Reviews with content warning for Animal death - The Valkyrie's Daughter

The Valkyrie's Daughter is about sixteen year old Sigrid, who has been raised as a stable hand but longs to be a valkyrie and something more in her life. When her home is attacked she accidentally has a vision of a possible future where she is leading the valkyries into battle along with the enemy valkyrie she's fighting, which leads her on a quest to save her home and find out if she's really meant to be more than a stable hand.

I'm going to start with the positives. I really love any fantasy book that includes horses. I am still a horse girl at heart, so I'm always sold on that, especially when it's queer. And I loved Sigrid's bond with her gelding, Hestur. Mariam was my absolute favorite character (though I did like Fisk as comic relief and a good nudge for Sigrid's teasing) and honestly I was probably the most invested in Mariam getting Aesa back than anything else. I loved the queer rep with sapphic and trans characters (I'd have loved to hear more about that though!).

Now the negatives. I was incredibly intrigued and engaged with everything going on...up until the last like 20% where the book kind of lost me. Hilariously, this is when a lot of the actual battle started and should have been the most interesting, but I let myself stop reading to go to bed for the night with 12% of the book left (to be fair, I'd driven across an entire state that day but I hardly ever let a book go unread that close to the end).

With all of this I still probably would have given the book a 4 star rating, but when Sigrid decided to paint her face to make her look more like a warrior or leader, it really pulled me out of the story. I am not an expert on Norse mythology or viking history and I do not claim to me, but to my knowledge and the brief Googling I did just to do a little double check, "viking warrior face paint" does not seem to have been a real thing is just really Indigenous cultural appropriation more than anything. So to include that was disappointing to me.

Including my last grievance at the very bottom since it does contain a spoiler.

***SPOILERS***
I also knew what the big reveal for Sigrid's would be the second Princess Helena was mentioned the first time and honestly I really didn't like the "evil mom" plot.

Thank you to NetGalley and Entangled Publishing, LLC for making this available in exchange for an honest review!

Content Warnings

allisonwonderlandreads's review against another edition

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adventurous slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

This is that particular brand of ya book that gives us the MOST misunderstood teenager with the MOST fabulous chosen one destiny and the MOST secret, sparkly identity that even she doesn't yet know. I was looking forward to the Norse mythology aspects, but the plot fell into generic rhythms of storytelling that failed to capture my attention. The writing was a big issue for me. There wasn't anything spectacular in the way settings, feelings, or actions were described to ground me in what was happening. As my attention drifted, I failed to form a bond with characters or take much interest in what they got up to.

A band of misfits should have captured my undying devotion, but flat personalities and basic, surface-level banter prevented me. Even a sapphic romance could not save this story for me because it was so bland; it largely features Sigrid's circular inner dialogue trying to figure out if she's experiencing a crush and isn't Mariam so pretty, etc. There isn't much excitement or joy or humor or really any emotion to flavor the experience and make it tangible.

At 50%, I was ready to quit and futilely shake my fist at the continuation of my reading slump. At 58%, our main character had a meltdown about A) not being trusted by her friends whom she does not trust, either, and B) not being the only one entrusted with her crush's most traumatic memory because it implies Sigrid's not special. And that's when I caved and called it a day. It's a rare DNF for me, folks. I sincerely hope Sigrid does some soul-searching and experiences vast character growth in the latter half of the book, but I was tired of plodding along, waiting for it to happen.

Content Warnings

foreverinastory's review

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This was such a fun Norse book! And it was super queer normative aside from still being heavily based in the binary. Also the MC is a horse gay.

Rep: Sapphic female MC, sapphic love interest, trans female side character, two BIPOC side characters.

CWs: Abandonment (mother/child), alcohol consumption, animal death, blood, bullying, death, violence, fire/fire injury, grief (from loss of companion animal), toxic relationship (mother/child).

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