Tag Archives: mythology

YA Book Prize display

The Graces by Laure Eve has been reviewed twice on this blog earlier in the year, both positively and negatively – read those reviews here and here. I enjoyed the twist at the end, and the little niggles of uncertainty when it all started to go horribly wrong…

Everyone said the Graces were witches. I was going to make them mine.

Just like everybody else in her small town, River is obsessed with the Graces.

And just like everybody else, she’s been seduced by their wealth, their exclusivity, their beauty and their glamour. Perhaps even their magic.

But unlike everybody else, River knows exactly what she’s doing.

Doesn’t she?

Read The Graces,  and see what you think.

 

YA Book Prize display

 

The Monstrous Child was a Book of the Week earlier in the year, and was also on the Costa Book Awards shortlist. I thought it was brilliantly disgusting, with a fabulous narrator.

Before you reject me, before you hate me, remember: I never asked to be Hel’s queen.

Meet Hel, teenager and Queen of the Dead. Daughter of a giantess and a god. Sister to Fenhir the wolf and Jormungand the snake. This is her testament.

Hel never wanted to be queen, but being a normal teenager wasn’t an option either. Now she’s stuck ruling the underworld. For eternity. She doesn’t want your pity. But she does demand you listen. It’s only fair you hear her side of the story…

It didn’t have to be like this.

This is a must-read book for anyone who loves mythology.

 

Celtic Myths by Sam McBratney – review

I`m rather interested in Celtic mythology, I always have been, and this book contained the most variation of any I had read before. The illustrations (by Stephen Player) were very pretty. The stories were amazing and my personal favourite was Limpet Rock  and The Land of Youth. Little notes and pronunciations of names and words were also present in this book something i thought was a nice touch.

All in all I’d give this book seven selkies out of ten.

The Monstrous Child by Francesca Simon – Book of the Week

Today’s Book of the Week is an absolutely fantastic retelling of some of the bloodiest and most horrific bits of Norse mythology, as told by the sarcastic teenager at the heart of it all. This is the story of Loki’s daughter, Hel, Queen of the Dead.

The blurb says…

Before you reject me, before you hate me, remember: I never asked to be Hel’s queen.

Meet Hel, teenager and Queen of the Dead. Daughter of a giantess and a god. Sister to Fenhir the wolf and Jormungand the snake. This is her testament.

Hel never wanted to be queen, but being a normal teenager wasn’t an option either. Now she’s stuck ruling the underworld. For eternity. She doesn’t want your pity. But she does demand you listen. It’s only fair you hear her side of the story…

It didn’t have to be like this.

Francesca Simon is the author of the Horrid Henry series but this book is nothing like them!

The Monstrous Child was on the Costa Book Awards shortlist and has been nominated for the CILIP Carnegie Medal in 2017.

The Girl of Ink and Stars, by Kiran Millwood Hargrave – Five Star Review

girl-of-ink★ The Floating Island – Joya once was a floating island, going wherever the sea currents and winds took it. What a fabulous idea. Imagine waking up to mountains one day and deserts the next.

★ The Mythology – The island myth of Arinta, the warrior girl and the fire demon Yote is a story within a story.

★ The Friendships – It’s an unlikely set of friendships between Lupe and Isabella, and Isabella and Pablo, but it works simply because they are so different.

★ The Cartography – Maps tell their own story, and the ones in this book have secrets too.

★ The Look – I’m a sucker for a beautiful book, and this one is lovely with artwork edging every page, gorgeous maps and very white, fine paper. It makes you feel good just to be holding it.

 

New books in the library – A Song for Ella Grey, by David Almond

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I’m the one who’s left behind. I’m the one to tell the tale. I knew them both… knew how they lived and how they died.

Claire is Ella Grey’s best friend. She’s there when the whirlwind arrives on the scene: catapulted into a North East landscape of gutted shipyards; of high arched bridges and ancient collapsed mines. She witnesses a love so dramatic it is as if her best friend has been captured and taken from her. But the loss of her friend to the arms of Orpheus is nothing compared to the loss she feels when Ella is taken from the world. This is her story – as she bears witness to a love so complete; so sure, that not even death can prove final.

New Books in the Library – The Starcrossed Trilogy by Josephine Angelini

starcrossedWhen shy, awkward Helen Hamilton sees Lucas Delos for the first time she thinks two things: the first, that he is the most ridiculously beautiful boy she has seen in her life; the second, that she wants to kill him with her bare hands.

An ancient curse means Lucas and Helen are destined to loathe one another. But sometimes love is stronger than hate, and not even the gods themselves can prevent what will happen next…

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dreamlessHeartbroken and forbidden from being with Lucas, Helen has been tasked with breaking the curse that keeps them apart by killing the Furies, She spends her nights wandering the Underworld in search of them and, tormented by her worst nightmares made real, she’s beginning to suffer from extreme exhaustion on top of her heartbreak.

One night Helen meets another person down in the shadowy Underworld: Orion, descended from Adonis and with the power to control desire. Still in love with Lucas but drawn to this seductive stranger, Helen must make a choice that could save her life but break her heart…

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goddess‘She wrapped her arms around his chest and let the tears come… for Orion, for herself and for Lucas. She had power over the most magnificent forces on Earth, but she still didn’t feel like she had power over the most important thing of all – her own heart.’

Helen’s powers are increasing―and so is the distance between her and her mortal friends. To make matters worse, the Oracle reveals that a dangerous traitor is lurking among them, and all fingers point to Orion. Still unsure whether she loves him or Lucas, Helen is forced to make a terrifying decision, or risk all-out war.

Book of the Week – Ithaka by Adele Geras

imageSome of the best stories in the world come directly from mythology and the very best come from Greek and Norse mythology… Ithaka is the alternative story to the Odyssey – the tale of what was happening at home while Odysseus was taking the long way home after the Trojan wars.

The blurb says:

Ten years have passed since the end of the war in Troy, and Penelope, faithful and devoted wife of Odysseus, has been waiting for her husband to return to Ithaka. The peace of the city has been shattered by the arrival of ill-mannered strangers from the surrounding islands who are vying for Penelope’s hand in marriage. But Penelope is certain that her husband has survived the destruction of Troy and will, with the protection of Pallas Athena, return.

Also caught up in the games orchestrated by the gods is Klymene, a young handmaiden who is like a daughter to Penelope – and who longs for more than friendship from Penelope’s son, Prince Telemachus.

Gospel of Loki by Joanne Harris, Review by ND

The-Gospel-of-LokiI find it difficult to decide how I feel about ‘Gospel of Loki’. I love Norse legends, but the informal language just wasn’t how I imagined the gods talking. The actual story was amazing, and I do sympathize with Loki (he practically begs the reader to), but this was one story in which talking like you’re ‘down with the kids’ really doesn’t suit. However, I would definitely read more books by Harris, and I do recommend everyone else to read ‘Gospel of Loki’.

Disclaimer: this novel is nothing like ‘Thor’, so don’t read it expecting a book version of the Marvel movie.

Thursday 22nd August – The Ocean at the End of the Lane

ocean at the end of the laneThe Ocean at the End of the Lane is one of those books – the ones I finish, breathe a huge sigh of happiness because I have read such a perfect story and then promptly get grumpy because I have nothing else in my immense to-be-read stack that will come close to giving me that feeling.

Neil Gaiman is most scarily brilliant when he writes about magic and myths happening in our world – it’s so real that I find myself looking at the trees at the bottom of the garden warily, and wondering whether I should be more suspicious of crows…

The Ocean at the End of the Lane, by Neil Gaiman is a magical book – I loved it, you should read it.