#ondvinter

Title: Ondvinter (A rough translation would be “evil winter”, since it has not been translated to english)

Author: Anders Björkelid

Genre: Fantasy

Publication year: 2009

Main character: Sunia and Wulf are a couple of 13 year old twins living with their father in a small village. The twins have always had a special bond, they can feel what the other one is feeling. They discover early on that they looks nothing like the other people in the village. Time leaves no mark on their faces, and there is something ancient about their appearance; something beyond this realm. They know nothing of their family's, or their peoples dark history. 

Story: The first of 4 book begins with the twins accidentally catching a goblin. In exchange for setting in free, the goblin gives them a dark prophecy that will soon come true. The twins are quickly dragged into an ancient conflict they have no knowledge about. It all begins with a stranger coming to the farm, speaking a language with their father that they don´t know. A strange cold lingers in the village, big wolf prints are seen around the farm, and strange men are seen in the forest. A while after, their father leaves to hunt, but when he comes back, he’s dying. The twins are forced to flee from their home, hunted by the men who killed their father. They soon learn that they belong to a strange kind of people, bound by tradition and the rhythm, linked by blood. 

Reading experience: Fantasy is one of my favorite genres. This specific series is a fantasy based on northern mythology and folktales, which makes it more familiar and lovable for me at least. It uses a “we”-perspective for a big part of the book, which is an interesting choice and fitting due to the fact that the main characters are so close that they almost think like one.

The best way to explain what “ondvinter” is in the books, is to say it’s kinda like a mix of depression and brainwashing. “Ondvinter” has a cold that pierces people's hearts and minds, and you never know who’s been infected, who you can trust, or who isn't yet under the winter kings control.

Something that terrified me as a kid reading this book were the strange men, or “galgmän” as they are called in the books. I don´t know if there are any good translations, but they were basically supernatural humans who walked around with a noose to strangle people with. Once they put the noose around your neck, I didn´t matter if you got out of it, they could still strangle you. Only way to be free is to kill them. They terrified me as a kid, and it was creepy to read about the characters escaping the noose, but skill gasping for air; visible rope marks on their necks. They were also hard to kill since they had some sort of blood power, similar to blood bending in “the last air-bender”. You can stab them as much as you want, they will just keep that blood on the inside. 

I think the first book does a good job setting up the following books in the series. I think it's that that it never spread to other countries outside of the Nordics. It’s a genuinely good dark and creepy fantasy series. It can get confusing at times and it does have old language since it’s supposed to take place a long time ago, but it’s still a fun read. It also has cool illustrations at the beginning of each chapter.

It's a quartet and it is about the twins Sunia and Wulf, whom through to them unforeseen circumstances looses everything in a night of snow and fire, and gets thrown into this... magic adventure and I can't do reviews of books or films or anything but...

OHMYGOD THESE BOOKS ARE SO GOOD. I finished the first one in a couple of days, and considering I was pretty busy those days that's saying something. The second one I finished while visiting my grandparents and cousins and I JUST CANNOT HANDLE THESE BOOKS. THEY ARE SO GOOD. THERE'S JUST THAT... FEEL OF MAGIC THAT KINDOF SEEMS... LIKE IT BELONGS IN THIS COUNTRY, AGES PAST AND I JUST... I LOVE IT ALL. I WANNA KNOW WHO SITS ON THE EMPTY THRONE AND I JUST AAAAH!!! 

I am about to start on the third book, but I intend to go buy the fourth one first, in case I finish it really quickly like the other ones (I most likely will), and thus end up sitting there, wanting the last book but not having it.