After Aslaug's mother dies, she is finally forced to come face to face with the society that the two of them have ignored while living in isolation. Aslaug and her mother, inhabitants in a desolate area, have fended off on the land, with Aslaug learning the mysterious mythology and wisdom of her mother. With her sudden death and the array of questions that arises from them, Aslaug is deteremined to find the truth behind her past, her present, and her future. Yet, Madapple is not simply a coming of age story, it is a masterful binding of religion, mythology, and a girl coming face to face with the secrets she left behind. 
 Madapple, was a highly unusual novel and it threw me for a spin. At first I thought it was a fantasy novel, especially with the random bits of language (which turned out to be Danish), and fluid, foreboding or even wistful, I don't know how to describe it-tone of the passages. I had my prejudices and preconceived thoughts on this book, and thus I was caught off guard. Madapple, is wonderfully crazy, and genuinely great in its unfolding. 
 First off, the novel easily blends a lot of different subject matters - mythology, religion, the language of plants, and weird bits of wisdom into one great package. There's such a plethora of outside information about wisdom, that any reader can pause over the unusual knowledge that Madapple presents. However, Madapple is a modern look at the world, that questions religion, the questions miracles, and even reliance and conformity. In some ways, Madapple is such a strange little novel that's easily overlooked, but instead it is one of the most brilliant YA novels in its presentation. Esoteric knowledge, a slow unbinding of the past between parallel POVs of present time court case and Aslaug's past, makes Madapple deviously cunning at entrapping the reader. 
 As the story goes on, piece by piece Meldrum reveals to the reader nuggets of Aslaug's past, and her connection to the matters at hand. She can take simple matters, new events and easily link them to other things, adding a even deeper layer of imagery and symbolism to the context. Meldrum is really brilliant and I'm questioning if she's actually a mad scientist genius now! 
 Living up to its reputation as a controversial and addictive novel, Maddapple is a genius story of Aslaug among religion and new change.