Andi Marquette

"Yes. A community study. I'm interested in how folklore
interwines with local histories and how they influence each
other. And that sounded really neardy, didn't it?"
Katie grinned. "totally. But I like nerds. A lot."


The Secret of Sleepy Hollow is kind of a retelling of the story of Sleepy Hollow, the story of the Headless Horseman.
The story involves Abby and Katie on one side, and Ichabod and Katrina on the other, focusing on both the story of Sleepy Hollow and the love story that is born between Abby and Katie. The two girls meet by chance and as they start to know each other better they make research on the story of Sleepy Hollow.
Even if quite short, I found the story interesting and addictive, so much that I was pretty sad when it was over. Andi Marquette takes the story of the Headless Horseman and gives a personal interpretation, new, sort of special too.
The writing style is excellent but the thing that is addictive is the story and how it is told, through the hypotesis and the insights of Abby and Katie, who are more or less helped by Abby's dreams, as she dreams of Katrina.
For now, this is the third book published by Ylva Publishing that I've read, and I'm quite satisfied. I think I'll read more by Andi Marquette, for sure!

Leggi la recensione in italiano su http://www.thereadingpal.blogspot.it… (more)

That was cool. At the beginning when I first realized what the classic story this book was based around was going to be I thought that it might wind up being some subtle retelling or something. But instead it was an unapologetic straight forward retelling. And I thought it really worked for the story.

The story itself is mainly about Robin, although by the end we almost know as much about a couple of other characters as we do about her as well. She gets visited by an Agent of the Bureau of Holiday Affairs and warned that in the time between the visit (around the 14th of December I think) and Christmas she'll be visited three times. And that if she doesn't change her ways by the end of those visits her future is bleak.

It was an interesting retelling. It didn't just modernize it, but it tweaked it in ways to make it less creepy and cooler as well.

I loved the characters. Sometimes in stories that use A Christmas Carol for their basis the change of the main character can be so swift that it's jarring (after all, that's sorta how it feels when I read the original). But in this novel it was slow and I could totally see it as a real change to Robin's character.

I also liked the mythology that Marquette created for the Bureau. There wasn't a ton of exposition to build the world, it was just presented and melded itself into the story.

Overall I really liked the book, and it also seems like it might be an interesting series to start reading too.

I got this advanced galley through Netgalley on behalf of Ylva Publishing.… (more)