Hey Everyone,

How are you today? This week has been so-so but I am in an emotional wreck because of a Korean Drama that has just finished this weekend. It’s called Memories of the Alhambra, it stars Hyun Bin and Park Shin Hye and I loved this drama soo much. It’s on Netflix, I highly recommend it. The drama is about a CEO of a Tech company, he receives a phone call from a teenager who invites him to Granada, Spain to see if he is interested in a different style of VR game. The game style is amazing but it would be completely stupid in real life, you are logged into the game and you are actively playing it while your out and about. It’s like how Pokemon Go got people to come outside but instead of playing it through the phone it’s through contact lenses. (Does any of this make sense to you? Because I feel like I have just written a bunch of nonsense). There is also a death that happens which starts the show on a big mystery of the game.

Anyway on to the book review.

Seven o’clock on a Monday morning, five hundred years after the end of the world, and goblins had been at the cellar again. . . . Not that anyone would admit it was goblins. In Maddy Smith’s world, order rules. Chaos, old gods, fairies, goblins, magic, glamours–all of these were supposedly vanquished centuries ago. But Maddy knows that a small bit of magic has survived. The “runemark” she was born with on her palm proves it–and makes the other villagers fearful that she is a witch (though helpful in dealing with the goblins-in-the-cellar problem). But the mysterious traveller One-Eye sees Maddy’s mark not as a defect, but as a destiny. And Maddy will need every scrap of forbidden magic One-Eye can teach her if she is to survive that destiny. 

Published: 2007

Publishers: Gollancz

Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult, Fiction

Pages: 513

Goodreads Star Rating:🌟🌟🌟🌟

Review:

So this is a re-read for me, I read this book about ten years ago and I have completely forgotten the plot of the story. But reading it again has made me love this book even more.

This book follows Maddy, from a very young age she has been known for the girl with a runemark on her hand. Nobody in the village of Malbry like her and some people thinks that she is a problem. She has only one friend called One-Eye (a character that you should know instantly by his name, whether you have read the book or not), he knows who Maddy is and what she is, so he teaches her the runes and the signification of them as well as telling her stories of Thor, Freyja and Loki. One day, One-Eye asks her to go on a quest to find The Whisperer. So Maddy sets off to the adventure and along the way she meets some interesting characters.

I was completely surprised while reading this book, I had no clue what was going on and I couldn’t stop getting curious about it, as well as popping theories as to what was going on. I had so much fun annotating this book. I’ll look forward to reading it again and seeing what I had written. If you don’t know the folklore of the Norse gods and goddess well you don’t exactly need to know since this book is set nine thousand years after Ragnarok.

I really like the character of Maddy, her interest to learn about herself is really interesting and I enjoy her interactions with some of the characters. But don’t think she is this naive teenager, she is smart and very honourable. Smart enough to have known all along what was going on. I also really liked the magic in this book, Maddy may have learnt the old runes but she is able to create new ones.

This was a really nice book to get back into, I already know that it has been half the month and I am already behind on my reading challenge but I don’t care I am enjoying reading.

Well that concludes this book review. I hope you get the chance to read it.

See you soon xx