The Witch’s Heart is one of the best books you’ll read this year

Mythological retellings are all the rage right now in the world of publishing, thanks in large part to Madeline Miller’s megahit Circe, a reevaluation of a woman condemned to live at the margins of a man’s adventure in The Odyssey. Genevieve Gornichec’s The Witch’s Heart is perhaps a distant cousin to Miller’s work but is every inch a story of similar power and heart.

Another tale of a woman that’s been left in the shadows of a man’s, Gornichec’s novel reinvents the story of Angrboda, a giantess whose name means “bringer of grief”. She is generally only mentioned in the Norse tales as the mother of the trickster god Loki’s three most monstrous children: Fenrir, the Great Wolf fated to devour Odin at the end of the world, Jorgamund, the Midgard Serpent who will ultimately kill Thor, and Hel, the ruler of the Niflheim, the realm of the dead, whose body is only half-alive.

In Gornichec’s novel, she is so much more than that.

When the story begins, the witch now known as Angrboda – she’s very old and has a long life history that she can’t always remember – has survived being burned at the stake for the third time, having refused to give the god Odin something he wants. Wounded and in pain, she flees Asgard and finds refuge in an isolated forest on the edge of the world, but without the heart she literally left behind there. (Not kidding – it was speared through.) As she heals, she builds a new solitary life for herself in a cave and plans to have no doings with gods, giants, or any other legendary beings afterward.

But her quiet new life is interrupted by the arrival of the trickster god Loki, who stumbles upon her cave and returns her missing heart.

What follows is an equal parts love story, apocalyptic vision, and quest tale that spans thousands of years and, yes, the end of the world. Loki and Angrboda fall in love, and despite their constant (quite frankly adorable) bickering and his frequent trips back to his fellow gods in Asgard, they manage to build something like a peaceful life together. Sure, their children are wolves and snakes and a girl whose living body is partially dead, but their whole little family is all a little abnormal, and their weird pieces fit together perfectly.

But as Angrboda begins to have terrifying visions of Ragnarok and how all her children and her spouse will both cause and be affected by it, she’s torn between accepting fate and a desire to at least try and change their futures.

The Witch’s Heart is beautifully written and lands with the sort of emotional gut punch that makes you wonder why we’ve never heard any real takes on this character and her place in mythology before. The novel is full of sly references to other Norse myths and characters and embraces the spirit of the original tales – which is that life is hard, brutal, and often difficult, but that magic can still happen within it.

Though Angrboda’s Ragnarok visions drive much of the novel’s forward action, Gornichec’s writing is at its most compelling when the story stays focused on the quiet day to day of Angrboda’s life and the complex relationships she forms within it. (And that have carried over from the previous lives she barely remembers. Remember, she’s very old.)

Her love story with Loki manages to be both charming and compelling despite the fact that you know it’s fated to happen before going into the book and has an air of a romantic tragedy as much as anything else. Mistakes are made on both sides, and terrible consequences ensue, yes. But that doesn’t mean that what exists between them isn’t real – and isn’t beautiful in its own way.

But in all honesty, Angrboda herself is the star of this story, as she should be. A complex heroine with wounds and flaws, she’s an endlessly fascinating figure. Essentially fated for sadness, she still manages to live a life of meaning and seize the rare moments of joy when they come. Her devotion to her family – and the lengths to which she’ll go to both protect and avenge them – is both admirable and heartbreaking, and her journey to claim her power will be one that will stick with you for a long time.

It feels odd to declare so early in the year that I may have just read the best book of 2021, so I’ll say this –  if anything is going to beat The Witch’s Heart for me, it’s going to have to work really, really hard. A spellbinding, propulsive story that I only wish had gone on longer. (Or that maybe I hadn’t read as quickly. Or both.)

The Witches Heart is available now in print and ebook formats. Let us know if you add it to your TBR pile this month!