The Girl Who Died by Ragnar Jónasson
Written by Ashley Kelmore, Posted in Reviews
Rating:
3.5 Stars
In a nutshell:
Una has left Reykjavik to take a job in a remote small town in Iceland, spending the winter teaching two young girls. While there, things transpire.
Best for:
Fans of the genre of cozy, Icelandic mysteries.
Quote that made me think:
N/A
Why I chose it:
I love Ragnar Jónasson’s books.
Review:
Una is a bit of a frustrating character, but also somewhat relateable. She’s lost and looking to change things up, and while a move in general seems like a reasonable choice, picking a place with fewer than a dozen residents and thirty minutes from the nearest proper grocery store is a bit extreme. She vastly underestimates the insulatr nature of a town with just ten residents, most of whom grew up there. She’ll never really belong, but the question she wrestles with is can she fit in?
She stays with the mother of one of her pupils, in a house that might be haunted. But then one of the pupils dies, and there is possibly a missing man who has disappeared in town. Is any of it connected? Do the townspeople know what’s really going on? And if they do — will they share it with Una?
The townspeople are often infuriating, and there were a couple of scenes with them that pissed me off to no end – like I could feel my blood pressure and anxiety cresting. I get why the scenes were necessary for the book, but ugh, I didn’t like that at all.
The book resolved fairly nearly, though not entirely in a way I would have liked. Even so, this was an interesting read. As is somewhat standard in Jonasson’s books, there is the main story, and a side story, and it isn’t clear until the end how the two stories interact. But they always do. Predictable? Yeah. But for me, it’s entertaining nonetheless.
Would I recommend it to its target audience:
Yes
