Kuokkamummo

I'm not quite sure how to characterize Marko Hautala's The Black Tongue because I'm still not sure exactly what happened to Samuel, Julia, Maisa, and Sagal, each of whom had disturbing encounters with the residents of the mysterious Bondorff Island. The narrative was at times hard to follow because Hautala moves without warning among three different time periods: (1) 2014, when the adult Maisa is recording the Finnish folktale of Granny Hatchet with the help of immigrant teenager Sagal; (2) 2012, when the adult Samuel disappears after returning to his hometown after his father's death; and (3) 1987, when the teenaged Samuel, Julia, and Maisa were neighbors before Maisa moved and Julia vanished. Once I figured out the timeline, however, I was "hooked" on the legend of Granny Hatchet and its real-life underpinnings. (Those who read The Black Tongue will get, and probably groan over, the pun.) Recommended for fans of blended supernatural/crime fiction with elements of Lovecraft and Fringe. I received a free copy of The Black Tongue through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.