Fantasy• YA

Review: Trolland by Joe Unknown

December 8, 2025

Synopsis:

What begins as an exciting trip quickly turns into a struggle between life and death.

When a group of friends spend their summer in Western Norway, Arthur shows them a mysterious valley no one has stepped into since the Viking Age. Most don’t take him seriously, until Harald discovers runes warning of a doomed voyage to the land of trolls.

Driven by his hunger for adventure, Arthur persuades them to row out to sea. After a day, they reach an uncharted island and quickly discover they are not alone.

When fear takes hold and the island tears them apart, their friendship shatters. Forced onto separate paths, they must face new dangers and fight to survive. As homesickness grows and hunger torments them, they begin to wonder if they will ever see their loved ones again.

Review:

We meet a group of male Teenagers, on a trip in nature, where they get bored rather quickly. Exactly what you would expect to happen nowadays 🙂

We have your typical *dare I say bully* who expect everyone to follow him blindly and considers himself the leader. He challenges the warning of the parent to stay close to where they are and not cross the forest and wander into the wilderness. I something is forbidden, it needs to be ignored and the group is traveling to a remote area, where they meet a group of trolls (hence the name of the book), that captures them. They get lucky and can flee. Having no idea how to survive, they are thrown into various situations, trying to get home.

They meet other trolls (not trying to kill them) and help them to fight the oppressor / ruler and are able to get back to civilization afterwards. Along the way one of them dies, regretting to *force* them coming to Trolland to begin with.

Do we get something you’ll talk to others about? Maybe not. Is it something you tell everyone as being a must read? Probably not. It’s a YA that allocates different roles inside a group of teenagers and puts them into a situation they must overcome (in this case not just emotionally, but physically). A quick read, that came with a different setting, and I didn’t mind it, but also did not love it. Something in between.

🌙 Recension: Trolland by Joe Unknown
📚 Genre: Fantasy & YA
📅 Release Date: November 24, 2025
📱 Read as: Kindle
📗 included in Kindle Unlimited
💸 I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
🗣️ Language: English
📆 Pages: 240
⭐️ 3/5