The Wolf in the Whale

~Check out all my reviews over on The Bent Bookworm!~ TW: violence, battle scenes, rape, animal death.The Wolf in the Whale is an absolutely beautiful, gut-wrenching book. It held my attention for the entire 500+ pages and my heart for much longer - I'm really shocked that it hasn't received more attention! Also, I'm still struggling to find the words to describe both the book and my feelings about it. I really just want to shove it in everyone's face and tell them YOU MUST READ THIS (after pointing at the trigger warnings above, of course). But that typically only works with very close friends.Not enough for you either? Ok, moving on...First of all, the entire book is based around the gods even though the main characters are human. The gods of the Inuit and of the norsemen are involved - to the point of meddling selfishly - in the lives of mortals. I didn't realize this when I first started reading and it took me several chapters to realize that no, the scenes with the gods weren't visions or dreams. The gods were actual, physical AND spiritual beings that interacted with humans. Excuse me while I rearrange my brain cells. Also, don't expect any high moral standards from the gods. Some of them are just as despicable as any human villain-characters. It was rather ghastly at times. :PThe main characters are complicated. The things that happen to Omat are absolutely brutal. The Viking warrior is sympathetic but not an innocent. The clash between Inuit and the Norse gods was fascinating.I'm going to stop here, because this book has stumped me on writing an actual review for months now. I hope that I've convinced you to give it a shot, if you can stomach the heartache and violence. It's totally worth it.Blog Twitter Bloglovin Instagram

It's been well over two decades since I read the Odyssey, but this reminded me of the grand epic feel of Homer's work and I absolutely loved that. It was brilliant to me for so many reasons, but I was particularly in awe of the blending of three different mythologies/religions. And just wow, it turned into quite a ride. Single-POVs usually aren't my favorites and it did take me a minute to be enraptured by the tale, but what a frikken tale it turned out to be. As for content warnings if you pay attention, on-page rape does happen and is revisited and slavery is shown as well. To the former, it was definitely not there randomly to “villianize” someone, it was more of an exploration of harm, grief and processing on an individual level and social commentary on complacency of harm as well. Overall, this seems to be an underrated book and I highly recommend.