–anything more–but the answer was just so not satisfying.

Anyway, at this point, I think it’s safe to say that this book was a little too all over the place, the characters weren’t fleshed out enough, and the whole wrap-up was just disappointing for me.

In general, I will read anything that catches my fancy. The synopsis of "The Town Built on Sorrow" intrigued me, so I went to read it.

Aaaand it begins with a person running over a poor kitty, then murdering said kitty. I can handle a lot, but violence against animals, especially cats, is just something I can't handle. Even fictional cats. I can handle fictional violence against fictional people just fine, but I can't stand reading about innocent animals being hurt. So...sorry, David Oppengaard, but I didn't make it ten pages into your book. Now, if you'll excuse me, I am going to go find my calico cat and hold her close and make sure she is never, ever in the driveway when someone is about to drive somewhere.

There was a disconnect prevalent throughout this novel, which somehow worked to its advantage. Olav and Harper are descendants of the founding families of Hawthorne. Sofie is a member of the original settlers, whose curiosity and compassion lead to trouble. Her story plays a prominent role in the increasingly intertwined lives of Olav and Harper. Olav doesn't so much accept what he is as just goes with the flow of his life without inquiry or insight of any consequence. Harper is aloof and observant, seemingly not desiring to be very connected. In the end, however, her connections to others pull her through a harrowing encounter with Olav.

very dark love it will tell all my friends, what we do to hide things

Book has mentions of sex, underage drinking, talking skull, & drug use.

CONTAINS SPOILERS


This was a book that a should have loved. It has mystery, history, and it seemed like a little bit of thriller mixed in. But oh how wrong I was. This has been one of the most disappointing reads this year.

We have three/four different perspectives in this book; Hawthorn, Harper, A Skull, & Olav. Now your probably thinking okay. That's more than expected, but we can work with it. That's what I thought to, in fact I thought Hawthorn and Olav would solve the mystery together once I realized he was a part of the story as well. But oh how wrong I was..
Olav finds a skull in the woods when he goes to bury the neighbors cat he accidentally runs over. Now I know what your thinking, okay... should he call the cops or at least tell someone? Apparently not, instead the skull starts talking to him and telling him to do things that he shouldn't be doing ever!
Then we have naive Hawthorn who is obsessed with Harper's diary and wants to know what happened to her once the book ends. So she starts investigating and along the way her and Olav become sort of friends.
That is until Olav starts doing things that Hawthorn doesn't like, but of course he draws her back in with the fact that he has found something about Harper. This was when I was so ready to shake Hawthorn and tell her don't go, he's lying. Thank fully she had started to get some brains by this point and had brought a friend along, but it still ends up going horribly wrong.

Overall would not recommend this book, I didn't enjoy any of it by the end and honestly wished I had stopped reading it after 50% and stopped hoping that it would get better.

Review will be posted September 25th, 2017

A quick easy read. Eerie and atmospheric, a solid read.

THE TOWN BUILT ON SORROW, as someone else said, has a gorgeous title, and a great cover. The feeling of eeriness and the mystery/thriller aspect is strong from the beginning. There is even an almost thematic feel to the novel from the get go that gives me slight BATES MOTEL feels to it. I enjoyed the read, and its a quick one--which I feel really lends to the atmosphere. A few clunky sentences here and there that tripped me up, but overall, I think its a solid read that anyone who enjoys that kind of atmospheric dread will enjoy.