Julia's Reviews > Runemarks

14-year-old Maddy Smith isn’t your average country bumpkin and everyone in her village knows it. They blame her “ruinmark"--the strange, rust-colored sigil on her hand--which they say marks her as a witch. But the mysterious traveler One-Eye claims the rune-shaped sign is not a defect, but a destiny--albeit one she may not survive. For it will take all of Maddy’s illegal magic to make it to the end of this twisty-turny tale into the heart of old Norse mythology. And, no, I won’t even attempt to explain the plot more than that, suffice to say that it’s amazingly good, very much like something Neil Gaiman would write after OD-ing on too much Eddas. And now it’s over. Sigh. Sometimes 526 pages just aren’t enough!