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burtini 's review for:
The Valkyrie
by Kate Heartfield
This isn’t a long book, 300 something pages, and yet a lot fills it. The pacing is a little off, to cover everything it’s not necessarily covered in enough detail to be truly satisfying, Midgard and Brynhild settling in is probably covered the most, but you’ve got a wrym, zombies, Valkyrie, Gods, battles, feuds, there is A LOT going on and it’s done well, it’s just if this book were longer we could have had so much more of it - I mean the wrym alone was so amazing and it was such a small part of this book, an army of undead soldiers, a little blip, they were so cool and I needed more! Even the Valkyrie themselves, I would have loved more of their battles, of getting to know them. But this book tries to achieve a lot in its relatively small number of pages. An extra say 100 pages could have changed everything.
The romance is pleasant enough but it feels like insta love, you don’t see it bloom between Brynhild and Gudrun, you don’t really see what they love about each other or even experience many interactions between them, just via the POVs they suddenly complete each other. That said the writing of their romance is beautiful so this isn’t a complaint necessarily, i just needed more moments.
As I’ve just mentioned, the true heart of this book is in the writing which is really quite beautiful. Books on Greek Gods/Ancient Greece are becoming increasingly common and yet what sets some apart is the way in known characters and stories are written and for me that was the case here. Kate Heartfield does a wonderful job of wiring an enchanting narrative here that made it stand out from other books in this ever growing genre.
Likewise the world building, of Midgard, Helheim etc, is really well done, creating delightful depth and imagery.
This is very much a feminist book and as a feminist I loved that. Brynhild is a fantastic, empowering character, at one point she literally hands a man up like a coat because she finds out he deceived her and still thinks he can have her. She is a solid character, brave, unrelenting, she does not submit or allow anyone to look down on her. All the women in this book are spectacular in fact - the men in the book are a little weak and/or menacing, I think bar a couple they all lie, scheme and the women have to make the real progress happen.
I did really enjoy this book, it has variety, beautiful writing and strong female characters - my only real complaint is how it tried to achieve a lot in too little pages, leading to briefness where I wanted to stay and experience more.
Thank you NetGalley for the copy in exchange for an honest review
The romance is pleasant enough but it feels like insta love, you don’t see it bloom between Brynhild and Gudrun, you don’t really see what they love about each other or even experience many interactions between them, just via the POVs they suddenly complete each other. That said the writing of their romance is beautiful so this isn’t a complaint necessarily, i just needed more moments.
As I’ve just mentioned, the true heart of this book is in the writing which is really quite beautiful. Books on Greek Gods/Ancient Greece are becoming increasingly common and yet what sets some apart is the way in known characters and stories are written and for me that was the case here. Kate Heartfield does a wonderful job of wiring an enchanting narrative here that made it stand out from other books in this ever growing genre.
Likewise the world building, of Midgard, Helheim etc, is really well done, creating delightful depth and imagery.
This is very much a feminist book and as a feminist I loved that. Brynhild is a fantastic, empowering character, at one point she literally hands a man up like a coat because she finds out he deceived her and still thinks he can have her. She is a solid character, brave, unrelenting, she does not submit or allow anyone to look down on her. All the women in this book are spectacular in fact - the men in the book are a little weak and/or menacing, I think bar a couple they all lie, scheme and the women have to make the real progress happen.
I did really enjoy this book, it has variety, beautiful writing and strong female characters - my only real complaint is how it tried to achieve a lot in too little pages, leading to briefness where I wanted to stay and experience more.
Thank you NetGalley for the copy in exchange for an honest review