The Silver Road by Stina Jackson via The Pigeonhole #BookReview @ThePigeonholeHQ @CorvusBooks

Three years ago, Lelle’s daughter went missing in a remote part of Northern Sweden. Lelle has spent the intervening summers driving the Silver Road under the midnight sun, frantically searching for his lost daughter, for himself and for redemption.
Meanwhile, seventeen-year-old Meja arrives in town hoping for a fresh start. She is the same age as Lelle’s daughter was – a girl on the brink of adulthood. But for Meja, there are dangers to be found in this isolated place.
As autumn’s darkness slowly creeps in, Lelle and Meja’s lives are intertwined in ways, both haunting and tragic, that they could never have imagined.

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I love The Pigeonhole but reading The Silver Road in staves nearly killed me. As always I enjoyed the interaction with my fellow pigeons, spouting our theories, but every single stave left me wanting more, much more. I decided to join the day before it went live, it was a spur of the moment decision, but by the end of Stave I, I was sold. It crept up on me, got under my skin and set up shop. I was entirely caught up in the story and each time I had to stop because the stave ended I wanted to howl in frustration, and no, that’s not even an exaggeration, if I’d had a copy of the novel, I’d have read it in one sitting.

On the one hand, there’s Lelle, despondent father, going out every night in the hope of finding his daughter, even though it’s like finding a needle in a haystack. On the other hand, there’s Meja, coming to that particular neck of the woods with her not quite stable mother, to move in with a guy that her mum met online, and falling head over heels for a boy that seems too good to be true. And then another girl is kidnapped… I was desperate to find out how these storylines would meet, how they would fit together.

This is a very atmospheric novel. It’s not overly descriptive, but it’s written in such an evocative way that I was just… there, driving with Lelle on the Silver Road, waiting on the bus with Meja, first sleepless because of the midnight sun, then huddling in front of a fire to get away from the looming winter. It’s gritty, raw, sad, bleak, beautiful and I would have given it 5 hearts if not for 2 things:
I found it a tad too predictable. I (and many other pigeons) correctly guessed the culprit very early on and there were never any convincing red herrings to make me doubt my original suspect. I don’t need to be shocked and I don’t need massive twists, but I do like to second-guess myself, and I just didn’t.
And secondly, and more importantly: the ending felt a little forced to me, a little too clean, not entirely believable, and in terms of pacing, a little out of sync with the rest of the story. I can’t tell you more without giving pieces of the plot away, so I won’t!

Regardless of these minor grievances, I loved this novel and I’ll happily recommend it!

Thanks to Stina Jackson, Corvus and The Pigeonhole for the opportunity to read this novel for free!