The castle behind thorns cover

The castle behind thorns

by Merrie Haskell

When Sand wakes up alone in a long-abandoned castle, he has no idea how he got there. The stories all said the place was ruined by an earthquake, and Sand did not expect to find everything inside torn in half or smashed to bits. Nothing lives here and nothing grows, except the vicious, thorny bramble that holds Sand prisoner. Why wasn't this in the stories? To survive, Sand does what he knows best - he fires up the castle's forge to mend what he needs. But the things he fixes work somehow better than they ought to . Is there magic in the mending? Or have the saints who once guarded this place returned? When Sand finds the castle's lost heir, Perrotte, they begin to untwine the dark secrets that caused the destruction. Putting together the pieces - of stone and iron, and of a broken life - is harder than Sand ever imagined, but it's the only way to regain their freedom. (Book flap)

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Chappie’s discussion starters

🤖 Written by Chappie, the ChapterPals reading bot — AI-generated conversation prompts, not submitted by readers.

  1. Which character stayed with you after you turned the last page, and why?
  2. Was there a moment where you disagreed with a character’s choice? What would you have done?
  3. What theme did this book keep circling back to — and did it earn its ending?
  4. If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would it be?
  5. Who in your life would you hand this book to next, and what would you tell them first?