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The Witch's Heart

Genevieve Gornichec

Start date: June 1, 2022

Finish date: June 30, 2022

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What Members Thought

Feb 22, 2021 Heather - hturningpages rated it liked it

Shelves: retelling, reviewed, arcs, lgbtq-characters

Rating: 3/5 unique children

Format: ebook. I’d like to thank the author and Berkley Publishing Group for a copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review.

To sum up:
This is a story with familiar characters and events from Norse mythology seen in a new way. Angrboda is a very old witch who has been cast out of the world of Norse Gods after being burned for displeasing Odin. Although she somehow survives the burning, she goes into hiding in a remote forest where none other than Loki brings he Rating: 3/5 unique children

Format: ebook. I’d like to thank the author and Berkley Publishing Group for a copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review.

To sum up:
This is a story with familiar characters and events from Norse mythology seen in a new way. Angrboda is a very old witch who has been cast out of the world of Norse Gods after being burned for displeasing Odin. Although she somehow survives the burning, she goes into hiding in a remote forest where none other than Loki brings her back her unburned heart. Thus begins an unlikely romance between the witch and Loki. While Angrboda and Loki try to find some happiness together in their secluded home, Angrboda can help but feel a mounting wariness about the future that Odin wanted her to prophesize for him, a looming disaster called Ragnarok. Will Angrboda be able to survive the Gods and protect her family from Ragnarok? is the looming question throughout the book, and you’ll have to read it to find out!

What I enjoyed:
I really enjoyed the world of the Norse Gods. I have always been fascinated with their myths and legends and I enjoyed Gornichec’s imagining of these well-known characters. I thought that she used them and well-known events around Ragnarok in interesting ways that felt both epic and personal to the story and characters. In general, I liked Angrboda's personality, but I had some trouble connecting emotionally to her.

What was meh:
Unfortunately, I had some issues with the overall plot and storytelling style. I just felt that there wasn’t really enough meat to the story to keep me engaged for most of the book. It was really difficult to tell where the story was going until Ragnarok is mentioned, which isn’t until quite a ways into the book. Most of the book is told in a sort of meandering, journal entry style, spanning many years Angrboda's life. During this part of the book, I had a hard time staying engaged because I really didn't know where the story was going and what the stakes were. When the threat of Ragnarok becomes part of the plot, the story felt rushed and a little anticlimactic. I wanted to grow attached to the characters introduced but never really was able to because I couldn’t tell whether they were good or bad, and had a hard time forming an emotional connection to them. Ultimately, I didn’t feel a real strong narrative thread to tie all the pieces of the story together, it felt more like a series of events that happened until the final scenes could take place.

Overall, this story reminded me a bit of Circe in its story-telling style, so if you liked that one you might give this one a try! I love the Norse aspects of the book but had difficulty with the plot. I think the prose itself isn’t bad, I just had a hard time becoming emotionally invested which is pretty crucial for me, so just giving this one three stars. ...more

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Dec 26, 2021 Tanya rated it really liked it

It felt like the story sometimes ambled along, but in a good way? It was less movie-like (where every minute has to have a purpose) and more like a rich dive into another world.

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