Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by paper_queen
Secrets of Valhalla by Jasmine Richards
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
I really, really wanted to like this book. But...It just didn't. make. sense.
Everything happened so quickly, the pacing was really weird. As soon as we reached one place/setting, and we finished processing what was happening there, we were in another, different place. We never got a chance to really explore the different gods and goddesses realms. Which is really a bummer because THEY WERE SO COOL AND CREATIVE. I wanted to spend soooo much more time at them than we actually got. (Albeit, there were some...stranger places...likethe 'Cloud' where the god of the sky lives, who was eaten by this giant data worm and has been stuck there for...who knows how long...and then our main character gets eaten, and then...he gains all of the knowledge of the world? Which. Makes no sense at all, but we can roll with that, sure, why not.
The characters were...meh. Buzz (which is short for Buzzard, of course) was a fairly good main character. His motivations were relatable, and he was pretty funny. Nothing very exciting or unique about him. Mary was pretty cool, she had a funny personality, but was a bit flat. Also, this book takes place in the UK. So all of the characters have British accents (except for Mary, she's an American exchange student), which I thought was kind of cool.
This will probably sound weird coming from me, but I actually liked the parts that took place at the school. I thought it was just really funny and realistic and I kinda wish more had taken place there because it was such a well-written setting.
The ending...It wasn't bad, but it wasn't this epic, climactic battle. There was a twist, which I usually like, but this one, I just didn't really care about. In the end, it's revealed that Loki is not the man in the chair, but actually just the underling of another god, Tyr, who was actually the bad guy the whole time woooow. I dunno. It fell kinda flat for me.
Overall, the beginning of this book was good, it had a great setup, interesting story, the plot was taking an interesting direction...and then the middle was just...crazy. Stuff was happening so fast and with little to no explanation before moving on to the next scene and...it was really disconcerting. By the time it was the end, I just wanted to know the outcome, not really caring very much about the characters involved. It's really sad, because this book sounded so. so. good. And I LOVED The Book of Wonders by Jasmine Richards SO MUCH. I guess I was just hoping this one would be as good.
Also, little side note...it's not even exclusively Norse gods. It's a mix of Roman, Greek, a whole bunch of other mythologies. I was kind of disappointed by that, it kinda ruined my suspension of disbelief. And despite the blurb, LOKI IS HARDLY IN THIS BOOK. AND I AM NOT A FAN.
Everything happened so quickly, the pacing was really weird. As soon as we reached one place/setting, and we finished processing what was happening there, we were in another, different place. We never got a chance to really explore the different gods and goddesses realms. Which is really a bummer because THEY WERE SO COOL AND CREATIVE. I wanted to spend soooo much more time at them than we actually got. (Albeit, there were some...stranger places...like
The characters were...meh. Buzz (which is short for Buzzard, of course) was a fairly good main character. His motivations were relatable, and he was pretty funny. Nothing very exciting or unique about him. Mary was pretty cool, she had a funny personality, but was a bit flat. Also, this book takes place in the UK. So all of the characters have British accents (except for Mary, she's an American exchange student), which I thought was kind of cool.
This will probably sound weird coming from me, but I actually liked the parts that took place at the school. I thought it was just really funny and realistic and I kinda wish more had taken place there because it was such a well-written setting.
The ending...
Overall, the beginning of this book was good, it had a great setup, interesting story, the plot was taking an interesting direction...and then the middle was just...crazy. Stuff was happening so fast and with little to no explanation before moving on to the next scene and...it was really disconcerting. By the time it was the end, I just wanted to know the outcome, not really caring very much about the characters involved. It's really sad, because this book sounded so. so. good. And I LOVED The Book of Wonders by Jasmine Richards SO MUCH. I guess I was just hoping this one would be as good.
Also, little side note...it's not even exclusively Norse gods. It's a mix of Roman, Greek, a whole bunch of other mythologies. I was kind of disappointed by that, it kinda ruined my suspension of disbelief. And despite the blurb, LOKI IS HARDLY IN THIS BOOK. AND I AM NOT A FAN.