Personal Rating: 4 Stars Goodreads Rating: 3.88 Stars Valkyrie: Norse Goddess. Reaper of Souls. Defender of the Weak. Not someone you want to mess with… Freya is dreading her upcoming birthday when she’ll officially have to take up her duties as a Valkyrie. She doesn’t want to follow in the footsteps of the legends before her—legends including her mother and sisters. And she certainly doesn’t want anything to do with humans! Freya thinks humans are cruel, hate-filled creatures, but as she observes their world, she begins to wonder what it would be like to make friends with the girls or laugh with the boys she sees. And what would it be like to live without the fear that she could cause someone’s death with a single touch? Then when she’s sent on her first mission, she reaps the soul of a fallen soldier with unfinished business…business that sends her on an epic quest to the mortal world. Will Freya find the true meaning of being a human, or will she finally accept the legend she is destined to become? (goodreads.com) If you’ve met me you can probably guess that I love Marvel superheroes. There is rarely a day that passes when I’m not wearing an Avengers T-shirt. I’m wearing one as I write this. If you know anything about Marvel then you know that the Norse god of thunder, Thor, happens to be one of the characters in the comics, cartoons, and movies. Since I like Marvel and since I like mythology, I checked out a book about Norse mythology from my local library and read it to my siblings using my best impersonations of Marvel Thor, Loki, and Odin. It was great. Those myths are hilarious. I loved it and wished I could read some more. So when I popped into the bookstore and found a book about Valkyries I snatched it up. I do not regret this decision at all. This is a middle grade book so you’d think it’d be too young for me, a girl of blank years. Well, one thing you should know about me if you’re going to keep reading this blog is that I adore children’s books. Regardless, I think this is a good book for teenagers as well. The main characters are either in high school or a year before. It’s hinting at romance in several places, but never really initiates anything more than platonic relationships (truth be told, that’s kind of a nice change from the YA books I have been reading with tons of unnecessary love triangles). I think the next book will probably explore the friendship between our main girl Freya and her best bud Archie, but I don’t know that for sure. Speaking of Freya and Archie, let’s talk about our main characters. Freya is pretty cool in my opinion. She’s a little annoying at some parts, but I think she behaves a lot like a real fourteen (six hundred in human years) year old and sometimes fourteen year olds are irritating creatures (no offense fourteen year olds, but when you get older you will see that you do some of the silliest things - when I was fourteen I thought it was cool to have three cloth headbands wrapped around my wrist and wear a black hoody everywhere, silly me). So, while Freya sometimes gets on my nerves, for the most part she isn’t so bad. Mostly, she’s curious about the human world or has misconceptions about the human world that cause her to behave stupidly at times. Her best friend Archie is interesting. He has great potential to be an awesome character, but in this book he’s really not that exciting. His brother (who we never meet because he’s in prison) sounds like an interesting character based off of what Archie tells Freya, but Archie doesn’t have that much going for him. I’m about 80% certain that Loki is the main antagonist in this story (surprise, surprise), but there is also this odd and violent child named JP who is kinda awful. Who am I kidding? That boy is dangerously nasty. I wonder what his initials stand for (probably Jerk Person). Anywho, Loki is very mischievous in this story and in the acknowledgements in the back Kate O’Hearn says she mostly based him off Tom Hiddleston’s portrayal from the movies. Based off of the descriptions of Thor, I’d say he’s based off of Chris Hemsworth’s Thor as well. Plot wise, this book held up very nicely. It was sort of like a superhero story but also a “I want to go to the school dance” story. Personally, I liked it. The one critique I would have on the plot is that it moves really quickly. I think this is possibly because it is for younger readers than the books I’m used to and some younger folks have shorter attention spans so you have to give them the facts. As a whole, I really liked this book and I think middle grade readers and some teenagers would enjoy it as well. Can I also just say that the cover is gorgeous? Oh man, it’s so cool and I can’t get over it. The wings and the red hair and her armor and the font and - ugh! So cool. I know, as a book lover, this is an awful thing to say, but the book is worth reading just so you can stare at that awesome cover. Dude. It’s awesome. It’s even better in person. But I digress, the book has a good story and fun characters and I hope if you read it you’ll like it too. I may have to do another post all about Norse myths sometime because they are the funniest things you’ve ever read. If you’ve ever read any, which one is your favorite? Or if you haven’t read any, who is your favorite superhero (or supervillain)? What are your opinions on this book or this book review? What can I do to make my reviews more interesting for you? Let me know in the comments below (that rhymes)! Thanks for reading! Mwahahaha! Image source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25785662-valkyrie
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