Review: The Witch’s Heart
2/5
Available at Bookshop.org
For fans of: Circe, A Thousand Ships, Madeline Miller, Natalie Haynes, Norse mythology, retelling, mythology, Loki, witches, Nordic folklore, prophecies, Ragnarok
The Big Questions:
What genre is this in? fantasy
Are there any swoon-worthy characters? Loki Is quite charming
Is it spicy? No, fade to black
Is it violent or gory? There are descriptions of fighting, but nothing gory
Should I buy, borrow, or pass on this book? Borrow it
“Guilt is a heavy thing, Mother Witch, she said. It’s best left behind if you want to move forward.”
Synopsis: Angrboda's story begins where most witches' tales end: with a burning. A punishment from Odin for refusing to provide him with knowledge of the future, the fire leaves Angrboda injured and powerless, and she flees into the farthest reaches of a remote forest. There she is found by a man who reveals himself to be Loki, and her initial distrust of him transforms into a deep and abiding love.
Their union produces three unusual children, each with a secret destiny, who Angrboda is keen to raise at the edge of the world, safely hidden from Odin's all-seeing eye. But as Angrboda slowly recovers her prophetic powers, she learns that her blissful life—and possibly all of existence—is in danger.
With help from the fierce huntress Skadi, with whom she shares a growing bond, Angrboda must choose whether she’ll accept the fate that she's foreseen for her beloved family…or rise to remake their future. From the most ancient of tales this novel forges a story of love, loss, and hope for the modern age.
“I would have all of you,” he said quietly, brushing her nose with his. “I would have everything.”
Review: This one hurt, I gotta say. I am a sucker for Norse mythology retellings, so this definitely landed on my TBR as soon as I heard about it. And it is centered on the life of a powerful witch?!!?!? Winning combination…or so I thought. I definitely loved the vibe this book gave off with the whimsical setting of a dark and foreboding forest slowly coming to life as Angrboda settles in after a horrific start to the story. Her ability to journey spiritually to the various worlds along Yggdrasil was so much fun and gave much needed breaks from living in her cave. I really enjoyed all of Loki’s scheming and the hilarious consequences he had to face with Angrboda there to heal and comfort him as he faced the consequences of his actions. She really did let him get away with far too much. The first two thirds of the book, I greatly enjoyed. I loved the fits and starts of Angrboda’s relationships with Loki, the Trikster god, and Skadi, the giantess who helped her through countless winters and became her closest friend. As their relationships grew and became more complex, Angrboda, however, did not. I grew more irritated with her character the longer the story went on. Here she is this powerful and mysterious witch, yet she just keeps letting this happen to her or just lets the world go by all the while ignoring all the signs that bad things are coming and her world is about to end.
Her outright refusal to research her prior life as things are happening to her was so incredibly frustrating. Even her children with Loki were more interesting characters than she ended up being and they were literal children the entire time she knew them. I found it harder and harder to root for her. The final third of the book lost me as the plot went all over the place with prophecies being foretold and then fulfilled all while she is on a major journey all just to end up back in her cave after I don’t even know how many years. I found that I was far more interested in the references and inclusions of Norse mythology in the plot than the plot itself. An final relationship within the final chapters of the book felt shoehorned in rather than naturally occurring, especially after all this time witnessing the rollercoaster of a ride that was Angrboda and Loki’s relationship. The end was also not satisfactory when Angrboda fretted all this time and did all this work to prevent her family from dying during Ragnorok when there was a much easier solution that other characters happened upon rather easily. This book just wasn’t it for me with an irritating and boring main character, awkward pacing, a plot I did not care for, and a resolution that felt silly at the very end.