Review brought to you by OBS staff member Annabell Cadiz

Synopsis: Sixteen-year-old Sally Dahl is a rare, modern-day Norse Witch with more power than she realizes. Playing sick from school in Portland, she’s casting rune spells during a rare astronomical convergence to bring about a better, happier planet — and hoping her parents don’t find out.

What Sally doesn’t know is that the Norse gods are still around, albeit without their divine powers — Odin is a high school principal, and blustering Thor is about to lose yet another job as a photocopier repairman. But Heimdall has the perfect cover as a forest ranger while he and his kin hunt for the newly reincarnated World Tree and try to prevent Ragnarok, the literal end of the world that could be timed to the same alignment of stars.

Instead, Sally stumbles across Managarm the Moon Dog, a lost god who seems desperate for her magickal help. But does he really share Sally’s vision of a more peaceful world, or are his intentions much, much darker? And what can she do about the ancient Berserker warriors she accidentally calls up, who pledge their allegiance and then demand junk food runs to Voodoo Doughnut and Burgerville?

Sally was not my favorite character in the novel. She was too whiny and too weak. She was way too gullible. She fell under Managram’s spell way too quickly I just found it hard to believe. Freya was a lot stronger of a female role. Shoot! Opal, Sally’s best friend, was a lot stronger of a role and Sally had far more to handle. Frigga was also a beautiful character. She is a loving and caring mother but she isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty.

Thor and Heimdall are by far my favorite characters! Thor inability to handle day to day life among humans brought wonderful humor to the story. He is huge, tall, and ill-tempered. He was a lot of fun to read! Heimdall is much calmer and reasonable. I love the bond he shares with his wolf-dog, Laika. David, the Berserker, also cracked me up! That kid ate so much food he made my stomach hurt.

There were a few downsides to Valhalla. I could have done without the constant whinnying from Thor about living in the human world or Sally’s inability to see past Managram’s deceit. The fluidity of the story could have been a lot better as well. The constant switching of character view points, though I enjoy hearing the story from characters themselves, did not work too well in Valhalla. There were a few times I found myself bored with the tale because of trivial things being discussed. At times, the dialogue, especially the humor, just seemed to forced.

Overall, Valhalla helps to bring the story of the Norse gods to life with a modern twist. Willis manages to make the characters of legend relatable.

For all those interested in learning more about Thor and his kinsmen, Valhalla is a pretty good tale to venture on to learn some well researched history.