Norse Mythology is not something I know a lot about to be honest, so when I was invited to take part in a #Buddyreads of ‘The Witches Heart’ by Genevieve Gornichec I was intrigued . I knew I’d have to dismiss the Marvel version of Thor, Loki and all Asgard’s finest, while very entertaining are not very akin to the real mythology.

Angrboda is not the only name she’s ever had but it’s the name she gives herself when she finds herself alone and without her memory. She shared her prophetic magic with Odin, ruler of Asgard, but held back from him something that he desired. He burnt her flesh three times over and removed her heart as punishment but somehow she lived and fled. She starts her life again on the edge of the world, with Loki the trickster, who she comes to love deeply. She hides from the All Father who hungers for her power and tries to understand the doom laden visions that haunt her. However, she can’t hide forever, as her love for Loki triggers a series of events that threaten to destroy the entire world. Can she protect the children she loves so dearly? And re-discover who she is and the power that burns within her?

To begin with I found the short paragraphs and uncomplicated writing style a little off putting. It read like a list of facts, characters and events that didn’t give the kind of depth I needed to become completely invested. However, as the story went on and I got to know the characters, that feeling dissipated. I did become very invested in Angrboda’s story and many of the other characters were well rounded and nuanced. The balance of the emotional storylines alongside the ‘action’ was very well done, in parts, my heart broke and in others, I laughed aloud. The ‘oddness’ of some of the storylines was absolutely in line with the myths themselves, so they fit nicely…although one particular one made my stomach churn a little…you’ll know which when you read it! All in all a good book that sparked my interest in Norse Mythology.

I love love love Norse mythology, and a few of my favorite parts of it are both Loki being ridiculous (see: Sleipnir) and the lead up (and actual… like event) of Ragnarok. Loki, as it happens, has a lot to do with that as well. So does Angrboda, in a way.

This is a retelling of Norse mythology (obviously), and is the story of Angrboda, who was a jötunn (giantess), and the mother of three of Loki’s children: Hel, Fenrir, and Jörmungand. In this retelling, Angrboda was also Gullveig, a witch-woman who the Aesir stabbed the heart out of and then burned three times. Our story starts just after that, when she takes up residence in the Ironwood and takes on the name Angrboda, which means ‘bringer of sorrow’. While living in a remote cave in the Ironwood, she receives two visitors fairly often, one is Skadi, the huntress, who trades her potions for provisions and who she becomes fast friends with, and the other is Loki, who returns her heart to her. She has three children with Loki, and then begins have prophetic dreams. Horrible dreams which appear to show the end of all things. Then the shenanigans really start.

I really enjoyed this book. The language is largely more modern than the story it tells, and is anglicized, but I thought this was really fitting for the story itself. The prose was lovely and very easy to sit down and read for hours and hours at a time. It doesn’t hold back on the sheer ridiculousness of some of the mischief Loki gets himself into, and the magnitude of suffering, death, and destruction that Norse mythology tends to get into. But, despite those things, it tells a sweet, and sometimes bittersweet story. It tells mythology how it is, while still weaving this wonderful story of sorrow and love around it.

I was expecting to absolutely hate the relationship between Angrboda and Loki (and cheer for the blurb’s hinted relationship between Angrboda and Skadi – queue Sapphic Longing) but I did not at all, at least, not until it was clear that I should absolutely not cheer for the continuation of that relationship. I wasn’t expecting some of the dialog to be so hilarious, but I have so much stuff in this book highlighted because it made me chuckle. I suppose I should have expected the trickster god to be a little funny.

The story caught me in the feels a couple of times too, when things that were anywhere from plain ol’ sad to actually a bit horrifying would happen. Angrboda is a character who was easy to cheer for. I wanted her to survive, and thrive, and find her happily ever after, even as her world changed, and life went on. Having a fondness for mythology, I do already (mostly) know what happens, and so you would assume that I would have some feels shields up, but no. Oof, my feels.

Again, I absolutely loved this one, and if you like Norse Mythology, or mythological retellings, you will very likely like it too. It was a fantastic read. I might just get this one in audio too because I can imagine it would be a wonderful listen as well!

DNF. This one was a mistake for me. I don't think it's objectively a bad book, but I was immediately put off by the style of the storytelling - it felt very...distant? Disassociated? - and none of the characters could hold my interest. I couldn't stick with it long enough for anything especially interesting to happen, although those familiar with the Norse myths will see them worked into the narrative, which gets the book points.

But not enough to keep me going.

I can see a lot of other people enjoying this immensely, though I'm a little concerned that fans of Marvel's Loki are going to be misled by the book description.

The Witch's Heart by Genevieve Gornichec is intense and rich in detail. I really sank down into her imagined world, and immersed myself in her fantastic writing style. It felt like hearing a traditional oral tale, mixed with well-documented historical fiction.

The first half of the story moved more slowly for me than the second, but was really interesting with all the different characters and relationships. There were times I teared up or laughed out loud, but mostly I had a hard time connecting with the characters on more than a surface level. There was hardly any introspection, and some of the narratives were repetitive, or ended too abruptly before I felt connected.

The second half is rife with action and war, and I enjoyed the clash of all the tales coming together in the end.

If you enjoy mythology, give this one a chance! I really appreciate what Gornichec created, it just wasn't quite for me.

Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Reviewed for Shelf Awareness. Review will run just after or on publication date. (This is not that review!)

The Witch's Heart is a new take on Ragnarok and the events leading up to it. For those familiar with Norse mythology, most of the characters will be familiar, but it's a completely fresh approach with a new character.
The story meanders a bit and I wasn't sure where things were going, but once things clicked I was left wondering how we were going to get to Ragnarok and if anyone would survive. After all, even when we know how horribly things tend to go in the myths, there's always that little ember of hope that things will turn out just fine.

A bit slow at times, but I'd read another!

(It's also queer!)

I received a copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Told in the style of a Norse myth, The Witch’s Heart takes it’s readers back to the world of mythology, where Odin, Thor, Loki, and Freyja walk freely amongst humans, giants, and witches. Angrboda is a seer who, after angering the gods, had her heart cut out and was burned three times. When she flees to the Ironwood to recover, a sly tricker returns her heart. What follows is a sweeping tale of loss, fear, danger, and fierce love.

While I enjoyed the writing style, which evoked the tones of traditional oral tales, and indeed the story moved quickly, the narrative elements fell a bit short for me. I really wanted to fall in love with the characters, and while I feel like the dialogue brought me close, the lack of character’s introspection made me feel distant from the characters. Any familiarity I felt with Angrboda came through her actions alone. I could predict her actions because they followed certain tropes and stereotypes. And this isn’t necessarily a bad thing! But it turns out I love an inner monologue and I need characters to look inwards for me to connect with them and their story.

Genevieve Gornichec's The Witch's Heart does for Angrboda and Loki what Madeline Miller did for Circe - tell an overlooked or misunderstood character's story from her own POV and convince the reader to cheer for the witch.

Odin, angry with Angrboda for not teaching him everything she knows about telling the future, has her burned three times and her heart removed. She flees to the Ironwood to heal, building a quiet and simple life for herself, far away from the gods. Loki finds her and returns her heart, starting their unusual relationship.

Skadi, a giantess, discovers her cave and convinces Angrboda to trade her potions for food and other necessities. The women form a growing friendship.

Angrboda, against her better judgment, falls in love with Loki, marries him, and bears his children.

Knowing the stories of Norse mythology means knowing what's coming for Angrboda's children. Feeling the inevitability of their fates makes them all the more heartbreaking.

The writing is lyrical and lovely; it feels like an oft-told epic, full of love and betrayal. For fans of Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology.

The Witches Heart was so good! I loved the writing and the story, The characters were extremely done. This book left me completely satisfied. I can't wait to read more from this author!

Content warning: childbirth, burning alive, sutures

I was a Norse mythology kid growing up. And the books that I had read painted Angrboda as the de facto villain with Loki being kind of a quaint deuteragonist. This book tells the story from Angrboda’s point of view, starting with her third burning through her courtship with Loki, to the birth of her monstrous children, and finally, Ragnarok itself. Beautiful imagery, full of romance, and heart-breaking in its pivotal moments, this book has captured my heart, and I’m not sure I’m getting it back any time soon.

I am obsessed with the way Gornichec personified these main figures of Greek mythology. The sarcasm and antagonism between Loki and Angrboda is written with such refreshing modern sensibility. The imagery and pacing are something out of a fairy tale, easily ensnaring the reader in the interior journey of Angrboda and those around her.

Of course, my favorite had to be Hel. The complicated relationship the half-dead godling has with her parents. I loved seeing this character come to life in what this book achieves: three-dimensionality. She’s more than just the ruler of the land of the dead. She’s also a child whose parents experienced cruelty, with her own wants and needs, and I am still floored by her character arc.

In terms of relationships, however, the crowning achievement here is Skadi and Angrboda. Friends to allies to lovers, their chemistry leaps off the page from their first interaction. It was so clear to me that there is an attraction, and the way Gornichec spends time with these two as Skadi helps Angrboda set up her cave and adjust to her new life had me sighing dreamily. Then Loki shows up. And from start to finish, I was on Skadi’s side of gleefully waiting for him to get what’s coming. But the execution is far more complex than that, with time spent exploring the tension between a desire for revenge and its actual execution. Heart-wrenching, absolutely heart-wrenching.

An in-depth exploration of the different forms love can take told from the point of view of a witch who wants full authority over her magic.

"When a banished witch falls in love with the legendary trickster Loki, she risks the wrath of the gods in this moving, subversive debut novel that reimagines Norse mythology.

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.

Their union produces three unusual children, each with a secret destiny, who Angrboda is keen to raise at the edge of the world, safely hidden from Odin’s all-seeing eye. But as Angrboda slowly recovers her prophetic powers, she learns that her blissful life - and possibly all of existence - is in danger.

With help from the fierce huntress Skadi, with whom she shares a growing bond, Angrboda must choose whether she’ll accept the fate that she’s foreseen for her beloved family...or rise to remake their future. From the most ancient of tales this novel forges a story of love, loss, and hope for the modern age."

Loki and subversive? Sold.

Many thanks to Netgalley for the advanced reader's copy. I loved this book! Gornichec tells a story that fleshes out the life of Angrboda (or Gullveig, Mother Witch and other names as well), who was the mother of Loki's children who bring about Ragnarok. But she was so much more. A great character study and a really interesting take on Norse Mythology and on those goddesses and giantesses that only get mentions in most Norse mythological works. Angroboda is a fascinating character and the re-interpretation of classic Norse myths was intriguing and entertaining. It reminded me a lot of the novel Circe and had that same kind of feel to it. A much maligned character is finally given a chance to have her own say in her story and the results are outstanding. The novel is also really about love and different kinds of love. Angrboda knows magic and she teaches it to Odin, except he wants to know the future. When Angrboda refuses to teach him prophecy, the gods burn her thrice and stake her heart and thus begins a story that grabs you and doesn't let you go. I read this over just two days and when I wasn't reading it I was trying to get back to reading it. I loved how real all of the characters felt and the relationships between everyone. This isn't any Norse retelling you've ever read, 2021 won't know what hit it!

This is an all right story about characters from Norse mythology, focusing on the domestic journey of Angrboda and Loki. I have to say that I wasn’t entirely drawn into it. Angrboda and Loki felt too ephemeral, which may have been intentional but made it difficult for me to connect with. The novel felt like it was lacking something as well; a richness in narrative and atmosphere maybe. It just felt a little hollow overall. It’s not a bad read, though, and I’d recommend it to those interested in Norse mythology.

I finished reading Genevieve Gornichec’s The Witch’s Heart on Saturday and have slowly been coming down from the high ever since. This book was so good, so beautifully written, that I just want to run around telling people to read the book and share the experience of reading a story that will totally knock their socks off.

The Witch’s Heart retells the story of Angrboda, from the Norse legends. Gornichec pulls dozens of stories about Angrboda, Loki, jötnar (giants), and Ragnarök to create this heartbreaking tale. Angrboda, as in the legends, was a seeress and witch. Odin believed that she would be able to tell him what would happen before, during, and after the worlds-ending battle between the gods and the jötnar. When she refuses to tell him anything, she is burned to death three times—only to survive and flee to the Ironwood. At the beginning of The Witch’s Heart, we see a very injured Angrboda sitting near the edge of the grey woods when Loki shows up to return her heart. This fateful moment (preceded by the other fateful moments in which Odin refused to take no for an answer) kicks off a chain of events that culminate in the end of everything.

The thing that I’ve learned about prophecies from literature is that, no matter how much someone might want to change their fate, their actions always lead to their downfall. For example, Oedipus’ father sent him away, which meant that Oedipus didn’t recognize his parents before killing his father and marrying his mother. Odin wants to avoid Ragnarök. Loki wants to sow chaos. Everything those two do pushes the nine worlds closer to Ragnarök. I could see all the places where, if Odin and the Æsir had just taken a moment to hang fire, they could have avoided all the death that would follow. The need to control everything leads to the loss of control over anything.

While all this happening (mostly in the background) Angrboda and Loki fall in love (or as much in love as the wild Loki can manage) and have three children. Loki comes and goes, returning with news of his latest exploits and travails. Angrboda’s friend, the jötunn Skadi, hates Loki for the way that he leaves Angrboda and their family alone to fend for themselves in the Ironwood. But Angrboda is more than capable of taking care of her family—at least until Odin finds his lost seeress again. All Angrboda wants is to save her children, but Odin and the Æsir fear those children (especially Fenrir and Jormungandr) so much that their fear leads them to do terrible things to Angrboda’s family. The last half or so of The Witch’s Heart races along as the prophecies about Ragnarök come to fruition. The fact that we spent so much time with Angrboda made everything that much more heart-breaking.

I can’t praise The Witch’s Heart highly enough. I loved everything about it: the character development, the way Gornichec retells the legends, the sheer emotional weight of the story. When I finished reading it, I couldn’t jump into another novel the way that I normally do. I had an immediate book hangover because The Witch’s Heart was so fantastically brilliant. I plan on buying a copy as soon as it’s officially published so that I can read it again and again.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started reading this story. I’ve never read anything by this author, and was overall, very curious.

This story was very unique. Angrboda is a very complex character. She is very strong. Very determined. Her story was so unique. After refusing to share her powers she was sentenced to burn. However, she comes back and goes into the forest and hides.

I really enjoyed the romance in this book. I love romance. And I loved seeing Loki end Angrboda grow together and find their love together. I love that they had children. I loved seeing parenthood for them.

This book was unique and addicting. I highly recommend it.

2.5 stars. Received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

There is a lot of promise here. I love norse mythology- you hear a lot about greek mythology, but norse is just as interesting and just as dark. I liked the LGBTQ aspect and anything with Loki is a plus.

But there is no heart here- the characters feel very flat and rote. There is no investment in this type of storytelling if you do not create fully realized characters who you care for and empathize with. I think it is especially important for mythology retellings. If you are familiar with Norse mythology, there is no surprise in terms of general plotting, so the characters are needed to really bring the story and all its tragedy to life (and make no mistake- this is a tragedy). The characters feel very constrained by prophecy and destiny and, knowing Norse myth basics, I felt the same way. We all just plodded on the same well-travelled trail with nothing particularly new to note or say.

Another disappointment in 2020.

The Witch's Heart is a story filled with love, loss, forgiveness, and hope. For those of you somewhat familiar with Norse Mythology, I think you will enjoy how the author incorporated those myths into the book. Angrboda was a fantastic character and you will easily root for her. You will love and hate Loki throughout the book which is exactly how it should be.

Overall, the pacing for the book was good but part two did drag for me a bit. I just felt the plot sort of meandered for a little while. Things did pick up again and I really loved the ending. I would definitely read something else by Genevieve Gornichec in the future. If you are interested in Norse Mythology or just like mythology in general, definitely pick this one up.

Angrboda is a witch who lives at the edge of the world in a forest called Ironwood. She is also missing her heart until one day she is visited by Loki who returns it to her. She is mostly alone in her forest save for occasional visits from Loki until one day a woman happens upon her home and convinces her to trade her salves and poultices in exchange for much needed supplies. As the years pass, Angrboda makes her small cave in the forest a home and bears three of Loki's children. However, this is not to last.

This is a fun exploration of Norse mythology from the point of view of Loki's lesser-known wife, the witch Angrboda. The reader gets to experience the tale from Angrboda receiving her heart back from Loki all the way through the tumultuous events of Ragnarok and beyond. This is a fun read with a sweet, romantic undertone that effortlessly carries the reader through hundreds of years or more before they've even realized it.

I absolutely loved this retelling of Norse mythology! Gornichec tells the story of the often overlooked Angrboda. In traditional myths she is only known as the mother of three of Loki's children, but in this telling she is so much more. Powerful witch, mother of giants, the one who bore the wolves who chase the sun and moon, Loki's wife, mother of monsters, lover of Skadi, healer, and protector. While Angrboda is by far my favourite character in this story, I did also fall in love with Loki. There was such a soft side to him that made me think of him as more than just the trickster. This is a book that once you start you won't be able to put it down. I'm also a sucker for glossaries, so I loved that the author included glossaries of the characters, races, and places at the end.

Disclaimer: I got this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

If you're a fan of Norse mythology and Loki then this is for you!! Angrboda starts to have visions that her children were in danger. She becomes friends with Skadi to protect her children from Odin but she's not strong enough to face him alone.

I loved the mythology in this book! I am obsessed with Greek mythology, so reading this was a nice change to the scenery in the world of classic mythology since I was introduced to some Norse retellings/reimaginings. I loved all of our characters and I thought the pacing was really well done!

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