Loki: Where Mischief Lies By Mackenzi Lee

Chelsea Humphrey

Happy Pub Day!

"Loki was convinced everyone loathed the feasts but no one dared say so for fear of appearing small-minded. Being quite confident of the size of his mind-large-and his ability to walk in heels, he was comfortable saying it."

description

Hi, hello, YES YOU! Could I have a moment of your time to tell you about this Marvel masterpiece? It features everyone's favorite god of mischief, and the author has portrayed him as canonically intended. I knew this book would be enjoyable, but I wasn't sure just how necessary it was until after I finished. Sure, this is a story that follows closely to what you already know about Odin, Thor, Loki, Amora, and Asgard in general, but it also grasps tiny fractures in Loki's early existence and brings to light seemingly small moments that alter the course of what we know about his character.

"Is that meant to be a threat?" Loki asked. "If so, you might try and make it a little less tantalizing. Who says I want a place in the court of a king who hits himself in the face with his own hammer?" "That was one time!" "And yet it's burned in our hearts forever."

Loki: Where Mischief Lies is such a gem because it combines fresh perspective on the aspects of norse mythology that we already adore. The Loki/Thor banter is present throughout, the tumultuous relationship between Loki/Amora is engaging, and the heartbreaking exchanges between Loki/Odin wrench emotions even after the book has finished. I don't want to give too much of the plot away, but these three elements ground the traditional tales while the author adds her own spin on a new adventure, which gives the story a fast-paced, if a bit predictable, nature.

"Loki didn't know what to say. He knew what it was to be cast out and unwanted and taunted for the fabric you were stitched from. To want to find strength and pride in the things that made you you in spite of the world telling you that you should hide them. It was a particular kind of dissonance that was hard to understand until your ears rang with it."

This wouldn't be a Mackenzi Lee original if it didn't dissect the significance of the LGBT community and it's plight in historical fiction, so the reader receives a needed dose of learning all around. One of my favorite scenes in the novel came during the above mentioned quote, where a male character on earth is discussing his hidden status of being a gay man. Loki can't fathom why Midgard isn't as open-minded as Asgard, as Loki is also LGBT and considered just as acceptable in his sexuality and gender as Thor is in his heterosexuality. I feel it's fair to mention also that, while Loki's pronouns in the book are masculine, it's mentioned at one point that he feels equally comfortable as male or female, being both simultaneously and my assumption making him gender-fluid.

Knowing that this is the first book in a three part series, I went in under the guise of each book being a standalone that featured different characters in the marvel universe, but upon finishing this one I'm left wondering if it may not be the end for Loki's character arc via the author? Or perhaps she chose to leave things a bit open as a segue into what we already know will happen? Either way, I was very pleased with this read and highly recommend it to any Marvel fan.

*Many thanks to the publisher for providing my review copy via NetGalley.

NickReads

this is what dreams are made of

Virginia Ronan ♥ Herondale ♥

*takes one look and adds it to TBR*

- Loki
- 19th-century London
- Mackenzi Lee

Do I have to say more?
I'm already SOLD!!! XD

This is the book I've been waiting for without even knowing it! <333
I can't wait to read this! September 2019 is going to be an awesome month!

P.S: How amazing is that cover?! =)))

clem

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

THE END FUCKED ME UP.

Pie

Mackenzi Lee + more historical novels + Loki?! Quick question, did someone just reach into my brain and take out everything I want in a novel? AND Loki's going to be gender fluid and pansexual according to her announcement on Twitter!

human

(2.5/5)

Me starting this book:

Me not even halfway through:

To say that I am disappointed would be an understatement.

Angry?
No.

Disappointed?
Very.

Hotel?
Trivago.

I can honestly say that I went into this book very excited. I almost screamed when I found out it was on Hoopla (keyword: almost. I have a reputation to maintain, y'all), and then immediately proceeded to tell my
friend all about it. (I'm so glad you enjoyed this, btw!)

As I began to read this, I found my concentration slipping and slipping. I decided to take a break (read: ignored it, hoping it would go away, the same way I deal with all of my problems) (spoiler alert: it doesn't solve anything), but not put it "on hold" ~~because books that go there rarely see the light of day ever again~~.

I... don't think this book was for me. I'm not sure what exactly I was expecting that was too great for this book to deliver on, other than good character development/morally gray characters, and some action. I sort of got one, and simply didn't get the other.

First, there's the plot itself. Nothing truly happens for the first third of the book, which can be summarized in its entirety by the synopsis. When Loki is finally sent to Midgard, the "mystery" plotline is unveiled and, well, not elaborated on much. Sure, we're introduced to some new characters, but nothing is expanded on by them, either. Instead, we get some info-dumps disguised as conversation.

As for Loki, well.

He simply wasn't developed enough for me. This book is supposed to show how he was just desperate to be noticed, desperate to prove his worth before he became the trickster we all know and love, correct? Because there wasn't much of that. Instead, we get Loki simping after Amora like a lovesick puppy for the longest time. The real character development is in the last third of the book or so. And as stated earlier, none of the other characters were all that fleshed out either.

Amora, on the other hand, was interesting to read about. I wouldn't be exaggerating if I said I have a love-hate relationship with her as a character.

Additionally, this book is supposed to be set in 19th century London. Let's just say, the world-building isn't exactly solid in this book, and I didn't feel like I was reading something set in the 1800s.

It's brought up in the book that Loki is gender-fluid, but it wasn't gone into much detail? I wish it had been elaborated upon more, rather than treated as some sort of throwaway remark.

All in all, I really like what this author was trying to do. I love Loki, and I loved the concept of this book! The execution, on the other hand, was just not great.

~~~~~~~~~~

buddy read with
the rational one! It was most definitely not a buddy read, lmao, but go check out her
review!

Maryam Rz.

[1 May 2019]
Rejoice! There's a cover and a full synopsis for Mackenzi Lee's new YA Fantasy trilogy about the trickster Loki! And in case you live in the 18th century: she is the author of
The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue :|
The cover gives full Marvel superhero vibes which is its aim 😍 love it.

HOWEVER. WTF is wrong with the pop culture and this generation! As soon as anyone hears “Loki” they go “Marvel!” 😐

Doesn't anybody know that Loki's origins don't lie with Marvel and that they took it from NORSE MYTHOLOGY? He was a Norse god (actually a demon but that's not the point 😁) before Stanley's father's father's father's father even walked the earth! 😒 Oh, for God's sake.

Me, silently judging you:

Marvel fans be like:

Let's clarify things. If you have no idea who Loki the shape shifter, the demon, the trickster Norse god is, I highly recommend
The Gospel of Loki which is the Norse myths retold through the formerly dismissed Loki in a hilarious tone and about his mischiefs!

But basically, that guy above (who I love), is based on this guy (who I also love):

This book is, though, specifically Marvel fanfiction so you can continue your blabbering. But just please, I'm begging you, don't again say Loki is from Marvel because that shows ignorance and is totally INFURIATING 😐 Jesus Christ.

Katie.dorny

This a very typical ya novel that barely skimmed the surface of its potential from one of my trusted ya authors. It’s engaging but too neatly wrapped for what the story of Loki could have been.

Loki is a fabulous lgbtq+ character, blatantly genderfluid and that is something that cannot be undersold. It’s discussed openly and with such a nonchalance that I loved it. I wish we could all live like that.

However, Loki is let down by his supporting cast and plot. They are shallow, rigid and just plough straight to the point with little nuance. Thor and Odin are incredibly cookie cut out characters.

The plot was interesting but jumped from one realm to the next so quickly I ended up skimming back to the previous chapter to make sure I hadn’t missed anything.

This was okay, but I expected so much more from what could have been an iconic literary pairing.

Received in exchange for an honest review.

Lauren Lanz

Loki will always and forever be my evil snake boy.

“You're already the villain in everyone's stories, Loki," she replied, dropping her veil over her face. "Why not start playing your part?”

I swear to you, Mackenzi Lee pulled the Marvel straight out of Loki. Dialogue between him and Thor was spectacular, and I mean almost exactly as I would have imagined it coming from an Avengers movie.

‘Before the days of going toe-to-toe with the Avengers, a younger Loki is desperate to prove himself heroic and capable, although it seems everyone around him suspects him of inevitable villainy and depravity…’

Whimsical and enthralling, this book surpassed my expectations endlessly. The plot was simply amazing to follow- it was such a pleasure to see themes of sexuality explored during the Victorian Era in London as a big portion of the book is set during that time. The method of comparing Asgard’s open mindedness (Loki is genderfluid) to earth’s closed mindedness was just brilliant.

The banter between Loki and Thor as brothers was hilarious- I couldn’t get enough of their interactions. It was the perfectly added light-hearted touch to a great story.

“Perhaps the future was only inevitable once you began to shape all your actions to fit it.”

The side characters were an absolute joy, Theo was easily my favourite. My heart hurt for him and his fondness of Loki, his character added another dimension to the Victiorian Era theme that I loved.

If you’re a fan of Marvel or Tom Hiddleston’s portrayal of Loki, you will without a doubt enjoy this gem of a story.

--------------------------------

Before reading

Two things happened today.

1: My sister and I began binging the Marvel movies we haven't seen before going to watch Endgame in theatres.

2. I found out about this book.

Loki is my favourite Marvel character ever, Mackenzie Lee one of my favourite authors.

Clearly I need more mischief in my life.

Tucker (TuckerTheReader)

Faith Simon

He could be the witch. He could be the villain. He could be the trickster, the schemer, the self-serving God of Chaos, prove the mythology books right. Prove them all right in what they had all thought, that he was rotten from the start. He would serve no man but himself, no heart but his own. That would be his choice. He could be the witch. Be the witch, and know everything.

So uhhh yeah I finished this in a day. My partner and I read this book as a buddy-read, and I was so engrossed in the story that I ended up just finishing it that day. When I asked them where they were in the book, they ruefully said they'd finished it. So no harm done!
Anyway, one of my fav authors, writing a book for Marvel about an absolute chaotic fan-fav?? Sign me up! Obviously I've been waiting for this book since it was announced, and I'm so happy to say that I was not disappointed!
I was picking up what Mackenzi was laying down when reading this, you'll catch my drift when you read it, and oh my god I loved this book so much. This is my entire review, just talking about how much I loved it.
I'm thinking that I may have enjoyed it a lot more if I hadn't breezed through it in a day, but I just couldn't help it, I couldn't put it down! As per usual, Mackenzi had AMAZING pacing and storytelling and a certain amount of foreshadowing, absolutely perfect writing for a Marvel novel. She was honestly the perfect choice.
And of course, we get a genderfluid/Pansexual Loki?? (There's no actual labels, which I really enjoyed, and of course, Loki is canonically not cis, but we don't ever get this in the male-centric Marvel movies, so I was very happy to see this side of him represented via novel form).
I absolutely ADORED the characters in this book. Especially Theo, he is now my son. I love him with all of my heart. And I'm seriously hoping for some Theo/Loki fanfiction to come up sometime soon, from creators who love them as much as I do (and who cried at the ending as much as I did).
I think that every character was really alike their movie counterparts, yet still held an air of originality, I liked that there were some aspects of these characters we never got to experience before, I also really enjoyed how the book tackled Loki's inner demons. A lot of this book made me outwardly go "oof."
This book is perfect in every way. Please read it.

Brittany McCann

I initially was going to rate this book 4 stars, but I remember how many times it made me laugh and how much fun it was to listen to, and if that doesn't deserve 5 stars, what does?

Sure, it wasn't Earth-shattering literature, but it was fun. Mackenzi Lee did a phenomenal job grasping the essence of the more recent Marvel personality of Loki. Oliver Wyman did a superb job of bringing these words to life. He did such a fantastic job that I'm not even sure that I could have liked it as much without him bringing Loki to life in the perfect manner. His banter was spot on.

The humor was so sarcastically Loki, who I have always loved. Loki is a villain that I have always rooted for and loved. I loved his snark, intellect, wit, and just general bleak view of the hand he's been dealt. You want him to be a villain; surely, he will play it with charisma and class. I just always had a soft spot for him.

There were so many parts that just made me randomly laugh out loud, some of those parts were:
"Who says I want a place in a court with a King who hits himself in the face with his hammer?"
"That was one time!"
"And yet, it's burned in our hearts forever."

"He heard a crunch behind him. 'Are you eating?'
'Do you have peanuts on Asgard?'"

Talking about a man who had multiple wives:
"He was a Mormon? "
"No, just an asshole."

"Why is Earth so determined to make everything that's hard on a man doubly hard on a woman?"

Loki once again captured my heart through humor. 5 stars for this rendition of his personality. I wish I could experience more of his escapades in this voice.

Jim C

This is a book based on the Marvel characters. This is a YA book. In this one, Loki and Thor are teens and waiting to see who Odin names his successor. Odin has a vision of one of his sons leading an undead army to take over Asgard. Everyone assumes it is Loki.

This was much better than I thought it was going to be. Yes I was a little hesitant because of it being a YA novel. Yes there was the unrequited love interest that it seems every YA novels seems to have with all the drama and whatnot. It wasn't overly done and I was pleased how the author handled it. I was pleased with a lot of the stuff the author wrote about it. We have the love drama, the handling of a teen wondering where his or her place is in the world, and the misunderstanding of a prophecy. The latter was my favorite as I always enjoy a prophecy being construed one way and it is the incorrect way. We have a terrific action scene at the end. I did think this book was a little bit slow at the beginning as the author fleshes out the relationship between Thor and Loki. I guess this is for people who have been living under a rock and who hasn't seen a Marvel movie. My only knowledge of Loki is from this movies and I never truly sensed Tom Hiddleston's Loki in this book. Maybe that affected my enjoyment at the beginning. But about half way thru the book it did win me over and I wanted to see how everything comes together.

This is my first book by this author and I guess she has several books that readers adore. I thought she did a wonderful job with the characters and I enjoyed the plot of the story. She has another book that she wrote with Marvel characters and I look forward to reading it.

Meaghan

Whew, that was uh, something.

(I want to preface this review by reminding others that Mackenzi Lee has made some problematic choices in the past, from signing the books of other authors without their permission to how poorly she handled writing a book with a trans MC. Because of this, things that I may have left slip for other authors I may have judged more harshly here. However, no matter who this was written by, this book would not be considered above 2 stars for me.)

I wasn't planning on reading any more books by Lee, but I still had this arc lying around from BEA, and decided to finally get down to it. There are 3 main issues I had with this book that ended up making the entire book suck.

1. Poor queer rep

From other reviews, it seems like Lee told fans that she would finally write the queer Loki that fans deserve, and write Loki in all his pansexual/genderfluid glory. If she made these promises, she did not deliver. The only 'rep' was offhand references here and there, with the only actual 'romance' being heterosexual (with some possibly romantic tension with another male character that doesn't actually go anywhere). Loki's genderfluidity is told, not shown, in a single conversation that seems to come out of nowhere, and that nothing ever happens with it. Loki uses he/him pronouns for the entirety of the novel, and the only 'sign' of fluidity might be the fact he likes having his nails painted black and wearing boots that were made for girls (honestly, I don't count this at all). While he does shapeshift into female character sometimes, it is only ever to further a plan. Overall, this part of the book was very weak, and frustrating, and honestly not any better than the marvel movies themselves (which is, saying something).

2. Really cringy references to other Marvel characters/stories

This is overall just a small part of the issues I had with the book, but it was still there. This series is officially written for Disney/Marvel, and therefore fits within that universe rather than actual Norse mythology. This led to some more interesting world building, but it mainly led to cringy references. They weren't frequent, but honestly none of them were well done. It ranged from an offhand mention of someone named 'Stark' doing something with tech, and then an entire conversation where Loki basically recommended the name Shield for the secret organization that dealt with magical things. What could have been a nice nod to the stories that this one built off of turned instead to overt references that tried to be really obvious about the fact that they were supposed to be references.

3. Loki just, was not Loki.

A lot of other reviews have already touched on this, but this was honestly the biggest let down of this book. Honestly, this book might've not been that bad on its own, had it not been connected to this wealth of lore (both Norse and Marvel). I get that this is Loki's 'beginnings' and is supposed to show who he was before he was a trickster, but he was so weak as a character without it? He was still written as the trickster (his personality and nicknames were still built around it) except, without the trickery. He honestly just spends the entire book being tricked instead or blamed for things that aren't his fault at all. This latter part is even more frustrating because this was supposed to be what his turn to 'evil' was hinged on, how unfair he was treated, but the way he was treated was not believable to any extent. Thor's/Odin's/everyone else's prejudice instead seems to have come from literally nowhere, and it just makes all those dialogues read extremely hollow and false. It's just extremely illogical.

Overall, I really really wish Disney gave this contract to someone else, both because of all the drama around Lee and how poorly done this felt. The next one supposedly follows Nebula and Gamora (some of my favorite characters), but now, I'll definitely be skipping it, and anything else Lee writes.

Mirko Smith

Le premesse di questo libro erano: Loki nella Londra vittoriana a risolvere misteri, è interessante come niente di tutto questo nel libro ha un vero e proprio sviluppo!
Loki, purtroppo, è stata una lettura banale e profondamente superficiale.
L’ambientazione della Londra di fine 800 è inesistente, il mistero da svelare alla fine di tutto non è un mistero e sopratutto non ho trovato niente che mi ricordasse il Loki che tanto amo.
Per quanto mi riguarda un vero peccato e una bella occasione sprecata.

TL

Nothing to say but Loved it:)

exploraDora

I want to give this book all the stars for making my nerdy heart so happy ❤️ full rtc soon.

♠ TABI⁷ ♠

guess who got an ARC of this and will probably drop my 50 other reads to cackle with delight over this???

I AM HERE FOR MY FAVORITE GOD OF SASS AND PRANKS!!!!

description

and now the wait . . .

BUT JUST LOOK AT THAT COVER AND BLURB!!!!!!

rin

mackenzi lee is writing a series abt marvel anti heroes and it starts with loki and it's in a historical setting and there's a big mf possibility it's going to be queer please take all my money mackenzi

Yusra ✨

i’m ready for this, whatever it is.

Collin

Deeply disappointing, ngl. I’ve been waiting for this book ever since it was announced, and for it to come out like this - poorly written; badly characterized; inconsequential to (MCU) canon at best, contradictory at worst; “”diverse”” in such a weak, wishy-washy way that it might as well not have been “”diverse”” at all - is... yeah, deeply disappointing.

I may or may not write a longer review depending on what kind of angry this disappointment makes me.

[2 Hours Later]

Okay okay okay, if Mackenzi Lee is wanting to talk about choosing villainy as a last resort, then I'll play along and give a pissy monologue about why this book made me angry.

1. Lack of immersive writing!

Part One of the book takes place in Asgard, specifically in Odin's palace; Part Two takes place on Alfheim and in London circa 1850-1880 or so. As far as I'm concerned, all three locations are interchangeable. London is the most thoroughly realized location and, look, maybe it's me, because I hate Industrial Revolution-era London as a fictional setting with a passion almost as deadly as the mother-effing smog it helped to birth, but that feels wrong, in a story literally about Loki. I don't even know where Loki was most of the time, even in London. I was heavily skimming by page 150 or so, but still. I don't know where he was meeting the SHARP Society - I mean, logically, it must have been in the museum, but I don't know how he got there or what it looked like inside. I don't know what it felt like to be there.

This book is 408 pages long, btw, it's long enough that I should have felt SOMETHING for the setting. And Loki spends, like, a week or two there. And yet I could barely picture anything at all. Asgard and Alfheim suffer even more for it, which is cruel to me personally because I wanted to be there, not in smoggy awful London.

2. Poor characterization!

Mackenzi Lee is the Loki fan who gives Loki fans a bad name. Thor is stupid, cowardly, a stick-in-the-mud, a tattletale, thick, unwilling to learn, undiplomatic, obviously a disgrace to the kingship of Asgard... you know, everything that Loki stans said in fics and meta for years that made life hell for fans like myself. I don't want that Thor! I don't want that dynamic between Thor and Loki! I don't understand why they would love each other so much - which they do, canonically - if Thor was just a big dumb brute of a bully to poor shrinking-violet never-done-anything-bad-of-his-own-volition Loki.

Loki's characterization was beyond frustrating, anyway. He's set up to be someone who's detested by his own people and by Midgardians in the know because he's So Deceitful And Wicked, but in Part One of the book, which turns out to be only a few years before the bulk of the story, he can't even lie to a guard convincingly while shapeshifted to look like Odin. What?? What??? What????? He just stumbles around this tiny lie and nearly gets himself and Amora caught because he's so useless at subterfuge, and if I remember correctly, Amora has to step in and save them. What??????????

I'm going by Thor movie continuity, not Thor comics continuity, because there is a single MCU continuity that I'm deeply invested in as opposed to the comics, with its many branching and nigh impossible-to-penetrate-without-lots-of-money continuities. But by 2011, Loki and Thor have been around for about 1k years, probably a bit more, between 1-2 millennia, anyway. There are only 150 years between Where Mischief Lies-era Loki and the current MCU equivalent. So why, why, why does Loki read like a 16-year-old kid who's only just now starting to learn magic and get into mischief? There's some slipshod attempt at hand-waving away any problems with trying to make Loki a young adult so his book will fit into the YA category, but it's so flimsy and uncertain that it just feels stupid, like Lee (or her Disney overlords, more like) just tacked on the "oh time works differently between Asgard and Midgard!!" garbage to justify Loki being more of an innocent unfairly judged party than he was ever really supposed to be. (Even Agent of Asgard!Loki took more responsibility for his actions than WML Loki, and he wasn't even the original Loki who did the bad things.)

It's just so incredibly FRUSTRATING that woobie!Loki is "canon" in this way, that Thor gets shafted so blatantly to make Loki look less complicated and complicit in his own story. Even when he does really bad stuff in WML, it's so much less of a PROBLEM than it should be, but also more of one, because, oh no! 1865 is the first year Loki's ever done anything this morally unsound!!

The other characters are shallow, shell-like, just cardboard puppets. None of the dialogue sounded real or natural or important. Mrs. S should have been cool but had so little screentime with so few important things to say. Gem might as well not have been in the book at all. Theo should have stolen my heart but he didn't; he was just a bundle of misfortunes and cute hair and so very clearly there to be the third point in a love triangle to make sure we'd all cheer Mackenzi Lee for being diverse and sticking it to The Man without caring that all of Theo's potential was utterly wasted on sloppy writing and hollow, stilted, look-at-us-we're-Bantering(tm)-ship-us-now conversations with Loki. Amora was maybe the most consistently and compellingly characterized but her whole character arc is telegraphed by page 30, both by dint of who she is and by the sledgehammer nature of the book's narrative.

I cannot believe how little I was invested in Loki and Theo. I can't believe it. I wanted to be there for it. But there was nothing TO them. Lee just smushed them together, went "hey, it's gay! love it!" and expected that to be enough. But it's not! It's not enough! They had no chemistry, all their banter was probably recycled from Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue, and, apparently, they spent a full week living together and we got NONE of it. Loki mentions that he put the pot of tea on for Theo every morning - and were we, the audience, the people who are supposed to care, privy to this bonding ritual? Of course not! OF COURSE NOT.

Whatever. I'm cool. Moving on.

3. Contradictory plot points!

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure that, in the comics, Thor and Loki and other Asgardians do/access magic on Earth. They for sure do in the movies. But according to WML, Earth has so little magic that Asgardian magic-users can only access a fraction of their power; simple spells take way more energy, and eventually, all their magic will be sapped away, leaving them magic-less and "decaying."

okay??????????? what was Loki's plan in Avengers then?? (I know he was largely brainwashed at that point but still, what was THANOS'S plan?) What about Mjolnir, when Thor uses it on Earth? What about the other times Loki used magic in Midgard - the stuff he pulls in Thor 1, keeping control of the Destroyer, smaller magics in Ragnarok? For that matter, what about characters like Dr. Strange? None of it adds up, and the idea of being unable to use magic on Midgard is such an important part of the book, yet such a glaring contradiction from the rest of literally any part of the Marvel movie/comics universe I've gotten into, that it just pissed me off.

There's still the stuff about Loki barely knowing s#!% about magic in 18-fricking-60, and the idea that Frigga had only just begun teaching him about it a few years earlier. Loki is at least 900 years old by now!! What were they doing!!! I also don't like that they sidelined Frigga so hard to give Amora a bigger part of Loki's childhood. I don't know how that lies with any comics continuity, but it bugged my little "Renee Russo and Tom Hiddleston decided during Thor 1 filming that Frigga taught Loki about magic for most of his life" heart. And just, like, the sheer dumb obstinance of pretending that, by 1850, by the reign of Queen Victoria of England, Loki still barely knew how to control his magic, barely knew how it felt to even use it. It just boggles the mind that I'm expected to believe this.

4. Extra bits that piss me off more!

Theo's whole story is just... trashed. None of it makes any lick of difference. It doesn't matter. Theo doesn't. The SHARP Society doesn't. None of it matters. There was literally no point. Contrariwise, you could have just swapped Loki out for, like, Fantasy Sherlock Holmes, or Fantasy Auguste Dupin, or any Fantasy Period Detective, and, with some minor tweaks, it wouldn't have made a difference. None of it felt specifically geared to broaden our knowledge of Loki. It was just... some things happened, mostly in either summary or Banter(tm) mode. It feels like Disney went "hey you wrote a book in like, roughly Victorian times, right? it was gay and popular, right? Just do that for Loki, we'll be back for the rough draft in 2 months, oh of COURSE we'll edit it really good, we deffo care about the finished product and our IP's integrity and not just throwing his name on a book and saying it's diverse and waiting for the good reviews to roll in, here's a $40,000 check for your draft and your silence."

I literally don't know what the point of this story was.

I literally have no idea where 250 pages of this book went, because they definitely didn't go to helping me understand Loki better, or get involved in the murder mystery, or feel invested in the Theo/Loki potential romance (it was doomed from the start since Theo isn't in canon but I barely even felt sad over the dramatic irony!!), or get anything at all out of a pan genderfluid Loki being..............canon, I guess. Yeah, I feel like throwing representation laurels at Lee's feet because Loki's like "I exist as girl and boy simultaneously" one time and it never shows up again except for him being ashamed to paint his nails black or something.

Ugh.

Nothing in this book matters. Things happen, Loki's there, he's like "I hate Midgard and everything it stands for" but the narrative voice is like "ACTUALLY Loki was FOND of the cardboard cutouts he was hanging around, he didn't know WHY because he hadn't spent any QUALITY TIME with them and his conversations with them were BORING and TOO STIFF but actually he spent LOTS of time with them don't worry about it it was legit just pretend I've written a lot of actual bonding scenes so I don't have to put in the work for it."

5. Editing or lack thereof!

My reading updates have three or four of the book's worst-constructed sentences, but weird grammar choices, unclear phrases, and bad editing in general are par for the course. I don't necessarily blame Lee for this because what it reads like is a first draft that didn't get enough editing passes. I recognize that kind of wonky writing in my own first drafts; the problem is that, while I would never willingly allow such awkward, amateurish writing problems to make it into the final copy, Lee's editors or other Mousely overseers clearly had no such compunctions.

6. conclusion

It wasn't good. Actually it was hella dumb. I'm disappointed. The Loki D+ show has always had a pretty low bar to cross but I didn't realize it was THIS low.

laur gluchie

Pre-Reading Updates

Right okay so I’m just finding out about this now?? Loki is my second favorite Marvel character so I really hope this doesn’t turn out horrible. 🤞🏼

~~also if Loki dies in Infinity War so help me~~

Infinity War Spoiler:

Diana

Vid review (blurry one, sorry) will be available Nov, 2nd, 2019 here:
https://youtu.be/q9TclM05hRY

claire

“There is always a choice.”

Amber

Loki is sent to Midgard for a little while to help the Sharp Society a.k.a. Shield in 19th century London to see who has been draining people dry of their lives and turning them into corpses. Will he be successful or is he the villain everyone knows him as? Read on and find out for yourself.

For fans of the MCU movies, everyone will love this take on the young version of Loki and Thor before they become mortal enemies. Be sure to check this book out at your local library and wherever books are sold.

Chad

A solid YA tale of Loki in his younger days. Odin sends Loki to Midgard (Earth) to investigate some strange murders in Victorian England. That's all of the plot you really need to know. Lee does treat Loki as non-binary, comfortable as a man or a woman being a shape-shifter and attracted to both sexes. Most of the book deals with Loki's struggle between doing good or not, as he's already been cast as the villain. This is definitely out of continuity. Not a bad tale, but nothing Earth shattering either.

Fiona ✨

SEPTEMBER 3, I REPEAT, SEPTEMBER 3!! THIS IS NOT A DRILL!!

Amarilli 73

La mia storia esiste da secoli. È scritto in ogni libro che tu abbia mai letto, in ogni mito che adori. Sono il cattivo delle tue storie.
Non potrò mai essere nient’altro.

Questo è dichiaratamente un YA, scritto e pensato per un pubblico di adolescenti, per quanto ormai gli adulti si siano abituati ai personaggi dell'universo (cinematografico) che ruota intorno ad Asgard, e soprattutto il pubblico femminile abbia scoperto di parteggiare e di avere un debole per Loki, il fratello oscuro e ambiguo, piuttosto che per il biondo Thor.
E come uno YA deve essere preso, senza tuttavia non poter goderselo comunque.
Io mi sono divertita molto, l'ho trovato avvincente, scritto in modo fresco, con un'ironia tra le righe continua, che mi ha fatto ridacchiare varie volte.

In effetti Loki e Thor sono colti ancora ragazzi, figli di Odino ancora alle prese con tutori, scaramucce filiali e test di esame da parte dei genitori.
Thor è già entrato nel suo ruolo: bellissimo, biondissimo, muscoloso e guerriero inarrestabile.
Tutti (pure lui stesso) lo immaginano già con la corona in testa.
Loki, al contrario, è ancora un personaggio in divenire rispetto all'immagine tradizionale: lo scopriamo ragazzo tranquillo, quasi malinconico, sofferente per non riuscire a rispondere alle aspettative dei genitori e deluso dello stare sempre in ombra, il figlio cadetto con vaghe aspirazioni da mago.
Finchè tra i due s'insinua una giovane maga, che parteggia più per Loki che per il fratellone vincente e persino il futuro potrebbe prendere una nuova piega...

Ma questo è un romanzo che indaga soprattutto sull'ineluttabilità del destino: se tutti si aspettano che un individuo diventerà un certo tipo di persona, se si formano un pre-giudizio prima ancora che costui scelga liberamente, abbiamo davvero la possibilità di scegliere o siamo condannati già in partenza?
Inutile dire che anche quando arriva sulla Terra, nella Londra del 1800, Loki si trova a scontrarsi con il suo mito e con un'idea già fissa che gli umani possiedono di lui.
Anche se lo volesse, cambiare potrebbe risultare difficile persino per il dio dell'inganno.

Questo è il terzo libro che leggo di Mackenzi Lee (dopo The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue e The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy) e trovo che il suo stile sia spumeggiante, ricco di immagini, di dialoghi deliziosi e di una certa verve agrodolce che la porta a prediligere gli eroi in ombra piuttosto che i simpaticoni.
Altra cosa che ho apprezzato, oltre al suo dare spessore e dubbio al giovane Loki, è stato il renderlo fluido e anticonformista. Loki non è prigioniero degli stereotipi sessuali, ama vestirsi in libertà, non riconosce convenzione, può innamorarsi, senza barriere di ragazze e di ragazzi e non comprende le differenze di genere (se non un lieve razzismo asgardiano verso i poveri mortali).
Ma è fragile e maligno, sensibile e traditore in un concentrato umanissimo.
In definitiva, anche dopo questo libro, tra lui e Thor, butto Thor giù dalla torre!

Title	:	Loki: Where Mischief Lies
Author	:	Mackenzi Lee
Rating	:
ISBN	:	136802226X
ISBN-10	:	9781368022262
Language	:	English
Format Type	:	Hardcover
Number of Pages	:	408
Publication	:	First published September 3, 2019

Loki: Where Mischief Lies by Mackenzi Lee

Loki: Where Mischief Lies Reviews

Loki: Where Mischief Lies Reviews

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