Reviews with content warning for Animal cruelty - Norse Mythology

Neil Gaiman's writing is so ripe with fantastical elements and intriguing storytelling, it's easy to fall into the story and forget all of everything. He writes of the Norse gods which such simplicity yet detail it'll stay with me for life.

I had heard the audio book before, read by none other than Neil Gaiman himself, but the physical copy was just as wonderful to get through.

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valpuri's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny medium-paced

4.5

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elderwoodreads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I loved this retelling of Norse Mythology. The beginning was a bit slow and dense for me but it picked up very quickly, and I can't believe how fast I devoured it! Neil Gaiman's narration definitely made it ten times more enjoyable than if I had read it as a text. Pleaae read the content warnings before reading/listening if you are sensitive to descriptions of torture and gore, they are behind the spoiler tag.

CW: eye trauma, intestines/entrail, genital mutilation/torture, graphic descriptions of death

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takarakei's review against another edition

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adventurous informative medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I'm not super familiar with Norse mythology in general so I picked this up to learn a bit more about it. The storytelling definitely was interesting and kept my attention for the most part. Neil's narration of the audiobook was very well done!! Selfishly I wanted at least 1 story about the Valkyries, and this focused more on the 'major players' in Norse mythology (Odin, Thor, Loki). From what I understand this is a more updated and accessible version of these myths, so worth a read if you're interested in this subject.

Totally did reinforce that Loki is my favorite tho ...

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ravensandlace's review against another edition

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informative medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Title: Norse Mythology

Author: Neil Gaiman

Genre: Historical Fiction Fantasy

Format: paperback book from the library

Star Rating: 4 stars

tw: death, murder, bodily harm, suicide, bestiality, violence, drowning, torture

One of my goals in life is to learn more about different mythologies, besides all the basic ones. I’ve been interested in Norse mythology since I watched Apsolov: End of Gods and Unforgiving: A Northern Hymn. Both are very cool horror games relating to Norse mythology and I suggest checking out John Wolfe’s playthrough of them both.

Anyway. What an exciting book! The Norse gods are pretty interesting, including Loki. He’s one of my favorite gods. Even though this book was pretty short, I felt like all the gods were pretty fleshed out. They got almost equal amounts of page time. I just learned so much. I could tell a lot of research went into this book. It felt like I was reading the bible but better. I am not sorry for that comment at all.

I wish Marvel had followed this book and actual Norse mythology. The movies would have been way better, in my opinion. Plus they would have gotten their information right especially with Loki and Hel (another one of my favorite gods). Plus, I think that this is way more interesting than what they did. Sure, I liked the Thor movies but I felt like they could have been way better.

Overall, the buzz about this book and this author were spot on. I’ve heard the author is just a sweetheart online and is so nice to fans. I had such a blast reading this book. I will be sure to check out more of Neil Gaiman’s work since this one was such a hit for me. As for my recommendations, I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn about Norse mythology.

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yrlaevelyn's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny informative mysterious reflective tense

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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danny_fox's review against another edition

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adventurous informative inspiring relaxing fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book was a delight from start to finish.

I don't know how accurate and true to the cannon these stories are (since this is pretty much my first introduction to Norse Mythology), but I still found it to be super enjoyable and interesting. Besides, I feel like retellings of stories from old mythologies don't need to stick that much to the "cannon", because their whole point is to be retold and see how each person will tell differently the same story.

Normally, I do my reviews by pointing out 3 things I liked and disliked about a book, but since these stories weren't made up and created by Neil, I can only judge it based on its writing style, which I had no issue with.

Instead, I'll separate it like this:

- The stories were super fun.
I found them all to be super interesting and the end even made feel quite upset. This book certainly got me into Norse Mythology.

-The writing style is simple, but in a good way.
I saw that a lot of people find Neil's writing style to be boring. Although, I understand why that is so, I find his more simplistic and not as crazy descriptive writing style to be very relaxing and easy to read. I could see everything in my head really clearly and I didn't feel bored at any point.
But I think it all just comes down to personal preference.

- The way Neil retells these stories is really fun.
The book made me laugh out loud a couple of times and it also made me feel really sad and bad for the characters. As I mentioned this before, the writing was nice enough that I could see everything clearly enough in my head, so I was really invested into this book.

- I don't think there is anything I didn't like about the book.
Again, I don't know how accurate it is to the original sources (and I honestly don't care), and writing style might not be to your liking if you are more into really detailed and descriptive styles. I think it just depends on the person. For me, I didn't have any issues with neither of these things.

Final thoughts:

If you like Norse Mythology or want to learn more about it, I'd suggest reading this book. Before getting into Norse Mythology, I only really knew stuff about Greek Mythology, which books that I read about I found to be a lot more darker and upsetting. I was expecting this book to also make me quite uncomfortable at certain parts (old times were quite brutal and disturbing), but I didn't really have any of those issues. So, the book was just really fun for me. It's definitely a solid 5 ⭐ from me.

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