INHERITANCE OF SCARS

A Swedish girl must venture into the heart of ancient legends when her beloved grandmother disappears.

After Amma vanishes into the forest that’s home to the Hidden Folk, 17-year-old Astrid Skarsgård leaves Stockholm for the small village of her childhood. While searching for clues, Astrid finds a note from Amma telling her to follow the path into the Tiveden forest beyond the stave church, a place shunned by locals. Astrid’s skeptical of her grandmother’s folktales, but her disbelief is shattered when she finds a hidden cellar in Amma’s house containing a sleeping draugr, or undead creature, named Soren. After accidentally waking Soren, she learns he’s the lover of Skaga, her distant foremother who imprisoned him there. Soren wants to find Skaga and break the blood oath that’s destroying Tiveden, and together they journey into the forest, where they encounter nightmarish creatures and undead ancestors, growing closer as they face dangers. Through visions of Skaga, Astrid learns of her village’s violent history and realizes she’s a pawn in an age-old war between villagers and the Hidden Folk, forcing her to choose between love and family. Debut author Seitz intersperses passages narrated by Skaga into Astrid’s first-person account, weaving an impressive backstory deeply rooted in pagan beliefs. Astrid’s story expertly conveys her pain as she unravels her family’s secrets and her own destiny. Astrid is immunocompromised and has Crohn’s disease.

A bloody love letter to Norse mythology.