21 upcoming YA book releases we can’t wait to read in 2021
By Lacy Baugher
The Witch’s Heart – Genevieve Gornichec
Stories based on mythology are all the rage now – a trend for which I remain deeply grateful to the success of Madeline Miller’s Circe. Amd perhaps Genevieve Gornichec’s The Witch’s Heart will do for Norse mythology – and the witch Angrboda – what Miller did for the misunderstood Greek sorceress.
I know that “a book about a witch who falls in love with Loki” is probably all I need to say to get some folks to add this story to their TBR lists immediately, but The Witch’s Heart is about much more than a woman and her relationship with the trickster god. True, Angrboda is only briefly mentioned in the real myths as the giantess who births Loki’s three (monstrous) children. But in Gornichec’s novel, she is much more.
She is a mother willing to do anything to protect her children. A tragic figure who knows her life is likely destined for sadness, but who is determined to seize the happiness she can find anyway. A former footnote who is at last given her own voice.
The official synopsis has more details about the story itself.
"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."
The Witch’s Heart is available on February 9.