Packed with doodles and cartoons, this is the wry, witty and very funny diary of Norse god Loki and the trials of being trapped on Earth as a weedy eleven-year-old boy.
After one prank too many, trickster god Loki is banished to live as a "normal" school boy. If he can show moral improvement within one month, then Loki can return to Asgard ... and if he can't? Then it's eternity in a pit of angry snakes. To keep track of his progress, Odin has handed over this magical diary in which Loki is forced to confess the truth. (Even when that truth is as ugly as a naked mole-rat.) As if moral improvement and the indignities of school weren't challenging enough, Loki is banned from using his awesome godly powers and (even worse) must put up with Thor tagging along and making him look bad. Anyone reading Loki's diary is about to learn that this is one god who hasn’t a clue how to tell good from bad, trust from tricks, or friends from enemies...
This is absolutely hilarious.
After Loki pulls one too many tricks on the other gods, he's punished by being sent down to Earth in the form of an eleven year old boy. Thor, also as an eleven year old, accompanies him, with Heimdall the Gate God and a giant as their foster parents. Loki has to show moral improvement to be allowed back to Asgard (if he fails, there's a thing with snakes that he'd rather not think about, thank you very much) and to prove his efforts, he has to record his day in a magical book that will know if he lies. Loki, being Loki, lies an awful lot, and adds doodles and comics as he goes.
This is both really funny and has a good message. One character describes Loki as selfish, but not cruel, which is an excellent summary of him. Humanity rubs off on him as the story moves along, but he doesn't change so much that he's unrecognisable. Thor is great as well. This will work equally well for people coming from the Marvel movies, or people more familiar with the original myths, or people who know nothing about Loki and Thor at all!
I can also see it leading to people looking up the myths, as Loki drops in plenty of references to other outrageous adventures he's had but doesn't ever get around to explaining any of them. That's a great way to do it.
I adore the illustrations. A lot of the characterisation comes through there, even though at first Loki is petulant and mean. They're really cleverly done and add so much to the story.
I love this and I can't wait to read more in the series. Kids are going to be clamouring for this one.
Loki; A Bad God's Guide to Being Good publishes on the 3rd of February, 2022. I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.
No comments:
Post a Comment