Jennifer Willis
Valhalla
Review brought to you by guest reviewer Jennifer Jensen
The idea of Jennifer Willis’ Valhalla is exciting because it is a mash up of modern day culture meets Norse mythology. At the same time, this is also Valhalla’s downfall. Willis undoubtedly researched Norse mythology in order to write this book targeted toward YA readers, but as I was reading it I felt largely left out. Readers who are not familiar with Norse mythology are going to feel very lost reading Valhalla. And with so many gods and goddesses to keep up with, it got a little overwhelming for me. The author should include enough back story in the novel so that readers do not have to stop reading just to look things up.
Willis could have benefited from including a glossary of the names of the gods and goddesses as well as some other terms (berserkers, Valkyries, Svartálfaheim, etc.) that only certain people might know how to define. I’d also have liked more information on how the gods began losing their powers and why they were forced to remain on earth. Maybe this was explained in Valhalla, but I just didn’t pick up on it the way I was supposed to.
Valhalla is about a teenage girl named Sally who is a Norse witch. She is a firm believer that the Norse gods are going to rise again and that she needs to do some rituals to prevent the end of the world from happening. But something goes wrong in her calculations, and she transforms herself into an old lady. Sally is more powerful than she thinks, so she attracts the attention of Managarm, who wants to use her in locating an ancient tree from the old world.
I don’t feel that Valhalla lived up to its potential. I saw quite a few opportunities where Willis could have introduced more humor (though the berserker David and his monstrous appetite were pretty amusing), especially with Heimdall’s human girlfriend, Maggie. I was interested in her more than I was in Sally, the main character. I could have pictured Maggie stalking Heimdall, always on the verge of figuring out his secret, and Heimdall exerting extra effort to throw her off his scent. There could also have been some great scenes between Sally and her parents; Sally having to hide her appearance from her parents because now she looks older than they do. But Sally’s parents were absent throughout the entire book.
Willis has potential as an author, but didn’t hold my attention with Valhalla. There are some slow parts, and with as many characters as she introduces, they aren’t very well defined. Additionally, some furthering editing was needed; there are a few pop culture references–Wile E. Coyote and I Dream of Jeannie–that she didn’t spell correctly. It may sound nit picky of me to even mention this, but all it takes is just a couple seconds with Google to double check the spelling. I’m not sure this book was a good fit for me, but I’m still glad I gave it a fair shot anyway.
