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A review by apendragon
Wish Me Dead by Helen Grant
5.0
A fantastic thriller story! It had me up well in to the night, too scared to close my eyes for more than a millisecond. Helen Grant is a brilliant author and her characters are believable, charasmatic and unlike most novels, don't have any special powers to make them more interesting - the plot line makes up for that!
The novel follows Steffi Nett, a shy young adult who works at her parents' bakery. She aspires to do more, but her quietness makes her easily overlooked. Her parents almost seem to wish that she had gone missing a few years ago, not her older sister, and her group of friends seem to be abandoning her slowly, not to mention her boyfriend who is starting to have eyes for another. The only person she really develops anywhere near a close friendship to is Hanna, described as "robust" and "dark-haired".
One night, the drunken group of friends stumble up to the crumbling house of the supposed witch "Rote Gertrud". The house is isolated in the nearby woods and for centuries, many people have stumbled up there, begging Rote Gertrud to grant their pleas. There, they each make a wish on a scrap of paper, none of them expecting anything to come from it, but all of them with a faint glimmer of hope as they go their separate ways and fall into bed.
Except - Steffi's wish does come true. Egged on by her friends, she makes another, and then more and more: and each time, they come true. Scared by what is happening, Steffi confides more and more in Hanna, who is the sole person who Steffi feels she can trust. With these wishes comes the surprise return of Steffi's sister, and the true reason for her sudden departure.
But is there more to the story than meets the eye? Is it really Rote Gertrud who's casting Steffi's wishes?
The novel follows Steffi Nett, a shy young adult who works at her parents' bakery. She aspires to do more, but her quietness makes her easily overlooked. Her parents almost seem to wish that she had gone missing a few years ago, not her older sister, and her group of friends seem to be abandoning her slowly, not to mention her boyfriend who is starting to have eyes for another. The only person she really develops anywhere near a close friendship to is Hanna, described as "robust" and "dark-haired".
One night, the drunken group of friends stumble up to the crumbling house of the supposed witch "Rote Gertrud". The house is isolated in the nearby woods and for centuries, many people have stumbled up there, begging Rote Gertrud to grant their pleas. There, they each make a wish on a scrap of paper, none of them expecting anything to come from it, but all of them with a faint glimmer of hope as they go their separate ways and fall into bed.
Except - Steffi's wish does come true. Egged on by her friends, she makes another, and then more and more: and each time, they come true. Scared by what is happening, Steffi confides more and more in Hanna, who is the sole person who Steffi feels she can trust. With these wishes comes the surprise return of Steffi's sister, and the true reason for her sudden departure.
But is there more to the story than meets the eye? Is it really Rote Gertrud who's casting Steffi's wishes?