Reviews

Малиновия хълм by Ева Франц, Eva Frantz

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ruutiainen's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

Jännittävä nuorten romaani. Kivasti rakennettu maailma ja kutkuttava aikuisellekin. Löysin kirjan Sarvijumalan suosittelun yhteydessä. Liikutuin ihan lopussa. Hahmoista kasvoi rakastettavia.

zosia's review against another edition

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4.0

This was a gripping middle-grade story told from the perspective of Stina, a sweet and thoughtful young girl from a poor family, who suffers from TB and travels to the Raspberry Hill Sanatorium for treatment. We gradually learn more about Stina, her outlook on life as a sick child, and her adventures in the sanatorium and the people she meets there, with a core - quite dark - mystery that develops step by step.

I enjoyed this a lot and read it in a single day. It’s quite a moving story and really well-written. I feel like personally I expected, maybe because of the cover somehow, more of a Gothic vibe in this book than what I got, but that didn’t lessen my enjoyment (there are some spooky elements but just not as much as I anticipated). There is a lot of focus on the theme of death and dying from illness, which should be taken into account when recommending to children.

It’s a high 4 out of 5 stars, a touching and fast-paced read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pushkin Press for the e-ARC.

joelhokka1's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

saccalai's review against another edition

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3.5

A very short book but still takes quite a while to get to the mysterious bit. However I really liked the writing so I didn't mind!

shivani_reads's review against another edition

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fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

2.75

The Mystery of Raspberry Hill was a short and easy read, with a few twists (though some of them rather predictable). But I must say I was surprised how dark this was for a middle grade book!

I was definitely drawn in by the premise of a mysterious sanitarium, and think I would have been very intrigued by it all if I were the target age as well (especially as a life-long horror fan).

Unfortunately, I couldn't vibe with the writing style, which seemed clunky in places, and had some odd tone/language choices considering the young age of our main character, and her even younger ghost friend. Though I'm not sure how much of that was down to the author, and how much was down to losing something in the translation from Finnish to English.

Overall, this was an unexpectedly dark little tale, that sadly just fell a little flat in ways I can't quite put my finger on.

Content Warnings