Loki by Melvin Burgess

Trickster god, Loki, details the time of the gods, creation of many of the norse myths and gods and their lives, along with politics, relationships and the god families. Travel through the creation of time and see how it all began, how humans came to be and how the gods spent their time - all through the eyes of Loki. With tricks up his sleeves, Loki is sure to be up to something to annoy the other gods.

While the actual story is well paced and well written, I would not recommend this for a school library due to the frequent coarse language, which adds nothing to the story, with the narrator of the story, Loki, constantly referring to the reader as ‘arse-born’, which is of the milder of language used. Definitely for readers older than 18 years. The story incorporates norse myth, which would be interesting, but again, it is written in an insulting way to the reader, as though the reader is beneath the narrator’s worth or even beneath the dirt that the narrator walks on. Some readers may enjoy this immensely, others will find it tires quickly. Never having read much Norse mythology, I was looking forward to finding out historical pieces of information in this regard, however this book leads the reader to believe that nothing is based in research, and that the narrator is extremely unreliable, even if the mythology is correct (I have been so discharmed that I have not looked anything up).

Themes: Norse mythology, Insult Comedy, Historical, LQBTQIA+, Fantasy.

Melanie Pages