story craft

Genre: YA Fiction  

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Cautions:

There is an attempted sexual assault and a closed-door scene. No language that I can remember. Kidnapping. Definitely a lot of violence, but nothing extreme for what the story is—about war and revenge and bloody battles.

Review:

Before finding this book in my library’s app, I had never thought of diving into a Viking story. But the clans and their bold, brave, brutal women warriors in the opening scene drew me in and had me catching my breath every so often after they survived something that made me wonder, How—just . . . how?

Eelyn battles shame and regret and fights stereotypes in so many ways. She’s a survivor with an incredible heart. The way she fights for people who seem to loathe her only shows her character and makes me love her more.

But the same could be said of Fiske who just plain refuses to let her die. This is such a beautiful story of overcoming prejudice, forgiveness, healing, and of course, love. I listened to this in the audiobook format, and it was fabulous, but I bought the hardcover so I can reread and discover it all again.

A good first read for me from Adrienne Young.