Saffelia Forrest and the Snowfall Grove — Dominic Jericho

Saffelia Forrest and the Snowfall Grove is an intriguing mystery set amid the pale snow of a bleak winter in a dark forest.

Sixteen year-old Saffelia has a problem for which she cannot ask her friends for help. Concealing the origin of her mysterious blackouts is becoming a constant struggle as she approaches her final year at St Oliver Plunkets.

When she takes a camping trip into the Snowfall Grove, she and her friends unwittingly encounter several new intruders who disrupt their idyllic expedition. To their horror, on return to school they discover the intruders have joined the teaching staff. So begins a year of oppression, fakery and a toxic battle to close down freedom of speech on their school newspaper, The Oracle. Classes on Romantic poetry split their year down the middle as a gender battle breaks out among the students. But Saffelia has a much darker concern - she knows something about one of the teachers no-one else does, and confiding this secret could tear her fragile world apart. Will she find the courage to face her hidden shame?

This is a gripping and twisty thriller about a secret plot to exploit young people set in the environs of a mysterious forest and a gothic school. Fans of Paula Hawkins, Jo Nesbo and Stieg Larsson will enjoy this book. Saffelia Forrest and the Snowfall Grove is the second novel in Dominic Jericho's coming-of-age series, and explores how friendship can withstand misplaced authority, amid the destructive seduction of Romantic poetry.