Book Review: The Gospel of Loki

The phrase “don’t judge a book by its cover” is one that everyone has heard many times, and indeed it applies to this book too. The cover artwork, by Andreas Preis, is beautiful and eye catching, however the story of The Gospel of Loki is somewhat more disappointing.

The Gospel of Loki tells the story of Loki, the trickster God of Norse mythology, from the perspective of Loki himself. The story begins with a brief overview of the creation of the universe in Norse mythology and then moves on to the story of how Loki left the realm of chaos and became part of Odin’s family. From here we learn of Loki’s various adventures among the Norse gods, some of which are familiar, following a sequence of events that lead to Ragnarok, the prophesized end of the world.

Joanne M. Harris, author of Chocolat, writes a book which makes the realm of Norse mythology approachable and understandable to the modern reader. However, The Gospel of Loki was intended to cast the “misunderstood” character of Loki in a more flattering light, but yet it does not fully succeed in doing this. While Loki’s narrative explains some of his motivations, the character himself is very hard to relate to or empathise with. Indeed, the majority of the characters in this story are portrayed negatively, as Loki tends to not get along with them, and so it is also difficult to like any of the characters in the book.

The book definitely has its good moments though. To create the voice of Loki, Harris uses humour and dripping sarcasm, providing an approachable retelling of the ancient myths. The Gospel of Loki is a good book for a casual read.