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A review by bigbear73
The Apple Throne by Tessa Gratton
5.0
Sometimes you read a book, and the only difficult part about it is writing the review. The temptation even comes up to skip the review, and just rate it; that would be easier. But when a book is as good as Tessa Gratton's last entry into her United States of Asgard series, you just have to let people know about it.
Set in an alternative (way cooler) world where Odin and Thor steer national policy, The United States of Asgard series has a ton of awesome going for it. Creatively interwoven into our own world, the reader is able to escape to a much more magical place, a place where you could not only get a good job or get to serve your country, you might even get the honor of being born a Berserker or earn your way into becoming a Valkyrie. You could get to meet Baldur the beautiful, or be able to help others by seething the direction their lives are heading. All of these things are fantastic, fun and enamoring. But you hardly notice them, because they are just a setting for the complex and incredibly well written characters.. You will KNOW Tessa's characters . You will be annoyed by them, you will be mad at them, you will be ashamed at and for them. But most of all, you will love them, because they are all real, and full and oh so human.
The Apple Throne is this idea nearly to perfection - we get to know imperfect characters, and get to love them because of their imperfections. Perhaps best of all, we get to see how we can love others because of the power of her characters and how powerfully they can care for others, even when everything says they should not, they should be full of anger. I don't feel like I can even iterate how powerfully Tessa pulls this off; let's just leave it at, some of her characters leave me wanting to be a better person, and the bookworm/daydreamer in me just wishes the characters were real so I could actually get to know them.
In a year of amazing books, this is one of my favorites. Do yourself a favor and read it.
Set in an alternative (way cooler) world where Odin and Thor steer national policy, The United States of Asgard series has a ton of awesome going for it. Creatively interwoven into our own world, the reader is able to escape to a much more magical place, a place where you could not only get a good job or get to serve your country, you might even get the honor of being born a Berserker or earn your way into becoming a Valkyrie. You could get to meet Baldur the beautiful, or be able to help others by seething the direction their lives are heading. All of these things are fantastic, fun and enamoring. But you hardly notice them, because they are just a setting for the complex and incredibly well written characters.. You will KNOW Tessa's characters . You will be annoyed by them, you will be mad at them, you will be ashamed at and for them. But most of all, you will love them, because they are all real, and full and oh so human.
The Apple Throne is this idea nearly to perfection - we get to know imperfect characters, and get to love them because of their imperfections. Perhaps best of all, we get to see how we can love others because of the power of her characters and how powerfully they can care for others, even when everything says they should not, they should be full of anger. I don't feel like I can even iterate how powerfully Tessa pulls this off; let's just leave it at, some of her characters leave me wanting to be a better person, and the bookworm/daydreamer in me just wishes the characters were real so I could actually get to know them.
In a year of amazing books, this is one of my favorites. Do yourself a favor and read it.