The Weaver and the Witch Queen - Genevieve Gornichec

 


Thanks to NetGalley for this eArc

I've discovered Genevieve Gornichec's first novel through NetGalley and enjoyed it so much that I knew I would love this one, and I wasn't disappointed. It also takes place in Scandinavia (more precisely, Norway in the tenth century) but it isn't centered around gods like the previous one. We follow two friends trying to rescue their sister and we see what they are willing to do to see her back.

There is a lot of violence in this book, as we see the aftermath of a Viking raid. There is also violence we don't see and can only imagine. But there is also, and above all, love, friendship and loyalty. I love seeing friendships between women in books, especially in a society so pregnant with misogynistic beliefs. 

I don't know anything about Viking culture and I really don't understand how they could work as a society if anyone could be a victim of raids. Like, what was the point of them? Maybe, like Gunnhild said, there were too many kings in the country.

I really liked Gunnhild, she was ambitious but never lost her purpose and did everything in her power to achieve it. With Oddny, it was different. I am more like her, wanting a quiet life and wanting nothing to change. But weirdly enough, I could not comprehend some of the choices she made. Her love interest was so sweet but...if you've read the book, you know.

The secondary characters were well portrayed and there were other strong and independent women that gave the lectors another side of Scandinavian history. Gunnhild said a beautiful quote that can still really resonate with us now: "(...) that a woman need not be defined by her men. That she can stand for herself and make her own way."

To end this review, I'd like to mention something the author wrote in the acknowlegements: "(...) how many people we'd recognize today as LGBTQIA+ have been omitted from history, but we have always been here, and we always will be."

Rep: frienship/sorority, strong independent female (main and secondary) characters, trans sc, transjoy, trans acceptance
TW: child abuse by parent, kidnapping, slavery, torture, raid, murder, physical violence, blood, grief, revenge, heavy menstrual pain, animal death, rape (mentioned), misogyny, self-harm
 

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