Readers familiar with Norse mythology will recognize many of the characters in Genevieve Gornichec's The Witch's Heart, but this historical fantasy debut adds an emotional depth and a feminist angle often missing from those ancient tales.
Powerful witch Angrboda has been killed three times by Odin and his pantheon, but saves herself each time through magic she doesn't fully understand. Restored but for her memories, she flees to a cave deep in a forest to hide and recover. Soon two people find her: Loki, carrying the heart Odin cut out of Angrboda's chest, and Skadi, a mortal trader woman. Angrboda and Skadi trade magical medicines for home goods, building a friendship that serves as an anchor for Angrboda as she confronts seemingly insurmountable challenges. Her relationship with Loki is trickier. As a god, he's absent most of the time, even as they fall in love and have children.
Angrboda faces heartbreak and betrayal, grappling with a history she doesn't remember and the terrible future she's foreseen. As she's hunted by Odin and tries to avert Ragnarok--the apocalypse in Norse myth--Angrboda's fight is thrilling, yet characterized by her remarkable empathy, maternal nature and drive to heal others. Gornichec manages a careful balance, putting forth a heroine who is as vulnerable as she is fierce.
Readers will empathize with this witch as she fights for her children, herself and the world as she knows it--or, better yet, the world as it could be. --Suzanne Krohn, editor, Love in Panels