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Are you wondering what to read when there are two whole months between Virtual Book Club Meetings? Well, may we suggest considering some of our favorite titles perhaps from 2021, 2020, or 2019?  You could also deep dive the upcoming (or previous) author.  That’s what I’ve been trying to do – dive into another Alyssa Cole book, but the rest of my reading life hasn’t worked out to give me space around blog titles (and Ashley might say that’s my penance for avoiding a book by our last book club author – correction – she said comeuppance).  Whether you need more titles or not (and slide on into our DMs if you do), we hope you’ll join us on Friday, April 22 at 7:30 p.m. CST when those who sign up here will be discussing Alyssa Cole’s When No One is Watching.  If you do take our advice and read a past favorite, or another by a Virtual Book Club author, we’ll take a few minutes to discuss those too, so take note!

Darling Readers, this week we’re channeling a little bit of that October vibe in our choice to read The Witch’s Heart by Genevieve Gornichec. It would have made an excellent choice as a witchy month title, but it makes an even better selection for Mythology in March. The Witch’s Heart is Gornichec’s 2021 debut novel, though Goodreads has her listed as an author in several anthologies, including Beneath Yggdrasil’s Shadow: Forgotten Goddesses of Norse Mythology. Gornichec earned her degree in history from The Ohio State University and “got as close to majoring in Vikings as she possibly could.” Her extensive knowledge of the Norse sagas is apparent in every sentence of Angrboda’s story. So is Gornichec’s love for her characters and the mythological places they inhabit. The Witch’s Heart won a American Library Association Alex Award this year, which is given to adult books that have special appeal to young adults aged 12-18.

In full transparency, the knowledge that I have about Norse mythology is garnered second hand. I haven’t ever read the sagas in translation or a retelling of the stories in any form, not a novel or even a collection of tales about the lives of the gods, goddesses, monsters, and other inhabitants of the Nine Worlds. (Not even the middle grade Magnus Chase series by Rick Riordan that I OWN… I know I’m slacking.) American Gods is the closest I have for background going into reading The Witch’s Heart. Well, and Marvel movies, but they don’t explain the Nine Worlds in a way that can directly relate to an historical Norse tale.

I’m going to share with you the first paragraph of the marketing copy from Goodreads because if it doesn’t grab your attention then you’re not into books about witches enough and you need to focus hard this coming October for us to change your mind: 

“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.”

Deep in the Ironwood of Jotenheim, Loki returns Angrboda’s pierced heart to her. And every time he visits her in her hidden, protected cave, over many lifetimes of humans, her feelings and appreciation for him grows. This is a long, slow process, and there was a little struggle on my part as the reader to understand that this ‘getting to know you phase’ would be very important for all of the action that happens in the latter half of the book. If you take a good look at the cover, you’ll notice in the artist’s knotwork that there are three figures: a woman, a wolf, and a snake. These are Angrboda and Loki’s children together; what I figure is that they are the physical representations of the three times that Angrboda was burned in punishment by Odin, a gift of love given in return by Fate. The thing I love most about Angrboda is that she’s the end result of a whole lot of inner work that has been done. She loves her friends, her husband, and her children exactly as they are and as they present themselves to the world. She does not pass judgment on their choices because she knows she can not control them, as much as she tries to protect each of them from the gods that burned her thrice. She is the perfect Stoic, accepting what happens, accepting the choices that her people make, while also creating herself into who she wants to be in the world given her circumstances.

I’m going to give Gornichec’s debut The Witch’s Heart a 3.5 rounded up to 4 star rating. I loved Angrboda. I loved how she loved her people and her ‘give no cares but take no crap’ way of life. Once I got into the cadence of the writing and the storytelling, I read through the book in just a few sittings, not feeling the need to take breaks or getting bored with reading (as I had been a bit during our recent YA binge).

What recent fictional character made you want to be more like them?

~Ashley

TL;DR Summary: Once more with feeling, and a bit of a reading rut on the side.

We joke around a lot about books and claiming characters we’d like to hang out with IRL, and Angrboda is another to add to the list (and there are more in The Witch’s Heart, but Loki isn’t on my list).  Ashley summarized the plot beautifully and also the character that makes this book shine so brightly – “she’s the end result of a whole lot of inner work that has been done.”  Like other female perspectives on ancient mythology, this book is so much more than that.  It’s about relationships, both blood and chosen, and acceptance of self and others, and the power of words.  It’s also about living your truth and supporting others as they live theirs.  Angrboda doesn’t expect anything from anyone except their truth, and at the same time, she’ll defend her children with everything in her, and anything she can grasp at too, and that is just gorgeous to read, even if a bit boring at first.

Yes darling readers, I’m using the b-word to describe a book I will be recommending and I appreciate Ashley commenting on struggling with the “getting to know you phase.”  I’m going to share my truth with you.  I’ve been in a bit of a reading rut.  With some extra busyness in the past few weeks, I’ve just been slower than usual, and than I’d prefer, and we didn’t break up our YA reading enough, and I’ve just been more distractable than usual, so it’s been a struggle.  To be more specific, I usually read two books a week.  On the page, I’ve finished one book, ONE, in the last month that wasn’t for a blog review.  (If I’m counting all books, it’s two, the second was on audio.  Still, this is half of my usual…ugh.)  

Now, I want to caveat my b-word usage.  The first half of the book is slow because it is setting up a convoluted situation with a complex backstory.  It’s a lot, AND, it’s necessary even if my reading rut self found it adding to my struggle.  Here’s the important part: THE SECOND HALF MAKES UP FOR IT in such a glorious way!  I read the second half of the book in two days (while cuddling with my she-wolf in fact), which is about my usual pace, and I’ve been on pace since finishing!  Yes darling readers, the first half is a ton of set up and it feels so quiet, but you need it to be able to hang with the wondrous second half!  I’m giving The Witch’s Heart 3.5 stars, and I’m rounding up because it’s a debut that’s really well done and it got me out of my reading rut.  I’m not likely to reread, but I am likely to put anything else Genevieve Gornichec cares to write for us on my TBR list (and on hold) quite quickly!

What’s a book that’s surprised you?

~Nikki 

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