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Several individuals have been gracious enough to jump in and guest post for me while I’m on holiday in Ireland. Please enjoy this book review from Michelle of Wicked Whimsy. Thanks, Michelle! – R

Runemarks is a book about a fourteen year old girl, Maddy Smith, who is born with – you guessed it! – a “ruinmark” on her hand. It takes place 500 years after Ragnarok, in what is, I’m guessing, a Scandinavian country. After Ragnarok occurred and all of the old gods “died” (it’s explained within the book, but savvy readers will pick up on it pretty fast), an intolerant monotheistic religion moved in, which now controls most of the island that Maddy lives on.

The book is well written and well paced, for the most part. There are a few areas where it drags. Maddy is a fairly well developed character, and I always like to see fantasy books that feature intelligent female characters as opposed to big strapping men (nothing against ya, tough guys, but sometimes, you’re just not very interesting characters!). The ending seems a bit rushed, but not overly so. I hear she’s working on a sequel, so maybe some of the loose ends will be addressed in it.

Readers without at least a passing familiarity with Norse mythology will probably be confused – but mythology buffs (and/or pagans or heathens), this book is for you. Some of the deities aren’t exactly portrayed respectfully, but seeing Odin portrayed as a not-jerk is kind of nice. Odin and Loki are both well fleshed out characters, but unfortunately the rest of the Aesir (Sif, Thor, Tyr, Frigga) don’t get much “screen time”, so-to-speak. The Vanir (including some deities who weren’t historically Vanir – Bragi, Idunna, and Heimdall) are not very well developed as characters at all, despite being introduced less than halfway through the book. Freyja is portrayed as a one-note girly girl character, Idunna is portrayed as being childishly stupid, Skadhi is portrayed as pretty much a vengeful bitch. The male Vanir all kind of blend together, they aren’t really given enough time to develop distinct characters (which is a pity! although with the way the female Vanir are portrayed, maybe that’s for the best…).

Overall, though, Runemarks is a quick and fairly easy read. I don’t know if I’d recommend it to absolute young’uns (probably a well-read 10 year old could understand it, the average 13 year old is a better bet), and people who aren’t well versed in Norse mythology will probably be a bit lost – other than that, I’d recommend it.