The Hammer of Thor By Rick Riordan | Review

The Hammer of Thor By Rick Riordan | Review

Hey Ho Bookaholics!

It’s Monday again, and it’s been 30 dgrees celcius for three days now and I haven’t been able to use the pool at all! But not to fear, I’ve been working on this review all day and I have finally finally finished it.

I hope you enjoy reading my review that was such a pain to write because I could not seem to gether all my thoughts together to sum up this wonderful masterpiece of a book.

hammer of thor book cover1 - The Hammer of Thor By Rick Riordan | ReviewGoodreads Summary:

Thor’s hammer is missing again. The thunder god has a disturbing habit of misplacing his weapon–the mightiest force in the Nine Worlds. But this time the hammer isn’t just lost, it has fallen into enemy hands. If Magnus Chase and his friends can’t retrieve the hammer quickly, the mortal worlds will be defenseless against an onslaught of giants. Ragnarok will begin. The Nine Worlds will burn. Unfortunately, the only person who can broker a deal for the hammer’s return is the gods’ worst enemy, Loki–and the price he wants is very high.

Review!

This book is honestly something from anothe world, aprobably from one of the nine realms, because something this amazing cannot come from a planet like earth.

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This book was so good that I’m going to break the review down in 5 parts. These parts will detail what I thought about the Writing, Characters, Diversity, Plot, and The Ending of this book, because I have so many feelings that need to be expressed, and I don’t know how to express them in one big clumpy review.

Writing: Where do I start. Many of you have probably read Ricks previously published books – Percy Jackson Series, Kane Chronicles, etc – and you would know that his writing is abolutly brilliant. It is detailed not in a complicated way so children can read it, but not too basic so it appeals to young adults as well. I was only introduced to his writing just last year, I was captivated by how funny it was and how he could tell the story through first person without making it boring. I usually like to read books in third person as you get the whole image and not just the one person but Rick made the first person point of view fun, mysterious, and engaging, leaving me wanting more each time.

Characters: In this book we are introduced to my new all-time favoutite character: Alex Fierro (sorry Raphael Santiago (and Magnus Bane)). When we were introduced to Alex, I was so excited that I ran down and told my mum that Rick Riordan introduced me to my first ever – and favourite – gender fluid character. You see, the thing with adults is that they don’t understand these new-found gender identities and it wasn’t quite satisfying telling my mum, but I was excited and my whole body was buzzing and nothing was going to get me down! I loved Alex’s I-take-shit-from-no-one attitude, I need more of it. The way Alex takes back the mark and isn’t scared of Loki, really truly shows the type of person Alex is the the unjust way he/she was brought up, which lead to this fierce independance.

im not ur little princess - The Hammer of Thor By Rick Riordan | Review

I, like Magnus, cannot understand the mind of a gender fluid person, but Rick Riordan made Alex’s changing gender easy to understand and follow. As it was through Magnus’ eyes, I was able to follow along that story through the eyes of someone who shares the understanding of gender fluid people, i.e. no understanding.

Oh man! Someone please explain Heimdal to me. I loved him!! I’ve never been really interested in the guardian and the only exposure I have had to Heimdall is in the thor movies, in which I really loved his character. But the Heimdall in Magnus Chase was different, more Norse-y, white (not dark skinned like in Thor) which was a little difficult to get used to but the vast difference in behaviour between the two, made it easier to distinguish and imagine a white, viking God.

Diversity: Rick not only included a gender fluid character (as mentioned above), he also brought more diversity into the mix with a deeper look into Samirah’s religious practices. You see, yet again another underappreciated character trait. Samirah’s religion in this book was like a little counter-argument or a “in your face” to the Norse Gods because she didn’t see, being a daughter of one of the Gods – Loki – is Arabic/ Muslim and does not see the Asgardians as Gods, rather “higher beings” as quoted by her.

gender equality is our issue too - The Hammer of Thor By Rick Riordan | Review

Another thing I love about Rick’s work is the integration of modern technology into a not-so-modern world. The selfie taking Heimdall is one of these examples and by Gods was he a funny one. Where he was annoying at times always asking for a selfie from everyone, I loved how Rick integrated the selfie action into the iconic job of Heimdall – too seee and hear everything in the nine realms.

Plot: I went into these books with semi-high expectations. I’ve done a bit of research on Norse mythology and I’m no expert but I was astounded by Rick’s use and knowledge of mythology. One of my favourite Norse Myths is where Thor dresses up as a woman to save Frigga from marying a giant and in turn gets his Hammer back and kills all the giants. The plot twist – which kept me on edge thoughout the whole firsy half of the book – was a weding much like that told in the myth, and I thought the wedding was going to be according to the myth; but once again I’ve underestimated Rick, it was better.

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It was until the plot twisted, I started becoming more deeply invested in the story. For some reason, throughout the start of the book I felt like I was slipping into a slump, probably from the information overload, or the fact that I just finished school and I was lost. But besides that I was totally captivated by the plot. it felt so good to come back home to Valhalla with all of my friends on floor 19.

The Ending: Please not again Rick. Not another damn cliffhanger. I have not yet read any book that Percy Jackson is in, so with his pending appearance in the third book I will be reading all of his books before October 3rd 2017.

I was glad that Anabeth was consulted again. It shows that Magnus is a hero who knows he needs his friends and will not just do things alone when he can call for help. He admits that he is not capapble of saving the world alone, and needs the skills of his friends to help him.

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Overall: I feel like I really can relate to Magnus especially in this book because I don’t really understand how gender fluid people ‘work’ (for use of a better word) but I am understanding, I would also protect and accept my friends in thir religious practices. This is what I like most about Magnus, the great acceptance and love he shows toward his friends is astounding and just impalpable.

I don’t know if I’m the only one that may or may not be (unconsciously) shipping Alex and Magnus…. Like friendship shipping. Friend-shipping? I need more Alegnus? Magnex? Tell me what you think!

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★ Rating ★

Much like the first Magnus Chase book (MC and The Sword of Summer), I gave The Hammer of Thor ★★★★★ 5/5 stars, because of all the damn feels this book gave me. The characters, plot, the Norse-ness, and evident research done to complte this book made me feel so much stuff that I’m having trouble explaining.

beyonce thank you gif - The Hammer of Thor By Rick Riordan | Review
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Don’t Forget to Stay Happy and Healthy and a little bit Weird xx

TL;DR:

This book is so good and I just honestly can’t anymore! Also I’ll need to read the Percy Jackson series before next October, and Alex Fierro is a precious muffin and must be protected at all costs.

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Thank You so much for reading and I hope to see you all back here again Saturday 🙂

bree xoxo - The Hammer of Thor By Rick Riordan | Review


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© Jasper+Spice 2016. All Rights Reserved. Please do not use without permission. This review was not sponsored and all opinions are my own, photos from Google or Goodreads. Follow me on Instagram @thebookishbree.You can also follow me on Goodreads at jasperandspice

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