Loki: WICKED, VISCERAL, TRANSGRESSIVE: Norse gods as you've never seen them before

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Here Burgess tackles the Norse myths, taking the reader through all the adventures and mischief that Loki gets wrapped up in. Some of the data that are collected include the number of visitors, their source, and the pages they visit anonymously. Indeed some of the overtly "religiously" aspects are presented in what was for me, as a Christian, a very suggestive way - clearly, for all his confinement, Loki has a good knowledge of the modern work.

It’s no surprise that Melvin Burgess, author of Junk and many other powerful novels for teenagers, has chosen the Norse god Loki as the subject of his first adult novel: questioning, tricksy, gender-bending and anti-authority, Loki is perhaps the quintessential teen. The novel functions almost as an autobiography, as readers are taken through Loki's struggles finding belonging and relationships--both familial and romantic--that don't always end well for him. From his birth to his inevitable demise, Loki recounts the stories you think you know, but with a fresh perspective. In spite of his cleverness and sparkling wit (or, perhaps, because of this), Loki struggles to find his place among the old patriarchal gods of supernatural power and is constantly at odds with the god of thunder--Thor.i was not prepared for this since i only bought this book because of its title, nor have i any knowledge of Norse myths (MCU knowledge doesn't count) - i did/do not know which stories are true to the original myths and which are not. The novel functions almost as an autobiography, as readers are taken through Loki’s struggles finding belonging and relationships—both familial and romantic—that don’t always end well for him.

It’s perfect because we all know how unreliable, and tricky, Loki can be and you get the real sense of wondering whether or not you’re being lied to throughout the whole book which just made it that much more fun to read. Melvin Burgess' first book, THE CRY OF THE WOLF (1990), was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal which he then went on to win for the cult novel JUNK, along with the Guardian's Children's Fiction Prize.In spite of his cleverness and sparkling wit (or, perhaps, because of this…) Loki struggles to find his place among the old patriarchal gods of supernatural power and is constantly at odds with the god of thunder – Thor. The story does play around with the original myth, taking the blame away from Loki in almost all of the stories, but keeps the stories as accurate to the original source material as possible, which makes it a really interesting read. I kept changing my mind about this one, it started strong and finished really strong but some of the middle didn’t keep me as hooked. Yet, simultaneously, you’re questioning the reliability of his perspective and whether it’s being twisted in his favour. by and large i am glad to have read it, even gladder to be done with it, and have learned a valuable lesson that i hope i will remember the next time a modern retelling of norse myths crosses my path.

But the solutions Loki proffers are adolescent: can’t we, like, imagine a world without war, he wonders at the end.Hotjar sets this cookie to know whether a user is included in the data sampling defined by the site's daily session limit.

Of course, in Loki’s tale he is always the hero, a Northern Prometheus and champion of humankind, while many of the Norse pantheon are portrayed as baddies or buffoons. His Loki doesn’t feel like a powerful god, but rather like a flawed being trying to make the most out of the situations and life he has in front of him. And a great deal of the story is uncomplimentary enough to him that we might accept this, although it's also, perhaps, a story spun and pitched to meet our modern sensibilities, showing Loki as the one who preached love, who always counselled peace, who urged (and performed) diversity and tolerance. what confuses i suppose and frustrates me about loki, a book that had the potential to be – and for a short while actually was quite excellent is that i cannot figure out what the aim of it or who the target audience truly was. a little harsh maybe, after all it was an easy read and relatively entertaining in its own way gradually getting better and better with each chapter after a slightly dull start, entering enjoyable territory by book three and reaching its zenith by book four, my favourite part by far that felt almost out of place – a touchingly earnest recounting of loki's relationship with angrboda and the birth of his children hel, jörmungandr and fenrir, and one nowhere near as juvenile, crass, or sardonic in tone as the rest of the book.

Melvin Burgess revolutionised children's literature with the infamous cult novels Junk and Doing It. About the Book: Loki tells us the tale of how the gods, and their world, their realms, were all created, what part he had in it, and how we entered the picture too.