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Last Rituals: An Icelandic Novel of Secret Symbols, Medieval Witchcraft, and Modern Murder
by Yrsa Sigurdardottir

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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1613280.Last_Rituals_An_Icelandic_Novel_of_Secret_Symbols_Medieval_Witchcraft_and_Modern_Murder?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Last Rituals: An Icelandic Novel of Secret Symbols, Medieval Witchcraft, and Modern Murder" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/512NX%2B-igWL._SL160_.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1613280.Last_Rituals_An_Icelandic_Novel_of_Secret_Symbols_Medieval_Witchcraft_and_Modern_Murder?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">Last Rituals: An Icelandic Novel of Secret Symbols, Medieval Witchcraft, and Modern Murder</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/747437.Yrsa_Sigurdardottir">Yrsa Sigurdardottir</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8030396?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 2 of 5 stars For a novel about witchcraft and ancient pagan rituals and such, this book was strangely prudish. On many levels, actually. For one, several of the book's main characters--a group of part-time witchcraft enthusiasts/alterna-college students (they have piercings! and tattoos! and they do drugs! and still get A's!)--are embarassingly endowed with the language of 12 year olds in 90s middle America, scoffing at the world with such badass rejoinders as "Don't be a jerk," and 'As if!" They are 2D caricatures, exaggerated Bad Seeds that smack of an outsider's attempt to capture a subculture she has no understanding of. This is unfortunate, as in some ways, the struggle to understand and accept societal outliers into the still relatively homogeneous and insulated Icelandic character could be a matter of real self-reflection and (plot-strengthening) importance in a book like this. 
 
 I do believe that Sigurdardottir knows this implicitly--her single working mom cum co-detective Thora Gudmundsdottir awkwardly navigates such unheard of territories as erotic asphyxiation and body modification, and tries in vain for most of the novel to figure out what could be ailing her teenage son--only to find out that he's fathered a child with his fifteen-year-old girlfriend. The idea is that she's navigating a new world, with new problems that she's not necessarily equipped for. And this could be great copy, except for the fact that on top of a complete lack of understanding of any of the 'perversions' that she comes across, each moment of potential pathos is completely muted and rushed over. Mom storms out of a meeting with her son's baby-momma and folks just to go home and make dinner with her new boyfriend--albeit a wacky dinner because she's all out of sorts--and consoles the kid with the idea that he can come up with names for the baby (abortion, I might add, is not even an option that is mentioned as having been definitively excluded...) before rushing off for a business meeting with her clients. 
 
 It's not to say that there's no good here. The historical aspects (Thora has to become familiar with ancient European witch-hunting rituals and texts, leading her all over Iceland to peruse Withcraft museums in the middle of nowhere) are relatively untrodden and fascinating in a gruesome sort of way; the consciously multi-lingual element (we are told that characters speak Icelandic, English, and German throughout) gives the plot a sort of globe-trotting, urbane feel; and the heroine is potentially the type of plucky, ill-equipped, firecracker that a reader likes to get behind. 
 
 So, final verdict is, I think: 'A' for effort, but severely limited.
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/20698?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Larissa's review
rating:

bookshelves: 2007, crime-fiction, in-translation, scandinavian
status: Read in November, 2007

For a novel about witchcraft and ancient pagan rituals and such, this book was strangely prudish. On many levels, actually. For one, several of the book's main characters--a group of part-time witchcraft enthusiasts/alterna-college students (they have piercings! and tattoos! and they do drugs! and still get A's!)--are embarassingly endowed with the language of 12 year olds in 90s middle America, scoffing at the world with such badass rejoinders as "Don't be a jerk," and 'As if!" They are 2D caricatures, exaggerated Bad Seeds that smack of an outsider's attempt to capture a subculture she has no understanding of. This is unfortunate, as in some ways, the struggle to understand and accept societal outliers into the still relatively homogeneous and insulated Icelandic character could be a matter of real self-reflection and (plot-strengthening) importance in a book like this.

I do believe that Sigurdardottir knows this implicitly--her single working mom cum co-detective ...more For a novel about witchcraft and ancient pagan rituals and such, this book was strangely prudish. On many levels, actually. For one, several of the book's main characters--a group of part-time witchcraft enthusiasts/alterna-college students (they have piercings! and tattoos! and they do drugs! and still get A's!)--are embarassingly endowed with the language of 12 year olds in 90s middle America, scoffing at the world with such badass rejoinders as "Don't be a jerk," and 'As if!" They are 2D caricatures, exaggerated Bad Seeds that smack of an outsider's attempt to capture a subculture she has no understanding of. This is unfortunate, as in some ways, the struggle to understand and accept societal outliers into the still relatively homogeneous and insulated Icelandic character could be a matter of real self-reflection and (plot-strengthening) importance in a book like this.

I do believe that Sigurdardottir knows this implicitly--her single working mom cum co-detective Thora Gudmundsdottir awkwardly navigates such unheard of territories as erotic asphyxiation and body modification, and tries in vain for most of the novel to figure out what could be ailing her teenage son--only to find out that he's fathered a child with his fifteen-year-old girlfriend. The idea is that she's navigating a new world, with new problems that she's not necessarily equipped for. And this could be great copy, except for the fact that on top of a complete lack of understanding of any of the 'perversions' that she comes across, each moment of potential pathos is completely muted and rushed over. Mom storms out of a meeting with her son's baby-momma and folks just to go home and make dinner with her new boyfriend--albeit a wacky dinner because she's all out of sorts--and consoles the kid with the idea that he can come up with names for the baby (abortion, I might add, is not even an option that is mentioned as having been definitively excluded...) before rushing off for a business meeting with her clients.

It's not to say that there's no good here. The historical aspects (Thora has to become familiar with ancient European witch-hunting rituals and texts, leading her all over Iceland to peruse Withcraft museums in the middle of nowhere) are relatively untrodden and fascinating in a gruesome sort of way; the consciously multi-lingual element (we are told that characters speak Icelandic, English, and German throughout) gives the plot a sort of globe-trotting, urbane feel; and the heroine is potentially the type of plucky, ill-equipped, firecracker that a reader likes to get behind.

So, final verdict is, I think: 'A' for effort, but severely limited....less

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