Book Talk: Ragnarök has come and gone and new gods are rising to replace the old. The first order of business for the new religion is to stamp out any remaining traces of the old. This involves casting suspicion on anything that has a hint of the old religion about it. This is an unfortunate set of circumstances for anyone so unlucky as to be born with a runemark of the old region on their skin. Which is exactly what happens to Maddy. Bad luck seems to follow Maddy wherever she goes, that is until one day when she finds out that it's harder to kill a god than people supposed, that the old religion isn't entirely gone, and her rune mark could be lucky after all.
Rocks my Socks: The book is post-Ragnarök, which means post-apocalyptic-Norse mythology- fiction. What's not to love? The market is completely saturated with Greek mythology spin offs right now, which makes this book a refreshing change of pace. Don't get me wrong, I love Greek mythology but it's just nice to see something different, besides I'm a total sucker for trickster gods and Loki plays a major part in this book. Maddy is also a refreshingly strong female lead who isn't burdened by any romantic subplots to make her act goofy.
Rocks in my Socks: Magic comes a bit too easily to Maddy. I wish she had to work a bit harder and take more time learning to train her skills. Instead I feel as if she's just endowed with skill and it gives her a free pass to get them out of any tight situation they find themselves in. I feel that her being lucky and endowed with power isn't a great lesson for kids whereas being endowed with power but still needing to work to learn how to use it properly is a much better moral and more realistic.
Every Book its Reader: I'd recommend this to fans of fantasy adventure and mythology, especially Norse. Some previous knowledge of Norse mythology would be helpful, but I don't think it's really necessary. There's some violence in the novel, but nothing more than your average fantasy adventure novel and no romance. I'd recommend it to boys and girls middle school and up. I think it could be easily enjoyed by adults as well, especially with the dearth of Norse mythology fiction out there.
Runemarks by Joanne Harris
Buy it from indiebound or check it out at your local library
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